“Mobile is not the future, it is the now. Meet your customers in the environment of their choice, not where it is convenient for you.”
In today’s era, mobile phones are everywhere in different sizes, shapes and prices and they are filled with apps. . Apps became a necessary evil. Since they are faster than websites, their usage increased. Their usage varies from entertainment to shopping, from traveling to cooking, from selling to buying and much more.
According to Statista, in 2023, the current number of smartphone users in the world today is 6.92 billion, meaning 86.29% of the world’s population owns a smartphone. 21% of Millennials open an app 50+ times per day.
Did you ever wondered what kind of app are you using while shopping online or watching a video?
There are three main options for creating and developing a mobile app.
Types of Mobile Apps
- Native Apps: Native apps are designed to work on one particular operating system or platform.
- Web Apps: A Web app is similar to native apps which is browser-based that can deliver similar functionality of an app and solely accessible through web browser.
- Hybrid Apps: A hybrid app combines elements of both native and web applications. They are developed for both web or mobiles.
Native, Web App, or Hybrid: A Comparison
| Native Apps | Web Apps | Hybrid Apps |
| Native apps are developed to work on one operating system. | Web apps are responsive websites that are dependent on browsers, not operating systems. | Hybrid apps are created to work on more than one operating system or platform. |
| Native apps are built using Java, Swift, Objective-C. | HTML5 is generally used to build Web Apps. | Hybrid apps are built using a combination of HTML5 and languages like Java. |
| Native cost more to develop. It costs more if it has to be developed for multiple platforms. | Cost less than native or hybrid apps. | Cost less than native apps, but requires higher skills. |
| Performance of native apps is best, so a good user experience is guaranteed. | Web apps are responsive but are much slower when compared to native applications. | Hybrid apps perform based on the user interface and are slower than native apps. |
| Building native apps is a time-consuming process. | Take the least amount of time to develop. | Hybrid apps take less time to develop than native ones. |
| Upgrades are automatic | Easily updatable with the internet. | Difficult to upgrade. |
| Tools: XCode, AppCode | Tools: Django | Tools: React Native, Flutter |
| Example: WhatsApp, Facebook. | Example: Pinterest, Google Docs | Example: Instagram, Wikipedia. |
So, Which one should you choose?
Native, mobile web, and hybrid applications each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Deciding which to choose is based on criteria like their performance, cost of production, time consumption, and features. Find the one that suits your needs considering the advantages and disadvantages of each one.