Technology has brought about a major shift in the way businesses operate. It becomes quite imperative for them to make their presence felt. This in turn makes it critical for them to build apps that can allow them to achieve this without any form of difficulty whatsoever.
According to Statista, the revenues generated from mobile apps would become $613 billion by 2025. These valuations make it crucial for entrepreneurs to focus on quality, functionalities, etc so that customer engagement remains at the top. This in turn makes it relevant for them to choose the best development approach followed by an ideal platform.
Currently, if we talk about the approaches that are quite popular, they are native, hybrid, and cross-platform app development.
In this blog, we will discuss these types in detail explaining their pros and cons, followed by the use cases when they can be used.
A native application is a software program built for use on a specific platform or device.
The concept of native apps revolves around the creation of a solution that can only run on a particular device or OS- like Android, iOS, etc. This in the end ensures the achievement of the following:
Here we need to make note that in contrast to websites or web apps, these apps cannot operate within the browser. They require downloads from respective app marketplaces like Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Now that we have a perspective on the concept, let us understand how its development is done. So, in a situation wherein you are developing an Android app, you can use Java or Kotlin. On the other hand, if you develop iOS app, you can use Swift and Objective-C.
If you want to deliver the best user experience in terms of the appearance and feel of the application, native app development is the perfect option to choose.
Check out this image to get a glance through some of the pros associated with using the approach of native app development.
Take a peek at the image here to glance through the cons of native app development to understand when it is not suggested to use this approach.
As you can observe in the image, there are three main cons related to using native app development.
Android App Development Tools:
iOS App Development Tools:
Read Also: Top 10 Mobile App Development Tools to Build a Robust App
A hybrid app is a solution that combines features inherent in native and web apps. In extremely simple words, they are a blend of both native and web solutions.
Written using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and through the code being embedded into the native app wrapper using Apache Cordova it becomes easy to load the app. Therefore, it becomes easy to create and publish them.
The concept of hybrid app development implies the creation of a solution that can easily run as a native and a web app. Therefore, its appearance is like a website within the browser you may be operating or like an app that you install.
So in case you wish to build a hybrid app, it is important that you first be aware of the different pros and cons related to using this approach.
Hybrid App Development Pros:
Hybrid App Development Cons:
Cross-platform app development is the process of building an app that can run on different platforms like Android, iOS, etc.
This is through tools and frameworks that make the app easy to function across devices like Android and iOS.
Read Also: Why Should You Go For Cross-Platform to Develop Mobile App?
Let us get a perspective into which platform is better among the three and how the choice formulation is to be done.
If you want to deliver a supreme experience to your end users, then the native app development approach is what you should opt for. This will make memory management, network management, etc. easy to perform. It will alternatively also enhance the overall app performance.
Albeit this being an area of concern, it is to be noted here that in case you are a startup with a limited budget, you can not opt for native app development. Cross-platform app development is the best option here because it allows developers to write a single codebase for Android and iOS.
When we compare native vs hybrid vs cross-platform app development, the first takes a lot of time for development. The second and third on the other hand ensure that the development takes place at a lesser time thereby ensuring the app is marketed faster.
With user expectations driven towards a solution that delivers a rich user experience, therefore if you are considering an approach that can make this possible then a native app development approach is what you should opt for. This is due to the superior UI capabilities it has alongside easy-to-customize.
If you want more customers to know about you, then developing cross-platform apps or hybrid apps is a winning approach. Because more users will get enlightened about you and the services you provide. Also, different obstacles related to multiple platforms get mitigated completely.
Hence, in short, one app covers all your development-related tasks thereby ensuring your solution is easy to run across different platforms.
When performing a comparison between native, hybrid, and cross-platform app development approaches, it is important to place focus on this aspect. In other words, if you want users to enjoy functionalities like cameras, GPS sensors, etc. the native approach is what you should opt for. This is because the other two approaches will make their implementation difficult.
Simultaneously due to the code in native implementing sensors whenever developers may be needing it, therefore users can operate the app without any difficulty.
In this article, we explained everything you need to know about the differences between native vs hybrid vs cross-platform app development. Choosing between native, cross-platform, and hybrid for mobile app development totally depends on your budget, timeline, target audience, and goals of your project.
If you are still unclear about which type of mobile application would be the best for your business, get in touch with our experts. We will guide you in choosing the right mobile app development platform that will surely fulfill all your needs.
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