Do you want to which is better: Magento Themes or PWA Storefront. Scroll down to the difference between them.
Progressive web applications are taking place over native apps. It has become an alternative approach to setting up an online store. This technology is not new anymore. Popular companies have already used it to stand out in the market. PWA themes are ready to give a stunning look to your storefront.
Magento has thousands of free and paid themes to give a unique look to your eCommerce store. But, Magento PWA Studio has introduced an alternative approach to creating the front-end of stores – the PWA storefront.
This article will illustrate the differences between the PWA storefront and the traditional Magento Themes. In the end, you will be about to decide which one is better: Magento themes or PWA Storefront.
Table of Contents
What is the Magento Theme?
Magento theme is a collection of templates, layouts, custom images, and icons that give a stunning appearance to your store. This Magento component comes with the Magento application.
A Magento 2 theme is built on top of the existing parent theme. Luma is the most popular theme that allows you to customize it to suit your taste and business objectives.
How does it work?
Magento themes come as composer packages or archives. You can install themes using composer. Archives can be installed directly to the Magento 2 filesystem using the command line.
- Blank – a bare-bones theme that is easy to customize.
- Luma – a fully responsive theme.
All Magento themes are built on only the parent theme. In the hierarchy, the top Magento theme is the Blank Magento theme, which comprises all the base files. Other templates use these files or can customize to get a unique look.
Magento themes are easy to find in the Magento marketplace and Themeforest. Both platforms have a collection of over 600 free and paid Magento themes.
What is PWA Storefront?
PWA storefront is an application powered by Magento commerce using PWA’s studio tools. This advanced web technology provides extensive features and performance enhancements.
How does it work?
PWA Storefront is an application that runs on the front end of the Magento stores. They are built on the Magento backend. But it works independently from the Magento. A middle-tier service layer separates this application shell from the headless Magento backend.
Unlike the Magento theme, PWA storefronts don’t inherit files from the parent theme. This progressive web application storefront is made of React modules that add different functionality. This custom-based PWA storefront is well-equipped with new features and technologies.
Magento Themes or PWA Storefront: Comparison Guide
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Ease to Install
Magento Themes: Merchants can install or uninstall Magento 2 themes to change the appearance. It doesn’t take much effort and time. Hence, store owners can create an engaging and user-friendly storefront for the customers.
PWA Storefront: The installation process is too technical for non-tech savvy merchants. It follows practicality and functionality over ease of use. You will need developer help to install a PWA storefront.
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Use of Components
Magento 2 Themes: It uses Magento UI components for the development. These standard UI elements include tablets, dialogs, and buttons. It makes the Magento theme development easier for developers.
PWA Studio Theme: It is made of React components. These modular pieces are used to create react applications, such as the Magento PWA storefront.
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Scalability and Flexibility
Magento themes are less flexible. Developers can change some files, but there is a restriction to making regular appearance changes. It leads to scalability issues.
PWA Storefronts: It follows the Headless architectures that decouple the Magento backend from the PWA storefronts. This decoupling system allows developers to make changes in the storefront. It provides flexibility in development and makes it a more scalable theme for emerging brands.
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Performance Quality
Magento 2 performance depends on the flexibility, but developers have little control and can’t do much customization. Even though you can optimize free and paid Magento themes to improve the performance. Unfortunately, you will not see any difference between the optimized and unoptimized.
PWA storefront is far better than the Magento theme. It uses GraphQL for its data modeling. Also, PWA themes adopt cutting-edge technologies that give them a modern and trendy look. PWA storefronts provide seamless shopping experiences thanks to their high performance. It loads fast, even when the shoppers’ connection is slow and unstable.
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Cost-effectiveness
Magento Themes: Merchants can choose any theme from a vast collection of free Magento 2 themes available in the Magento marketplace or Themeforest. Install any Magento themes to update all the visual features and performance enhancements with the installed theme.
PWA storefronts need to hire a dedicated team of developers. It costs you much more than installing a Magento 2 free theme. However, it doesn’t require much Magento-specific knowledge. Most developers are familiar with the tools and development process of the PWA storefront. That makes it affordable in the long run.
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Rich in Features
Magento Themes: They are functional yet traditional. They are not compatible with all the hardware. There is no guarantee that it functions well on browsers.
PWA storefronts make rival web applications to native mobile apps. PWA-powered websites offer features such as push notifications and location services and the ability to add an application to the home screen and use it offline.
Closing Words
PWA Storefront is still an emerging technology that may gain a big place in the tech market. Web apps have the potential to replace heavy native apps as they consume less storage and data on mobile phones.
Check out this article about the future of PWA and how it can benefit your business. Trying a Magento 2 PWA storefront is a package full of solutions and functions to take your business to a new height. Using PWA studio tools to create a Magento storefront will add value to your store.