This is a question all Progressive Web App (PWA) developers get asked, along with the price for PWA development. By the way, what is PWA and why it's so underrated in 2021? Is covered in our previous article.
It's tough to answer how many hours it will take to develop a Progressive Web Application (It's actually 16 weeks on average. Read to the end, I'll provide a clear breakdown of each phase). The reason why it's difficult to predict the development time is - it hugely depends on answers to what goes into making a Progressive Web App?
PWAs are software that requires product specifications designed in accordance with the client's needs under a specific industry and business goal. There are simple and complex PWAs. Some Progressive Web Apps can have minimal functionality and be just a bit different from a website. And some can carry a truckload of capabilities. You can ask us to build a Progressive Web Page that simply shows content or another one that has all sorts of accesses e.g., camera, GPS, storage, support social media functions and the list goes on.
Time frame for PWA development
Industry researches and our own experience are not very different and show more or less the same numbers. Usually, it takes 4-5 months to build the frontend (visuals) of the PWA and the backend (unseen, logic that happens in the background).
Let's break it down:
- Simple Progressive Web App content-based with the database backend - 2-3 months.
- Complex PWA with social media features, in-app purchases, logins, favorites, backend admin panel - 3-6 months.
- Very complex app with dedicated analytics, tricky functionality, trading option, visualization patterns, lots of integrations, etc. - 6+ months.
With that said, there are areas of the process to watch out for, like deadlines and budget intricacies of your PWA development project. That can take too much time or resources. Those unpleasant situations can be avoided with the help of proper app specs or product documentation.
Progressive Web App discovery phase
It all starts with reviewing the requirements or as we call it the Discovery phase. Discovery Phase is the first step of any software development project which involves research, analysis, then defining all requirements and detecting missing pieces — choosing the technology stack, cost and time estimation, project planning. It is meant to ensure the development team is 100% on the same page with the client and knows how things should operate so they could make it work from the technical standpoint in the fastest and most efficient way.
PWA discovery phase helps to save time and money
When the requirements are well-thought-out and documented, you can prevent possible misunderstandings and future confusion. It lays as the foundation for accurate time and cost estimations. Lack of proper discovery may lead to poor PWA documentation, which results in less effective planning, project management, poor time management and waste of resources.
Of course, it requires a perfect understanding of what the app should do to write accurate project documentation. Even if you have an ideal roadmap combined with the execution plan and from A to Z complete project documentation, however, things can get tricky at times and some small but very important details can slip away. The vendor should be agile and adapt to those circumstances.
Changes in the development process usually mean changes after the code is written, forcing developers to go back to their work, which may result in unwanted bugs.
That's why it's always a great idea to include a thorough QA testing process as a standard practice for any PWA project development. Proper testing practices could help find unwanted problems before going live and marketing the product, which will save you time on the delivery phase.
Progressive Web App design phase
Easy to use and good-looking design means a lot for a commercially successful Progressive Web App, the designer must take into account it's versatility and line up a good look across all screen sizes. If for the end-user, the app design isn't intuitive, it might cause confusion in the interface and be hard to work with, which will inevitably lead to frustration and search for a better solution on the competitor's side. UI/UX designers are here to prevent frustrations and make a satisfactory experience of your PWA product. The design must be engaging and completely user-friendly.
In Progressive Web App development, the design phase is predictable and doesn't take up too much time. As the product owner of your PWA project, you want to get the maximum out of the cooperation with your implementation team, you'll need to share details like:
- Who is your target audience, and what are their intentions?
- What are the major pain-points of the current version? (if one exists)
- Research data that can be used to leverage the project success
- Documents, desired look, recommendations of the needed PWA design
- Do you plan to involve end-users during the design process?
- Will end-users have any technological constraints we should know about?
- Who will ultimately be responsible for approving the design work?
All around the design phase takes 2-4 weeks. The duration mainly depends on the project size, communication availability, and decision making time in certain situations.
Summary:
How long to build a Progressive Web App?
A typical PWA project is going to take 16 weeks from start to finish:
- 4 weeks - discovery
- 3 weeks - design
- 3 weeks - revisions
- 3 weeks - early development
- 3 weeks - tweaking, adding additional functionality and bug fixing
It all really depends on the project specifics, but you get the idea.
Communication in PWA development
It's very important to share the same vision for the project between the client and the vendor/freelancer to avoid misunderstandings. Make sure to meet in person or at least get to know each other on a conference call. If you'd like to know something more about Progressive Web App development, ask us.