The Actual Difference

Native apps run on the device. They access hardware — camera, GPS, push notifications, biometrics, offline storage. The UI renders through platform-native components, so scroll physics, keyboard behavior, and animations feel right. Users cannot always articulate why, but they notice.

Web apps run in the browser. Update the server and every user sees the change instantly. No App Store review. No build signing. But you lose push notifications, offline capability, and that native feel.

PWAs were supposed to bridge this gap. They did not. On iOS, PWA capabilities remain limited — restricted push notifications, no background processing, capped storage. In practice, a PWA feels like a website pretending to be an app.

The Decision Framework

This is not a "which is better" question. It is a business model question.

You need native if:

• Revenue depends on push notifications for retention
• Users expect to find you in the App Store
• You need camera, biometrics, or offline-first functionality
• Your monetization uses in-app subscriptions (Apple/Google take 15-30%, but the distribution is worth it)

Web works if:

• SEO-driven discovery is your primary acquisition channel
• You need instant deploys without store review cycles
• Your product is a content site, dashboard, or internal tool

What Most AI Builders Miss

This is where it gets interesting for anyone evaluating tools in 2026.

Most AI app builders — the ones with the impressive demo videos — only generate web apps. They output HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The 60-second "I built an app" video is a web app running in a browser tab.

If your product needs push notifications, App Store distribution, or native device features, those tools cannot get you there. The demo is real. The limitation is also real.

I chose native from the start because I was building things I planned to sell. That meant building things people would actually use daily on their phones. Web wrappers scroll wrong. The keyboard behaves differently. Animations miss platform conventions.

React Native with Expo gave me real native components on both platforms from a single TypeScript codebase. More setup upfront than a web app. But no compromises on what ships.