The conventional wisdom has always been: if you want a real mobile experience, you need a native app. PWAs were considered a compromise — good for simple use cases, but limited. That gap has been closing steadily for years, and in 2025 it's genuinely narrow for a large category of applications. The question is no longer whether PWAs are capable. It's whether the use case actually requires native.
What PWAs Can Actually Do in 2025
- ›Push notifications on Android and iOS (Safari PWA support landed in 16.4)
- ›Full offline mode via Service Workers and Cache API — works with zero connectivity
- ›File system access: read and write local files with user permission
- ›Bluetooth and USB access via Web Bluetooth and WebUSB APIs
- ›Home screen installation with custom splash screen and icon
- ›Share target integration: appear in the OS share sheet like a native app
- ›Background sync for deferred network requests when connectivity returns
The App Store Calculation
App stores take 15-30% of every purchase. They require binary review processes that add days to every release cycle. They're the single point of failure between your product and your users. PWAs bypass all of that: you ship when you're ready, users always get the latest version without an update prompt, and you keep 100% of revenue from web-based purchases. For B2B SaaS tools, internal enterprise apps, and content platforms, the math heavily favors PWA.
When PWA Isn't Enough
PWAs still can't access background location on iOS without a native wrapper. They can't use the NFC chip on iPhone (Apple restricts this). They don't have access to ARKit or certain camera APIs. If your product requires these capabilities — fitness tracking, contactless payments, AR experiences — you need native. But for the vast majority of web applications that are packaging themselves in a React Native shell, a well-built PWA is a more maintainable and economically rational choice.
The best PWA is indistinguishable from a native app to the user. The difference is only visible to the developer — and it's entirely in the developer's favor.
Written by Manas Garge
Founder & Data Engineer