The days of Web 1.0 are long gone, and websites are no longer static pages with limited interactivity. Nowadays, you can access cloud servers to interact with apps and services without downloading them to your computer. With the ubiquity of web apps, I find myself using them for most of my software needs — from word processing to design and communication. Over time, however, these are the reasons why I've come to prefer using web apps over Windows app alternatives.

4 It saves space on my computer

No more apps hogging my storage

While I have multiple storage drives for my PC, I'm a bit of a digital hoarder. This means that I've managed to fill up multiple 1TB drives with games, old media files, and documents I keep because I'm worried that I may need them later. While I take steps to free up storage on my Windows 11 computer, I often end up needing to free up space again a few weeks later.

With web apps, I don't have to download and install separate apps. Rather, I interact with the software through my browser, saving my files to the cloud, keeping everything off-board. While Word now allows you to use an online web app, Google's early presence in this space with Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive is part of why I switched over to it in the first place.

Microsoft Word still requires you to download the app to access all of its features — and that comes along with a subscription price. But with a platform like Docs, I can create and store my files in the cloud without having to set aside any space on my computer.

3 Web apps sync across devices

Switching between devices is simpler

When you use a dedicated Windows app, files are usually saved locally. This means that when you switch between devices, you need to manually copy over your saved files or use a cloud storage service. Since I often switch between my laptop and desktop, web apps make keeping my files synced across devices easier since they rely on cloud storage by default. I don't want to get out a USB drive or remember to upload a file to OneDrive or Google Drive every time I switch between devices, so using a web app simplifies things. I can even access these files using my phone.

All I need to do is log in with the same account, and all my files are immediately available without the hassle of remembering what to back up. All my designs are available through Canva, my documents are accessible on Google Docs, and my various Slack groups are available online without downloading a separate app.

While some Windows apps will sync with your account, like Spotify, my login details are stored in my browser, which makes it quicker and easier to use the web player across all my computers.

2 I'm trying to keep my system streamlined

Not everything requires a dedicated Windows app

Plenty of websites and web apps have introduced dedicated Windows apps when the need just doesn't seem to be there. Sometimes, desktop apps include extra functionality, but other times, they feel completely unnecessary. I already have plenty of apps vying for startup permissions, and I don't want to add more. While you can adjust which apps start up with Windows 11, there's no point in having apps installed that you never use.

In trying to keep my cluttered drives a bit more streamlined, I only download Windows apps when there isn't an online alternative. Regarding streaming services like Spotify, I'll always opt for the website over the Windows app. For WhatsApp, I use WhatsApp Web instead of WhatsApp Desktop. This means fewer programs I need to manage on my desktop and fewer installs across devices.

With web apps, I have to manage tabs in Chrome. Since Chrome remembers which tabs I had open when I last exited, I can access all my web apps quickly when I open the browser.

Rather than starting up multiple apps individually, I can use Chrome bookmarks and tabs to easily manage my web apps. If I used Windows apps, I would either need to grant permissions for these apps to start when I turn my computer on (slowing down my startup speed) or use my taskbar to pin my most-used apps for easy access. But with web apps, I open Chrome, and everything is ready.

1 I can manage background processes more effectively

This gives my RAM some breathing room

While Chrome can be somewhat of a resource hog, I find it easier to shut down a problematic tab than to sort through background processes on Windows. That said, I don't actually find web apps demand much of my system, with slow internet being the biggest hurdle to these apps working well.

Dedicated Windows apps, however, may download or act in the background without you knowing. For example, without having Adobe Acrobat open, its update and collaboration clients run on my PC. It can also be difficult to tell which processes must run, versus those that are simply bloatware. I already have dozens of processes running that are related to my computer peripherals or the games I play — I'd prefer not to have additional unnecessary processes running to lower the CPU usage on my PC.

With web apps, everything is confined to one tab, and I don't have to worry about creating more system bloat.

Web apps bring so much convenience to computing

While there may be benefits to using dedicated Windows apps, these often aren't enough to draw me away from their web app alternatives. For platforms like Canva, the web-first approach perfectly suits my workflow. Google Docs became my document platform of choice when Microsoft moved to its subscription model for Office. And while Slack tries to get me to download its Windows app, I'll happily ignore the prompt and open it in my browser instead. My system storage and file management are better off for it.