The mobile application plays a vital role in every segment of life. Whether you want to book a flight ticket or watch a movie, everything is possible using your mobile app. Due to such apps, life has become easy, and we can save more time and money. Even in this pandemic, we can see how beneficial and essential it has become in our life.
The mobile application has also become fruitful for businesses. Probably, every company with an online presence or those who are planning to have an online presence wants their specific mobile application. There are a lot of questions that arise, and people become so confused about everything about their mobile app.
The most basic query of them is what would be the type of mobile application? Will it be a hybrid app or a native app? It is a more concrete question that they have no idea about specific types of apps.
Firstly, we need to understand the difference so they can decide which will be better to choose. We will know the difference one by one.
What is a Native Application?
A Native application is an approach of mobile application that is developed for specific mobile operating systems such as android, IOS, etc. These apps are installed through an application store (such as Google Play or Apple’s App Store). These applications have a special ability by which they can easily access and utilize the built-in capabilities of specific OS devices.
Hence, these applications are native apps for a reason because these are inherent to the device’s OS and runs accordingly. As these apps are developed under a secure environment, it has fast performance.
Characteristics of Native application
- A native app is found to be highly authentic.
- These apps are easy to understand so people can easily use it because it has built-in operations.
- It has high and fast performance.
- These apps offer a better user experience
- These apps can be used for both online and offline operations.
Advantages of Native application
- As we know, these apps are made respectively of OS, it provides an extensive service on their potential device.
- These apps have a push notification feature.
- These apps also provide a user interface (UI), which tone with the user experiences of the OS.
- It has found users feel more secure and better when they use an application that is more reliable with their device’s OS.
Disadvantages of Native application
- These apps are developed on the basis of the Operating system so there are multiple codebases. Every device holds different versions that also make it a longer process for development.
- It is slightly expensive due to the load of coding required for building and handling such applications.
- It takes more time because it is built-in to the OS. So, for different platforms, there will be more time required for updates and other things.
What is a Hybrid Application?
A Hybrid application is an application that is developed using both native and web applications. The application is created using the language like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and it further merges in the native application.
These applications take help from internal application program interfaces (APIs) to access the mobile device’s feature. As they don’t come up with in-built functionality, they use such APIs to run offline.
A hybrid application’s features are the same as a web application as both can be easily accessible. You can access the web application using any web browser. Similarly, you can download a hybrid app from a web browser and run it over any OS.
Characteristics of Hybrid Application
- These applications can be operated on any OS.
- With the help of APIs, it runs without an internet connection, unlike web apps.
- It can use the in-built feature of any OS with the help of API.
- It uses a single code base for multiple platforms.
Advantages of Hybrid application
- It can run over different platforms efficiently and effectively. It has a consistent User Interface that makes it workable on every device.
- It is fastest to develop and maintain because it requires a single code base for multiple platforms.
- It is inexpensive in comparison.
Disadvantages of Hybrid application
- It is dependent on plugins to access in-built features.
- As it is similar to web apps, it might need an internet connection.
- Hybrid apps usually don’t offer a good user experience.
What to Choose?
Till now, we have understood a lot about both approaches. What to choose depends on various factors like time, budget, etc. Usually, hybrid apps have not been founded well for the long term because there are more UI complications there, and also, in terms of security, it is weak. In contrast, native apps can use features of the OS and are more secure comparatively. A native application might be costly, but as far it is efficient and effective.
So, after considering all the above points, both sets of technologies have their unique advantages and disadvantages. So, after considering your specific requirements, timeline, budget, complexity in features, the security aspects, and so on – you must do the careful selection.
