The Difference between Hybrid App Vs Native App

The rise in the demand and use of mobile devices has precipitated the design and development of various applications to meet the needs of the teeming population of users of smartphones. The development of mobile application has, therefore, evolved through different phases to meet the needs of users on different platforms or environments on or for which their smartphones are made. 

Meanwhile, these apps are categorized into two classes: native apps and hybrid apps. While considering these apps, several questions come to mind about how they are made; the technologies used to create them, platforms they are designed to run, and much more. All these questions will be answered in this informative and intriguing write-up.

>> Looking for building a mobile application? : Connect with Sales

What is a Native App?

A native app is a program or software that is designed and developed to perform specific functions on a designated or specific platform or environment. It is observed that applications that were designed taking the peculiarities of their platforms into consideration offer the best benefits while those applications made on the hybrid platform can be customised for a specific environment.

A native app primarily refers to applications that are developed in the native language of their terminal. Considering the platform on which a particular application will function, a specific language for it’ll be used for example apps that will run on Android OS are developed using Java while apps meant to run on the iOS are usually developed using Objective C and Swift, and Windows applications are developed using C# and Visual Basic Net. In summary, native apps are software developed for specific software framework, operating system or hardware platform.

Reasons for Native Apps

Native apps are preferred by most developers due to the cutting-edge over hybrid apps. And here are some of the reasons native apps are preferred:

Native apps are developed by the standards and tools created by the OS companies like Apple and Google hence any new feature introduced in iOS or Android will definitely be first available to the native apps.

Investing in native app makes sure that the language and technology will last longer. Objective-C/Swift and Android SDK based apps have been staying for about a decade now, while many hybrid frameworks came and gone!

Native SDKs access devices’ features without being subjected to the complexities of native plugins.

Native code is, undoubtedly, faster than HTML and JavaScript. Hence, HD games, graphical applications, and intensive animation applications perform well as native apps.

These aren’t dependent upon open source libraries and platforms.

Downsides of Native Apps

Despite their high level of reliability and performance, native apps also have their disadvantages, and they are explained below:

They require separate development processes for each platform, and that takes more development time.

Each platform will have its code, release cycle, and updates, and all these increase cost and development time.

Updating native apps across all platforms with the same features concurrently is exceptionally challenging due to the different code base.

It is costlier to develop and maintain the same application on all platforms.

>> Looking for building a mobile application? : Connect with Sales

What is a Hybrid App?

A hybrid app is a program that combines many features of native apps and web browser. Hybrid apps are developed for a predetermined platform, but they must be installed on devices. Some of the benefits of hybrid apps include their ability to run like real apps and work offline.

Besides, hybrid apps are similar to native apps because they can also be downloaded from different platforms’ app stores like native apps. They will share the features of native apps and also perform close to native apps.

Meanwhile, it should be mentioned that hybrid apps are developed and built using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. As a result, they run in webView using the same engine that browsers use. In the same, hybrid apps can be developed for any platform from a single code base, that explains the reason for their versatility and functionality across multiple platforms.

Reasons for Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps are the favorites of some programmers and organizations for many reasons having considered the downsides of native apps. Here are some of the reasons hybrid apps are more preferred to native apps.

Hybrid apps needs just a single code base for all platforms. They are developed once, and they can run on all platforms, unlike native apps that must be built for each platform separately.

The same development team that developed a website can also deliver a hybrid app for all platforms because hybrid apps require web technologies.

Since hybrid apps depend on web technologies, they can also run on browsers or as Progressive WebApp (PWA).

Hybrid apps can also achieve similar, enhanced hardware-based performance acceleration like native apps.

Hybrid apps provide the same and constant user experience across all platforms irrespective of the devices or browsers used.

Downsides of Hybrid Apps

Regardless of the universality of hybrid apps, they have their shortcomings. Below are the failures of hybrid apps:

They may not perform excellently for HD and 3D games, high-performance and high graphics-oriented apps.

They depend on native plugins to access all the native device options and features.

Hybrid apps depend on various frameworks and libraries and since they are not officials from Google or Apple they might be outdated anytime.

From the foregoing, it is clear that both native apps and hybrid apps are indispensable in the apps marketplace. The decision to create either native app or hybrid app depends on what you are looking at for your company or business in terms of purpose of developing the app. If you are seeking a good mobile app development company then you can contact us.