With the rapid growth of the mobile consumer market, owning a phone app seems like a great idea. Because of this trend, business owners start asking, “hybrid app vs native app, which one should I choose?”
Answering this question is not too difficult, but first, you must understand the difference between these two types of applications. They have different strengths and weaknesses. Read through this article and determine how appropriate they are for your business.
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What Is A Hybrid App?
The term “hybrid app” was first introduced by Facebook in 2011. The first multi-platform framework was released for iPad and Android, with HTML5 core.
You can understand that a hybrid app is a combination of a web app and a native app. In essence, its codebase is written in web programming languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). However, its appearance is designed to look like a native application.
To wrap it with a native app appearance, the developers used WebView to hide the browser bar, filter the content from the web page, etc.
Then, the hybrid app is further covered by the Apache Cordova (PhoneGap) solution. After this step, it will have an appearance that is no different from a regular app.
Besides, by using the plug-in, the hybrid app can access many phone functions, such as camera, contacts, etc.
It can also be distributed on application markets (Appstore, CH Play) like native mobile apps. Instagram is one of the most popular hybrid apps for mobile users.
What Is A Native App?
Native mobile apps need to be programmed in a specific programming language for each operating system. Therefore, a mobile app can only be used for a single operating system. In other words, apps written for Android won’t run on iOS.
For example, iOS native apps need to be developed using Swift or Objective-C. Meanwhile, that of Android is written by either Kotlin or Java.
However, the native apps building process does not require any third-party help. The native app features and functions are also highly diverse by using the platform’s default solutions.
Owing to the native app developing method, it can access most of the device’s capabilities. Its owner can even get the user’s address with the native app. The performance of native apps is also usually speedy and accurate. Therefore, most mobile games today are native apps. Another example of a native app, that most of us know, is Facebook.
Hybrid App Vs Native App – 9 Biggest Differences
Hybrid apps and native apps are two types of applications that receive a lot of attention from business owners. Today we will help you compare them to determine which one is the best sense of finance for your company! Let’s see hybrid app vs native app, which one is better!
1. App Development Cost
The most important aspect for a business to consider is the economic factor. No company wants to invest in something costly with low profitability. To compare hybrid app vs native apps, let’s first look at the development budgets of these two app types.
To make a native app, you will need a high financial plan. This budget will mainly allocate for coding and human resources. Since iOS and Android require specialized programming languages, you will need two separate teams for them.
The periodic update also dramatically increases the application development cost. You will have to pay for the new version build fee and the app marketplace’s re-submission cost, which is also quite expensive.
In addition, the complexity of the application and the variety of features will also affect the price quite a bit. Usually, simple applications will be at least two times cheaper than complex applications.
The price of building a simple native app is usually around $38,000 to $91,000, an average one is about $55,000 to $131,000, and a complex application will range from $91,550 to $250,000.
About the hybrid app, owning core website technology is one of its great strengths. It simplifies the application development process and doesn’t need two development teams like native apps.
This advantage will help optimize application development costs.
Unlike native apps, updates of hybrid ones usually won’t need to wait for authorization from app marketplaces. Its new version must only be checked if there is a change to the application’s core. In other cases, this process of Appstore and Play Store can be omitted.
The price of a hybrid app also depends on its complexity. The average hybrid app cost is between $5,000 and $100,000.
2. Time to market
Usually, the build time of a native app is long because it depends a lot on the platform it is developed on.
Native apps have multiple codebases. Therefore, its construction is quite complicated, requiring the technical team to invest a lot of time and effort. Not to mention the fixing bugs step that arises during the building process.
Usually, the development time of a native app will be at least 800 hours, depending on the functional complexity of the application. Some apps can take years to finish.
The hybrid app contains only a single codebase, so its development is more straightforward and less time-consuming. Errors that might appear during and after development will be more minor. The technical team can also fix them faster.
The time-to-market of a hybrid app will usually be shorter and last between 200 and 5000 hours. It also depends on how complicated the app is.
Whether it is a native app or a hybrid app, you need to wait for approval from the platforms after you have completed the application. This process will take 2 to 3 weeks.
3. Maintenance and update difficulty
After a period of operation, mobile apps cannot avoid errors. Regular maintenance sessions are indispensable to fix them. In addition, new versions also play an important role in refreshing the application and attracting users’ attention. Revenue will surely increase thanks to these changes.
However, due to too much codebase, the maintenance of native apps is often time-consuming. This leads to a slower response to errors and annual festivals.
The frequency of in-app promotion events plays a vital role in maintaining customers’ interest in your business. Updates that take too long will result in fewer event updates and a drop in revenue.
Thanks to the hybrid app’s simple codebase, the headaches of the native app don’t affect it at all. It is uncontroversial that building a new hybrid version is much simpler and faster than a native app.
4. User experience
This is one of the most outstanding strengths of native apps. Its compatibility with operating systems is immense since specialized programming languages write it. In a word, it was born specifically for those platforms.
Thanks to this building technique, the app performance will be optimized, improving user experience while using native applications.
This is the aspect that the native app has no match. While they can work cross-platform, hybrid apps are unlikely to reach the level of native apps. To enhance a hybrid app’s UX, developers often need plug-ins.
5. App performance
Having special codebases written in programming languages for only iOS and Android operating systems, the performance of native apps is stable and smooth.
While in use, native apps are fully capable of reaching the maximum performance of the platforms they are built on. Their efficiency is even better when connecting phone functions such as camera, image processing, video, etc.
There is an intermediate layer between the source code and the target platform for hybrid apps. The data from the core can’t go straight to platform features. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why its performance is usually not as good as a native app. Loading content can also be slower.
6. Offline mode
This is a very headache problem for people living in rural areas or who often have to take public transport. Due to their unstable internet connections, they often have offline access to the application.
The hybrid app is accessible both offline and online very well, thanks to its native cover. However, while using offline mode, the content won’t be able to update as usual, and they can only access what they have loaded and used before.
The activities they performed while offline will still be sent to the server as soon as the internet connection becomes stable again.
Native apps can support offline access even better. Many native apps don’t even need the internet to run most functions. The offline user activities are sent to the server as soon as the network is available.
7. Consistent multi-platform experience
The multi-platform framework is a “one for all” application. It can easily be extensible across different operating systems. The applications will be almost the same without too much editing.
This happens thanks to the web technology (HLMT, CSS, and JavaScript) on IOS, Android, and Windows platforms, which is almost 100% similar.
Besides, the code of the hybrid app is reusable without having to rewrite from scratch like the native app.
Thanks to that, users could have an identical experience across platforms. This will make it easier for users to adapt and be more comfortable when changing platforms.
In contrast, the codebases of native apps are specific to the operating system they are built for. Applications need to be rewritten from the beginning for each operating system. It’s not possible to have a consistent experience as hybrid apps.
8. The Information Security
For firms doing business in sensitive fields, such as fintech, security issues are often of great concern to many customers.
It can be seen that for native apps, security is one of their best strengths. There are many ways to increase security because it has direct access to the phone’s functions.
For multi-platform apps, this is more of a challenge. Hackers can penetrate through security holes in hybrid apps’ web technology source code. However, it is not impossible to solve this problem.
The most obvious example is Evernote, which already uses TOTP or Google Authenticator to verify the user’s identity. This helps prevent cracker attacks.
9. Reliance on app stores
Native apps have a pretty big dependency on app marketplaces. However, these markets’ support for native apps isn’t great.
In contrast, Google and Apple are now more inclined to welcome combined apps. You can get more organic downloads thanks to this preference.
Also, as mentioned, the multi-platform app’s updates won’t need to be re-submitted unless it’s changed in the original code. This can save you from 7 to 14 days of waiting, depending on the time of year.
In addition, with native apps, a business often launches their app for one platform first, then the other version will follow sometime later. This can be due to developing an app on one platform being more complicated than the other.
Take Instagram, for example. It took them 2 years to release their Android app. This unfairness can inadvertently annoy the users of the other platform.
Bottom Line
As can be seen, the most significant difference between these two applications is their development method. It affected all related factors like price, time, effort, etc. It is also what creates the benefits and limitations of the application. The native app is awesome, but it’s not a reason to fret away from hybrid apps, as long as you reach out to the right hybrid app development provider like Tigren.
Based on those differences, along with factors belonging to your company (such as resources, business industry, customer characteristics, and the like), you will be able to evaluate which type of framework has more potential.
Above is all information about hybrid app vs native app. Hope you can choose the right app now. Thanks for reading!
Read More:
What Is Hybrid Mobile App Development? Definition, Benefits, Cost, FAQs
Hybrid App vs Progressive Web App: What’s The Difference?
13 Excellent Hybrid App Examples In 2022 That Will Inspire You
