Mobile Apps are considered a game-changing approach these days. Most of the organizations are impacting their business values by releasing mobile apps for their business. Even in recent years, modern businesses have started demonstrating their dependencies on mobile apps from managing employees to customers, generating leads to driving sales, and even educating people using mobile devices has become the latest trend these days.

With transformed user adoption, we can see how people spend their major part of their day using apps. These apps may comprise shopping apps, learning apps, service apps, and more. Considering this rising need, businesses even startups are taking recourse of mobile app development. But not every app gets success in gaining business values.

Considering this rising trend, we can see a steadily enlarging mobile app market worldwide. The mobile app market revenue has also been a booming factor in recent years. Let’s have eyes on these stats:

In the year 2014, mobile app revenue has had 97.7 Billion U.S. dollars and is expected to reach 93.5 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2023.

Now, let’s focus on mobile app development practices, how native and hybrid apps are adopted in the market, and what sort of things are kept in mind to make a smarter decision out of these two.

Here, we need to understand, that every business imbibes different practices and customer-group, geo-location, and more. So, things should be taken care of while going to hire a mobile app development company. Choosing a platform to develop a mobile app really makes a difference. It could be a very smart decision on whether to go with native mobile apps vs hybrid mobile apps.

Before we make an improved choice between Native and Hybrid platforms, let’s contemplate the essential features of mobile apps:

Must-Have Features Of Mobile App To Drive Customers

Many factors are incumbent for mobile apps to have, here we are pinning down basic features that should never be “underlooked” throughout the phases of mobile app development.

Native apps are built to run on a single platform using a particular programming language. For instance, if you tend to develop a native app for the Android platform, your hired mobile app development company may leverage Kotlin or java programming language. For iOS, you may opt for Swift or objective C programming languages.

As these apps are built for specific platforms, hence, can merely be used for that particular platform and cannot be leveraged for the other platform. So, if you are planning to develop an app for the Android native platform, you won’t be able to run the same code for iOS and vise-versa. 

Since native apps are built for a specific platform. Thereby, these apps can access and leverage the full functionality of the device can diminish the volume of errors. As a result, you experience smoother functionality, speed, and performance of the app.

Advantages Of Native Apps

• Natives apps offer faster navigation with improved functionality than hybrid apps.
• If you are willing to launch gaming solutions or graphic-intense app, native apps can be a smarter choice as it can support such types of apps better.
• Native apps are built considering the native efficiency as they can seamlessly access and leverage the device functionality.

Disadvantages Of Native Apps

• Native apps take more than usual time to design, develop, and deploy.
• The development budget for these apps goes high.
• Code can run merely on a single platform hence, you need different codes for different platforms.
• For native mobile app development, you need to hire native experts proficient in the native domain whether for Android development or iOS development.

Hybrid apps are built to run with cross-platform efficiency. These apps give native feel-like experience and the same code can be leveraged for both the Android and iOS platforms. Users can seamlessly download hybrid apps from the play store or app store like native once.

These cross-platform supportive apps are developed using third-party tools like Apache Cordova, Flutter, Ionic, etc. helps to link the native platforms with the web view to communicate and run effectively. Hybrid apps are designed and developed using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages.

Hybrid apps let you run a single code on both the Android and iOS devices. These apps enable brands to drive their digital strategy with the app built once and can be leveraged for two platforms simultaneously. hybrid apps take less time to be developed and require less effort in comparison to native apps intake.

Advantages Of Hybrid Apps

• Hybrid apps are considered budget-friendly apps as you have to develop once and run across platforms. A single code can be used to drive multi-platform efficiency.
• Hybrid apps can be built in less time-frame when compared to Native apps.
• These apps are considered a budget-friendly deal for the enterprise already running their website and want to increase their market reach with mobile apps.

Disadvantages Of Hybrid Apps

• Hybrid apps may look less impressive as these apps are built while keeping cross-platform compatibility in mind.
• Provides moderate users experience
• Demonstrate a development dependency on Third-party tools

However, these third-party tools are used by developers across the world. As per Statista, in the year 2019 and 2020, several tools are considered to develop hybrid apps. The below figure demonstrates the rest story:

Difference Between Native App And Hybrid App

Well, everyone is vigilant about the usual and common difference between native app development and hybrid app development but there are major differences that come across during the development phase. Let’s have eyes in brief:

So, the first and common difference is – Native apps are built for one platform and run accordingly and hybrid apps are developed to run on multiple platforms. So, you have to decide in advance whether you want an app for a single platform or for a multi-platform efficiency.

The second difference is all about the programming languages or tools used in development. Both apps involve different sets of development practices to support the platform. Native apps are developed using Java and Swift programming languages for Android and iOS devices whereas hybrid apps are built leveraging CSS, HTML, and JavaScript languages.

The third difference is the development complexity. When you opt for native app development, you have to hire an expert mobile app development agency or yearly proficient mobile app developer to undertake your native app. However, things are not similar in the case of hybrid development as anyone with average experience and expertise can design and develop the hybrid app for your business.

The fourth and last difference is the development cost. The development cost may vary as both the platforms imbibe different set of development practices, time-investment, and development complexity. Usually, Hybrid apps require low to medium level of investment whereas native apps require medium to high-level of investment. Rest things are eternally incumbent on the complexity level of your project.

Which One To Choose: Native Vs Hybrid

Considering the various point of view including advantages, disadvantages, and differences between native apps and hybrid apps, everyone comprises a set of benefits, and to leverage the same, one has to make a smarter decision between both. So, let’s understand which one should be a proven productive deal for your business.

Before making a final decision, one should roll out their eyes on factors given below:

• The purpose of the app development should be clear to ensure app success.
• A productive app should embrace good speed and navigational flow.
• The UI/UX of the app matters a lot as often users leave app after a single use if they found a lacking interface.
• The complexity and set of features should be decided in advance that you tend to include.
• The app development budget should be in mind from the very beginning.

Now, let’s understand when to choose the native or hybrid app:

Choose Native App Development

• If your targeted audience is limited to a single platform either Android or iOS.
• When you can’t compromise with interactive interface and high-performance of the app.
• If your app incorporates several modules along with vast functionality.
• If you want to release an app that requires to access and leverage the mobile device features.
• When your app can adjust with less responsiveness.
• If you can invest appropriately and your budget allows for medium to the large level of investment.

Choose Hybrid App Development

• If your target audience is not specified, it would be good to choose hybrid app development.
• If you have an existing website and willing to increase your user outreach by developing a mobile app.
• If your budget is low, you want an app for a short time, or you just want to test your idea in the market.
• When your app doesn’t require heavy functionality and rich navigation.
• If your app often needs to download the data from the internet.

Wrapping Up

Thus, your mobile app idea should be implemented in a way that addresses your business requirements, serve the purpose, and can be a productive deal for your business. So, if want to launch an app for your business but need a strategic consultation, our mobile app development company is here to help you out whether to go with native app development or hybrid app development.