Your guide to Progressive Web App (PWA) Platforms for mobile marketing

Progressive Web App Platform

Progressive Web App Platform

What is a Progressive Web App? What is a Progressive Web App platform? At its core, a Progressive Web App, AKA a PWA, blends the benefits of native mobile applications and the web. PWA applications can be seen as the natural evolution of cloud-based web applications. They are truly responsive and cross-platform, making it possible for organizations to manage only a single channel rather than multiple channels.

PWA apps are seen by many as the future of mobile app development. Rather than having native apps, people will instead use PWA apps that are integrated into the device and its home screen. 

With an iOS or Android native mobile application, the application itself has to be downloaded. Multiple applications have to be ported and maintained. But a PWA works on all devices and form factors, including iOS and Android. Viewable through a browser, it is a universal application that will work on nearly any device. And that doesn't mean that a PWA won't have advanced features. PWA iOS and PWA Android support is growing, with the ability to install to a desktop and to push notifications.

To really understand PWA meaning, it's best to understand the history behind PWAs. PWAs have highly specific technical requirements, which serve as guidelines and ensure that the PWA itself is able to create a standardized, responsive environment for its audience. Furthermore, developing a PWA can be done in a low code or no code environment by someone who isn't a professional programmer. Android and iPhone native mobile apps, on the other hand, often have to be developed by professionals. It can cost thousands of dollars to create native apps for a business.

Progressive Web Apps are steadily becoming the ideal solution, as people use increasingly different devices and platforms. Today, it's hard to say whether someone will experience an app on a tablet, mobile phone, 2-in-1, or laptop. Through Progressive Web Apps, it doesn't matter what device is used to access an application. The application is truly platform agnostic. 

Ionic Framework

The Ionic Framework is one of many frameworks that exist for the development of cross-platform mobile development. If you're looking into developing a progressive web app, you may want to take a look at Ionic first. It has many benefits, but some drawbacks as well.

There's a lot to love about the Ionic Framework, even if it isn't a no code progressive web app framework. Ionic is an open source SDK for native, mobile app development, providing hybrid mobile experience through easy-to-use languages such as JavaScript and HTML5. Among progressive app frameworks, it's one of the frameworks that focuses primarily on user experience. 

But the best PWA framework 2019 needs to be easy-to-use. With Lumavate, the entire platform requires no coding at all. Marketers are able to develop an app within minutes without having to learn to code. Frameworks such as Ionic may have been one of the best PWA framework 2018 contenders, but they do require some coding ability. Progressive App frameworks, especially open source frameworks, expect that the developer be able to navigate the code within the framework and create their own.

If you're looking for the best PWA framework or the best PWA framework 2019, Lumavate is the best choice. It's been developed directly for marketers, doesn't require any programming knowledge, and has a wealth of open source features that can be directly integrated into applications. There are even easy startup kits that businesses can use to start developing their app immediately.

Here are some of the other best frameworks available:

  • Ionic. As mentioned, Ionic is one of the best frameworks for PWAs, but it does require some programming knowledge. If you don't want to learn programming, and you don't want to have to write your own custom code, Ionic is an option.
  • Angular. Angular is an open source, web application framework. It's designed with reliability and features in mind, and was created by the Angular Google team.
  • React. React is supported by Facebook, but it isn't just Facebook exclusive. It's a popular library that developers can use to get started on their applications.

Frameworks offer an application developer a suite of code that they can use to create apps faster. But that doesn't create the apps for the developer the way that a no code environment can.

Progressive Web App Builder

A Progressive Web App builder often comes with templates for those who want to build PWAs quickly. Templates are a shortcut into Progressive Web App development. Developers are able to start with a boilerplate and then customize that boilerplate. The best Progressive Web App builder will have a lot of options for customization, to create a professional-looking app.

Here are some of the other PWA builder platforms: 

  • Angular - Angular uses a JavaScript environment to support the development of a progressive web app. There are templates for Angular that can be used to jumpstart development, but it requires some knowledge of JavaScript to use. 
  • Dreamweaver - Dreamweaver is best known as a web development suite, and it can also create a web app from any website. If an organization just wants to create a web app from their existing website, this can be a solution.

When looking at the best way to create web application solutions in a no code environment, a progressive apps builder is an excellent starting point. But free templates  are hard to come by. Lumavate has more than 35 Starter Kits that anyone can use, including people searching for commercial Progressive Web App development tools. 

If you just want to convert website to progressive web app, free progressive web apps tools can help. But all this is going to do is translate one to the other, and it may not be a clean or optimized translation. PWA angular or a Progressive Web App Dreamweaver isn't going to be as customizable or as robust as an app created with true PWA compatibility, such as the apps developed in Lumavate.

Lumavate has very reasonable pricing, and it doesn't just convert websites to PWA; it enables marketers to build their own mobile app. Further, each of Lumavate’s PWAs is compatible with Google’s Lighthouse Audit, which checks PWAs for compliance.

Progressive Web App Tutorial

How do you create a progressive web app?

You begin by looking up a Progressive Web App Tutorial. A PWA tutorial will give you a starting point for development and will give you a broader overview of what a PWA means for a business. But once you get to the PWA tutorial point, you may already know that you don't want to learn programming and development. Even a simple PWA tutorial may not be enough to get you into development, especially if you'd rather focus on marketing.

Lumavate offers a complete platform for marketers with no coding experience, so they can begin building a PWA immediately. With the ability to use Starter Kits and templates, marketers are able to start working on their app immediately, and customizing their app to their own needs. Since Lumavate is such a simple, easy to use platform, marketers will also be able to troubleshoot and improve upon their application moving forward.

If you want to test out Lumavate, you can get a free subscription. There are other companies that offer PWA tutorials, such as Point, and these tutorials can help you understand the process of creating an app from start to finish.

As marketers, it's likely that you're more aware of user experience than back-end coding. User experience is everything, and back-end coding is often a challenge. Lumavate puts what's most important first.

Progressive Web App Example

The easiest way to understand Progressive Web Apps is to look at a Progressive Web example. Here are some of the most impressive PWA apps list: Twitter, Trivago, Starbucks, and Pinterest. But today, most major brands are looking to develop their PWAs, because of the benefits of these apps.

These are some of the most popular and most used PWAs out there. When Pinterest deployed its PWA, it was able to render itself one of the most popular sites on the internet, and users are often seamlessly redirected to their PWA for further engagement. Starbucks is able to provide advanced functionality through its PWA even though it has a native app, and Trivago has been able to augment its services through the support of a lightning fast PWA that is faster than its native app.

Possible use cases for PWAs follow these apps. Whether with a web app generator or programmed from scratch, a PWA is almost always faster than either a website or a native app. With a Progressive Web App bootstrap template, organizations are able to improve engagement just like Starbucks. 

A bootstrap PWA template can get you started on developing a great app, especially if you've already looked at Progressive Web Application development by example. Progressive Web App tutorials point can get you even further. There are companies like Web App Generator, Bootstrap, and WordPress that have templates for developing PWAs, but they focus on transitioning already existing websites to PWAs. At Lumavate, our Customer Stories show why PWAs are important, and why Lumavate is the right one to offer it.

PWA React

What's PWA React? How can it help you create fantastic web apps? React Apps can be transitioned to a Progressive Web Application, and you can create a React app offline. A React Progressive Web App offers frameworks, boilerplates, and templates, to make it easier to manage the transition into a PWA. The React Service Worker feature can generate a service worker file for the support of PWA, making it possible to convert React app to PWA. 

Since you can create React app offline, it can be an ideal solution for those who want native apps as well as mobile apps. But a react PWA boilerplate or react PWA framework may not have the features that a business needs. You can look at a React Progressive Web App example to see if they can do the types of things you want your app to do, and look up tutorials such as Progressive Web Apps with react PDF tutorials. In particular, pay attention to the react service worker tutorial.

There are examples for the React PWA framework, as well as extensive documentation. But it still does require programming knowledge, in a way that Lumavate does not. Lumavate supports codeless development for PWAs, including Starter Kits and boilerplates for those in industries such as CPG.

Progressive Web App Template

Lumavate has Starter Kits, sometimes called app templates, which act as a template for marketers to use as a guide. Lumavate as a free progressive web app template for almost any industry. Take a look at Lumavate’ App Gallery to see all of the free PWA templates to choose from. 

When you want to create a PWA for your business, you need to customize it to you. A Progressive Web App template free download can still be made highly customizable to your brand, if you partner with the right PWA builder. The Progressive Web App theme available through Lumavate can be customized in a no code environment, unlike what some other HTML PWA templates can do. And that means that you can customize your starter kit however you desire.

Before you start building PWAs, you need to develop additional knowledge regarding what a PWA is and why it's important. Progressive Web App tools need to make it easier for you to start building your app immediately, rather than struggling to learn how to code, or learning the basics of web development. With a progressive web app theme and the no code environment of Lumavate, you can express your ideas and your feature needs without having to get further into coding knowledge.

Lumavate has a complete digital experience platform designed specifically for marketers. Sign up for a free account today! 

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