Single Page Application – Is It Ideal for You

Single page application (SPA) development is a trend in today’s digital ecosystem. However, is it useful for all businesses? Today, we will take a closer look at single page applications. We will analyse the benefits and pitfalls of SPAs. We will also explore when you can leverage the potential of SPAs.

If you are not yet familiar with the concept of a single page application, it’s crucial to know the overview of the SPA. So, let’s start with that.

What is Single Page Application

Single page applications are basically one-page websites. In a multi-page website, distinct web pages contain different information. In a single page web app, the entire information is featured on one page.

SPAs have innovative layout and offer quick navigation. In a multi-page website, when the user clicks some specific buttons, an entirely new page opens or reloads. In an SPA, when a user clicks on a specific link, tab, or button, only the requested content is updated on the same web page.

For instance, a multi-page website may have distinct web pages for “About Us”, “Contact” and different services. In a single page application, all these are presented in one page. When the visitor clicks on “About Us”, the info may hover over it or can open in a drop-down section. The contact info may be presented below the website’s main content. Got the difference?

Naturally, it offers an excellent UX without any extra page loading time.

We will give a few examples for your better understanding. Some of the websites that we regularly use but don’t acknowledge these to be the SPAs include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Maps, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc. You may visit one of these sites to fully grasp the concept of an SPA.

Wondering why enterprises rely heavily on SPAs? For the following benefits.

Pros of Single Page Applications

• • Fast Loading Time

According to the studies, people don’t wait for more than 2 to 3 seconds for a page to load. A slow loading speed increases bounce rates of a website and affects sales. Since traditional web apps reload the entire interface on each request, it needs high maintenance and speed optimization to load within the stipulated time. On the other hand, SPAs load only the requested parts in a single page. It’s swifter.

• • Awesome UX

The success in the digital arena mainly relies on the user experience that a website offers. SPAs greatly eliminate the frustration of loading an entire page. Therefore, it offers a native app-like environment and accelerates a brand’s efforts in building a positive impression.

• • Advanced Layout

Many often, people have a misconception about the appeal of a single page application. They believe that a single page application doesn’t offer much scope for creativity. This idea is completely wrong. In fact, in a multi-page website, the layout seems to be the same for all the web pages. It’s indeed intuitive, but it can also be monotonous.

In an SPA, there’s an ample opportunity to carry out experiments. Go as creative as you want and design a stunning layout. It can be dynamic and feature-rich. You can add advanced and sophisticated features to an SPA and enhance user experience. This significantly improves time-on-page. If you need help in this step from the professionals, engage reliable web application development services and let the pro take care of optimizing your web presence.

• • Less Internet Requirement

Since SPAs load a web page only once, it requires less bandwidth. It can efficiently perform in any area with poor internet connectivity.

• • Caching

An SPA can efficiently cache local data. It can send a request to the server and store all the data it receives. Naturally, users can easily gain offline access in an SPA.

• • Mobile-friendly Design

Mobile-friendliness is a crucial factor in website design. SPA designs are highly adaptable to mobile devices. The users need not pinch the content in a web application as it will instantly adjust the layout according to the screen size.

• • Easily Deployable

It’s extremely easy to deploy a single page application. However, remember that the static server has to serve three files - JavaScript bundle, single page index.html, and CSS bundle.

• • Availability of Developers

A single page web application is usually built with common frameworks like React or Angular. It’s quite easy to find and hire Angular developers or React developers from a reliable web development company.

• • Easy Debugging

Debugging is a crucial maintenance aspect that you must perform to keep your website functional and user-friendly at all times. Since an SPA contains only a single page, it’s both time and cost-effective to debug a single page application than debugging a multi-page web application.

As you can see, there are several reasons to opt for a single page application development for a business. However, does it mean that an SPA has absolutely no pitfall? Of course, it has. We will mention a few drawbacks of SPAs below so that you can make a well-informed decision.

Downsides of Single Page Applications

• • Large Files in One Page

Today’s text-saturated digital world highly prioritizes the use of visuals. People can grasp and retain more information from a video than from a lengthy text. That’s why integrating images and videos is a must in today’s web design trends.

This is troublesome for an SPA. Here, only one page has to display all the images and videos. This may affect the performance of the web app. A single page application needs to be seamless and large video files may prevent users to scroll down.

The only way to get rid of this is to make a balance between the visuals and the text. Since an SPA has to feature text, interactive features, and visuals all at once, it’s better to maintain symmetry among all the elements. The first point to note is that it’s not possible to integrate all the elements / visuals that you would feature in a multi-page website. An SPA is not a miniature or a replacement of a vast website and you shouldn’t go overboard while integrating the design components. It is a distinct type of web design and you have to maintain its own set of rules while designing an SPA.

• • Browser Resources

The browser has to do all the heavy-weight tasks to load and display an SPA. Therefore, it’s important to use the latest version of a browser that contains all the modern features and enables the web app to function properly.

• • Lack of SEO Friendliness

A single page application doesn’t have multiple URLs. So the search engine has to crawl only one page and rank it for multiple keywords. It’s crucial to target the right keywords to obtain a rank on the search engine result page (SERP).

However, SPAs are ideal for dynamic platforms like groups and communities, SaaS platforms, and social media networks that don’t require search engine optimization.

Okay, we have discussed the pros and cons of a single page application. Now is the time to analyse when to use an SPA. Check the following passage to find the answer.

When to Use a Single Page Application

Here are a few considerations before developing an SPA:

• If you are looking to slack some budget on wide-scale web development, SPA is the right answer.

• If you want to offer a cohesive experience to your users, developing an SPA is perfect for you.

• If you want your users to find more about you, a single page application is a strategic approach to ensure that. People have a tendency to skip checking multiple web pages on a website unless the first page they visit is really catchy. However, in case of a single page application, they usually keep scrolling out of curiosity. In such pages, the layout is highly attractive to display diverse content and keep the audience hooked to it.

• An SPA is also ideal should you want offline processing. It can store cache data and get loaded even in areas with poor network connectivity.

• If you don’t have too much information to display, yet you want to have a dynamic online address - having a single page application is a must!

Wrapping Up

As you can see, an SPA is an ideal web solution to provide your users with an immersive and rich experience on your online destination. We hope you have found the information useful. Feel free to share your thoughts with us.