Nowadays, a mobile app is an irreplaceable part of any business intended to leverage from the use of modern technologies for building strong relationships with customers. Taking into account the ever-increasing role that mobile devices play in people’s lives, there’s nothing unusual that mobile apps help companies to stay in touch with clients 24/7 and provide them with a great experience.
Even if you’re entirely sure that a mobile app is an exact thing that can boost-up your business, you’re still one step away from beginning the development process. You have to make an important decision and choose between hybrid and native mobile app development. You can make this decision based on your goals and available resources. In this article, we’ll try to highlight some advantages and disadvantages of both approaches to help you decide which option will work better for your particular company.
Hybrid and Native Mobile Apps in a Nutshell
First of all, it’s crucial to understand that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in the world of mobile development. Both hybrid and native mobile apps have pros and cons that may affect the final decision. It depends on certain circumstances, which option will work better for a particular company.
Native mobile apps are built for a particular platform, such as Android or iOS. To create such an app, developers have to use programming languages supported by a platform on which the app should run. For Android, Java, and Kotlin are examples of such technologies. For iOS, developers often use Objective-C or Swift.
Hybrid apps, in their turn, provide cross-platform functioning. To create a hybrid mobile app, developers use such web technologies as HTML, CSS, and different JavaScript frameworks. As you may have guessed, hybrid apps are similar to websites that can run on mobile devices. Modern software development technologies allow hybrid apps getting access to the features of your mobile device to function like a completely normal mobile app.
As you can see, the main difference between native and hybrid mobile apps is the way they made. The first thing we’d like to mention is that in most cases, users won’t see any difference between these two kinds of apps. Of course, if they’re built by professionals. At this point, the natural question may arise: “If there’s no difference for the end-user, how can I choose between a hybrid and native mobile app?” As they say, the devil is in the detail.
Hybrid vs. Native. Making a Choice Between Two Good Options
When we take a closer look at native and hybrid apps, the benefits of both approaches will become more evident. All you have to do is to compare the core features of these approaches with the needs and expectations of your company. For example, specialized apps provide excellent security and safety of data. Therefore, they will be a great choice for companies that work with sensitive data or financial information.
On the other hand, there’s cross-platform functionality provided by hybrid apps. This feature will work great for startup companies that have limited funds and want to cover as many users as possible. It’s important to understand that it’s not the nature of hybrid and native apps that determines if your business will be successful or not. The crucial thing is the ability of developers to build them well and your ability to match your requirements with the opportunity that both options offer.
Hybrid Mobile Apps. Great User Experience for Fair Price
As it has been said before, a development company that creates hybrid apps works with a combination of web technologies. At the moment, one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks for hybrid app development is React Native that was created by the Facebook company.
Since developers have to deal with a single code base that covers all target platforms at once, hybrid apps can be developed pretty fast compared to the native ones. There will be no need to write source codes for iOS and Android, test both versions and fix appeared bugs twice. As a result, you’ll get a speedup in development and low expenses. As a drawback, you can face a little bit slower performance which is commonplace for hybrid apps.
If you decide to choose a hybrid app, you will definitely save money which can be a great opportunity for startups and small companies. The reason is simple. You can address users of different platforms by creating a single native app for all of them. You don’t have to pay two different development teams and can hire a single one that has enough expertise in web development and knows how hybrid apps work.
Hybrid apps are simpler to build and test. Since there’s only one code base to create, your developer will be able to deliver a working app faster. Also, there’s no need to create different hybrid apps for each target platform, so you’ll face fewer bugs and unexpected issues during development.
Hybrid apps are easy to maintain since the developer can deliver updates for every target platform simultaneously.
Going Native. Exceptional Performance For High Price
Native apps have better performance and excellent security, but development takes much more time. Also, each target platform requires a separated code base which, as you can imagine, leads to additional consequences such as increased time and money waste. Native apps are built specifically for a particular platform which leads to the need to use different sets of technologies. Developers usually build native apps for different platforms simultaneously, which makes the whole process very complex and significantly increase the delivery time. The good thing is that the final result won’t disappoint you, especially if your app will work with complex animation or process vast amounts of data. Your customers will be enthusiastic about your application and its great performance.
Excellent performance is probably the main reason to choose native mobile app development. Such applications can use the full range of possibilities that the hardware of a mobile device provides. The application will have the ability to connect the device hardware features and different databases without the need to use any extra add-ons. Also, it’s easier to make a native app secure. That’s why native apps are so popular among the companies that work in the enterprise sector, FinTech, and process sensitive data of their customers.
If you want to ensure excellent customer experience, native apps can be an excellent choice for you. Lag-free experience and high performance of your app will guarantee user loyalty. Also, you can be sure that developers you’re dealing with are aware of all the strengths and weaknesses of using well-established technologies. Therefore, there’s no doubt that the most optimal approach for receiving desirable results can be developed with minimum effort.
Conclusions
Most of your clients won’t notice the difference between a native and hybrid app. Nevertheless, choosing between these approaches may be critical for your business. In the world where every spent dollar and every day of delay may decide the fate of one’s business, you have to be sure that your decisions must be carefully thought out. When we talk about the “hybrid vs. native” dilemma, the thing is usually about the amount of time and money you’re ready to spend in exchange for performance and data safety. But things are not so simple as they seem. The tricky part is that in most cases, fast product delivery will exceed the benefits of the relatively higher performance of native apps.
To learn more about different approaches to mobile app development, get a free consultation from our specialists.