Hybrid VS Native App: Which is better for your business?

In this post, you’ll learn about the difference between Hybrid vs Native Application and the key advantages they both have. We will also immerse ourselves in the technologies used for hybrid and native development, so that you can pick up the most suitable for your project.

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Table of Contents

• Going deeper into mobile development. Hybrid vs Native apps in general
• Hybrid apps
• Native apps
• Hybrid vs Native apps
• Summary

Mobile apps are seen as one of the most versatile tools for businesses. They have become the modern norm for developing a connection with customers. It’s not only about software products but any other services like insurance, car sharing or merchandise distribution are bound to have mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Mobile apps allow businesses to have an up-to-date and simple experience for their users. Business is powered by continuous innovations, and for at least 6–7 years many companies have been using mobile applications. Some service providers, like Uber, which is one of the popular examples of hybrid apps, actually favor mobile applications over websites. This helps boost satisfaction by providing the ability to communicate directly with the customers. Customers get improved accessibility levels such as push notifications, new payment options, etc.

Mobile apps are critical tools for modern business, but requires investment in the development and maintenance. Businesses ultimately face the question “what’s better native or hybrid app?” We’ll find the response in this article, but we recommend changing the question to “what’s better for your company?” Hybrid and native apps have their strengths and disadvantages as well as different companies have different priorities, budget and time constraints, marketing strategies, and business. Not everybody will get the right response. Therefore either focusing development on hybrid or native apps could turn out to be the best approach for various companies.

GOING DEEPER INTO MOBILE DEVELOPMENT. HYBRID VS NATIVE APPS IN GENERAL

Once you make your decision, it’ll be nice to consider your company’s choices. Nonetheless, let us compare native apps to hybrid devices. Both methods work in certain situations. What’s the difference between native and hybrid apps?

The native app is either developed for Android or iOS, while the hybrid development process is focused on cross-platform functionality. That is, native apps are designed on programming languages that only a certain platform can support. Java, Kotlin typically use Android software technologies, and Objective-C, Swift-iOS.

Developers can use many web technologies including HTML, CSS, and Javascript platform for hybrid applications. In other words, they are more container-packed websites that mimic software behavior for each platform to work and look naturally. Developers manage one core application for all platforms. The biggest difference between native and hybrid apps is the creation process. And the best thing is that users most often ignore this distinction when using professionally designed applications.

When considering both native and hybrid apps pros and cons, developers will usually recommend the best solution to suit your needs. Native apps offer higher performance and better protection, but the development process will be longer. Additionally, each platform would have its own codebase, increasing money and time investment.

As for the hybrid application framework, versatility is the notable benefit that accelerates the development process and lowers costs. The slower performance is a small trade-off.

Comparing hybrid vs. native benefits of each approach is vivid and clear. Companies have the responsibility to explain their goals from the very beginning for the expected performance. Specialized applications have better protection because financial institutions including banks, insurance firms, etc. select them widely. They are able to spend more money on creating and maintaining the more costly mobile applications to protect their customers. Big corporations can also be interested in native apps because they can afford specific platform applications. Amazon and PayPal are examples of these applications.

A hybrid app design is more appealing to start-ups with minimal resources and content delivery. It will be a perfect approach for travel-related apps, product feedback, photos and customer ratings. The well-known examples of hybrid applications are Uber, Twitter, and Instagram. Native apps vs. hybrid apps alternatives didn’t generate competition, but created more incentives for businesses to offer the best services to their customers. In the next section, we’d like to give you more detailed information on the creation of native vs. hybrid mobile apps and their pros and cons.

HYBRID APPS

The mobile application is an important improvement step for your business. When you make the decision to create the hybrid application, you should learn its development process, check all the features and find out strengths and weaknesses. This application is originally regarded as a website that is put into the containers. Thus each hybrid application has to use specially designed APIs to reach the fundamental features as well as engage the third-party means for it. These applications operate a web view control in order to receive the full-screen HTML and JavaScript files leveraging the rendering engine of the built-in OS browsers.

Technologies used for hybrid applications development

As we have already mentioned, mobile development companies are working with a combination of technologies. There are three most popular frameworks for hybrid app development:

• React Native. Facebook has created this open-sourced technology for cross-platform compatibility. The simplified UIs have considerably increased performance specifically reloading. React Native is mostly utilized because of the short development time. The software engineers have access to ready-to-apply units, however, the framework might lack certain components. Both Facebook and the community regularly provide updates.
• Xamarin. The open framework is strongly supported and maintained by Microsoft. They have recently offered the new development approach that enables the availability of the code across platforms. It has helped improve development speed and simplify maintenance. The developers can use the logic in common, however, the UI regulations will stay specific for each platform. Xamarin will not deal with complicated graphics but is suitable for simple apps. This technology is usually chosen for business-directed projects.
• Ionic. This framework produces mobile applications with standard web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Angular, etc. The developers also have a lot of accessible UI components which are simple to deal with. Developing time is as great as with all other frameworks for hybrid app examples. In spite of all the benefits, the maintenance might be more difficult. Ionic grants lots of plugins, so when the issue comes out, it may demand extra manual adjustments.

While comparing native apps vs hybrid apps, you should definitely find all development process pros and cons. All mentioned above technologies characterized by the following peculiarities:

Advantages of Hybrid apps development

• Single code base — This is the advantage that causes all the following benefits. Hybrid apps are preferred by companies and developers as they can perform on both platforms. There will be no need for building two separate codes for iOS and Android by reason of the code common functionality.
• Lower cost. The company can make huge savings by developing one mobile application while addressing users on different platforms. You have the necessity to hire one team with some expertise in both but only good expertise in web development would be enough. Your expenses will be almost the same as building only one that is designed to run everywhere.
• Simpler to build and test — The team will reach the expected result faster. They don’t deal with each platform separately. The code is created once and testing time is also going to be reduced.
• Easier to maintain — All required changes and updates will be maintained simultaneously on both platforms. It is not only convenient for the developers for the users as well. A lot of issues are possible to fix from the server side, and the user will just get the updates automatically.
• Faster delivery time — As we mentioned above you don’t need to have two iOS and Android teams or large cross-functional team, you just need to find one relatively small team of professionals. They can create a cleverly marketed product that will be interesting for different users. The hybrid applications have recommended themselves as content-oriented.

Disadvantages of Hybrid apps development

• Bounded efficiency — Hybrid app framework depends on plugins to be connected with the device features. Sometimes developers have to create them manually to approach the particular function of the device.
• Internet connection — As for hybrid vs native app efficiency, there is one significant difference. Hybrid app framework requires a regular internet connection. Some functions won’t be available when the user lacks connection.

NATIVE APPS

In consideration of native vs hybrid mobile app development, we should remember the important feature of native applications. They are built specifically for only one platform, thus the applied technologies will differ. In order to handle the development of Android mobile apps, the engineers can apply Java or Kotlin, Swift or Objective-C will be needed for iOS development. Companies that usually choose this approach have the necessity to build two applications simultaneously. It is clear that the engineering process is longer and requires more efforts. But the final result is going to balance it. The customers are able to have a more responsive and faster experience. The better performance is the advantage for complicated mobile applications dealing with animation and rendering. Moreover, data security is another beneficial feature. As we are looking for the difference between native and hybrid app, let’s check the possible frameworks.

Technologies for iOS development

• Objective-C — This programming language is known for great development experience, available libraries and a vast pool of experts. Objective-C is a mature framework, which also obtains compatibility with other programming technologies. Despite those benefits, we realize that new languages appear and sometime it will not have the ability to support all the latest features.
• Swift. It is a relatively new programming framework introduced by Apple that has become the alternative for building the iOS native applications. The developers have pointed out its quicker performance and it is easier to learn and work with. It is constantly developing that’s why may lack some components. However, it is said that might replace Objective-C in the future.

Technologies for Android development

• Java. The programing language that is not only primarily used for Android mobile applications but other purposes. Much of desktop and web development is based on Java. It has become a special system of tools, the developers have access to a powerful library. It helps to simplify the overall programming process. However, applications on Java require more memory and perform slower compared to other frameworks.
• Kotlin — is a programming language specifically developed to work with Java and Java Virtual Machine. Because of that, its usage is supported and approved by Google for the development of Android applications. One of the main advantages of Kotlin over regular Java is that its type interface allows working suing shorter syntax. This fact which reduces the time for the programming needed to make an application for Android. Now it is included as an alternative to the standard Java compiler for the Android Studio. Expedia, Square, Pinterest, and Flipboard can be named among the most demonstrative examples of the companies who use Kotlin for their Android applications.

As for the advantages of native apps over hybrid apps, those can be summarized in a few simple points:

Advantages of native apps development

• Better performance — When we analyze hybrid vs native app performance, it is clear that the native applications will be faster. They are built with the framework that is native to the platform.
• Data protection — It is much easier to make the native application secure. That is the advantage that a lot of companies are interested in providing for their customers especially in the enterprise sector, fintech, and applications with sensitive data.
• Overall functionality — The application will have the important ability to connect the device hardware features and different databases. There is no need for plugins or extra tools.
• Customer experience — They will definitely have high performance. In addition, they can work in offline mode, which is still an issue for the hybrid app examples.
• Comprehension — The developers are already aware of all strengths and weaknesses of using well-established technologies. They will help to find the right approach for receiving final desirable results.

Disadvantages of native apps

Be attentive checking the list of disadvantages of native apps development, it might depend on the chosen platform as well.

• Time and money-consuming — It definitely requires time to build complex software. Distribution of users across two main platforms doubles the amount of work and testing needed to keep two separate application for both iOS and Android up and running.
• Distributed codebase — having some features unavailable for iOS or Android is an infamous practice which has its place even in 2019. This happens due to limitations in budget or restrictions of the platform. Sometimes, application in the App Store can be abandoned for years while Android version receives regular updates and vice versa. In opposite, the hybrid application encourages developers to approach UI and features in a more thoughtful manner and introduce only features that can work on both operational systems.

HYBRID VS NATIVE APPS

When we have already checked all the pros and cons of the development process, you can notice the core difference between native and hybrid app. Native app is two completely different pieces of software designed for either the Android or iOS platform, while hybrid ones are the same software working on both platforms with minor tweaks. This significant difference precedes the list of following criteria.

The companies need to set exact goals that are interested in. The hybrid vs native app choice will influence the final results. However there is not one perfect match, everything depends on the project. Therefore each kind of mobile apps will be perfect for different cases.

First of all, determine your audience and what services you are going to provide. If the application is content-oriented, the hybrid app framework will be a reasonable choice. When your company is a financial institution, it is better to choose the native application due to its better security.

Secondly, draw up your budget, hybrid app examples will be less money and time-consuming. You don’t need to have two separate Android and iOS teams working on two different applications. One experienced team can create a hybrid mobile app that will work properly via both platforms.

As for maintenance, it might be also easier to manage one mobile app rather than two of them at the same time.

Finally, all companies are oriented for the best user experience. Most of the time, the customers will not notice the difference between native and hybrid app experience. Both variants are constantly improving with new features and technologies. Native app examples might perform a little bit faster as they are originally created for a certain platform. However, a hybrid app framework is often chosen for its versatility. Consequently, there won’t be one correct answer to the question “which is better native or hybrid app?”, your company will need to be oriented by own principal criteria.

SUMMARY

We hope that this article has helped you find the difference between a native and hybrid app and making the right choice will be easier for you. Each type has benefits that are essential for certain projects. Moreover, you can choose the technology you prefer considering your development capabilities. Taking into account all these criteria, we can make the conclusion that each approach fits some specific case. Your task will be to outline own most important criteria and don’t forget to consult the professionals. This is the best way to choose as every qualified team of developers listens to you first and only later can advise the solution.