Magento PWA theme is considered the best solution to integrate Progressive Web App for Magento stores at present.
Two other solutions for building PWA for Magento websites are using extensions and Magento PWA Studio. These methods still encounter some certain weaknesses such as lack of features, boring storefronts,… so we do not recommend these options for PWA integration.
There are 2 types of PWA themes for Magento available on the market: free and premium.
The first option sounds tempting when it can offer the best solution without spending any money. However, can free things bring about such good results?
This post will work on finding whether free PWA themes can truly deliver the high-quality solution and work up to merchants’ expectations.
Let’s begin!
Pros
The most outstanding benefit of the free Progressive Web App theme for Magento is that merchants don’t need to consider the business budget.
It is also very easy to download and merchants can now use it up to their purpose.
The free Magento PWA templates are also customizable up to merchants’ requirements.
Cons
However, free things usually mean purchases in the future or poor-quality products.
Storefront design:
There are only a few options available.
One thing that so many people complain about the open-source Magento PWA site template is its poor design.
Plus, there is no separate design for different screen sizes. This fails to improve the site’s level of mobile-friendly and mobile users probably gain nothing from this site up-gradation.
However, Progressive Web App promises to satisfy both mobile and laptop users. Thus, the free Magento PWA website templates have missed this PWA requirement.
Poor default functions:
The new Progressive Web Application features integrated into free Magento PWA templates also show low and unstable performance.
Lack of Magento core features:
Some Magento functions might encounter the risk of vanishing after the free Magento PWA theme installation.
For customers who are familiar with the store before PWA integration and completed several orders before, this can negatively affect their shopping experience.
Incompatibility with Magento extensions:
It is not only the Magento core features that may disappear but the extensions can no longer work on the site after the Progressive Web App development.
This means merchants may have to hire agencies to recreate this function again which might require a lot of time and money.
No support from theme providers:
Because this theme is offered for free, merchants cannot expect any help from the theme providers.
Of course, firms can send an email with their concern on any problems arising from the theme to the provider but their reply may not help so much.
Code quality:
A sad thing to know that most open-source Magento Progressive Web App templates are not built based on Magento PWA Studio.
Coding conflict can happen and again firms need to spend money to hire developers to fix and wait. Because these are technical issues, they seem to be hard for business owners to do anything to help.
High associated costs:
Free themes are suitable for firms with in-house developers. Otherwise, merchants may have to pay a lot of money for developers to integrate the theme on the site, customize function and design for the store.
In the end, the total cost added up may be equal to or greater than the price of a premium Magento PWA theme.
Overall, we do not recommend firms to choose free Magento PWA templates as it just does not bring out the best result and may just waste too much time and effort.
For suggestions on a name for the top Magento Progressive Web App theme and template, we choose Tigren’s Magento PWA theme. It is provided at a reasonable price while delivering a lot of amazing features and options:
- A wide variety of storefront designs
- Multiple-extension compatibility
- Support of all Magento default features
- Free theme installation
Open Source Magento PWA Theme Is Not Advisable
Open-source Progressive Web App theme for Magento seems to be an unwise choice as its name “free” lures merchants into hoping to get the amazing PWA store with zero cost.
However, as we have analyzed above, this method faces several limitations and may end up costing more than the premium theme.
Thus, we suggest firms reconsider their decision and change to premium themes to save time, money, and effort as well as obtain the Magento PWA store that lives up to their expectations.
