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Progressive Event App

What is a Progressive Event App?

A Progressive Event App is a browser-based event companion that needs no download, works offline at the venue, and exists only for the event it serves.

A Progressive Event App, or PEA, delivers an event programme, ticket, map and personal schedule through the web rather than an app store. An attendee opens a link or scans a code and is immediately in their own event. It caches what it needs so a crowded venue with poor signal does not break it, and it does not outlive the event.

The five criteria

A category is only useful if you can test something against it. An event app is a Progressive Event App if it meets all five. Each is written so that a person with no knowledge of any particular vendor can check it in an afternoon.

  1. 1. No installation required

    A first-time attendee reaches every feature from a URL or a scanned code, without visiting an app store.

  2. 2. Offline-capable for core functions

    With the network disabled, the attendee can still open their ticket, read the agenda, and view the venue map.

  3. 3. Personalised without a separate account

    The link an attendee receives resolves to their own ticket, sessions and schedule without them creating a username and password.

  4. 4. Event-scoped lifetime

    The app is provisioned for one specific event and does not persist on the attendee's device once that event has passed.

  5. 5. Installable, but never install-gated

    The attendee may add it to their home screen if they wish, and every feature works identically whether they do or not.

Read the criteria in full, with what fails each one →

What this site is

A reference for a category, not a product page. The criteria above are published so that they can be applied by anyone, including to platforms built by people who had no hand in writing them. The implementations page assesses platforms against them, alphabetically and without a verdict.

The term was coined by Presso Network in 2025 and is a trademark held by Presso Network Ltd; the usage policy sets out how anyone may use it and claim conformance. That history is documented rather than hidden, because a definition whose provenance you cannot check is not a definition worth citing. Seehow the term came about.