"How much does it cost to build a PWA for Magento 2?" is one of the very first questions bumping up to merchant's mind when they want to upgrade their site to Magento 2 Progressive Web App (PWA). From a business owner's perspective, price is the thing that should be concerned the most. In this post, I will give you general ideas of Magento 2 PWA development cost. Afterward, I hope you can draw the answer to the mentioned question yourself.
Components affecting the price of Magento 2 Progressive Web App
The components that will determine Magento 2 PWA development cost are the version of your Magento site (Magento 2 is highly recommended), Magento extensions and custom functions(which require customization on PWA side), and Magento frontend design (that will be replaced by PWA storefront afterward).
Let me explain it more clearly.
Firstly, the design you want will make up the most to your total cost of creating PWA for Magento 2. Because we cannot use the theme on Magento 2, the developers need to develop a new storefront for PWA that can either share the same design as your current site or have a totally different look. The more complicated the design is, the higher the price is.
Besides, tailored features and extensions you want to add on the PWA also matter when it comes to Magento 2 PWA development. The reason is that there is no Magento frontend anymore, all configurations from Magento backend must be handled by Progressive Web App's API before working on the storefront. As a result, almost all of the Magento extensions will ask for a certain level of customization (API updates) to operate properly on the PWA.
As you see, the cost to develop a Magento PWA depends on your requirements. At first, the developers need to know what you want to have on your PWA.
That's why you should clarify all you need before contacting any agency. Based on your requirements, the PWA integration service provider will discuss with you in details and give you a quotation.
On average, how much does a Magento PWA cost?
As I mentioned above, the developing cost relies on your Magento 2 PWA would be.
After getting in touch with the top 5 Magento development companies that are offering the PWA development service, I found that Magento 2 Progressive Web App cost is in the range of $4,000-25,000, not including after-service support.
Compared to the cost of Magento mobile native app development (from at least $10,000), Magento PWA seems to be more affordable.
It's easy to understand since PWA is cross-platform by nature and independent with all app stores (e.g.: Google Play and Apple App Store). Meanwhile, the native app has to be developed separately for each operating system and approved to be found on the app stores (with specific fees).
Moreover, PWA for Magento 2 takes less time to develop than the native app. When we have to spend more than 6 months to build a native app, PWA developing time starts from 1 month. It will help you to save a lot of money because PWA developers are often hired and charged by the number of their working hours.
Final Words
In my opinion, Magento 2 Progressive Web App development cost (starting from $4,000) is cheaper than Magento native apps. However, depending on the specific budget that we can claim that it's expensive or not.
If you want to integrate your site with this modern technology, this is a perfect time since there are a lot of available PWA integration solutions.