instantpwa
Help centre

Answer

PWA vs native app: what does each cost?

Short answer

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.

By InstantPWA growth research·Reviewed July 7, 2026

Where PWAs save money

Single codebase; instant updates without store approval; no $99/year Apple developer fee for distribution outside the store; no Google Play cut on transactions handled off-platform.

Where native still wins

Games, AR/VR, deep background sync, App Store discovery on iOS (still the dominant install surface for many consumer categories).

When to pick each

Utility, content, SaaS, ecommerce → PWA usually wins on cost and time-to-market. Consumer social with heavy platform integrations → native or hybrid still makes sense.

Sources

Related
Are PWAs in the App Store?
PWAs are not in the App Store or Play Store by default — they install directly from the browser. If you want store presence, PWABuilder (from Microsoft) packages a PWA into a Trusted Web Activity for Google Play, an MSIX for Microsoft Store, and a WKWebView wrapper you can submit to Apple.
What is a PWA?
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a regular website that meets three technical criteria — HTTPS, a Web App Manifest and a service worker — so browsers let visitors install it on their home screen. Once installed, it launches like a native app, works offline and can send push notifications.
How do you uninstall a PWA?
On iPhone and Android, uninstall a PWA by long-pressing its home-screen icon and choosing "Delete" or "Uninstall". On Windows and macOS, open the installed PWA, click the three-dot menu in the title bar and choose "Uninstall". The site itself is not affected — only the installed shortcut and its service worker cache.
Why is my PWA install prompt not showing?
Chrome shows the install prompt only when the site passes strict installability criteria: HTTPS, a valid manifest with name, icons and start_url, a registered service worker with a fetch handler, and the user has not previously dismissed the prompt. Any one of these missing is enough to block the prompt entirely.
What are the storage limits for a PWA?
A PWA typically gets 60% of the device disk space on Chrome and Edge (up to hundreds of GB), 20% of total quota on Firefox, and around 1 GB on Safari. Cache Storage, IndexedDB and OPFS share the same quota. Browsers evict least-recently-used origins under pressure unless the site requests persistent storage.