A User State Management Service (USMS) stores, in a backend database, the progress of a workflow of a web-based application, and the state of the attributes in the webpages of the workflow. When the workflow is interrupted and resumed at a later time, the application can receive from the USMS the progress step where it was last in and the states and/or values of the attributes and repopulate the states and/or values of the attributes. The data are stored in a database can be configured using optimized organizations and can be device-independent, and the USMS can work persistently across different platforms and devices. The USMS can be a service, for example, software provided at a server, or servers, over the web or the cloud. The USMS can include an application interface which can improve performance and provide device and browser independence and scalability.