Not a day goes by when you don’t need to use a mobile app because like it or not, our world has become more mobile than it was a decade ago. With the growing market of mobile devices, most of the organizations are looking for ways to adopt and incorporate mobile apps in their business flow, to augment their market outreach.
But have you ever given it a thought on what goes into the development of a mobile app? Well, before going for app development, you have to decide upon the way in which you would like to create and deploy the app. During the preliminary research for the development of a mobile app, you might have faced the conundrum of choosing between hybrid vs native app.
Most organizations do not understand the difference between hybrid and native apps and hence, end up investing a lot more than they estimated in the first place. If you’re faced with the predicament of choosing between native and hybrid apps, we might be of help. Let us help you figure out what works best for your business.
Factors you need to consider before choosing
- Speed of development
- Whether you want to opt for in-house development
- Purpose of building the app
- Budget
- Features required
Hybrid apps
A hybrid app is a comparatively less complex program that is built using HTML 5, CSS and JavaScript and enveloped in a native container. The native container comprises of maximum information on the page as soon as the user navigates the application. There are plenty of native web frameworks available, which can help you build a hybrid app.
Benefits of using hybrid apps
- Speed of development is faster than native app
- Cross-platform UI which means you just need to build only one app for all the platforms – iOS, Android, and so on
- Less expensive app development is easy to maintain
- Integrates seamlessly with the device file system
- Single code management for multiple mobile platforms
- Hybrid app is based on web technologies; therefore, the same app can be run on browser like any other website or can be run as Progressive Web App(PWA)
Challenges of using hybrid apps
- For most applications, hybrid works as well as native apps but in the case of applications like 3D, HD games, high-graphic apps, native works best
- Hybrid app has access to all the native device features like touchId, media, and so on, but it is heavily dependent on native plugins
- Hybrid apps are dependent on different libraries and frameworks like Cordova, Ionic which have to coincide with the latest platform version changes and releases
Native apps
A native app has to be coded in a specific programming language for specific OS. Native apps are also developed using the specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the given operating systems.
Benefits of using native apps
- These apps are more responsive and fast since they’re developed for the specific platform
- They are more interactive, intuitive and operate smoothly in terms of user input and output
- Many native apps don’t require an internet connection and can be used offline as well as online
- Highly reliable
- Native apps provide better user experience because they are specifically designed for a single app store
- HD games, graphical applications work best on native apps because the native code is faster than HTML and JavaScript
- Less dependency on open source libraries and platforms like Cordova and Ionic
Challenges of using native apps
- Native apps may take months to develop because they have to be developed separately for each platform
- They’re expensive to develop
- A very specific skill set is needed to develop native apps
- Releasing the same features across platforms can be challenging because of a different code base
What does your business need?
While both Native and Hybrid apps have their own set of pros and cons, choosing one is up to the requirements of your business. Before embarking on an app development project, it is advisable that you talk to professional app developers, who are better equipped to bring your ideas to life. Need consultation? Get in touch with our app developers.
