The PWA home page is the URL the app opens when launched from the user's home-screen icon. Choose well — it's the first thing the user sees on every cold start.
Why It's Different from Your Web Home Page
The browser home page (the URL someone hits when they type in your domain) is typically a marketing landing page — “Sign up”, “Pricing”, “Features”. The PWA home page assumes the user is signed in and ready to work; routing them through marketing is a friction step that doesn't make sense for the installed-app experience.
Recommended Patterns
- SaaS apps:
/dashboardor/home— the user's primary workspace. - Field-service apps:
/jobs/today— the technician's task list. - Marketplace seller app:
/seller/inbox— buyer messages first. - Member portal:
/account— their profile and recent activity.
If Not Signed In
If the PWA opens and the user isn't authenticated (session expired, fresh install), the start URL redirects to the login page, which after sign-in bounces the user back to the start URL. The result: a seamless return to where they expected to be.
Worked Examples
- CRM SaaS: Start URL
/leads/my— the “my pipeline” page. - Healthcare: Start URL
/today— today's patients and appointments. - Internal ops: Start URL
/queue— the current operational queue. - Education: Start URL
/courses— student's enrolled courses.
Tip: Test from a freshly-installed PWA on a real device. Some routing edge cases (deep links, role-based redirects) only show up in PWA mode where the browser back button can behave differently.