Native App vs Hybrid App: Which technology to Adapt for Your Business?

As per a Statista report, it is estimated that mobile apps are projected to generate around 935 Billion US dollars with paid downloads and in-app advertising.

Also, it is seen that mobile users spend 87% of their total time in mobile apps.

Wondering why these numbers and images are here? This is to show you that if you are planning to invest in your business, you must consider mobile app development on priority. Now the question, Native app or Hybrid app? This is normal when you wish to develop a mobile app and both the technologies have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, you just cannot take a chance and have to be quite careful in choosing the best from the two.

Being a technology consultant and having experience of about 10+ years, I have helped many individuals in making the right decision when they have to choose from the native app and hybrid apps.

Let’s know the differences between Hybrid and Native apps and find out which technology is better for mobile app development.

Let’s begin:

Native app vs hybrid app: Basics

Native apps: These apps do not run in any browser. You have to download such apps from platform-specific app stores, namely Google’s Play Store and Apple’s app store. If you wish to develop an iOS application, you will have to use Objective-C or Swift as your programming language. Similarly, if you have to create an Android application, you will have to use Java or Kotlin as your programming language.

To explain to you in more simple terms, Native apps are applications developed for specific mobile Operating systems like Android or iOS.

Hybrid Apps: Hybrid apps are a combination of web apps and native apps. This simply means, they run on the device (like native apps) and are written with web technologies like Javascript, HTML, and CSS.

Enough of the basics, let’s dive deeper into the concept of Native app vs Hybrid app by discussing every parameter in detail:

#Native app vs Hybrid app 1: Performance

Native apps allow the coders to maximize their app performance since they are built with platform-specific programming languages.

Hybrid apps add a thin line between the source code & target platform which ultimately results in low performance. Consider the example of Facebook when Mark Zuckerberg regretted his decision to move away from Hybrid apps back in 2012.

Not everyone is not going to create an app like Facebook. Not all the apps require the same optimization as that of Facebook to run smoothly on mobile devices. However, Native apps win when it comes to the performance parameter and this is the reason you do not see much of the hybrid games today.

Winner: Native apps

#Native app vs Hybrid app 2: Customer Experience: As per MoBlog, customers are willing to pay more than 5 times for a great shopping experience than a poor one. This implies that customers do not care about the technology being used in mobile apps. All they wish to have is a great user experience themselves. However, just a working app is not enough for users. The app must also look and behave in a platform-specific way and must support the required features specific for the particular platform.

Although hybrid apps look and feel like native apps, they somewhere fail in providing a refined user experience like the Native apps. Hence, Native apps are one step ahead here. However, frameworks for mobile apps like Xamarin, NativeScript, Ionic, etc., are getting better with every passing day, hence simplifying the creation of native-like user experiences.

Winner: Native apps

#Native app vs Hybrid app 3: TIme

Since hybrid apps are built with the help of web technologies like CSS, HTML, Javascript, it is easier for them to go from a rough idea to a working prototype in much less time than platform-specific programming languages.

Hybrid apps can share a single codebase to run on multiple platforms, hence it again reduces the time to market. Hence, Hybrid apps win here.

Winner: Hybrid apps

#Native app vs Hybrid app 4: Development cost: Now this is the most important factor when you are developing a mobile app or looking to hire a hybrid/native app development company. When cost is the parameter, hybrid apps are a clear winner. As mentioned earlier, hybrid apps can share a single codebase on multiple platforms, they can be developed at a much lesser cost and cheaper than the native app development cost.

Let’s suppose, you wish to develop a Minimum Viable Product with a hybrid approach, you can get it done at an affordable amount of $35000 from a small enterprise based in India, but it will cost you around $50k to get a native app developed for iOS/Android platform.

Winner: Hybrid apps

Here’s a quick comparison of hybrid vs native apps for you to check out at a glance:

Which technology should you go for?

Considering all the factors mentioned above, it can be understood that you cannot choose one technology over the other for mobile app development. Both these technologies have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, it is essential to consider all these factors while choosing technology for app development:

• App requirements
• Functionality features
• The time required for app development
• Cost for app development
• Performance and speed

When to consider Native app development?

When your mobile app requires a lot of custom features with high performance and reliability, you must invest in the native app development. Suppose you wish to create an app for interactive games, here considering the native app solution is the best one.

When to consider Hybrid app development?

If you are looking for a cheaper and quick mobile app development, you must invest in the development of a hybrid app.

You must also remember that hybrid apps are more prone to bugs and issues as they arise from both native as well as hybrid systems. Hence, solving and maintenance of such issues will ultimately cost you more.

Finally, if you do not want to work with different codebases for every platform, you can choose to go with hybrid apps. So, in the end, it all depends on your budget and app requirements.

Final Words:

User experience and performance are the key parameters in a mobile app. Hence, it is always essential to consider the right approach in mobile app development. If you are a developer yourself, this part becomes easy for you. The problem arises when you are not from a technical background and need to invest in mobile app development for higher returns.

You can take help from a renowned and reputed mobile app development company for this task. Prepare a document stating your requirements and search for various companies online based on their past work experience and reviews provided by the customers. Explain to them your requirements properly.

Ask them whatever your doubts and ask them to explain to you the specific approach (native/hybrid) they will be used for mobile app development. Always hire a top app development company as per your budget and requirements as per the above-mentioned tips and you can never go wrong in the process.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comment box below. Also, please mention anything if you feel it is worth sharing and should be added here. We can discuss it further.

Hope this article helps. Thanks for reading.

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