Do We Really Need a Native App for Everything ?

The Overlooked Power of the Web

Everywhere you look, there’s an app. Restaurants have apps. Gyms have apps. Your local barber shop, the neighborhood bakery, the community sports club; they all seem to have one, or feel the pressing need to build one. This “app-for-everything” mentality has become a default reflex in the business world, a digital trophy symbolizing modernity and relevance. But here’s the uncomfortable question we need to ask in an increasingly cluttered digital landscape: do we really need a native app for everything?

The rationale is understandable. Businesses want a direct channel to their customers, a way to push notifications, and a permanent icon on the home screen that serves as a constant reminder of their brand. However, this pursuit often overlooks a critical factor: the user’s perspective and the sheer burden of app fatigue.

Consider the simple, yet telling example of a local tennis or badminton club that develops a native app solely for court reservations. Deconstruct the user journey: download a dedicated application from the App Store or Google Play, grant it permissions (location? contacts? why?), register an account, navigate through its interface, and finally, book a court. The entire functional experience boils down to a login screen, a calendar view, and a confirmation button. Is it truly necessary to go through the entire ritual of app store discovery, download, and installation, consuming precious storage space and mental bandwidth, just to perform a task that is, at its core, a simple form submission? This is a classic case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and it highlights a fundamental misalignment between the problem and the chosen solution.

This is precisely where Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) enter the conversation; and where the discussion becomes not just interesting, but crucial for sensible digital strategy. The persistent myth that PWAs are “just websites” is a disservice to the powerful, app-like experience they can deliver.

What PWAs Can Do (That Most People and Businesses Still Don’t Realize)

A Progressive Web App is not a mere mobile-friendly website. It is a web application built using standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) but designed to offer a user experience that is indistinguishable from a native app. For the vast majority of everyday business use cases; reservations, e-commerce, customer portals, loyalty programs, event schedules, and news feeds; PWAs already provide a fully-featured, robust solution. Their capabilities are far more advanced than commonly perceived:

• Installation without Friction: The most significant user experience win. A PWA can be “installed” directly from the browser onto a device’s home screen with a single tap. There is no need to visit an app store, search for the app, and click “Install.” This drastically reduces the barrier to entry and eliminates the “download hurdle” that causes many potential users to abandon a native app before even trying it.
• Truly Cross-Platform and Universal: A single PWA codebase works seamlessly across iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. This stands in stark contrast to the native approach, which requires separate development cycles for iOS (Swift/SwiftUI) and Android (Kotlin/Java), effectively doubling the development cost, time, and maintenance overhead. For a small or medium-sized business, this is a game-changing advantage.
• Reliable Offline Functionality: Thanks to Service Workers; a script that runs in the background; PWAs can cache essential resources and API responses. This means a user can browse a product catalog, read previously loaded articles, or even draft a reservation request without an internet connection. The app will sync the data once the connection is restored. This capability shatters the old paradigm of the web being unusable offline.
• Push Notifications: A feature once exclusive to native apps is now fully available for PWAs on Android and, critically, has been supported on iOS since 2022. Businesses can re-engage users with timely updates, promotional offers, or reservation reminders, directly from their PWA, maintaining that vital communication channel.
• Instant Updates and Discoverability: Users are always on the latest version of a PWA; the update process is seamless and happens on the server side. Furthermore, PWAs are inherently discoverable via search engines. You can’t Google a feature hidden inside a native app, but a PWA’s content is fully indexable, driving organic traffic and user acquisition.

In essence, for the typical business application that revolves around content consumption, form submissions, and transactional workflows, PWAs cover 80–90% of the functional requirements at a fraction of the cost and complexity.

So Why Does the “Native App for Everything” Mentality Persist?

If the technological argument for PWAs is so compelling, why does the business world remain so enamored with native apps? The reasons are often more psychological and commercial than technical.

1. The Prestige and Perception Trap: There is a lingering, though fading, perception that having a “real app” in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store lends a business credibility and seriousness. It’s seen as a mark of a “tech-savvy” company. This is a vestige of an earlier mobile era. Today, users are more discerning; a poorly designed, rarely used native app that exists only for prestige can actually damage a brand’s perception by appearing bloated and out of touch.
2. Agency and Developer Incentives: The business model of many development agencies is built on projects with substantial budgets. Native app development, requiring two separate technical teams and ongoing maintenance for two codebases, is inherently more expensive and complex than building a single, high-quality PWA. It is not always in a vendor’s financial interest to propose the more efficient, cost-effective solution. This creates a market where native apps are often “sold” as the only premium option.
3. Apple’s Historical Resistance and the “Walled Garden”: For years, Apple was hesitant to fully support PWAs on iOS, particularly regarding push notifications and certain hardware access. This created a perception that PWAs were “second-class citizens” on the world’s most valuable mobile platform. While this gap has narrowed significantly; with key APIs now available; the legacy of this resistance still influences decision-makers.
4. A Simple Lack of Awareness: Many business owners and non-technical decision-makers are simply not aware of how powerful modern web technologies have become. They hear “app” and think “native.” They haven’t been exposed to the polished, performant experience of a well-built PWA like those from Starbucks, Twitter Lite, or Forbes. Education is the key to breaking this cycle.

The supreme irony in this push for native is that it directly contradicts user behavior. Studies consistently show that users spend the majority of their time in just a handful of apps (social media, messaging, email). They are increasingly resistant to downloading new apps for simple, occasional interactions. What they truly crave is convenience; a fast, reliable, and frictionless way to accomplish their goal, without the commitment of a download.

A Place for Everything: When Native Still Makes Sense

To be fair and balanced, it is crucial to acknowledge that native apps are not obsolete. They remain the superior choice for a specific, albeit narrower, set of applications. Native development is justified when the core functionality demands:

• Intensive Hardware Integration: Applications that require deep, low-level access to device hardware, such as complex augmented reality (AR) filters, advanced Bluetooth device control (e.g., for medical devices), or continuous background location tracking for fitness apps, still benefit from the unfettered access provided by native APIs.
• High-Performance Computing: graphically intensive games, professional video editing software, or complex real-time data processing applications need to squeeze every ounce of performance from the device’s GPU and CPU. Native code, running directly on the operating system, holds a clear advantage here.
• Deep OS-Specific Integrations: If an application’s value proposition is deeply tied to tight integration with specific OS features like Siri Shortcuts, Apple Watch complications, or being a default handler for certain actions, a native approach is the only path.

For the vast majority of businesses, however, these are edge cases, not the core use case. For a simple reservation system, a shopping catalog, a loyalty card, a news portal, or a customer service dashboard, the web; supercharged by PWA technology; is not just “enough”; it is often the superior choice.

The Bottom Line: Rethinking the Digital Strategy

The open web is the most universal, accessible, and democratic platform ever created. It requires no gatekeepers, no mandatory downloads, and works on every device with a browser. Progressive Web Apps are the natural evolution of this platform, extending its universality into the world of app-like experiences. They represent a synthesis of the best of both worlds: the reach and frictionlessness of the web, combined with the rich, engaging capabilities of native apps.

Therefore, the next time a business owner, a product manager, or a stakeholder asks, “Should we build an app?”, we must reframe the question. The better, more strategic inquiry is:

👉 “What is the user’s core job-to-be-done, and what is the most frictionless way to help them do it?”

Very often, the answer will not involve an app store. It will point towards a fast, reliable, and installable Progressive Web App. Because when we strip away the hype and the perceived prestige, what users truly want isn’t another icon vying for space on their crowded home screen. They want a seamless, effective, and forgettable tool that simply lets them get things done. And that, in the end, is the highest compliment a digital product can receive.