Answer

PWA vs Electron: what is the difference?

Short answer

A PWA installs through the browser and reuses the browser’s already-installed engine, so it downloads in kilobytes and stays a few MB on disk. Electron bundles an entire Chromium and Node.js runtime into every app, typically 100-200MB, but in exchange gives full Node.js filesystem and OS access that the web sandbox does not allow.

By InstantPWA growth research·Reviewed July 25, 2026

Footprint

PWAs share the OS’s browser engine across every installed PWA; Electron ships its own copy of Chromium per app, which is why Electron apps are much larger downloads.

Capabilities

Electron has unrestricted Node.js access to the filesystem, native modules and OS APIs; a PWA is limited to what the web platform’s sandboxed APIs expose.

When to choose which

Choose a PWA for reach and lightweight installs; choose Electron when you need deep OS integration, like VS Code or Slack’s desktop app do.

Sources

Electron — Documentation

PWA vs native app: what does each cost?

Building a PWA typically costs 30-50% of an equivalent native iOS + Android app because you ship one codebase to three platforms (iOS, Android, desktop). Maintenance is roughly one-fifth: no app-store review, no separate release trains, no platform-version fragmentation.

Do PWAs work on Windows?

Yes. On Windows, installing a PWA through Chrome or Edge adds it to the Start menu and taskbar, gives it its own window without browser chrome, and lists it in Windows Settings → Apps alongside native applications, where it can be uninstalled the same way. Microsoft also historically indexed some PWAs directly into the Microsoft Store via PWABuilder.

PWA vs React Native: which should I build?

A PWA is a single website that runs in the browser and can be installed without an app store; React Native compiles JavaScript into genuinely native iOS and Android UI components and ships through the App Store and Play Store. Choose a PWA for the widest reach and lowest cost, and React Native when you need deep native APIs, top App Store placement, or native performance for animation-heavy UI.

PWA vs Flutter: which should I build?

A PWA runs in the browser and installs without an app store, with a small download size; Flutter compiles Dart to native ARM machine code and renders every pixel itself via its own graphics engine, giving consistent, high-performance UI across iOS, Android, web and desktop from one codebase, but requiring app-store distribution for mobile.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to measure real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, loading speed), Interaction to Next Paint (INP, responsiveness to input, which replaced First Input Delay in March 2024), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, visual stability). They are measured from real Chrome users via the Chrome User Experience Report.