What a PWA actually gives you
A PWA is your website plus an install prompt, offline caching, and sometimes push. It avoids app stores entirely: no review, no 30 percent cut, no per-platform builds. For a small business that only wants a better mobile version of its site, that is a genuinely good answer and often the cheapest one.
The install experience is the catch. iOS Safari still does not surface PWA installs the way Android Chrome does, and a home-screen shortcut is not an app icon with a badge, a notification permission prompt, or a place in the app library. Users who do not understand what they just installed mostly do not come back.
What a native app gives you that a PWA cannot
Native apps get the things users have learned to expect from 'an app': a real install from a store they trust, reliable push notifications that survive the browser, background behavior, and a presence in the same place they browse other apps. They also get the trust signal of a store listing with reviews.
The cost is the pipeline. Two platforms, two signing systems, store accounts and fees, review cycles. That is the real reason small businesses skip native, and it is the part a good builder exists to remove.
The honest 2026 recommendation
If your users are mostly returning visitors who already have your site open, a PWA may be enough and you should keep your money. If you want push notifications that reliably arrive, a store presence, or any kind of installed-app relationship, native is the answer and the pipeline is the only real obstacle.
The middle path is what Tapbound exists for: your site becomes a real native app, built and signed for both stores, while the content stays your website so there is no second thing to maintain.