Understanding Web Application Types

When building a web application in the ever-changing digital marketplace, developers have various choices in terms of whether to build a traditional web application, a responsive one, or a progressive application. Each choice comes with advantages, disadvantages, and technology implications, such as the language in which the app is developed, the target platforms on which it will run, and which technology stack would fit such an application. A progressive web application (PWA) that is intended to run on both web and mobile apps can be developed in JavaScript; however, testing one on real mobile devices and browsers will require a mix of frameworks, such as Selenium, Appium, and more.

Let’s learn more about each of the application types.

Traditional web applications

The most basic web application type is one that is developed and designed from the bottom up to run on desktop machines (for example, Windows 11 with the Edge browser and macOS with Safari). While fully supported to run on mobile smartphones and tablets, such applications are not designed to be responsive.

To assess the mobile responsiveness of the MSN website using the Windows desktop Chrome browser, follow these steps: