7 Best Progressive Web App Frameworks for 2023

What are Progressive Web Apps?

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are web applications that use modern web technologies to deliver a native-like user experience. They are designed to work on any device, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktop computers, and can be "installed" on a device's home screen without the need for an app store.

PWAs use a set of technologies, including Service Workers and Web App Manifests, to provide offline support and other native app-like features. They also follow a set of design principles that prioritize the user's experience and make the app feel more like a native app.

These are becoming increasingly popular because they offer many of the benefits of native apps, such as offline support and push notifications, without the need to go through an app store. They are also easier to develop and maintain than native apps, as they are just web applications that run in a browser.

There are 6.648 billion smartphone users worldwide, equating to 83.07% of the world's population. By 2027, this figure is projected to increase to 7.690 billion.

Considering these numbers, businesses must swiftly and effectively adapt to new technological trends to stay competitive. One such technology that has taken over the world of mobile and web app development is progressive web app frameworks.

Some of the top examples of Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) examples are Starbucks, Pinterest, and Twitter. PWAs allowed these applications to significantly enhance user engagement by replacing legacy native apps and mobile web experiences. First, let's examine a handful of the most well-liked frameworks for progressive web applications.

Top 7 Progressive Web App Frameworks

A progressive web app is a piece of technology that has the power to dramatically revolutionize your company and take it to the next level of success. It also has a more specific and technical connotation, though. So let's transport you there!

Progressive web apps are websites that incorporate the most outstanding elements of both internet and mobile apps. A PWA will benefit from a mobile app's features, boosting user retention and performance. PWAs aim to integrate the most significant aspects of mobile apps and the mobile web, including speed and offline functionality, without downloading.

There are now numerous options available. However, not all PWA frameworks meet the standard. Listed below are some of the finest you'll find.

1. Ionic

Ionic was established in 2013 as an open-source SDK built on Angular and Apache Cordova. Since then, over 5 million hybrid progressive web app developments have made use of it, placing it among the top PWA frameworks. Since it comes with a sizable library of components for both iOS and Android that developers can use to build web pages that run inside the device browser using WebView, Ionic is perfect for developing PWA apps.

Ionic has the following advantages:

2. React.js

The Angular group is massive, but the React community dwarfs it. Because of its 'Create a new React app' generator, and all of its initiatives to make PWA the new Web standard, React is well-recognized as a first-class citizen in the Progressive Web App development sphere.

And as for why React is so popular among PWA developers, it has a lot to do with how React allows for more development flexibility due to its nature as a library rather than a full-fledged framework like Angular; in other words, compared to Angular's Model-View-Controller model, the React library only has Viewed, and it can only bring HTML into JavaScript is compatible with virtual DOM server-side rendering.

React.js has the following advantages:

3. Polymer

Polymer is another Google creation that is an open-source web app development framework. It provides a wide range of web components, PWA tools, and templates. Furthermore, Google's Polymer is highly adaptable due to the components and tools that are supported by all types of web browsers.

Polymer has the following advantages:

4. Vue.js

Developers widely use Vue.js to create intuitive web apps, even though it is not specifically designed for creating progressive web apps. It is an open-source front-end JavaScript-based framework for dynamic apps that covers routing, state management, and server-side rendering, with multiple packages for PWA development. As a result, Vue.js simplifies the development of web applications.

Vue.js has the following advantages:

5. PreAct

Preact is a compact, performance-oriented substitute to React that is suitable for PWA development due to its lightness, speed, and ability to meet most of your requirements. And the reason it's so great and well-recommended within the PWA community is that it's fully compatible with React, and switching from React to Preact is as easy as introducing a preact-compat compatibility layer to your current code.

PreAct has the following advantages:

6. Svelte

Svelte is a new component-based framework that uses leaner code to enable faster page loading in syntactic analysis and execution parts. As a versatile framework, Svelte plays a significant role in CSS's progressive web app frameworks. Furthermore, Svelte does not require a virtual DOM. Svelte will undoubtedly become a popular PWAs development framework in 2023.

Svelte has the following advantages:

7. AngularJS

Angular is designed to be completely modular, with each Angular element being fully compatible with applications built with other frameworks. The entire Angular development process has also been streamlined because it can help to alleviate the stress of dealing with monotonous, repetitive tasks. In addition, angular Progressive Web Apps benefit greatly from its unique compilation process, Ahead of Time (AOT). As a result, it enables faster application rendering by converting Angular HTML and TypeScript code into efficient JavaScript code before the browser downloads and runs the app.

Angular.js has the following advantages:

Final Thoughts

Each PWA framework has been successful in giving developers a ton of convenience. The first and most crucial step in creating a progressive web app is choosing the appropriate framework. It establishes whether your app is user-friendly, dynamic, robust, responsive, and scalable. 

Your app's requirements and your developer's level of experience will determine which framework is appropriate for you. As a result, you must discuss this with your developers before making this choice. 

Pick a trustworthy developer and a solid framework. Then, make use of all the benefits that PWA offers. You'll find this list of the best PWA frameworks useful in your path.

Remember to read related topics on Amplifyre to learn more about other frameworks' usability and ubiquity.