Native vs Hybrid apps: Advantages and Disadvantages

Mobile Phones and apps are made for each other, and both are incomplete without each other. The fact is your smartphone won’t become smart if there are no smart applications, but what about their development? One of the basic questions is to develop a mobile application ( native apps vs hybrid apps); which app type would be suitable for your business? Therefore, the crucial and, at times, difficult is deciding between the various apps types to build.

And when we talk about Native app vs. Hybrid apps, both have separate properties, which makes them different in many ways. The smartphone market is growing; companies are now moving towards app development for their growth.

Hence, to develop a particular app that would capture the attention of users immediately needs the correct choice of app types; it can be either of it.

As you’ll read on, you’ll come to know about the difference between Hybrid and Native apps and how you can choose the right one for app development.

Native Apps

Native Apps are platform-specific meaning. The language used to develop the apps is tailored as per the platform. The platform of Native apps can either be Java for Android or Objective-C/ Swift for iOS.

In contrast to Hybrid apps, the Native apps offer better animations and performance. Below, you’ll find the main features of developing a Native app.

Reliable
Offers fast performance and a better user experience.
Offline and online transactions are supported.
Native apps features can’t be exploited.

Advantage of Native Apps

Native apps offer numerous advantages, following are the benefits that it provides, which would help make the decision.

Fast and Responsive

Native apps are very responsive, and they also offer a reliable and quick user experience. They’re also smooth, and, in comparison to hybrid apps, they’re faster due to being build within the device’s framework.

Wide range of hardware compatibility

Native apps are very easy to communicate with. The device can offer easy functionalities that include using GPS, accelerometers, push notifications, microphones, and cameras.

Match app’s UI/UX to platform conventions

Through the platform’s specific UX/UI conventions, a business or company gets more options to please their customers. Using native app development, you would be forced to develop a user-friendly platform, offering high performance and sleekness for your customers.

Disadvantages of Native Apps

Lack of uniformity

In Native app development, a developer has to work with numerous codebases since you can’t run Android apps on iOS and vice versa. When the UI standards would be different on platforms, it would be difficult for experts and developers to match the app’s design uniformly across platforms.

High cost & time-consuming.

It would take a lot of time to build a native mobile app or when a company wants to launch the app on different platforms. So, when the development time increase, the cost goes along with that.

Hybrid apps

The mixture of native and web-based apps is known as Hybrid apps. Technologies such as reactive native apps, Xamarin, Apache Cordova, Ionic, etc., fall under the Hybrid apps category.

Hybrid apps offer support for both native and web technologies across multiple platforms. Following are some of the main features of Hybrid apps.

Device file system merging
Cross-platform UI.
Maintenance is cost-effective.
App development is the fastest.
Through a single code, you can manage multiple profiles.

Advantages of Hybrid Apps

One code for every platform.

Using a single codebase, you can manage all the platforms, and that’s the primary function of hybrid apps.

Time and money saver.

Because there is the same codebase, you and the developers can save time and money in cross-platform app development. Also, through the same developer, the app will be published in no time.

Market faster.

Your business or company can quickly scale through Hybrid apps. You can target web and mobile platforms in less time, in contrast to Native app development.

Maintenance is cost-effective.

Because of a single codebase for all platforms, the time, cost, and maintenance are minimal.

Faster app development.

Through the Hybrid app development approach, you can develop apps faster. It also gives you the ability to roll out apps more quickly for your target audience.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Apps

Lack of performance.

When it comes to the difference between Hybrid and Native apps, performance is the major downside of hybrid apps. A hybrid app would demand a wrapper to compile a platform-dependent application, which results in additional bootstrapping.

Difficult cross-platform development.

The list of hybrid apps gets your developed app to run appropriately across every device and add backward compatibility support.

Improper UX/UI standards.

Android and iOS loyal users are well aware of the apps using on their platform. They know how the apps should be working. When it comes to Hybrid and Native apps, the key downside of Hybrid is the compromise of better UI/UX.

Conclusion

Native apps vs. Hybrid apps war is continuous. Both have their advantages and disadvantages; getting the final answer can be difficult. However, before choosing between Native and Hybrid apps, make sure you take some time to think which would you prefer more.

Hybrid app development offers one source code, cross-platform support, feasibility, time and money-saving, and easy updates. However, in the long run, you may get a headache.

On the other hand, Natives apps are time-consuming and costly. Still, they offer better security, user experience, and smooth native APIs access. If you invest high, including money and time, it’ll be well worth it.