Native vs Hybrid App Development – How Hybrid Wins the Game?

This article defines Native vs Hybrid App Development. Native Mobile Apps are created for a particular mobile platform, either iOS or Android, whereas the hybrid mobile app development process focuses on cross-platform functionality.

Once the time comes where you start to think of creating your own mobile app, you will quickly encounter words like Hybrid Apps, Native Apps and Progressive Web Apps. What are these terminologies, why do they matter and most importantly, how would you know the type of technology that should be adopted for your app idea? And how do you pick between Native vs Hybrid app development?

If you’re seeking an answer to such questions, this blog is for you. And let me make it clear, there is no straightforward answer to these questions. There are various aspects you need to consider including your budget, timeframe, feature list, target audience and so on. Here, we’ll discuss them all to give you a clear idea of what you should opt for – a Native App or a Hybrid App.

Before we dive into the details about the pros and cons of Hybrid and Native mobile apps and which one is the way to go for your business idea, you should know the most important aspect of mobile: it’s a very personal and important device for an individual.

People keep their mobile devices with them, almost all of the time. And when the device accompanies them throughout the day, it needs to be reliable and responsive. Hence, mobile phone users expect apps to provide them with an amazing user experience.

Please don’t just consider this as the final verdict, but it is true that hybrid apps aren’t capable of matching the astonishing user experience achieved by the best Native Apps.

However, the importance of user experience varies as per the nature of the mobile app. Apps like Evernote require the best possible user experience while ‘Marketwatch’ can settle with an okay experience.

The most important decision you will have to make regarding your app development approach is:

• Are you interested in astounding and enticing your customers by providing them with a Native mobile app that is tailored to their mobile platform (iOS or Android)?
• Or do you want to go with the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach and develop a hybrid mobile app that can be released very quickly for both platforms?

There are hundreds of articles out there debating the native vs hybrid app development topic. Some believe that the war is being won by Hybrid, as technologies released by the likes of Google and Facebook have made Hybrid Apps much more prominent in comparison to 10 years ago. Others support a more balanced approach, assessing the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), and use this to suggest the most appropriate technology stack.

This article will take you through the factors that get impacted when you take any of the approaches to mobile app development.

While talking about Native vs Hybrid App Development, you may find that both of the approaches have their pros and cons, as they both fit perfectly for specific circumstances. But, what are the differences between Hybrid and Native Apps?

Native Mobile Apps are created for a particular mobile platform, either iOS or Android, whereas the hybrid mobile app development process focuses on cross-platform functionality. Therefore the native apps are built on programming languages that are supported by a certain mobile platform. In most cases, Swift & Objective-C is applied for iOS and Java & Kotlin for Android.

The Hybrid App Development process makes use of several web technologies including HTML, CSS, and JS frameworks. In layman terms, hybrid apps are websites that emulate software behaviour for various mobile platforms to function in a natural manner. In the cross-platform mobile application development process, the developers write one core code that works for both the mobile platforms. This is why the development process is one of the key differentiators for native vs hybrid app development. And the best part is that users will, most probably, fail to see the difference if the apps are created professionally.

The pros of each approach are well-defined and clear. It is on the app owner to make the expectations clear before going into the development phase. The specialised native apps are more secure and therefore preferred by financial institutions like insurance companies and banks. These institutions are ready to pay a premium for development and maintenance as they have to provide security to their customers. Big companies have huge funds to invest in to provide their customers with astonishing user experience for both platforms. Amazon, Paypal is also among the examples for successful and popular Native apps.

The cross-platform mobile application development approach is more appealing for small-mid sized companies and startups. The native mobile app development approach is favourable for business cases associated with travel, goods review, customer rating, and photos as native mobile development methodologies can easily produce astonishing user experience and are easy to optimize for App Store rankings. The most popular hybrid apps are Instagram, UBER, and Twitter.

The choice of native vs hybrid mobile app development has not caused problems for businesses, but it actually has brought more opportunities for companies to select the approach that suits best their needs. In the next sections, we’ll discuss Hybrid and Native apps in more detail.

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