Progressive Web Apps in 2025: Still Relevant?

The PWA Promise

PWAs promised to bridge the gap between web and native apps: offline support, push notifications, home screen installation, and native-like performance.

How has that played out?

What PWAs Do Well

Offline Support

Service workers make offline-first architectures possible:

// service-worker.ts
const CACHE_NAME = 'app-v1'
const OFFLINE_URLS = ['/', '/offline.html', '/styles.css', '/app.js']

self.addEventListener('install', (event) => {
  event.waitUntil(
    caches.open(CACHE_NAME).then(cache => cache.addAll(OFFLINE_URLS))
  )
})

self.addEventListener('fetch', (event) => {
  event.respondWith(
    caches.match(event.request).then(cached => {
      return cached || fetch(event.request).catch(() => {
        return caches.match('/offline.html')
      })
    })
  )
})

Performance

Precaching critical assets means instant subsequent page loads:

• First visit: normal network performance
• Subsequent visits: near-instant (served from cache)

Installation

Users can "install" your web app to their home screen without app store review:

{
  "name": "My App",
  "short_name": "App",
  "start_url": "/",
  "display": "standalone",
  "background_color": "#ffffff",
  "theme_color": "#3b82f6",
  "icons": [{ "src": "/icon-512.png", "sizes": "512x512", "type": "image/png" }]
}

The Limitations (Honest Assessment)

iOS Restrictions

Apple has historically limited PWA capabilities:

• Push notifications only added in iOS 16.4 (2023)
• No background sync
• Storage can be evicted after 7 days of inactivity
• No access to many native APIs

The "App Gap" Still Exists

Native apps still have exclusive access to:

• Advanced camera controls
• Bluetooth (limited in PWA)
• NFC (limited)
• App store discovery
• Background processing

When PWAs Make Sense

✅ Good fit:

• Content/media sites (news, blogs, documentation)
• Internal business tools
• E-commerce (fast repeat visits)
• Emerging markets (limited device storage)
• Apps that need occasional offline access

❌ Bad fit:

• Games requiring GPU access
• Apps needing deep OS integration
• Apps relying on background processing
• When app store presence is critical for discovery

My Take

PWAs aren't dead — they're settled into their niche. For content-first experiences that benefit from caching and optional offline access, they're excellent. For anything requiring deep native integration, build native.

The best approach in 2025: build a great responsive web app first, add PWA capabilities (manifest + service worker caching) as a progressive enhancement. It costs almost nothing and genuinely improves UX for returning users.