Hybrid VS Native mobile app development, Which is better?

Published on May 25, 2020

App development, especially for mobile apps, is still a lot of concern. As we step into the first mobile environment, several mobile app businesses face a growing challenge – which should we choose? Should we build a native, mobile web, or hybrid app?

The answer depends on the priorities of your company and many aspects like:

• How fast do you need the app?
• If you develop any part of the app in-house?
• What are you trying to accomplish with the app?
• Your budget for app development?
• What features do you need?

Let’s compare both native and hybrid app development and decide which one among them is good for app development.

Customer experience Can make or break your app performance

There’s one aspect of mobile that you should be mindful of before you dive into the nitty-gritty world of hybrid and native mobile applications.

You’ve just lost your phone and told yourself, “Oh, another time, I’m gonna find it. This is simply not so serious.?

No, not. Once you have lost your mobile phone, finding or replacing the phone is your main priority. Any other priority goes out of the window.

Every minute of the day your mobile device is with you. So since the device is always watching you, it wants to be attentive and trustworthy, giving you the responses you need. It is what all mobile users suspect.

Nobody has time for bad user experiences, including your clients and employees.

This might be known that hybrid apps and native apps don’t work, and if you choose a hybrid, try to make sure that you are aware that the experiences of your users will be affected.

There are many benefits to the use of hybrid, the app user experience must be a priority.

A company probably may make the most important decision as to how they build a mobile app.

• Do you want to surprise and target your users by developing an all-native application that suits your platform (Android or iOS)?
• Or would you like more of a simpler product solution and potentially create a hybrid framework, that can be launched across platforms?

This second option would probably create less than ideal user experiences and lousy performance, but will probably be easier to develop and maintain.

The native VS hybrid topic is discussed in hundreds of articles:

• Some argue that the war on both sides is over and most apps are hybrid.
• Others use a pragmatic approach to assess each strategy’s vulnerabilities, strengths, and risks.
• One source also says that one can resolve this crucial question definitively in just 5 minutes.

For every decision a company takes in the debate, it is of paramount importance to recognize the potential trade-offs and hurdles.

The key variables influenced by any of the two methods, such as web performance, user experience, market size, and development cycles, are discussed in this report.

Looking at the key variations between the two technology models, we conclude that given the initially higher spending, it would be easier for many companies to prefer natives over the longer-term rather than hybrids.

Native Vs Hybrid Applications – A Quick Summary

Native app:

A native application is a smartphone app designed for a mobile operating system,

• Objective C OR Swift for iOS
• Java for Android

Since the app has been built in stable ecosystems in compliance with the technological and user experiences guidelines in the OS, its performance is not only higher but also “feels good”

What it requires to feel good is that the interaction of the app has the same look and feel as the other native applications on the device. Therefore, the end-user can learn how to navigate and use the app more quickly.

In the end, native applications benefit a lot from the easy access and use of the device’s integrated power (e.g., GPS, address book, camera, etc.).

When a user sends SMS, or photos to the normal mobile software, sets recorders, or uses the music app (the system which came with the device’s phone), the device uses Native applications.

Native applications are just the same, coming from the User’s OS and also relying on these criteria.

Hybrid applications

Hybrid applications are, at the core, websites packaged into a native wrapper.

Such look and feel like a native app but are supported by a brand website outside the basic framework of the app (typically restricted to checks/navigation elements).

The key aspect is that the hybrid framework is an HTML5 and JavaScript web program, wrapped in a native container that loads the rest of the data on the website when the application has been navigated.

Here is a quick review Native Vs Hybrid Applications Comparison

Time to Market or Do It Right?

Typically once a company wants to create a mobile app, it either keeps playing with the competitors and may have already untapped a business chance.

No idea why executives want to develop and deliver the application ASAP.

As most people are aware, but, Right away also turns out that a lot of choices should be taken and actions taken mostly on run. Hybrid and native frameworks will execute the work but certain issues should be known right from the beginning.

First, a native approach is more beneficial if a company can wait 6 months or more before the app is launched. The best performance, security, and user experience are created for native applications.

If the time you would like to launch is less than 6 months, hybrid may be a better option as you can build the app in source code, release it across different platforms and the time and effort of development are much less in comparison to that of native apps.

Again, another heads up:

Your users will also EXPECT a fantastic experience. It really doesn’t matter what the team needs to do. They are going to open the app and EXPECT it is intuitive and quick.

Leaving the door may be the guarantee of mobile presence, but the quality of the mobile app is surely not guaranteed. When mobile app uses have rolled up typical navigation routes (desktop/laptop), mobile apps will continuously recognize the primary boosters or device detractors: speed and user experience.

In fact, the performance and user experience of the app are significantly different based on the chosen framework for development but in both cases, the native app solution is the undisputed winner.

How mobile app performance is important?

Also the most active supporters of hybrid applications are required to follow that the quality of native applications is winning the battle.

Just because of its nature a native app is quicker and more secure. When a user opens a native mobile app, the content, structure, and visual elements are already on their phone and are available for instant loading, thereby providing a seamless experience.

It is similar to downloading much of the native support of a website to a user’s device simultaneously, which is then eligible for rapid loading because of the data speeds of their device.

By comparison, a hybrid device will only have a wrapper that is downloaded from the server to the user’s phone (which may or may not include all of the navigation elements).

In this scenario, there are two main issues that that change the total quality of the app: the number of server requests (i.e., how many users make calls to the same server at the same time) and the load balance requests (these are requests from mobile devices hitting the same servers as desktop/laptop clients, or have servers designated).

Experts claim that hybrid applications are relying on a fall in the performance war considering all the efforts. John Long, who is a Mozilla developer, claims:

“There’s no evidence that the DOM [document object model, the API used to transfer information on to the mobile interface and the server] will ever be fast enough, and if it does, it’s on the mobile light-years away. I haven’t even seen a genuinely feasible technical description of how to make it significantly faster.”

More than analysts, 84% of users consider performance to be an important or important factor in this evaluation.

A key differentiating factor in the native vs hybrid topic: User experience

“User experience is extremely important to the success of an application.”

20 years ago, this statement, was not accepted by many executives. Most website pages were badly experienced at that time. Remember how, 20 years ago the websites of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo appeared. For example:

The current software development process is all about user experience.  In fact, a company has to adopt the ultimate perspective:

“How do I allow my user to perform a task without even providing them the chance to think they’re in a new app?”

A mobile user’s psychology is straight forward:

They’ve already got familiar with their phones through the steep learning curve, and the experience wasn’t without its difficulties. When users know how to use their smartphones, they do not want additional functionality unique to other applications to be learned. Users just want to carry on using their phone in the manner they feel that all applications on their computer can work from a navigational and social viewpoint.

It means the commands, interactions, visual signs, and motions of the program (if you’re on Android) will be integrated easily with the detailed design guide of your platform.

The user experience for mobile app consumers is so critical that 92% of all buyers will have some form of adverse reaction to the app: from never using it again to flipping to the mobile app of a rival, giving the product a bad ranking in the app store, and so much more.

All this information is important when deciding between native and hybrid solutions, to understand the user experience trade-off.

A native app is designed for a particular OS as we have seen above. When a company focuses on the process of creating a new app, the basic user experience with that OS is crucial to the market success of mobile apps.

When a hybrid technology has introduced the software becomes a deist platform. One UI-Easy and cool. You don’t have to hold two different codebases, in fact. This means which hybrid apps are easier to build, take less time to market, and require a single code base.

A hybrid app is not the easiest way to build an application that targets the two main users: ios users and Android users – the most clever user experience architect.

They are too different in style, often to the effect from a design point of view every decision is a choice that needs to be tested case by case against all the other strategic and tactical factors.

Another aspect to know to do nothing is the internal dynamics and release cycles of a company: What is your app development strategy?

Are you running a system that takes an agile approach or prefer a waterfall approach for mobile development?

How an App update strategy impact? : Native Vs Hybrid

This internal process matters as it has an effect on the way you produce products and how the user wants to take action in order to see their improvements.

Users do not usually have to upgrade the app in the app store for a hybrid program. If the current update is on a server loaded page, Users will automatically see the update when using the app. This is so simple.

The user will, then, upgrade the app to display the changes in native applications.

It is useful for most users who set auto-updates on wi-fi mobile phones but does not work for everyone. No one wants to interrupt their user every month or so by updating the app. It draws negative attention to the app, which could simply be uninstalled by the user.

Furthermore, you need to bear in mind that native has some advantages that are actually not provided by the hybrid form of growth when you settle about it if you’re native or hybrid.

Why Cross-Platform Sounds Perfect for Hybrid Development

That’s the reasons:

• Single code base across multiple platforms.
• Don’t have to update each app in the app store to wait for approvals.
• You can use your existing web talent and don’t need to bring on additional resources.
• Don’t need to do any API development since it’s all handled via the web.

Who wouldn’t want you to follow a hybrid approach?

Users who use the app. You don’t know what a mobile hybrid app is like, so that’s not really what they want.

Don’t you believe it?

The HTML 5 Hybrid Mobile App was used by Facebook to Native and users liked it!

Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that the mobile strategy of Facebook focused very much on HTML5, not native applications.

Cross-platform development is very popular these days. In fact:

• The company makes things a lot easier with an app outside the door.
• The development and implementation of new apps are also simpler.
• Software fixes can be implemented and published quickly for development on a device deist.
• The user does not see any clear change between a hybrid or a native app that is distributed via the app store like all other apps.

There is also a hybrid application that follows the philosophy of “getting back quickly” and learning from user feedback while hitting potential 90% of all users (which is the combined market share of both the iOS and Android users).

Moreover, before preferring hybrid over native, those limits must be understood.

• For a native app, the app’s performance and user experience are simply superior.
• The hybrid apps do not allow offline mode, which means they will not be able to do so when the user clicks to use the app in an ecosystem of bad reception or not.
• If the mobile application strategy allows the app for access to new platform features down the line, this can not be done or can be done even at high development costs.
• Likewise, a hybrid approach that not allow for specific native APIs.

Since a hybrid solution can short-term can save the company time and money, this would probably also lead to major additional costs in the long run.

Do You Really Need to Build an App to Work on Both Platforms Right Away?

The biggest mistake for decision-makers is that the app of their companies must be instantly available on Android and iOS.

Yeah, there are benefits to doing both, but do you necessarily have to be on all platforms RIGHT AWAY?

Let’s take Instagram for example.

It took Instagram two years to develop a version of Android!!! 2 years

“We are currently working on making the iPhone experience as solid as possible. Only then will we consider other platforms, but currently we have nothing to announce.” – Instagram FAQs 2010

I think you can wait for at least three if Instagram waited 2 years to develop an Android app.

The only time you should take a hybrid web application

If you want to create a hybrid web app:

• If you have fewer than four months for an update and choose to check the feasibility of the product in a small private sector, then choose Hybrid. When the test functions, then move on and present it to the public as quickly as you can. You saved money and energy if it doesn’t work.
• If a web-based software is being promoted by management, make sure they know the solution.

What’s best for you?

Both applications share their advantages and disadvantages. But native creation of software is easier than the production of hybrid apps. Although hybrid applications are useful for people with a reasonably low budget, if you have a better budget, they are not preferred. Users are the ultimate decision-makers and you need to deliver an excellent, interactive application with excellent UI and UX, which can only be on apps using Native platforms.

Savvient is a leading mobile device developer in India and if you’re searching for your successful software development service, contact us now.