Mobile apps are becoming more popular as the number of mobile devices keeps going up. Ten years ago, only wealthy people had smartphones. Now, every other person has one and uses it for 5 hours a day. Companies often ask us for help when they want to make their mobile app. But the first question, “Are you interested to build a hybrid app or a native app?” knocks them out.
Today, let’s talk about what native and hybrid applications are, how they differ, and what your business will need.
What’s a Native app?
A native app is a type of software for a device’s operating system (OS), Android, iOS, or something else. Native apps use the hardware features of a particular OS, like the camera, GPS, voice recorder, etc. Also, native mobile apps can use device services like audio and video files, notifications, calendars, etc. The user can add push notifications, which are also supported if they want to.
The “trick” of native apps is that they can run games that use many resources, complex math calculations, and a lot of animation without crashing.
Native app pros:
• Easy to deploy;
• The app runs more smoothly;
• Doing a better job;
• Easy to change the user interface;
• Safe and trusty;
• Good features and a good user experience.
Native app’s downsides:
• Expensive development cost;
• Unique source code prohibits reuse;
• The cost of service going up;
• Compared to cross-platform, it takes a long time to make.
What’s a hybrid app?
A hybrid app is a regular mobile site “wrapped” in the browser that comes with the mobile OS and works as an app. A mobile-friendly version of a website is built into such an app. It can get push notifications and geolocation information from the operating system itself, and it can be shared through app stores.
A hybrid app is better for people who already have mobile-friendly websites and want to find out quickly if customers wish for a full-fledged mobile app. A hybrid app can be made with many different frameworks, but React Native and Flutter are the most popular ones. Using HTML5, CSS3, and JS, it is pretty easy to make hybrid apps for Android with its help.
Hybrid app’s pros:
• They cost less than native apps;
• Fast development;
• Built-in APIs;
• One codebase;
• Maintenance.
Hybrid app’s downsides:
• Connection limitations;
• There are limits on how the device can be used;
• Differences in platforms call for more improvements;
• The user experience (UX) is worse than in native apps;
• Less work done.
Native and Hybrid Applications Side by Side
Mobile development standards change every year, so we want to be honest with you about the pros and cons of each method so you can make an informed choice. We give you a comparison of native and hybrid apps based on several different criteria.
Get to the device’s features.
The hardware platform is fully accessible to native apps but not hybrid apps. So, if you want to use the camera, geolocation, or wireless data transfer, you should use a native application.
Offline work
You should choose the native app if you need it to work without an Internet connection. Hybrid applications need to be also connected to the Internet and have the browser cached.
Searchability
Hybrid apps are better at searching for content, but a hybrid and a native app will work if you want to explore the app’s content without being connected to the Internet.
User interface
And one of the main reasons why native app development is better than hybrid solutions is that the user interface in both the app and the mobile OS stays the same. A hybrid app’s visuals, graphics, and the interface can be as close as possible to those that come with the OS, but a native solution is still the best way to get the best match.
Summary
In the end, we want to answer the question, “What type of app should you choose for your business?”There are, of course, many good things about the native app. But hybrid apps also have their place. Many business apps don’t care about the phone’s processing power (the load is no higher than that of a browser) or the fact that it can’t connect to the Internet (to make an order in a mobile store, you need the Internet in any case).
So if you want to make a game app, you should use a native solution. The most important thing is to pick the right way to develop that suits your needs. You may build a native or a hybrid app using app builder like Builder.ai.
