Hybrid vs Native Mobile App Development | What To Choose?

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From keypads to touch systems, cell phones have progressed a lot over the years. They have become a significant piece of modern business and trade. People spend about 50% of their time on digital media apps so, if you're looking forward to expanding your outreach, you need a mobile application.

Overhauling your brick and mortar business to the digital world can be a bit challenging but is of utmost importance if you want your business to flourish. 6/10 consumers expect a business to have an online presence to ensure their credibility. Investing in a mobile app development company increases the visibility of your brand, letting the users know about everything that you offer, and keeping your business at the forefront.

Around 3.5 billion people have smartphones around the world and majority of them spend an average amount of 3.7 hours per day glued to their cellular devices so, you have to make sure that your mobile application runs across all platforms seamlessly.

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HYBRID VS NATIVE APP DEVELOPMENT

Today's demanding market forces businesses to always be on their toes. You'd have to keep up with all the current market trends and adapt to the latest technologies to be able to increase your business' visibility, reach and clientele. Yet when businesses are set out to have their mobile application developed, they most often get jumbled up in the mumbo jumbo of IT jargons that feels too complicated to get caught up in but are extremely important for your app to be successful.

One of the most common issue people face when getting an app developed is deciding whether to get a native or hybrid app development. This article will be a brief guide regarding hybrid and native mobile app development platforms, their benefits and limitations.

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HYBRID APP DEVELOPMENT

A hybrid application combines the elements of native and web applications (application that doesn't need to be installed and can adapt to different browsers) with the help of web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, HTML, HTML5. Hybrid apps are web applications that are encapsulated in a native app wrap. They will provide separate web views for android and iOS platforms to offer a responsive and customized display to the user.

BENEFITS OF HYBRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

  • Cross-Platform Responsiveness

    Hybrid apps help in maintaining consistency across all devices. So, no matter the platform, hybrid apps will use a single codebase to provide cross-platform functionality.

  • Faster Development Time

    With a single codebase to work on, the developers can build apps faster. The quality assurance and testing process will also take lesser time.

  • Seamless Maintenance

    Maintenance costs of the apps often go unplanned but are essential to ensure that the app runs effectively and efficiently. App maintenance cost depends upon the size, complexity and functionality of an app. Well-maintained apps have many advantages – they'll load quicker, rank higher, allow more transactions, and run more smoothly. Developers will work on a single codebase which means they won’t have to work on separate platforms for maintenance and updates.

  • Low Development Cost

    Developing multiple apps for different operating systems costs you hefty maintenance and configuration costs, lesser productivity and not to mention a lot of time and money. Hybrid apps use a single codebase for both android and iOS that lowers the development costs a lot.

LIMITATIONS OF HYBRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

  • Hybrid apps require a stable internet connection to provide a full range of features.

  • Its architecture relies on plugins to access the built-in features of the device. In the case of outdated or unreliable plugins, the overall functionality of the app can suffer.

  • Hybrid apps can face platform inconsistencies since there may be features that are not supported in multiple platforms.

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NATIVE APP DEVELOPMENT

Native applications are platform-specific mobile applications that comply with the requirements of a particular operating system. Developers use SDKs (software development kits), a predetermined set of tools and IDEs (integrated development background) that allows the creation of an app for a specific OS easily. The two main types of operating systems are Android and iOS.

Android applications have open source ecosystems that allow an extensive range of functionalities and customizations. iOS lets you come across innovative business development prospects and helps in amplifying revenue through enterprise applications. It is widely chosen by SMEs and large enterprises because of its outstanding user experience, top-tier security, and unparalleled compatibility.

BENEFITS OF NATIVE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

  • Optimal Performance

    Native apps are developed and optimized keeping a specific platform in mind that ensures smoother performance and maximum responsiveness. The native toolset provides access to user’s location, camera and offline activity that helps the developers to optimize the app accordingly.

  • Security

    Native applications provide better security and because they follow platform-specific data compliance guidelines.

  • Interactive Displays

    Native apps follow separate UI/UX standards for building Android and iOS apps that ensure a natural and interactive application. They adhere to specific UI guidelines and standards that ensure robust performance, optimal functionality and rich features; enhancing the overall user-experience.

  • Seamless Development Process

    Developers have direct access to user’s hardware features such as camera, microphone, GPS, phonebook etc. that allows them to modify the app for optimal user engagement.

LIMITATIONS OF HYBRID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

  • While developing a native application, we cut off half of the other market and focus on one. This results in high initial costs and the requirement of a highly qualified team.

  • To keep the apps up-to-date with various OS versions, native apps need constant maintenance and updates.

  • Developers would need longer development time to build an app for every platform.

HYBRID APP DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS

REACT NATIVE

React Native is a Facebook-backed open-source framework that allows you to build native iOS and Android mobile apps with a single JavaScript codebase. Instead of using WebView components, React Native utilizes native components which compile directly into the machine language of the device itself. React Native puts an end to the inefficient and sluggish user interface that performs poorly on both Android and iOS platforms but provides fully functional, robust, and exceptional cross-platform mobile application that guarantees 100% customer engagement.

Without a doubt, React Native has become the most widely preferred web development platform best known for its optimal performance. The five main reasons why Reactive Native stands out from other frameworks are:

  • Pre-Developed Components and code reusability: Developers can use the same code for both iOS and Android, making the development process cost and time-efficient.

  • Third-Party Plugin Support: React Native offers full access to multiple features of the operating system such as geo-location, camera, logs hereby streamlining the application building process.

  • Modular Architecture: The modular architecture of react-native allows the segregation of programming blocks into various modules which improves flexibility within a development team and makes the process of creating updated very easy.

  • Quick Development: Backing for outsider modules and the broad collection of react parts speeds up the application advancement process.

  • Live Reload: React Native accompanies a Live Reload include that permits you to see the most recent changes following they have been made.

NATIVE SCRIPT

Native Script is an Apache 2 licensed open source and easily adaptable framework that enables robust development of native apps with TypeScript, JavaScript or Angular. It provides 100% access to Android and iOS APIs and requires one-time creation which can then be tailored easily as per your choice.

Native Script is widely favoured for the class and effortlessness it provides to build cross-platform, robust applications. In contrast to other hybrid applications, Native Script apps utilize a unified native code set that is built with simplified UI designed in XML markup, that can be compiled on Android and iOS.

NATIVE SCRIPT OFFERS:

  • Native UIs without WebView.
  • Cross-Platform compatibility.
  • Easily accessible Android and iOS APIs.

NATIVE APP DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS

IONIC

Ionic is an open-source software development kit (SDK) for native mobile applications. As of now, more than 5 million apps are built on Ionic. The reason why majority of developers are choosing Ionic is that it is an open-source framework with platform-specific user interface elements.

NATIVE SCRIPT OFFERS:

  • It eases the burden off developers by providing them with a default set of UI elements so that things like forms, navigation bar, menus, filters, action sheets are easily available to develop.
  • Ionic uses AngularJS for developing mobile and web apps ensuring that the apps built offers optimized performance and functionality.
  • Through Cordova plugins, Ionic can access multiple features of the operating system such as geo-location, camera, and logs hereby, streamlining the application building process.

Conclusion

Development in technology has gone through significant changes over the past decades and there are no limits to its transformation any time in the future. The staggering rate at which customers are moving towards online businesses has just surfaced the tip of something with a lot more potential. Through enhanced accessibility and digital infrastructure, improvements are happening much more rapidly today.

A business' mobile application gives a humanized outlook to your eCommerce app development company, ensuring maximum customer engagement and loyalty. Before jumping to conclusions, one should consider how fast do you want the app, complexity of features, and the quality of user experience of the app. Hybrid and Native app development platforms both have their strong and weak points. While hybrid apps may have lower upfront costs, they are more prone to bugs which is why developers will be more likely to spend a lot of their time tweaking the app.

Whereas, native apps offer security, interactive design, feature-rich functions, phenomenal user experience and a highly responsive user interface. The initial cost of native apps may seem high but in the long run, they will save a lot of time and money.

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