Why We Chose a PWA Over Native Apps at OneCap

When rebuilding OneCap, one of the biggest decisions we faced was whether to invest in native mobile apps or build a Progressive Web App (PWA).

At first glance, native apps seem like the obvious choice — better performance, deeper platform integration and stronger user trust. But after evaluating our constraints and goals, we made a different decision.

The Constraints

We were building for a diverse user base with varying device capabilities and network conditions. Development resources were limited, and speed to market was critical.

• Limited engineering resources
• Need for fast iteration
• Broad device compatibility
• Cost constraints

Why PWA Made Sense

A PWA allowed us to ship a single codebase while still delivering a near-native experience across devices.

• Installable on mobile without app stores
• Offline support and caching
• Faster development cycles
• Lower maintenance overhead

Performance Considerations

Performance was a major concern. We mitigated this by implementing aggressive caching strategies, optimising API responses and ensuring efficient rendering on the frontend.

The result was a significantly improved user experience, especially in low-network environments.

The Outcome

Choosing a PWA enabled us to reach more users faster while keeping development costs manageable. It also allowed us to iterate quickly on product features like gamified savings and wallet interactions.

While native apps still have their place, for our use case, a PWA provided the right balance between performance, accessibility and scalability.