PWA or native app?

A PWA is the web dressed up as an app: a web application that can be installed on the home screen, work partly offline, and send notifications, all without passing through the App Store or Google Play. A native app is the classic store app with full access to everything the phone can do. Which one fits your project comes down to three things: which features you actually need, how willing your users are to install something, and what the solution is allowed to cost over time.

Feature comparison

The pattern in the table: the PWA wins on distribution and simplicity, the native app on depth on the device. Note the iOS row in particular. Apple’s support for PWA features is real but trimmed down, so if you have many iPhone users, test your requirements against iOS specifically before deciding.

Cost and maintenance

A PWA is built with the same technology as your website and can often share both code and team with it. That means lower development cost – a simpler native app typically runs SEK 300,000–800,000, while a PWA with comparable features often lands below that range – and, above all, lower ongoing cost. There are no store releases to package, no review queue to wait on, and just one codebase to keep in step with the world.

The native app carries higher cost at both ends: more to build, and a maintenance track that has to follow every new iOS and Android version. A common rule of thumb for app maintenance is 15–25 percent of the development cost per year. That’s not an argument against native – the features can be worth every krona – but it’s a real difference that belongs in the calculation.

Also count what doesn’t cost anything: a PWA needs no store accounts, no per-platform release process, and no double round of testing before every fall OS update. For a small organization, that administrative relief alone can be the difference between a service that stays current and one that slowly decays.

When the PWA wins

• B2B and internal tools. Users arrive via login, not the App Store. A scheduling tool, a customer portal, or a reporting system rarely needs store presence.
• Low willingness to install. Services used rarely or by occasional users – an event, a campaign, a self-service tool. A link converts better than a download.
• Fast iteration pace. You want to ship improvements daily without a review process.
• Limited budget with broad reach. One codebase that reaches every device, including the computer at the office.

When the native app wins

• Consumer loyalty. The icon on the home screen, full push notifications, and store presence make the app a channel you own, central for loyalty programs and services that live on repeat use.
• Advanced device features. Bluetooth accessories, NFC, background location, health data, or heavy offline flows require native in practice.
• The experience is the product. When animation, speed, and platform feel are part of the brand, native gives the most control.
• The store as a channel. In some consumer categories, the App Store and Google Play are a discovery surface the web can’t replace.

A concrete scenario

A field service company wants to give 40 technicians a reporting tool. The users are known, willingness to install is irrelevant since IT decides, and the requirements are photo, form, and signature. Here a PWA goes a long way, at a fraction of the cost; the need for robust offline support in basements is the only thing that could tip the choice toward native.

Flip it around: a coffee chain wants to move the loyalty card to mobile and drive repeat visits with offers. Here, the home screen icon and reliable notifications are the whole business case – a native app, ideally built cross-platform to reach iOS and Android with one codebase.

The middle ground is more common than the debate suggests: many organizations run a website and PWA for reach and a native app for their most engaged users, the same backend, two interfaces each doing their own job.

Not sure where your project lands? At Weapp we build both web solutions and native apps and can give you an honest recommendation based on your requirements – see our services or get in touch.