Progressive Web App, or PWA, utilizes contemporary technology to deliver cutting-edge features that have the potential to completely transform the standard online shopping experience. Because PWAs are interesting, speedy, and fully responsive across all devices, they are becoming more and more popular among businesses of all sizes and types.
When choosing a PWA solution, many people are limited to Vue Storefront or Magento PWA Studio. Both platforms have been around for a while and are tried-and-true choices for companies looking to improve their online presence. Choosing the best one to help your business, nevertheless, is no easy process.
Recognizing a general lack of public awareness regarding PWA ecommerce solutions, we’ll delve further into the topic and two of today’s top platforms in this article to assist you.
What is a PWA or Progressive Web App?
A PWA, to put it simply, is a website created to feel and appear exactly like an app on a smart mobile device. On the other hand, they are distributed via the Web as opposed to an app store.
PWAs also contain features found in apps, such as offline functionality, notifications, shortcut icons, and more. PWAs are seriously taking popularity in the smartphone era because of everything they have to offer.
A PWA must be developed and implemented, hence the appropriate tools are needed. Both Magento Studio and Vue Storefront offer those tools. Let’s compare them so you can learn more about the special opportunities each platform can provide for your company or its clientele in the business world.
What is Vue Storefront?
Another well-liked option for ecommerce PWA development is the Storefront platform from Vue. It may be used on any ecommerce platform because it is open-source and platform-neutral, and it is backed by a vibrant user community.
Using an API, Vue can integrate with any back-end and offer full functionality, unlike Magento. One of its key benefits is this. It can link up with BigCommerce, Magento, and other platforms.
Vue vs. Magento: A Comparison of the Pros and Cons
The PWA options offered by Magento and Vue each have advantages and disadvantages. To help you better understand what to anticipate, below is a summary of each.
Pros of Magento Studio
1. Comprehensive Development Tools
The Progressive Web App development tools provided by Magento Studio are current and come with thorough documentation. They enable users to quickly set up and customize their own local PWA development environments.
2. Simple Setup
From the back-end, setting up PWAs is simple with Magento Studio. To properly run the application, users must clone a repository, add the Magento instance URL to the.env file, and run a command. It is obvious from the first use that ease of development was given top attention.
3. GraphQL
Since GraphQL employs declarative data fetching, PWAs created with Magento Studio have virtually no overfetching of queries and improved capacity for managing numerous users from various sources.
4. Community Assistance
Due to Magento’s widespread use as an e-commerce platform, the Magento PWA user and contributor community has a strong global support network.
Cons of Magento Studio
1. Single Platform
Each store must be running Magento 2.3 or newer builds in order to use Magento PWA Studio. This eliminates the need to worry about compatibility issues, but it also has some significant limitations.
2. Failure to Comply
Speaking of compatibility problems, the GraphicQL feature of Magento Studio renders it incompatible with earlier iterations.
3. Support Issues for iOS
Both iOS PWA alerts and offline functionality on iOS devices are not supported by Magento.
4. Verification Problems
When creating new client accounts, validation problems can happen. This is particularly true for iOS users when creating passwords. A notification cannot be sent when the chosen password does not comply with the password criteria.
Pros of VUE
1. Platform-Inclusive
Vue’s Storefront PWA solution is compatible with every ecommerce platform, unlike Magento.
2. Rendering on the server
Vue’s server-side rendering handles queries made by crawling search engines, enabling more dynamic HTML for pages.
3. Technology Stack in Motion
Developers can write JS code from the server side and the client side while creating applications based on Vue.js, which improves data synchronization.
4. Caching API
The offline browser storage provided by Vue enables native API caching.
5. Free Software
Vue-Storefront is continuously updated and improved upon because it is open source. Strong local support is also advantageous.
Cons of VUE
1. Incompatibilities
Even though it works with practically every ecommerce platform, there are still a few problems. Some functions are also incompatible with iOS.
2. Missing documentation
Many people have complained that installing Vue is difficult, and the lack of documentation does not help.
3. API REST
When it comes to request response, Vue’s use of REST API lags behind GraphQL.
4. Fewer Options for Payment
There are some payment gateways that Vue-Storefront cannot be utilized with.
5. Far Fewer Features
Vue has a few small problems that need to be fixed, lacks some of the capabilities that Magento has, and does not support jQuery.
Comparison of Features
These two top Progressive Web App platforms are almost neck and neck in terms of features. Here, though, is a review of the key advantages each offers.
Features of Magento:
ReactJS ReactJS outperforms VueJS and offers a better developer and purchasing experience.
Alternative for the Home Screen: To make a store powered by Magento PWA Studio appear and work like a native app, the store can be downloaded to the home screen.
Works Offline – PWA web apps can function without an internet connection while running offline.
Strong Back-End – Magento has an excellent internal back-end that guarantees smooth operation without many issues.
Features of Vue:
The success of Vue-Storefront can be attributed in large part to the JavaScript framework’s lightweight construction. Compared to React.js in Magento, it is a lot lighter.
Handle for Multiple Platforms – Vue’s sophisticated framework is built to support a number of platforms and make it easier to construct complicated apps. Giving a website an omnichannel presence is fantastic.
Choosing an Option
The PWA technology market is interesting, lucrative, and developing quickly. Leading its evolution, Magento and Vue both offer PWA solutions that are intended to revolutionize the mobile shopping experience.
The beauty of Magento PWA solutions is the ability to manually create and maintain PWAs, albeit both Magento and Vue have certain advantages and disadvantages of their own. The tools in Magento are reliable.
Beta Soft Technology can assist you if you require assistance with setting up Progressive Web App technology for your Magento store. Our skilled team of Magento programmers can quickly convert your conventional Magento store into a lightning-fast PWA. Please get in touch.
