Best PWA app builders

Progressive web apps (PWAs) have changed the game for small businesses, making it more affordable for them to create an app for their target customers. PWAs have an intuitive user experience on desktop, and on mobile, they resemble native apps that users are already familiar with. They also take less time to develop than native apps, often costing significantly less.

PWAs come with many benefits for end users, such as not having to install or update the app, using less data than a traditional app, and working in low-connectivity environments. If you’re thinking about creating a progressive web app for your small business, you can find a PWA app builder in this roundup.

1. AngularJs

AngularJs is an established tool businesses can use to create progressive web apps. Many web development companies also use it. One of the key benefits of using AngularJs is that it has a large support community, where you can get answers to common questions to help you deal with issues.

To use AngularJs to create a progressive web app, you must be familiar with JavaScript and TypeScript. Note that a dedicated script (AngularJs 5) uses the JSON to create progressive web apps, so you don’t need to build anything from scratch.

2. Apache Cordova

Mark Varnas, principal consultant at Red9, recommends Apache Cordova. He suggests this PWA builder because it “provides the ability to build mobile apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without having any knowledge of mobile development.”

Apache Cordova offers extensive help documentation so users can get the support they need and answers to common questions.

3. PWA Builder

If you already have a website, you can transform it into a progressive web app using PWA Builder. Just type the URL into the input string. This tool tells you whether your website can work as a PWA and explains what you need to do to get there.

Ideal for businesses with a small budget and minimal experience creating progressive web apps, PWA Builder can also help increase app performance.

4. Vue

Perfect for smaller projects with simple code, Vue is a progressive JavaScript framework that’s open source. Businesses can build dynamic apps with easy coding and rendering due to the simple features and structure of Vue.

Keep in mind that you need some experience using Vue to take advantage of this platform — and that there’s a shortage of web developers who have experience in Vue.

5. Super PWA

If you have a WordPress website, you can turn it into a progressive web app using Super PWA. Ideal for inexperienced WordPress users and those with limited development knowledge, Super PWA can quickly turn a website into a progressive web app. It’s a user-friendly plug-in that can create offline pages and give end users the ability to add your website to their home screen for quick and easy accessibility.

6. Polymer

Recommended by Daniela Sawyer, the founder of FindPeopleFast, Polymer contains many progressive web app building tools.

“Polymer is a lightweight JavaScript framework developed by Google that includes several PWA capabilities,” notes Sawyer. “It features a large number of templates and some of the best documentation available.” Businesses can use the many templates so they don’t have to start from the ground up.

Polymer’s extensive documentation library enables businesses to easily find instructions for any tool they want to use. Less complex than AngularJs, Polymer can help businesses simplify the progressive web app development process by reducing time, steps, and resources.

The best PWA app builder for your business will depend on your coding knowledge, existing website framework, budget, and time frame. Be sure to look at these suggestions to determine if any of them will meet your needs and help you create an intuitive user experience for your customers.