Multi-Page Vs. Single-Page App- Which Is Better For Your Business?

Presently, old desktop applications are like a ship lost on the horizon with the emergence of web applications. The WEB APPS are doing everything that successful businesses require- attract the right visitor, make navigation through the app seamless, and are easy to use and update. Not to mention, design responsiveness for all screen sizes makes them a perfect fit.

Every web app development company aims at delivering a WOW experience with great web app design to gain a wow response from the users in place of Yes or No. There are two design patterns- multiple-page applications and single-page applications that are leveraged at scale as a part of moving from browser-based to mobile-based web applications.

Selecting the right design model is all-imperative for businesses to increase user outreach and maximize conversion rate as both models have their pros and cons. In this blog, we will dig deeper to know which model is good to go ahead with the differences between the two models.

Before we understand the differences between the two models- single-page app and multi-page app to identify the best for business web app needs, let’s understand the two models in a nutshell.

A brief overview of a single-page application

Single-page applications are web apps that download all the content inside a browser and eliminate the need to reload the web app repetitively as the user browses other web pages. The single-page web apps fairly imitate the browser environment with no reloads required, thereby delivering the best user experience.

Gmail is the best instance of the single-page web application that remains open in the browser as the users explore Gmail theme options, and settings, or go through emails. No, reload occur when users visit different pages. JS technology enables loading the whole content in one web page with JS frameworks that allow single-page applications to request data and markup, and then send the page straight to the browser.

A brief overview of a multi-page application

Multiple-page applications are just like other websites and web applications on the internet that reloads every time the users move back and forth from one page to another. It involves requesting data to and from the server for the loading of a web page in the browser.

When you want large-sized web apps where various products/services are sold, it requires a unique design for every page that renders the best experiences to the users.

One-to-one comparison between single-page applications and multi-page application

Single-page app Vs. the multi-page app is a tough battle that makes it difficult to identify which one is better. Weighing the pros and cons of both types of app development models helps in knowing which model fits your business app project needs well. Let’s dive in!

Development time

The SPA development is simplified as it eliminates the need to write programs to render pages on the server. However, designing SPA takes time. Complex SPAs like- Facebook requires a lot of effort and time to make the UI simple and user-ambient. Also, SPA development involves using new JS frameworks about which developers need to learn. Thereby development time gets extended.

MPA development is complex and requires web developers to write code to request pages to and from the server. It also involves using different frameworks for building frontend and backend separately elongates the web app development time. Using flutter for web development reduces the web development time so you can consider the programming language.

Result: There’s a tie between the two development approaches.

Performance

Progressive web apps are highly preferred by businesses due to website responsiveness and the high performance they render. Let’s see how SPA and MPA perform.

SPA loads the app resources such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML at once when the web app is loaded. Also, during page reloading, only those pieces of data that users want to access are loaded which improves the app performance by a large fraction. Even if the SPA has a lot of graphics design, it loads at speed because the complete content including images loaded at once.

On the contrary, MPAs reload the whole website pages when the user wants to access data that stretches the time required to fetch data from the server and send it back to the users. Thereby the MPAs lag in the performance war with SPAs

Result: SPAs perform better than MPAs.

Mobile-friendliness

Around 60% of website traffic is generated by people using mobile devices. The prevailing traffic signals that complement web apps with mobile app development take the business to the next level. The frameworks leveraged for SPA development facilitate mobile app development effortlessly with code reusability. The developers only need to optimize the UI to make the app works seamlessly on all the device screens.

On the flip side, MPA code cannot be reused at scale the way it’s re-leveraged in the case of SPA. It means extending the web app with mobile app development requires rewriting a lot of programs to enable the mobile extension.

Result: SPAs are more mobile-friendly as opposed to MPAs.

High conversion rate

The SPA or MPA is built for increasing conversion rates. In the case of SPAs, they load at speed, are mobile-friendly, and fairly tell the brand story, which helps in attracting more visitors and retaining existing customers. In SPA, the user will get complete information (About us, Contacts, products, and reviews) about the brand on one page with simple scrolling. It results in improved engagement and higher user satisfaction.

On the other hand, MPAs have performance issues and are not so mobile-friendly. Also, the users need to visit different pages to gain information about the brand, and complex navigation with page reloads impacts conversion rates.

Result: SPAs bring high conversions as compared to MPAs.

SEO-optimized development

Single-page applications suffer from poor SEO concerns because search engine crawlers index the websites with contextual content well-placed on different pages. Well, server-side rendering is used to SEO-optimize the SPAs.

MPA is at an advantage as different pages are ranked based on keywords. So, the developers only need to optimize the web page using some keywords and proper meta tags. Thereby chances of indexing of MPAs are higher.

Result: MPAs have good SEO potential rather than SPAs.

Robust security

The reliance on JS dependencies is higher in SPAs which leads to bugs and interferes with the app functionalities. Also, code compilation is not done by JS which makes data accessible to fraudsters. Cross-site scripting is popular to write malicious JS scripts that enable frauds to manipulate the data.

Shielding the MPAs against security issues is difficult because large-sized apps with multiple pages have several endpoints where malware attacks are possible. Plus, web apps with numerous web pages are difficult to maintain and upgrade, which again makes security harder to maintain.

Result: There’s a tie.

Scalability

With business growth and changing market conditions, scaling web apps to keep up with users’ preferences and market trends is all-important.

SPAs are single-page applications wherein adding more content, features and visuals are a little trickier. It may create chaos or increases the loading time, which ultimately ruins the user experience. The scalability in SPAs is limited.

Multiple pages are created in MPAs for different purposes. Each page has unique content, features, and multimedia that can be scaled limitlessly. When the extensible web application is your business needs, go ahead with MPA development.

Result: MPAs are more scalable in comparison to SPAs.

Which is better for your business- a single-page or multi-page application?

MPAs Vs. SPAs- the tug of war remains a question for businesses. Neither SPA nor MPA is the best for every kind of web-based project. Here, a head-to-head comparison of MPA and SPA helps businesses understand which app they prioritize for business app.

For instance, if you want a dynamic platform to promote the product/service without any heavy data processing required, then SPA development is the best bet to place. MPA development is your game when you want to launch an SEO-optimized web app with high-end functionalities, a lot of graphics, and data-intensified tasks.

The explanation seems- making the decision is difficult, but it’s not true entirely. There’s a need for professional assistance from mobile app development consultants who can make the selection process easier. Get connected with the right team to make the choice right and get build an app that fits well business web app needs.

Hardik Shah

As the tech-savvy Project Manager at Prismetric, his admiration for app technology is boundless though!He writes widely researched articles about the app development methodologies, codes, technical project management skills, app trends, and technical events. Inventive mobile applications and Android app trends that inspire the maximum app users magnetize him deeply to offer his readers some remarkable articles.