The Best Web Architectures for Your Business App
Modern businesses cannot do without effective mobile app solutions. Now that almost 65 percent of your potential customers are using mobile apps to book flights, order food, request a ride, and make purchases, you simply cannot afford lagging behind in the fierce competition era. It’s about time you started exploring various options and looking for professionals that will help you pick the most efficient web architecture for your app. Make sure to familiarize yourself with today’s article that’s concerned with web application architecture best practices and web architecture types to figure out what web app is the best bet for you.
What is Web Architecture?
Web architecture ensures the interaction between the application components and the logic between clients and servers. Let’s take a closer look at this logic.
When a user hits a specific URL in their browser, the browser immediately contacts a web server hosting a particular page. The server responds within seconds and grants the user the access to the requested page. Each web app consists of two parts. The first one is the client side, also known as frontend. In simple words, it is everything a user sees on their screen when interacting with a web page. The second is a server side, or backend. Exactly this part, which is not visible to users, creates the logic to the app and responds to HTTP requests.
Web App Architecture Types and Their Business Benefits
So, what are the types of web architecture and how you can choose the right one for your specific business project? Let’s find out.
Server-side HTML web apps
The first type is Web 1.0, also known as a server-side HTML web app. The serves generates HTML content and sends it to the client as a full-fledged HTML page. To see the update, a user needs to completely reload the page so that client can send the request to the server and load its entire code once again. The main advantage of this approach is high development speed, since everything is developed all at once. It usually requires hiring a full-stack developer capable of managing both the frontend and backend sides. With this type, you can choose any server language and frameworks to suit your project’s specific needs. Such apps also tend to be more secure as all the logic and data are stored on the server side and the user cannot access it at will. Among the disadvantages is poor usability: the user has to wait until the page reloads completely even if only a part of the page needs to be reloaded. This type of architecture is more commonly used for developing static websites that consist of ready-made pages (fonts, JS, graphics, HTML). So, if you need an economical website for your business that will boast increased page speed and resistance to burglary, the service-side HTML web app will be the best bet for you.
Widget-based apps
The second type worth mentioning is widget-based web app. The difference between this and the first type is that the web page displayed in a browser consists of widgets, functionally independent units. By sending AJAX queries to the servers, data is uploaded to those widgets and transforms into content without reloading the entire page. This type is more dynamic and highly responsive. But since a page represents a set of widgets, the applicable UI templates in the web app are limited by the chosen framework. This type of architecture requires longer development time and is less secure, as part of the logic is shifted to the client JavaScript, which can be modified by an intruder. That being said, the architecture in question can be effective in developing business apps for active smartphone users, which have already surpassed 3 billion as of the beginning of 2020. Widget app will help your customers engage with your app. They are lightweight, easy to manage, and unobtrusive. And this is what your ecommerce business may need.
Single-page apps
The third type is a service-oriented single-page web app architecture, or Web 2.0. In this case, the page is downloaded from the server and has a JavaScript layer that can freely communicate with web services on the server and make real-time updates to itself. Thus, the projects and services are actively developed and improved by users themselves. Nowadays, various blogs, wikis, and social media heavily rely on this type of architecture for operation. As you might guess, a single-page app web logic is on the client side. There is no content generation on the server, which is why such apps are more vulnerable to cyber attacks from the security viewpoint. But despite that, this type of app is very agile and responsive, as the volume of data transferred for updates is minimal. Moreover, it’s lightweight, which allows transforming your business app into the mobile version.
Progressive web apps
The latest trend in web architecture is progressive web apps. What distinguishes this type of app from others is its ability to work offline by using the data cached during the last online interaction. Progressive apps allow you to send push notifications that keep customers interested and engaged. Moreover, progressive web apps combine the efficiency of a website and the convenience and visual appeal intrinsic to mobile apps, which helps to enhance the user experience and increase customers’ satisfaction.
What’s more, you can drive more traffic to your website, increase your conversion rate, and page views while decreasing the bounce rate compared to traditional mobile websites.