Native vs Hybrid Mobile Apps. What’s best for you?
As the number of cell phone users increases, so does the need for apps that help in making life a lot more convenient and hassle-free. With growing demands for these applications, developers around the world are looking for ways they can make their job easier. Big businesses understand that to cover the larger audience, they need to pitch it to both their iOS and Android and this brings lots of development effort and costs because they have to design and develop the same thing for two different platforms. This is where Hybrid mobile apps play a key role.
Before we can decide whether or not the hybrid framework should be considered over the real native structure, we’ll need to discuss the pros and cons of each.
What are native apps?
Native apps are written in a programming language specific to the platform they’re being developed for. This would typically be Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android. Native apps typically have better performance with rendering and animations than hybrid apps.
What are Hybrid apps?
A hybrid app is a mobile app that contains a web view (essentially an isolated browser instance) to run a web application inside of a native app, using a native app wrapper that can communicate with the native device platform and the web view. This means web applications can run on a mobile device and have access to the device, such as the camera or GPS features.
There are more advanced Hybrid app frameworks have been created like ReactNative and Flutter which aren’t mobile web apps because those uses the same fundamental UI building blocks as regular iOS and Android apps. Instead of using Swift, Kotlin or Java, you are putting those building blocks together using JavaScript and React.
Pros of Native Application
API Access: All the device’s APIs and its inbuilt functionalities can be integrated with the native development environment.
Third Party Libraries: Community wise Native Android and iOS are much bigger and supported than their React Native counterpart. With the support comes the presence of a lot of third-party libraries to select from.
Robust Language: Both Swift and Kotlin are considered to be robust, both in terms of stability and when it comes to revealing the hidden errors in code. This robustness in the programming language is what React native suffers from.
Community: Native languages are supported by larger communities of developers and open source communities. Solutions to a specific problems tends to get solve much earlier then Hybrid one.
Reliability: Native languages are developed by the companies like Apple, Google and has strong back support and will remain forever into the market then Hybrid languages. Hybrid language has much shorter lifespan compare to native.
Pros of Hybrid Mobile Apps
Native Code: Hybrid languages like ReactNative and Flutter now comes with native code framework instead of browser specific code. All the code can be deployed to iOS and Android separately and at any point of time you can integrate native codes to the Hybrid application and vice-versa.
Single Code base: The best part about the platform which works perfectly well for the React Native developers is that they have to write a single codebase that then runs on both Android and iOS platforms.
Low Development: Time Since the developers have to write the code just once, it saves a lot of development efforts in terms of app development time.
Open Source: React Native, being open source comes with the benefit of inspecting the code. Also, since it is open source, the library is deemed to be a lot more compatible with other platforms like TvOS and Windows.
Hot Reloading: React Native and Flutter comes with the feature of Hot Reloading using which React Native Developers can view the changes they are making to the app in real time on their screens.
Cons of Native Application
Development of 2 Apps: One of the biggest cons of Native development for iOS and Android is that businesses have to invest in both Android app development and iOS app development individually. You have to hire developers skilled in technologies dedicated to both platforms and maintain two separate codebase.
High Development Time and Effort: Because the app development happens from the scratch twice, the cost of development and the associated app development efforts grow by manifold. Also the maintenance time for both the apps gets double with native apps and adding features, bug fixes and QA will take double amount of time.
Cons of Hybrid Mobile Apps
No Support for All Native APIs: While React Native does support some of the most popular Native APIs, it doesn’t have the freedom to use all the APIs
Native Developers Still: Needed Implementing some native features and modules necessitates having detailed knowledge of a particular platform. The lack of out-of-the-box support for many native app functionalities (e.g. camera, push notifications) used to be a significant issue with React Native development. As the community grows, more and more open-source libraries provide easy access to native platform features. Nevertheless, the implementation of some more advanced features might still require help from iOS and Android developers.
When to Go With Native App Development
Preferring Native app development is a good choice when:-
You are developing a complex application, especially a Messenger app.
You have planned to launch a regular update.
You are more focused on the native user experience.
You are developing a utility app, i.e, an app relying on native device feature. For example: Brightness Controller app or an application that plays videos in the background.
You are building an IoT-based mobile application.
You are creating an app for an individual platform.
When to Choose Hybrid Applications for Mobile App Development
Going with React Native for mobile app development is the right choice when:-
You are building a simple and uniform app.
You want to launch an app on cross-platforms.
You have a lower budget for app development.
You want to enter the market at the earliest.
You are creating a social media app like Facebook or Instagram.
You are looking forwarding to use Facebook ads into your app.
You are developing an e-Commerce app.
While the decision still rests with you, we recommend that if you are a startup, you should go with React Native technology due to the following reasons proving how helpful React Native is for Startups to enter the mobile realm.
Our Experience With Hybrid Mobile Applications So Far
Working with Hybrid apps using React Native and Flutter has added another dimension to our services. Specially React Native has come up as a perfect tool for us to meet our client needs in limited time resources and cost. Hybrid technology has helped us deliver our services to a wider marketplace, especially among startups where quality and speed to delivery product to market comes first.
With Hybrid apps, it’s much easier to turn your idea into an MVP and launch it into iOS and Android market at the same time without assigning the project to two different teams. This has streamlined the app delivery process in terms of communication, resource availability and various other ways. We are also experiencing ease in pushing new app updates by maintaining one codebase which has reduced the DevOps time.
Now that you have seen what the two app development approaches mean in the market and what it can do for your startup or existing business, hope you have a clear idea of what to choose for your mobile app: Hybrid Apps vs Native app development. But, in case you still have any queries, feel free to contact our mobile development experts.
Devkaran Makvana
I'm a developer with a passion for self-expression through application development. I thrive in an environment that allows me to contribute to the whole experience, influencing both the design and development of projects.