Advantages and Disadvantages of Native vs. Hybrid App Development
For many companies, it is found that a mobile app is an essential for shaping their business. Developing an enterprise mobile application could be a bonus for your business; however, there are various approaches to fulfil the objective, based on the requirement of your company. It is known that basically there are two kinds of mobile apps i.e., native platform apps and hybrid apps. Both of them provide diverse features which could be applied for the benefit of company if executed appropriately.
There might be no perplexity to the benefits and effectiveness an app holds for the development and for the use; however, there is still a question about which kind of app is the greatest comprehensive, profitable and user-friendly. It is possible that there is no single response to the question. The native as well as hybrid apps possess advantages and disadvantages and the corresponding choice must be intentional and based on contextual use. The time assigned for developing the app, budget, selection of your client and the type of users who you are targeting are few of the factors which must guide the decision.
Let’s have a look at the Native and Hybrid app development in detail, along with their advantages and disadvantages:
Hybrid App Development:
Mobile hybrid apps are extremely identical to different web applications. However, they provide you access to various platform capabilities. In order to understand this, for example, on iPhone, your application possesses access to the user’s GPS, address book, and several other features. Hybrid Application Development is at core, and they are websites packed within a native wrapper. The apps appear and feel similar to a native app; however, eventually exterior of the fundamental frame of the particular application (usually limited to the navigational/controls elements) they are stimulated by a company’s website. In simple terms, any hybrid app is essentially a web app created by use of JavaScript and HTML5, covered inside a native container which processes majority of the details over the page when the user navigates over the application
Let’s have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Hybrid app development:
Advantages of Hybrid App Development:
Saves Time and Money:
First focus on what your business needs to fulfil through the help of launch of a mobile app. You may wish to launch a latest product in facade of potential clients in short order, transforming the buying experience simple for budding customers. In respect to that, a hybrid app development would assist you to boost your revenue-generating targets.
Although down the road you perceive that one of your competitors have presented an application that lets user’s experience speedier and simpler by use of native technology, you could deem your hybrid app as a link towards making an improved user experience in the outlook.
Updates Made Simple:
Many times it becomes irritating when you need to accurately upload a latest version of an application though there are just the slightest modifications done to it. Luckily, hybrid app development permits content to get updated as required, and also improvements could be carried out whenever required without interrupting the user experience. The fact is that although an internet connection is removed from a device, the particular app would sustain to function. Whenever updates are done during the time a device gets disconnected, it is known that they are automatically done whenever a connection is established again.
Write Once, Use Anywhere:
The hybrid apps are basically written using Javascript and HTML5, so developers need to make lesser twists to the coding in order to work on more than one platform, letting it to be known as “write once, use anywhere” type of solution. This suggests that the app will execute on an Android or iPhone phone, laptop or tablet, irrespective of the operating system. It is known that the hybrid apps can accomplish this as they can automatically discover and modify the user interface for every platform, and later they can adjust as per the screen size, browser, and device orientation. The aspect enables users to get as close to a native experience as probable and not getting completely native—which, obviously, needs more time and money to develop.
Disadvantages of Hybrid App Development:
A particular hybrid app might not offer the finest user or native experience as the code base stays consistent for every platform. Hence, it is comparatively less intuitive and also the user experience is not so consistent.
In addition to that, it is possible that every native features might not exist and contemporary features are not available always on a hybrid app.
For a web developer with little or almost no knowledge regarding a native platform, the task of fixing undocumented errors may become quite tough.
As the development of a hybrid app is extremely identical to development of website, there are many developers who commit error of merely copying their web applications into the mobile excluding any type of redesign. But, this can outcome in many issues like delay in page load time, or occurrence of non-optimized components which are not prepared for mobile.
Native App Development:
Native apps are basically developed for a single kind of device, and later they are installed openly over that particular device, generally from any online app marketplace. It is known that the native app development is platform specific which means that you need to select whether you need to develop in Android or iOS (or recompense two teams to carry out both simultaneously). The final result you get is usually an app with an improved user experience at the cost of taking long time to develop with higher overhead costs.
Let’s have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Native app development:
Advantages of Native App Development:
Better User Experience:
A native app is found to be very responsive, quick and highly reliable. Generally, the user experience is enhanced within a native app as compared to hybrid or web app development. As a native app is developed by bearing in mind every component of the platform’s ecosystem, the app is more spontaneous and could seek benefit of every feature of the OS as well as connected software. Moreover, they can influence superior functionality of the device like utilizing the device camera, accessing the device’s GPS settings or continuously providing advanced notifications.
Provides highest level of security:
Native apps function to deliver the greatest possible security for a device. Hence, it becomes very hard for hackers to rob crucial data from a device. Moreover, native applications have excellent UI and UX features and it lets the user experience to be outstanding and fascinating. Moreover, native apps could be utilized in an offline mode too.
Developers seek complete advantage:
As native apps are required to be developed with the precise development tools as well as languages for every relevant platform, web developers which are knowledgeable in Android or iOS development are the most suitable for the job. Moreover, developers are capable to seek complete benefit of every sole device features, like accelerometer, camera, GPS, compass, or also the fingerprint sensor of iPhone 6.
Disadvantages of Native App Development:
The rate and other resource involvements made in a native app are generally very high as compared to that in hybrid apps. Besides, the cost of maintenance is too extremely high because the app developer needs to keep up multiple code bases with purpose to let them compatible with various kinds of platforms and devices.
Users frequently utilize various versions of a particular native app which lets it hard to offer updates and constant support because every version is usually device specific.
It also has restriction in matters of market reach. Developing an app particularly for iOS platform suggests that users of Android operating system could never access it. Provided that Android possesses an 80% market share globally, this would be a concern. This is specifically true if a brand’s audience utilizes a range of devices.
The trade-off is requiring development of various versions of the application to support frequent mobile platforms as well as their versions within a vastly fragmented market. Alternatively, going for native app suggest noteworthy development costs as well as time to market for any software company because native apps are actually not platform independent. For example, an application created for iOS would not function for other platforms like Microsoft’s Windows, Google’s Android, or Blackberry OS. Apart from that, recurrent upgrades within the platforms convey considerable overheads for app developers to analyze and resolve compatibility issues.
Concluding Note:
It is quite evident that the two approaches discussed above have several limitations and relevant benefits. Hence, an individual should not perceive the choice in form of a black-and-white decision. The decision between these two approaches relies on lots of factors like the kind of application being developed, development talent and capital, allocated budget, etc. If the need is for utility, productivity, or enterprise app, then go for hybrid app development. However, if the app to be needed incorporates photos, videos, or gaming, then developing a native app would be better.
