Native VS Hybrid Mobile App Development: Which One To Choose

Native VS Hybrid Mobile App Development: Which One To Choose

One of the most important aspects of your business is your customers’ experience. When it comes to mobile apps, that’s the main factor. Contemporary people don’t go a day, even an hour without their mobile devices.

If an app doesn’t run smoothly, about 80% of users would use it no more than two times. This means that your app has one chance to catch their attention and it’s almost certain that you won’t get a second one.

The planning process of your mobile app is where all the important decisions are made. You need to choose whether you want a native app on the iOS or Android platform or you prefer a quickly developed hybrid application that can be released across all platforms. IOS app development and Android app development have their perks, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture

There has been a war going between Native and Hybrid applications. However, many people believe that it’s already over and most apps are already hybrid. Others just compare both strategies’ advantages and disadvantages.

To help you make your informed decision, in this article we are going to take a look at both approaches and the key differences between them.

It’s Time For Definitions

Native App Development

A native app is one specially designed for a mobile OS (usually iOS or Android). Of course, because of the native ecosystem and the fact that you have to follow the guidelines of the OS, these apps are often better to use and provide faster performance. The users can also navigate through the app easier.

Native applications are easy to access and they utilize the capabilities of the user’s device. The apps that come with your device, for example, are all native.

Hybrid App Development

Hybrid apps look pretty much like the native ones, but outside of the basic frame of an app, they are powered by a company’s website. Basically, this is a web app folded in a native container. They can be built for any platform from a single code base. An example of this kind of apps is social media apps.  

Now that we know we’re on the same page, in order to make the right decision, you need to understand the differences. Below we’re going to list some of them, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Advantages of Native App Development

The main advantage is that the Native code is faster than HTML and JavaScripts. This makes HD games, graphical applications, and intensive animation applications perform better as a native app.

They don’t depend much on open source libraries or platforms like Ionic. Native software development kits allow accessing device features without having to deal with the complexity of native plugins.

Native apps are faster, functionally rich and more attractive to the user. Full efficiency of hardware resources is required in order to protect your data. This is only possible for native apps.

They are very flexible and offer fast access to the device’s utilities. Everything that technology has to offer can be implemented.

Disadvantages of Native App Development

Hybrid apps can be used with many platforms but if you want your native app to be accessible for more than one platform, you will have to pay for multiplatform development which has a higher cost.

Native apps take longer to develop, compared to hybrid ones. Releasing the same feature on more than one platform at a time is usually challenging.

Advantages of Hybrid App Development

A single development team can deliver an app for any platform including website because all that is required in web technologies.

Some hybrid apps can be run on the browser like a website. They can have the same user experience across platforms, no matter of the device or browser.

Hybrid apps are faster to create and have a shorter time to market. They have lower needs for maintenance.

Disadvantages of Hybrid App Development

The main disadvantage is that a hybrid app can’t provide the same user experience as the native one. If you focus on one of the platforms the user experience would worsen for others. It’s difficult to maintain a proper one between platforms.

Hybrid apps don’t perform as well. In fact, Facebook moved its app to native, which indicates the difference. The extra layer from hybrid development frameworks makes debugging harder. Hybrid apps depend on libraries and frameworks like Cordova or Ionic.

Users won’t find an immediate difference between a hybrid and a native app as they are both distributed through app stores. If you want to make things faster and bring the app to consumers as soon as possible, while reaching almost all of them, then the hybrid application is your best choice.

Conclusion

You definitely need to be aware of the limitations that come with hybrid app development. As we mentioned above, the performance of the app and the user experience might be lacking.

Ultimately, it’s your mobile app strategy which will determine which way to go. Going native, however, comes with a certain kit of advantages which are hard to overlook.

In conclusion, the hybrid approach may save you time and money in the short term, but it can also result in additional costs later on. If you don’t really need your app on all platforms right away and you want to make the best of it, stick to native app development.

Both of the approaches have their pros and cons, however, when creating the first app for your business, the native one has bigger benefits. If you need any further clarifications or additional insights, don’t hesitate to get in touch! We at Swag Soft are here to help!