The purpose of publishing this article is to focus on the key differences between Native App and Hybrid App, this will give you the best possible information about the Native vs Hybrid app for creating responsive web applications. Ionic and React Native made the mobile app development very easy for the developers, which allow developers to build Apps without having to learn complex native programming languages like Swift for iOS and Java for Android.
Comparing Hybrid Vs Native
So the question is what is the difference between native and hybrid app?
Well, there is no exact answer for this. It depends on the context that which one the developers should pick. Hybrid apps have more advantages over native apps as they are compatible with Android as well as iOS. But sometimes it comes with a poor user experience and sometimes disappointing to mobile users. Native apps have outstanding user experience and exceptional performance. They also need to be developed separately as they are not compatible with every operating system.
The survey that found two-thirds of mobile app developers are choosing a web-based approach over native tools. Meanwhile, top brands like MarketWatch and Nationwide have chosen the hybrid over native for their flagship consumer apps.
The top reasons for making the switch from native to hybrid, based on independent research and testimonials, are:
1. Speed. Building for multiple platforms from a single codebase often makes delivering cross-platform apps 2-3x faster than native.
2. Efficiency. Forrester estimates that hybrid can save an organization between 75-80% in support and porting costs compared to native.
3. Omnichannel. Hybrid apps can run anywhere the web runs - on a desktop or the mobile browser, as a mobile app, or PWA.
Native apps are those applications that are designed for a specific mobile Operating Systems like iOS or Android. They are built using different programming languages like Swift or Objective-C for developing iOS app and Java (Android Studio) for Android apps now since they are developed keeping one OS in mind, they feel more right to the users as compared to any other type.
Native Apps allows the access to the in-built device capabilities like location, Camera, GPS, calendar and other functionalities, which is not possible in case of Hybrid Apps. Native apps come with great user experience along with highest security features and faster performance fully compatible with the particular platform makes it popular.
One unique factor about native apps is that users can use access few apps without an active internet connection. But, this makes an app expensive to build because it is generally designed to run on a particular operating system or a specific device, the one based on either iOS or Android.
Performance
Comparing Native vs hybrid the main feature of using native for app development that native code is faster than Javascript and HTML. This matters when dev are looking to build asked for intense graphical applications such as games and other animation applications. Mobile browsers are coming closer to bridging the gap between these types of intensive applications using WebGL specification; however, native still has the advantage here.
Look and feel of native applications
The trendy look and feel of native applications are eye-catching and inspiring — allowing users to connect easily and quickly to the icons and button.
Rich native library
Using native SDKs allows the developer to access the latest features specifically designed for those platforms, without the complexity of dealing with native plugins. This is key when you need to provide a rich contextual user experience such as facial recognition for iOS or touch ID for Android.
No third-party dependencies
By building exclusively with a native toolset, developers aren’t bound to any third-party to access the core features like camera, location services, and other functionalities, and there’s not as much of a dependency on open source communities like Cordova to keep up with the latest features.
More secure and safe
All the native apps on Android or iOS are only accessible through the app stores. Before all the apps get approved to be featured in the stores, they are fully tested and reviewed by the app store approval team. This provides a certificate of reliability and assurance.
Advantages of Native App:
Developed in platform specific language like Java for Android and Swift C for iOS.
Separate code for each platform
Responsive and smother experienced for the user
It can directly access the hardware like GPS, display, CPU etc so they are faster in execution.
Native Apps: Pokemon Go, Paypal, Gmail.
Disadvantages of Native App:
High development cost and time
Higher investment time, talent and resources
Longer development cycles
Hybrid Apps
The hybrid app allows you to easily build on multiple platforms like ios, android, windows so learning low-level languages like HTML, CSS, Javascript one can create powerful hybrid apps.If you are looking for a quicker and cheaper way to develop an app, you need to go for hybrid Mobile App Development.
Hybrid apps run in a full-screen browser, called a web view to run a web application inside of a native app, that is invisible to the user. Through the native app wrapper that can communicate with the native device platform and the web view, they can access the native features of specific mobile devices (such as the camera or touch ID), without the core code being tied to that device That means hybrid-built apps can run on any platform or device, all from a single codebase, while still delivering a native look and feel.
As it supports the cross-platform app development as the code should be written once and we can use it anywhere.Many features are developed to support in multiple operating systems so that it hardly needs app updates unless any important functionality is added to the app.
Why choose Hybrid:
Write Once, Run Anywhere
The hybrid framework like Ionic gives you the power to run your app on any platform or device, all from a single codebase. Ionic also provides platform continuity, so the look and feel of your app aren’t one-size-fits-all. It automatically adapts to android as well as iOS platforms. As hybrid technology is web-based, you can run your application on the browser as a Progressive Web App which provides users a great experience across platforms and devices, and you only have one codebase to worry about.
Faster Development cycle
The key difference is that hybrid apps are built using open web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, rather than the proprietary or specialized languages used by iOS, Android, and others.That means anyone with a web developer skill-set can build an app using the hybrid approach. As we use ionic for the development we can create an application on multiple platforms using the codebase same which makes the development faster and cost-efficient.
"According to the 2017 StackOverflow Survey, only 6.5%of all developers cited Swift and Objective-C as familiar languages. In contrast, web developers made up72.6% of respondents and JavaScript appeared as the most commonly used programming language in the survey"
Efficient scaling
Hybrid apps are known as cross-platform applications which are easy to scale on different platforms and different operating devices. It allows the development team to reuse the code without making many changes in the application.
Offline support
Hybrid apps support offline work, but while working the offline data cannot be updated.
Advantages of Hybrid App:
Developed using HTML, CSS, Javascript
Write once, Run anywhere
Unified development (Cross-Platform)
Faster Development & save time and money
Single CodeBase
Disadvantages of HybridApp:
Hybrid apps add an extra layer between the source code and the target mobile platform result in a possible loss of performance.
It can not directly access the hardware like GPS, display, CPU needs the help of 3rd party plugins.
Can affect the user experience as it developed for cross-platform.
Framework dependencies like ionic or Cordova for developing an application.
Conclusion:
As we discussed above, there are pros and cons of every technology but it totally depends on the project requirement, budget, resources. So before starting the project understand the client's requirements and plan accordingly. Hybrid app development is easy and can be useful for developing Android and iOS app within the minimum budget requirement.
On the other hand Native app development is for developing complex apps which need access to the core features also it improves application quality, security, performance. Native app development is cost-effective and it takes some time to develop. Hope this article will clear some doubt on which technology to choose for developing your mobile application or for your web application development.
Check out our blog on : 7 Top ReactJS Features Which Makes It Best For Development
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