Comparing Magento 2 PWA Solutions of Top 3 Providers
If you are considering converting your Magento website to Magento 2 PWA, then this article is perfectly fit for you. In this post, I will bring Progressive web app integration solutions from three Magento agencies, which are leading in this field: Scandi, Tigren, and Inchoo into comparison.
Why Magento 2 PWA?
Progressive web apps nowadays become so popular that all business owners will pay attention to because of its convenient and salient features.
Progressive web app as its name, it progressed because of its very fast page loading speed. It is a one-page app that loads only once and then only asks for data to fill in layout. Hence, decrease the bounce rate and increase session duration.
On one hand, PWA inherits all the feature of a native app-like icon in the home screen, offline mode, background sync despite PWA does not have to be installed. On the other hand, PWA is still a web having URLs then it is SEO-friendly which is very important to Magento online businesses.
Besides, PWAs are cross-platform apps which deduct the development cost and time for business owners.
Magento PWA Converting Services
Both Tigren & Inchoo’s PWA themes are based on Magento 2 PWA Studio, while Scandi PWA is only based on Magento and its API without using tools of Magento 2 PWA Studio.
After a week using and examining the PWA demos of three mentioned agencies, I realized that there are some similarities among their solutions:
- All themes are ready-to-use, with an end-to-end e-commerce flow and core Magento features
- You can either apply those themes to your store or customize the design & functionality as you want
- On average, a store needs 2-4 months to be converted to PWA with the help of those themes
Below is my detailed comparison among 3 PWA solutions in terms of features, speed, and service cost.
Available Features Comparison
Home page
On the smartphone:
The headers of all 3 Magento 2 PWA themes have store logo, hamburger menu, customer account & mini cart icon). The difference is that on Scandi theme, the search button is attached to the hamburger menu whereas, there is a separate search icon right on the header.
Regards the home page content, Scandi PWA theme shows only a list of banners. Meanwhile, Tigren and Inchoo’s themes display top banners, featured products block and footer.
In terms of the hamburger menu, Scandi PWA continues showing a lot of banners representing each category on the store. This is a good idea since the stores can add promotional ads to capture their users’ attention. In comparison, Tigren and Inchoo PWAs show an accordion menu.
On the desktop:
As you can see, the desktop and mobile versions of Inchoo PWA are totally the same.
For Scandi PWA, we see a little difference in the search bar on the desktop browser, which is merged with the hamburger menu on the mobile version.
On the other hand, there are a lot of clear differences between Tigren PWA desktop and mobile version. The hamburger menu is replaced by the horizontal menu, the search icon is replaced by the search bar and customer quick access is replaced by top links (My Account, My Wishlist, Compare, Sign In, Create an Account). In other words, it looks exactly like a normal Magento website on the desktop.
Category page
On the smartphone:
All 3 category pages provide the ability of sorting and filtering products.
Scandi PWA: It shows a list of products with product image, name, price, and available colors.
Tigren PWA: We see a different presentation of product list with product image, name, price, tax, and add to cart/ wishlist/ compare options. Also, there are category banner, view modes (list, grid), pager, and optional number of items per page.
Inchoo PWA: The layout is similar to that of Scandi but being added product rating, view modes and pager.
Another thing that I highly concern about is the filter menu on category pages. With big-size text and swatch, Scandi PWA seems to be more user-friendly. For Tigren filter menu, although it shows different types of filter, the font size is quite small. At first, I was impressed by Inchoo filter menu most due to multi-filter function, but then I was very disappointed knowing that it did not work, they just show it for fun?
On the desktop:
Product page
On the smartphone:
Scandi PWA: It’s very convenient with product image slider and color swatch (changing product image instantly when selecting a certain product color). Moreover, there are other product options (size), add to cart button, product description, more information, and recommended products.
Tigren PWA: Similar to Scandi PWA, it has a product image slider but you cannot just slide to see the next image. Besides the common things such as product name, price, description,… Tigren PWA has customer reviews section, stock status and add to wishilist/ compare and email options.
Inchoo PWA: It shares a lot of similarities to Tigren PWA with product description, customer reviews, and recommended products. However, it has social share options instead of add products to wishlist and comparison list. One thing that I’m not really interested in is product option dropdown. On Scandi and Tigren PWAs, we can simply need to click on the option (e.g.: red – color and S – size) before adding it to the shopping cart.
On the desktop:
Shopping cart
On the smartphone:
There are several differences among 3 shopping cart pages but not significant. The only thing that captures my attention is Coupon code that works only on Inchoo PWA demo.
On the desktop:
Checkout page
On the smartphone:
On the desktop:
Although the checkout flows of those 3 Progressive web app demos are quite different, all of them are as fast as I expected.
Scandi PWA:
Tigren PWA:
Inchoo PWA:
Customer Account
Scandi PWA: It brings me poor experience though the design is rather nice. The account only manages some basic account information and shipping address. I even cannot checkout after logging in my account.
Tigren PWA: It completely makes me comfortable because of its sufficient features (from account info., address book, my profile, my orders to wishlist). And more importantly, I can still checkout as usual after logging in my account.
Inchoo PWA: Similar to Tigren PWA, it provides quite a lot of features related to customer account such as account dashboard, account information, address book, and my orders. However, I cannot add products as well as proceed checkout after logging in my account. It’s even worse than Scandi PWA.
Page Loading Speed Comparison
I used the Lighthouse by Google to test these three demos’ performance, loading times, and accessibility; and here are the results:
Scandi PWA:
Tigren PWA:
Inchoo PWA:
As can be seen from the results, the best performance belongs to Tigren PWA with 87 points. The worst performance is Scandi with 52 points although accessibility, best practices, and SEO scored very good points.
However, I think that the “Speed index” by Lighthouse might not reflect the realities since for me, Inchoo PWA is a little faster than Tigren PWA.
Magento 2 PWA Integration Cost Comparison
Scandi PWA:
Scandi offers 3 packages ranging from EUR 25,000 to over EUR 75,000, which are Jump-start package (EUR 25,000-35,000), Advanced package (EUR 35,000-70,000) and Custom-tailored (EUR 75,000+). Besides, Scandi provides after-support service with the fixed fee of EUR 50 per working hour.
If you choose the Jump-start package, they will apply exactly what you see on demo to your site, plus minor theme adjustments (logo, color, font, button style,…). I don’t think that we will select this package since I need to customize the default PWA theme following my current design. Therefore, I’m only considering the two remaining options (advanced and custom).
Tigren PWA:
Different from Scandi, Tigren does not offer any packages. They asked me for detailed requirements (design – theme customization, existing extensions, and custom functions) to prepare a proposal for my specific needs.
At first, I just wanted to know their price range for comparison and asked them for a ballpark number. They gave me an affordable price range, from $5,000-15,000 and promised to send me a comprehensive proposal once all of my requirements are clear. Moreover, they could provide 3-6 months of free support after accomplishing the PWA integration process.
I will continue discussing with them to get an exact quote.
Inchoo PWA:
At the same time, I asked Inchoo for a rough estimate for my project. They offered $30,000-40,000 for Magento 2 PWA integration, including UX design and frontend work, and a solid codebase on my existing site.
Furthermore, they told me that their PWA demo was just a proof of concept rather than a solution. In other words, it’s not a full product but their “playground” to make sure they were on the same path as Magento’s official PWA Studio.
I feel quite confused and probably move on with another company.
Final Thoughts
Tigren and Scandi gave me a pleasant feeling when discussing my PWA project. Each agency’s product has both strong and weak points, I will carefully consider before picking one of those agencies to convert my site to Magento 2 PWA.