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When you think about building a mobile app, you have to make informed decisions to create an app which is powerful, efficient, as well as cost effective. And the moment you make a decision to invest in a mobile app, you’re faced with the terminologies, which is Hybrid vs Native Applications. What’s the difference between Native Apps and Hybrid Apps and which type would be most appropriate for you or your business?

Many companies face a similar situation — What should we choose? Therefore, it is important for you to know the difference between both platforms so you can select the one which suits and fulfills your business’s purpose.

Native Apps and Hybrid Apps

In a nutshell:

The debate between choosing Native Mobile Apps vs Hybrid Mobile Apps vs Web Apps has still no clear winner because they all have their own benefits. Each Operating Platform (OP) is leading in its own way. Though developing either of them i.e. Native Android or iOS App is a costly deal, whether it is for a well-established enterprise or a startup. Which is why most of the businesses, even Startups and SMEs, choose hybrid mobile apps while developing an application, as it allows them to run the app, with a single codebase set, on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows.

This article aims to aid your decision of choosing the right mobile application platform for your business, by providing you a sound understanding regarding the difference between native apps vs. hybrid apps, their pros and cons. Let’s figure it out!

Native App vs Hybrid App: What’s the Difference?

Native Applications are developed for a specific platform like Android, iOS or Windows. These applications are built using the framework that are compatible with the corresponding platform and are officially supported by the Operating Systems. For Android, it’s primarily Java and Kotlin, whereas for iOS, it’s Apple’s Swift or Objective-C. Native Mobile Apps have a faster and more responsive interface. They do not always require an active internet connection.

Hybrid Applications, on the other hand, are developed with the help of web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, combined with native elements. Basically, Hybrid Apps are platform-independent websites, which are put into native apps and then integrated with the corresponding device hardware, to make them function across multiple platforms.

Both Native and Hybrid applications can be distributed on App Store and Google Play.

Both Native and Hybrid applications

As it was mentioned earlier in the article that both have their own pros and cons, let’s have a brief view of both.

Native app Development: An overview

Native applications need to access all the functionalities of the hardware to work on the device’s OP (Operating Systems). SDK or Software Development Kit is provided to the developers by the platforms, which is a powerful combination of tools. This helps developers to create high-performance apps on a particular platform. The SDK Kit contains a certain set of tools, code samples, libraries, documentation, and guides. There are IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) which have a code editor, a compiler and a debugger, that you can use for writing and testing the software.Apple provides Xcode, whereas Google provides Android Studio.

Benefits of Native Mobile App Development

Performance

The coding in native app development is done for various platforms, thus, the app has different versions with utilized programming language, specified to each operating system. The apps are optimized for iOS and Android, keeping all the factors in mind i.e. battery use, memory etc. This makes the app run much more flawlessly with impressive speed.

Security

While hybrid or web applications rely on multiple technologies like JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS, Native apps use hardware resources efficiently and guarantee a more reliable and secure data protection.

Interactive and Intuitive

In Native apps, one specific platform’s functionalities can be tailored to give it a more unique set of elements. They inherit their respective device’s interface and allow users to navigate through the functionalities smoothly. In addition to this, Native Apps can also run in offline mode.

Accessing the Full Feature Set of Devices

Native apps allows developers to access all the features or functionalities of the Operating system and the hardware of the device, giving them full advantage to execute better user experience. For instance, Camera, microphone, GPS etc. can be accessed. Another huge advantage of Native app development is Push Notifications.

Disadvantages of Native Mobile App Development

Time-consuming Process

Native apps require more time to build because each platform needs a separate set of coding. Which means, if you are building an app for both iOS and Android, you need more time to work on both simultaneously.

Costly

The complexity of developing native apps demands more labor. Due to the tricky programming, it requires more qualified developers as well as time, hence more costly.

Require frequent updates

Frequent updates and bug fixes need to be uploaded to the app store. If users do not update the app and face any glitches, they might abandon it.

Native app Examples

Google Maps

LinkedIn

Twitter

Telegram

PokemonGo

Hybrid App development: An Overview

While the basic definition of Hybrid apps was mentioned earlier, let’s dive into the variations and understand how it works.

Hybrid apps are basically native apps that act like web applications. Which means, they incorporate features of native applications and also do everything HTML5 can do. Hybrid app development is divided into two parts. First, developers build a back-end code using languages i.e. HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Then a native shell is added to load the code using WebView. Once the app is downloaded and installed on the device, the shell connects all the capabilities that the device’s platform provides, through the embedded browser in the application. End-user does not see the browser or the plug-ins which run on the back-end of the application.

Though in Hybrid App development, specialized APIs are used, which means third-party tools are necessary to access certain features and that puts a limitation to various capabilities of the application. But Hybrid apps have their own advantages which make them more popular amongst most businesses.

Benefits of Hybrid Mobile App Development

Work on multiple platforms

Hybrid apps have cross-platform capabilities which means they can run smoothly on both iOS and Android with one codebase.

Cost Effective

Hybrid apps have lower development costs as compared to Native apps because developers use web technologies and there are ready-made components available.

Fast Development process

Hybrid apps do not require different codes for different platforms. A single codebase handles both iOS and Android, which takes much less time.

Easier to update

Due to a single codebase, hybrid apps do not have to work on separate platforms to make changes. Same updates can be applied to all platforms.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development

Limited Functionalities

The framework of Hybrid apps does not support or provide every feature of native apps. These apps rely on plugins which can be unreliable and have no accessibility over certain parts of the device.

Slow Performance

Hybrid apps create an additional layer between the source code and targeted mobile platform, which can create performance and debugging issues.

Poor user-experience

While hybrid apps look like native apps, they still lack the rich experience which native apps can provide. Hybrid apps may also lag 3D graphic elements.