In the market there are two clear dominators if we talk about the App for hotels PWA or Web App and the Native App , many times the hotelier is unaware of the differences, advantages or disadvantages of each one when opting for an option or commissioning a development, so in this post we are going to spend a little time explaining it carefully.
The term Web App or PWA is not new, although it is true that in recent years it has been gaining ground, largely thanks to Google and the support it is providing.
The first time we heard about a Web APP was specifically in the presentation of the first iPhone, when it did not yet have its own app store, although it is true that, with the arrival of the official Apple application store, support for Web Apps has been left in the background. The big differences between a Web App and a Native App lie in the programming language used, although in PWAs or Web Apps we use traditional languages such as HTML, JavaScript and Css, in native apps we have to stick to the default language of each operating system, such as Swift in the case of iOS, or Java or Kotlin in the case of Android .
As we see with a Web App we can use traditional languages of the Web, regardless of the operating system, which gives us quite a large saving in costs and development time. However, we are going to list the main differences point by point.
Web App Security
- Native Apps must always pass a filter to be published in the app store.
- PWAs must make HTTPS connections in order to work correctly, so that it maintains the same level of security as any corporate website.
Web App Installation
- Native apps must be installed from the APP Store of each operating system, once installed they consume a lot of space on the client's mobile.
- Web Apps can be easily installed from the browser, or using a simple QR code, the great advantage is that they barely consume space on the client's mobile since almost everything resides on servers and only the cache is maintained on the mobile
Speed and User Experience
- In general, a native APP will always offer greater speed by having a large part of its content stored on the device itself.
- Well-developed PWAs offer a user experience very similar to a native APP and thanks to the use of service Worker and background caching they also offer great speed.
Offline Navigation
- Native apps have all the content stored on the client's device, so they can be used without problem in airplane mode or without coverage.
- The Web APPs store all their content in the cloud, however, once the app has been visited and the ServiceWorkers have been installed, they cache all the information on the guest's device so that information can be consulted later even without an internet connection. In addition, from Hoteligy we offer the possibility of installing a local server in the hotel, so that all the traffic coming from the Wi-Fi is served from the hotel and all the traffic from the mobile network is served from our servers.
Updates
- In a native app, any major change in the platform requires an update from the iOS or Android App store, so we may have users with different versions of the app.
- With a PWA or Web App, all the updates are at the server level, so as soon as we enter the app we will always have the latest version available without having to perform manual updates.
Linkable
- With a native app we cannot easily link the content and to view any content the user must download the app beforehand.
- In a Web APP, all the content is immediately available from any web browser, without the need to install or download the app, we can also easily link any part of its content from any website.
