How to Choose Between Three Types of Mobile Apps for Your Business?

If you are looking for a way to quickly connect to your target audience, then a mobile application is perhaps the best of them. However, here you need to understand that not all types of businesses need a mobile application as such since there are other options to stay in touch.

But if you have made the final decision that you need an application, now you need to decide what type of online solution to create and how to choose from the three available ones. In this article, we invite you to analyze the features of a native, web, and hybrid application in the hope that this will help you make the right choice.

Web Application — a Solution That Will Work Anytime and Anywhere

Sounds good, isn’t it? In the case of a web application, you no longer need to take into account the requirements of the operating system, since the application will be launched through a browser.

Benefits

• This is the most popular technology to date, so you can assemble a development team very easily.
• Your users will always work with the latest version — unlike the native application, it will not require user approval to install updates.
• Web app development time and cost is minimal.

Disadvantages

• User features will be slightly curtailed. Opening the app in the browser makes the usage of camera or contacts limited.
• You should not expect too high power from this application, as well as support by all browsers without exception. In most cases, web applications are supported by the latest versions of the most popular browsers.
• You will have to come up with additional ways to promote your application because it cannot be accessed from the store, as is the case with the native application.

Web application is a good choice for internal ERP software or custom SaaS solutions.

Native Application — the Best Indicators with the Most Serious Investments

As the name implies, a native application is developed for a specific operating system or systems and is fully tailored to its characteristics. This makes native applications the most productive since the OS and the application are literally made for each other.

Benefits

• Best performance
• A user interface that is ideal for a specific platform.

Disadvantages

• Solid investment
• The need to create two separate applications (for Android and iOS in most cases).

Native app development is usually outsourced, and here are a few tips on how you can protect yourself and your idea from not reliable contractors

Hybrid Application — Like a Golden Middle

A hybrid application is a solution that is at the junction of the web and native. Each time a user of a certain OS opens a hybrid application, it is independently configured for the requirements of this particular system. In practice, this means the average performance in all — at the time of development, cost and total productivity.

Pros

• Lower price than a native application
• More performance than a web application

Cons

And here everything is by analogy.

• Less performance than a native application
• Higher price than a web application

When aiming to build an e-commerce application or found a new marketplace, you usually have to choose between the web and hybrid development. It is better to discuss this choice with your potential tech partner. A company with significant experience in the target niche will help you to choose the best fitting approach.

How to Make the Final Choice?

Obviously, this choice will not be easy, but the Clockwise team is ready to tell you the best solutions in each case. Analyze the comparison table by application type here. Plus, practical experience suggests that the web application is great for start-ups that have not yet attracted huge investments, a hybrid application is an excellent option for mid-range players, and the native application is suitable for large and serious companies that have already won user loyalty and now just want to support it.