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The Purpose of this Report
The Purpose of this Report
We're looking to help equip people who have zero coding experience, limited time and a small budget. These platforms advertise themselves as an alternative to hiring developers to create a custom coded app.
We have attempted to identify and explore the best platform for creating a progressive web app by comparing all the identifiable options offering tools to create a PWA without coding expertise, through a software as a service business model.
How to Use this Report
How to Use this Report
This site has 5 sections and this home page. Below each page is detailed:
- Home - This page serves to orient you to the report and progressive web apps in general.
These are more details and research into why we made the selections we did. If you like background information, check out these pages.
- Comparing Platforms - Here we detail all the platforms we investigated and why we chose GoodBarber.com and AppyPie.com to test.
- Performance - For the two platforms we tested by building out an app in, this compares the end app by interface and performance.
These are the super practical pages, if you want to play with the app we made and try making your own on a free-trial in GoodBarber, then check out these pages.
- Demo App - This connects you to the app built with GoodBarber see how the PWA behaves on mobile or desktop. Go here if you just
- Guide - Based on our experience using the platform GoodBarber, we put together a quick-start guide to many of the features in their system.
This is if you want someone else to build a PWA with you.
- Other Options - This is a list of alternatives, should you want to pursue a PWA through other means, like an agency.
What is a PWA?
What is a PWA?
Progressive web apps are websites that are designed to look and feel like an app. This means users can access all information and capabilities without downloading a native mobile app from the app store. Progressive web apps use modern web technology to deliver app-like experiences to users, right in their browsers, including:
- Offline functionality
- Homescreen icon
- Push notifications (usually available at a higher price point)
- Use of phone hardware (cameras and microphones)
- faster loading than Native Apps
Why use a PWA?
Why use a PWA?
Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are fast, integrated, reliable, and engaging, although there are many things that can take a PWA from a baseline to exemplary experience. F.I.R.E.
Fast: PWAs provide experiences that are consistently fast. From the moment a user downloads an app to the moment they start interacting with it, everything happens really fast. Because you can cache the data, it is extremely fast to start the app again even without hitting the network.
Integrated user experience: PWAs feel and behave like native apps. They sit in a user’s home screen, send push notifications like native apps, and have access to a device’s functionalities like native apps. The experience feels seamless and integrated.
Reliable experience: With the help of service workers, we can reliably paint a picture on a user’s screen even when network has failed.
Engaging: Progressive Web Apps are installable and live on the user's home screen, without the need for an app store. Because we can send notifications to a user, we can really drive the engagement up by keeping the user notified and engaged with the app.
Our Method
Our Method
We evaluated platforms by several domains, in each domain we gave the platform a star rating. Based on this review, we pursued our top two platforms, and built out a sample PWA to test the performance of the finished apps. The results determine our primary platform recommendation and became the focus for the guide.
Limitations
Limitations
Things we did not look into for this report:
1) Ways to turn an existing website into a progressive web app.
2) Self-coding (on purpose as our target audience was technophobe non-coders)
3) Hiring developers/development agencies (somewhat on purpose as we are aiming to enable those in developing countries who either do not have access to developers or don't have funds for them)
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