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Before we dive in and decide which mobile app development route is a better fit for you, let’s get a better understanding of what a native and hybrid mobile app is and which one serves your business goals better. There are two kinds of mobile app development approaches:
- Native mobile app development
- Hybrid mobile app development
Native Mobile App Development vs Hybrid:
Native mobile apps are developed using the programming language that fits the particular platform the most (i.e. Swift or Objective-C for iOS mobile apps; Java and Kotlin for Android apps). This ensures the smoothest experience for a user and the deepest integration with each operating system.
Hybrid app mobile development takes a different approach by using a third party programming languages and packages them into a mobile app. This allows developers to write a single code that will work for both iOS and Android apps.
Native and Hybrid Mobile App Development Pros and Cons:
– Hybrid apps:
Pro: Lower development costs- develop two apps with the cost of one.
Con: Lower quality, performance, may not provide the best user experience, potentially limited ability to grow and scale the app(s).
– Native apps:
Pro: Highest quality, best user experience and performance, unlimited scalability.
Con: Higher development costs.
Native Apps
The term ‘native’ is defining the environment which Apple or Google choose to develop apps for their operating systems.
Native mobile apps are built specifically for one platform (iOS or Android). Native apps for iOS are developed in Swift and Objective-C language. On the other hand, Android apps use Java or Kotlin for development. These apps are developed in a particular Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the given operating system.
Native mobile app development approach has various advantages, not only from user’s perspective but from developer’s point of view as well. Native apps are faster, responsive, and give the best performance since they are built to run on a specific platform. They do require more effort and skills to be developed but at the same time they are usually more interactive, intuitive, and run smoothly (compared to hybrid). You don’t need an internet connection to run an app on your device (however, there are some native apps which do need an internet connection to work).
All in all- mobile apps that were developed natively are more powerful, scalable and versatile.
But as mentioned earlier, you will be required to build a separate app for each of the platforms, i.e., one for Android and another one for iOS.
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Hybrid Apps
A hybrid app is a combination of a native app and a web application (i.e. souped up website). It works across various platforms and it behaves almost like a (regular) native app. Users can download it from the App/Play Stores, install the app on their devices, usually access different functions on the device (such as camera, access to the internal storage of the device) etc.
Having said that- hybrid mobile app development is more commonly used as a wrapper around HTML, CSS, JavaScript using PhoneGap, Ionic, Cordova etc. Meaning it’s a regular website that is packaged as a mobile application and deployed to the App Stores.
Due to frequent compatibility issues (between the app and the device itself)- this mobile app development approach does have its limitation.
Cross Platform: Xamarin, React Native
This is the third approach to mobile app development that has been gaining popularity. Mobile apps that were developed using Xamarin, React Native and similar are usually not quite as smooth, robust etc as native apps but they usually do perform better than hybrid ones. This approach still allows for multi platforms apps (e.g. Android, iOS and Windows) to be developed with a single code.
Which Mobile App Development Approach Is Best For You?
There are many factors that’ll help you decide which mobile app development approach to take. Overall quality of the app, performance, scalability, time to market and cost to name a few.
If you are making a fairly simple app for your business or start up and don’t have big plans expansion plans- hybrid (or cross-platform) app should do the job.
And if you have a grand vision for an app that is feature rich, that is as scalable as Uber/Facebook and provides the best user experience- native app development is the way to go.
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