Convert WordPress To Progressive Web App (PWA) – A Complete Guide

More than fifty percent of the web traffic is coming from mobile phones these days and at such times if you wish to increase your reach or create a more engaging user experience for your web users, then you should definitely try one of the Progressive Web Apps or the PWA plugins for all of your WordPress websites.

A PWA is basically a simple web app that makes efficient use of modern web capabilities and deliver an app-like experience to its users. It has the following benefits:

• 1.Reliability: even in very uncertain network condition, it will load instantly and never show the down sour.
• 2.Engagement: these are highly engaging and while using you feel as if you are using a natural app.
• 3.Fast: it will respond very quickly to all user interactions and has silky smooth operation and provide an immersive user experience.
• 4.Responsive: any PWA will work across any device efficiently. 

• How to convert WordPress to a PWA?  
  

When considering to install a PWA there is no need to re-code your website, instead depending on your website, there are various different ways in which you can design a PWA. And for those who have a WordPress website, the entire job becomes much more easy and efficient.

With so many open source resources, tools and really efficient plug-ins you can convert easily any WordPress site into a PWA. When you enable your WordPress website as a PWA, users can have a comparable experience of using a web app by simply visiting your website that too from their smartphones.

You can either build a PWA manually or simply use a plug-in for the purpose. Any of these plug-ins will efficiently do all the heavy lifting for you. 

• Best PWA Plugins for WordPress  
  

1.Super PWA:

The open source Super PWA or the super progressive web app enables you to instantly convert any WordPress website into a progressive web app. It is one of the most popular and easy-to-use plug-ins available.

The Super PWA is known for the customization features and its ability to create high-quality offline pages. You can also create an app icon for your PWA with it. After installation, the super PWA will give your users an option to "Add to Home Screen" which is present on your website.

With the Add to Home Screen feature, any user can add your site to the home screen of their devices and then they can easily use it like a native app, even when they are offline.

One of the most distinctive features of the super PWA is that all Android users can receive push notifications which again gives an experience of using a native app. 

2.PWA Plugin by Avada:

​Avada provides you numerous options which are hard-baked into the theme options of the PWA plug-in to extend the usability, optimization and off course the performance.

You can easily decide to turn the PWA on or off for your WordPress website in Avada Theme options, with their Enable / Disable feature. You can also select which file-types will be cached by the browser and the subsequent page requests will use those cached assets.

Any page request will try to fetch the most recent version of a file from the network and in case of network failure, fall-back to the cached files.

With its App Display Mode feature, you can also choose or select the behaviour of your app. The App Theme Colour feature enables you to select your favourite colours for the header and the browser tool-bar. 

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3.MobiLoud:

​MobiLoud is also one of the most popular WordPress plugins that can easily convert your WordPress website into an app. You can easily publish your website by using MobiLoud that too without writing a single line of code.

The only thing that you need to do is to choose what kind of mobile app you want to publish and rest everything is taken care off. It already has a few custom made choices such as for a news or a blog app or an e-commerce app.

It is not open-source and its pricing plan is:

• $99 – Professional Plan
• $199 – Publisher Plan
• $3,499 – Publisher & Source Code Plan

4.Blappsta:

You can also efficiently mobilize your WordPress website by using the Blappsta Plug-in. The set of features it has in its offering are really unique and the entire plug-in will cost your around $34.99 per month.

It has social sharing features in its platform, which enable you to share your content or activities with the world effortlessly. You can also support branding of your products with Blappsta.

It allows caching for the best speed and hence is not at all slow and ensure reliability even in bad network conditions. You can also use deep linking in the app itself for the purpose of SEO. 

5.AppPresser:

 AppPresser is a specialized app builder plug-in which allows you to integrate your WordPress website to create any iOS or Android app. It has a set of very useful features such as push notifications, geolocation for the apps, use of app camera on your device and various inbuilt app themes.

The AppPresser plug-in has a regular license of $29 and it has three plans:

• $19 – Starter Plan
• $49 – Agency Plan
• $65 – Agency Plan

These are some of the best WordPress plug-ins to convert your website into an app, but apart from these there are a lot of things that you need to do, to ensure your customers are receiving the best possible experience of your WordPress website on their smart phones. Using a PWA is a great way of not only providing the best user experience but also keeping up with the competition.