Today, the opportunities for technology are gone beyond any imaginary limits. Hardly could we imagine some 10-15 years ago, that communicating, dating, shopping, entertaining or reserving taxi would be done with mobile applications. While “there is always an app for that” business is not done only with mobile devices. Hence, along with other important decisions the company should decide on whether to develop native or hybrid apps while starting an app development process.

Before starting a conversation about the pros and cons of each approach, let’s face it: there is no evident winner in this competition.

Each of these approaches has advantages and drawbacks and the decision depends on the goals of the business.

Hybrid vs Native App Development

The main difference between native and hybrid apps is the technologies that are used in the development process. Natives apps are made for Android or iOS platforms, while hybrid mobile apps rely on cross-platform functioning and are developed with such web technologies as JS, HTML/CSS. At the same time, mobile applications for Android and iOS are developed by appropriate programming languages – Objective-C, Swift in the case of iOS, and Java or Kotlin – in the case of the Android platform.

What is a Native app development?

The native development approach stands for building a project for one specific platform – Android or iOS, using the technologies, frameworks, and tools specific for these platforms. The projects for Android are done via Java and Kotlin, Swift, and Objective C in the case of iOS. In this form of development, the main emphasis is on application based on the opportunities of the OS for which it is created. Features are easily added to apps because the developers can directly use hardware specifications like GPS, camera, microphone, etc. 

What is Hybrid development?

Hybrid applications can be determined as integrated solutions for web and mobile platforms, where the core apps lays in web format within the native platform. The code is developed with such web development tools as HTML, CSS, JS, and embedded into mobile app vie plugins. Plugins play the role of a bridge between web codebase and native mobile application. Simply said hybrid apps act in embedded browsers as configs in native apps. Android OS uses WebView, while iOS relies on WKWebView to display application content in a native app environment.

Now, let us talk about the main advantages and drawbacks of these two approaches.

Pros and cons of Hybrid mobile apps

Pros

The biggest advantage of hybrid mobile apps is the opportunity to write one universal codebase, applicable to every platform. No need to mess with Android, iOS, or web platforms – written once, used everywhere. When choosing a hybrid app development over native, a company doesn’t need to hire iOS and Android teams to fulfill the task. A small group of high qualified proffies will handle the task in a relatively short time, later adding necessary functionalities and updating the app with new versions. A relatively small team (in comparison with joined iOS

and Android development teams) and short time cost-cutes the expanses of the whole development process. 

The opportunity of storing data locally while offline is available on some hybrid apps. This is great in case of mapping, tutorials and etc. Hybrid apps are easily maintained due to HTML and other web languages. There is no need to think about new OS releases and worry about your app infrastructure and functionality of possible disorders.        

All native apps, created for iOS and Android platforms are gone under Google’s and Apple’s play markets’ strict guidelines before allowed to be released there. Web apps don’t need to go through such procedures. This is ideal for businesses, especially when they need a quick and easy launch of their product.     

Updates as new native apps go through approval procedures in App and Play store, while hybrid apps’ updates can be submitted instantly and allow your users to access the latest features of the app. 

Cons

With all undeniable advantages, hybrid apps have drawbacks that must be taken into account, while deciding on your future mobile app development approach. Even though hybrid apps are flexible and independent on the platform, they can’t access hardware-specific features (for example AR/VR).        

To approach the hybrid application extra steps of opening a browser, typing, or bookmarking URL are needed. In the case of Native apps, you need only to tap on the application icon to start using it. It is hard to monitor the usage and performance data unless users create an account and log in every time they load an application. It could be distracting to add a login window to collect this data for app improvement and reduce engagement. 

Pros and cons of Native mobile apps

Pros

Mobile apps traditionally are developed with the same technology as the OS where they are run. While Google’s Android OS is developed by Java, iOS – by Swift, the traditional applications on these OSs are traditionally developed with these programming languages. The main recognized advantages of native mobile apps are their performance, functionality, and native feel. 

As the development language of OS and its’ application is done by the same technologies and programming languages, native mobile applications don’t face compatibility conflict with OS. This makes native apps faster, more scalable in comparison with cross-platform solutions.       

While developing a native mobile application, developers often use Google’s or Apple’s already developed building blocks by putting together ready native features as blocks. This allows us to do the job faster and better, as all these blocks are already written, bug-checked, tested, even retested. So the functionality, speed, and quality of native mobile applications rise several times. ach operating system has specific UI elements and working logic. The native development approach gives a specific native feel, intuitive, and easy usage algorithm unusual for hybrid ones.

Cons 

Developing a native mobile application means first of all building at least two different applications, as the logic, architecture for different platforms are quite different. Hence, not only two different teams are needed, while developing a native mobile application, but also at least twice as much budget. Actually, in the case of native apps doubles not only the development cost, but also the risk, bugs, time, and etc. 

Here are the main drawbacks of the native approach:        

As native mobile apps are developed for specific platforms, using specific tech stacks, they lack flexibility and need an in-detail approach.    

More than one team engaged in the development process leads to development expenses increase not only because of development costs but also for testing and other aspects.         

Each platform has its’ unique codebase, hence the bugs will be different and unique, and separate testing will be needed for each OS.         

In spite of the fact that native mobile apps are more secure, they are not good for companies with a little budget, as they are not profitable for SMBs and low-budget startups. Based on Statista’s record, there are 2560 000 applications in app markets, where hybrid apps are the majority because of flexibility and affordability.

Technologies & Frameworks for Hybrid App Development

In the fast-paced information world more and more businesses switch from desktop to mobile applications for solving vital problems and control their online exposure. The boom of mobile applications created an urgent need for hybrid app development frameworks. These solutions allow finding the tools and technologies your business needs most.

Hybrid mobile applications are developed with the help of cross-platform programming tools, which gives an opportunity to save considerable coding time. The best development tools for hybrid app development are React Native, PhoneGap, NativeScrips, Ionic, etc. The usage of these frameworks helps to distribute the created hybrid apps to native application stores.

PhoneGap (Apache Cordova)

Formerly known as Apache Cordova, PhoneGap is the main framework for developing hybrid mobile applications. The tool’s APIs connect the native apps’ SDKs and utilized native mobile application functionality. The service has APIs (a set of system communication functions and procedures that connect with the native app SDKs to utilize native app functionality.

React Native

Created by Facebook in 2013 ReactNative is a hybrid app development framework that got huge popularity among the developers’ community. With ReactNative you can develop hybrid mobile applications only with JavaScript. The usage of this framework helps the developer to save considerable coding time and efforts, as ReactNative uses native UI dev blocks that are connected with JS and React. Obviously, it is easy for JS developers to work with the React Native framework, which explains its’popularity. This framework has huge acceptance among developers and is used in such companies as Tesla, Skype, Walmart, etc.

Ionic

Ionic is one of the most used hybrid mobile app development frameworks, bound with PhoneGap (Apache Cordova). The framework uses JS, CSS, Sass, and HTML5 in the work. It is 100% free and uses the open-source SDK in the development process. With over 120 native device features, along with PhoneGap plugins and TypeScript extensions Ionic is a perfect tool for hybrid mobile development. 

Xamarin

Used in Microsoft environment, Xamarin is Cordova analog. It allows for creating cross-platform applications, using .NET and C#. With Xamarin, mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Windows can be developed. Xamarin also provides a cloud service for application testing.

NativeScript

Utilizing native UI components, NativeScript provides an experience similar to native mobile apps. It uses pure JS and also gives access o native APIs. Today it is used along with Angular and TypeScript in hybrid app development. 

Technologies & Frameworks for Native App Development

Whether mobile or desktop, every single Apple application is developed using Xcode – a MAC OS special software. This environment helps Apple programmers do their job with ease and quality. This software gives App developers an opportunity to choose between C++, Objective C, Swift, or C, however, when an App store was launched first in 2008, all iOS applications were developed in Objective C.

Objective-C

One of the most dynamic and practical object-oriented programming language, Objective-C was chosen by Apple for its functionality and timing. However, with technological progress, C++ and Objective-C yielded their place to more flexible and better solutions. 

Swift

Today Swift is the main programming language for creating native mobile applications. Originally realized by Apple it took the Apple community by storm and became the most popular technology for creating native applications. Simplified code, better performance, and encryption speed made Swift superior over Objective-C. Moreover, Swift provides a higher level of security, a dynamism that puts iOS applications at a higher level. 

Android Native Apps

Java APIs, used by C and C++ libraries are used in Android native apps development. The reason why Android didn’t give up on C++ is its connection with Java. 

Java

Released in 1996, Java still remains one of the most used object-oriented programming languages in the world! From web apps to native mobile apps, Java is still used in developing them, because of the reliability, security, and scalability this technology provides. Java allowed Netflix to host above 55million users spread over the 50 countries and stream a billion hours of content. Today, there are about 2billion daily requests of Java processes!!! Impressed?

 Android studio

Google, like Apple, uses its own environment for native mobile apps development. And this environment is well known Android studio, which allows Android developers to access native C++ libraries and a whole set of Java APIs directly from the Studio.

Why You Should Opt for Native Apps?

Let’s look at statistics to understand the demands and expectations of the users. According to eMarketer, 90% of mobile internet users spend on applications. During the 2019-2020 period, the gap between the mobile application and browser usage continued to increase.

According to the above mention record users spend 4 hours/day on mobile

internet, 88% of which goes to application usage. 

Let us look at a few numbers to understand what’s going on in the mobile application market.

•       Statista states there are about 10000 new Android apps per month published in Google Play Store.
•       There are about 30000 new iOS apps released every month in Apple App Store 42Matters states.
•       The total number of available apps on Google Play Store currently hits 2.9 million, based on the Statista record.
•     Currently, there are about 44 million apps released in Apple App Store according to Statista.

Deciding on opting for one of the above mentioned technologies remember once and for all, there is no complete winner: both native and hybrid mobile applications have advantages and drawbacks. Your choice highly depends on your business logic, demands, technical team’s decision, etc.