Native Vs Hybrid App Development: Which One To Choose?

Planning to develop a mobile app for your business and taking it online is one of the most daunting tasks. There are a lot of things you need to consider for mobile app development.

But, as soon as you start researching for developing a mobile app, one of the primary things you come across is Native vs Hybrid App.

Most businesses across the globe find it challenging to choose between a native or hybrid app for their business.

We have been working in the mobile app development industry for a long time & have developed many native & hybrid apps for different industries across the globe. Hence, we know what is required to build native and hybrid apps.

In this blog, we will compare native vs hybrid apps in detail and help you choose the best one for your business.

But before that, let’s quickly understand the main difference between them.

What is the Main Difference Between a Hybrid and a Native App?

A native app is an application built particularly for a platform, either Android or iOS. A hybrid app is a platform-independent website packaged inside a native web view, a native component offered by platforms like Android & iOS.

Native apps are developed using different languages & tools. For instance, Android apps are mainly built using Java or Kotlin, while iOS apps are built using Objective-C or Swift. To know more, check out our blog on native app development.

Hybrid apps are built using a combination of native and web applications. To create hybrid apps, developers wrap programming languages HTML, CSS, and JavaScript inside the native apps. Developers can also use various hybrid frameworks like Xamarin, Ionic, and more to build hybrid apps.

After looking at the main difference between a native and hybrid app, we will compare native vs hybrid app development in detail.

Native vs Hybrid App Development: A Detailed Comparison

Here we have compared native and hybrid app development based on various essential factors.

App Performance

A native app is developed considering the platform-specific programming languages. Hence, developers focus on the contents, design, visual elements, and loading speed. Just like a website that downloads the entire website’s content at once, the native apps also fetch all the things and offer a consistent experience on a wide range of devices.

On the other hand, a hybrid app incorporates an extra layer between the source code and the mobile target platform, notably the hybrid mobile framework. Here, hybrid apps download the wrapper on the user’s phone, and almost all the data is loaded from the server.

Hybrid apps also need to manage server requests. Hence, it offers lower performance than a native app.

App Development Time & Cost

First of all, app development time & cost depends on a wide range of factors such as functionality, features, developer experience, app complexity, third-party integrations, etc.

To develop a native app for two platforms like Android & iOS, you have to target users separately. Here, you require two separate teams who create apps for both platforms. Hence, it requires more time & cost to build native applications.

While a hybrid app takes less time to develop than a native application as it allows developers to write a single code that works well on multiple platforms. Moreover, it reduces the app development costs.

The crucial reason the cost of hybrid app development is less is that it allows developers to use various models, frameworks, and components.

User Experience

User Experience is one of the most crucial factors behind the app’s success. Let us understand how creating a mobile app in a native or a hybrid platform impacts the user experience.

In a native app, a designer uses a specific platform-style guide (for ex Android or iOS) to design an app having specific controls, interactions, gestures, etc. Due to this, the app runs efficiently and smoothly.

While in a hybrid app, a designer uses one UI for both platforms (Android & iOS). Hence, even if a designer puts all effort into the app’s user experience, it will not function accurately, as the style guidelines of both platforms are different.

App Maintenance

For a native app, developers have to maintain a different codebase if they are developing apps for two platforms. Moreover, you need to hire two separate mobile app developers to maintain the apps accordingly.

However, in the case of the hybrid app, it requires less maintenance as compared to the native apps. Why? Because when you choose to go with a hybrid app, you need a single team of developers who will maintain a code base for multiple platforms.

Scalability

Native apps are highly scalable because developers can instantly find all the components, elements, third-party tools, etc., online.

Hybrid apps are built using hybrid frameworks, third-party tools, and components. A hybrid app is also scalable until resources are available online for the particular framework.

Internet Connection

In the case of native apps, the requirement for an internet connection depends on the type of app. Native apps that rely on various APIs need an internet connection. Besides this, users require an internet connection to update the app.

Native apps other than these work efficiently without any internet connection.

On the other side, hybrid apps require an internet connection because they are websites at the core. Also, their web part needs to be loaded every time a user accesses it. However, if an HTML file gets downloaded, the user can access the hybrid app in offline mode.

After understanding the comparison of native and hybrid app development, let us have a quick overview of native vs hybrid apps.

Native vs Hybrid App: A Quick Comparison

Conclusion