Weighing up The Decision Between SSR or CSR In A PWA This post is on the subject of progressive web app development (PWA). More specifically, we’ll take a closer look at the implications of the choice between server-side rendering (SSR) and client-side rendering (CSR) when developing PWAs. An SSR vs CSR face-off. But of course, it’s not as clean-cut as one of either CSR or SSR being inately superior to the other. The optimal choice in the context of a specific Progressive Web App, will come down to a combination of the specifics of the technical use case and strategic priorities. For example, CSR will most often be the choice for a PWA serving dynamic content. The perfect example is Facebook, where the page refreshes itself with new data automatically. Of course, it was Facebook’s release of the React library that popularised a CSR approach to applications by making it more technologically accessible. An app serving static content, on the other hand, would traditionally opt for SSR. One of the main arguments for why (though CSR is making significant strides in that direction and muddying the waters here which we’ll explore in more detail later), is that SSR has traditionally been the better choice in the context of search engine optimisation (SEO) because SSR pages are more accessible to search engine bots and crawlers. But let’s take a look at the finer details of the SSR vs. CSR choince in the context of PWAs. We’ll start with a quick look at progressive web apps more generally, what they are and their advantages. Then move on to the technical details of both server-side and client-side rendering, and their strengths and weaknesses in different contexts. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) vs. Traditional Web Apps A simple development process, instant user interaction, the ability to work in autonomous mode. Yeah, that’s all about PWAs, whose benefits for modern business processes are hard to deny. Users can switch to progressive applications from links in social networks, while browsing web pages, or directly from search results. The proposal to install a progressive application is shown only when the web application meets certain criteria. App installation is instant. All components that require a long download have already been installed into the cache when the user first visited the website. On the back of total installation of conventional (native) web applications, PWAs gain traction by acting in a smarter way compared to their ancestors, whose go-go days are gone.



US app downloads, Nomura research

We hope you realize how much we love to work with PWAs. And in this article, we’d like to help you migrate your website to PWA and show how you can do that in the most seamless way, according to the opinion of K&C developers. Should Server-Side Rendering Be Your Choice?