Installable from a browser, push-notify capable, offline-ready, fast as a native app. PWAs are the right answer when you want app polish without the App Store review cycle, the 30% commission, or the per-platform code split.
Bright, fruity, washed Sidamo from a small co-op outside Yirgacheffe. Roasted weekly in Pretoria — ships SA-wide via Aramex.
Native apps are powerful — and sometimes overkill. Here's when shipping a PWA first (or instead) is the smarter play.
Each native release goes through Apple's review queue. Even minor fixes wait days. PWAs deploy instantly — push the commit, the user gets the fix on the next page reload. Critical for stores running flash sales, news apps with breaking stories, or anything where same-day fixes matter.
Native IAP for digital goods is 15–30% of revenue. PWAs bypass that entirely — you charge what you charge, you keep what you keep, you choose your gateway. For high-margin digital products this can mean 30%+ extra in your pocket on every sale.
Every step between "saw the ad" and "first session" leaks users. Download → onboard → register → use is ~30% conversion. PWAs collapse that: tap a link, you're in the app. Install can happen later, when the user already wants it.
A lot of "apps" are actually content sites: news, recipes, lookbooks, blogs, internal portals, member areas. For these, native is genuinely overkill — and you end up maintaining three codebases (iOS, Android, web) for what could be one PWA.
The gap between PWA and native has narrowed dramatically. Here's what every Sitect-built PWA ships with — and what makes them feel indistinguishable from native apps for 80% of use cases.
Users add your PWA to their iOS or Android home screen. Once installed it runs full-screen, with its own icon, splash screen and task-switcher entry — just like a native app.
Send web push to opted-in users on Android, Windows, macOS and iOS (iOS 16.4+). Same deep-linking, same targeting, same scheduling as native push.
Service Workers cache the app shell + assets, and IndexedDB stores user data. The PWA works on the train, on a flight, in a SA loadshedding outage — sync happens when the connection returns.
Modern PWAs access the camera, geolocation, file system, Bluetooth, NFC (Android), share sheet, contact picker, and biometric auth — most of what native apps need.
Service Workers ship new versions seamlessly — no App Store review, no "please update". The user gets the new version on their next session, automatically.
Same PWA runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows tablet, macOS, Linux, Chromebook — any modern browser. Same code, same brand, same release cadence.
We build both. We won't sell you a PWA when you need a native app. Here's the honest comparison.
We turn down PWA work where a native app is genuinely the right call. Here's our honest decision framework.
We'll often suggest "PWA first to validate, native later if you outgrow it" — saves R20k+ on the first round.
Boring, well-supported, web-standard tech. Your team or any agency can pick it up.
Code, hosting set-up, store-listing assets (yes, you can list a PWA on Play Store and Microsoft Store too), runbooks. You own everything.
Production PWA hosted on your domain (or ours), with valid manifest, signed Service Worker, splash + icon assets at every required resolution.
VAPID-keyed Web Push set up, opt-in flows, segmented send capability, action buttons, deep-link routing into the app.
Workbox-based Service Worker with stale-while-revalidate + background sync. Client-side IndexedDB / Dexie for user data with conflict resolution.
GitHub Actions for build + Lighthouse + deploy. Lighthouse CI gates ensure PWA score never regresses below 90.
Sentry for errors, Plausible (or GA4) for behaviour, custom funnels for install / push-opt-in / first-session. Real-user Core Web Vitals tracking.
60 days bug-fix warranty post-launch. Loom tutorials for your team on deploys, push campaigns, monitoring, troubleshooting.
Most PWAs run 3–6 weeks end-to-end. You see staging deploys daily — never wait a week between updates.
Audit, user flows, capabilities decisions, hosting choice.
Wk 1Figma flows, design system, Next.js / Nuxt scaffold, CI/CD.
Wk 1–2Core screens + state + API integration + responsive layout.
Wk 2–4Service Worker, manifest, push, offline, Lighthouse 90+.
Wk 4–5Go-live, store listings (Play / MS), 60-day warranty.
Wk 5–6Indicative metrics across SA PWA builds, measured 60 days post-launch. The biggest gain is the lift in returning-user engagement after install.
Every PWA is scoped per build — these are the bands we usually land in. 50% on signature, 50% on go-live.
Honest answers about iOS support, app store listings, push notifications, and where PWAs genuinely fall short.
Share what you're building and who it's for. We'll come back with a 30-minute audit, a recommended tier, and an indicative price — plus an honest "go native instead" recommendation if that's the right answer.