Should you make a native or a hybrid mobile app?
Have you ever faced the question of whether a native app or a hybrid app is most appropriate for you. Native apps are those that are designed to work on only one mobile platform, while hybrid apps are those built for multiple platforms. There’s no one answer for every situation, so let’s look at various factors that are important to consider.
First of all, it’s really good to be considering this question at an early stage. If you make the right decision, you could save hours, even days of development time. However if you make the wrong decision you could end up with an application that’s not worth the time and effort you put into it.
It’s good to understand the basics about hybrid development and how it differs from the development of native applications. Hybrid apps are usually developed using third party tools, which often read in more commonly used programming languages such as: HTML, Ruby and Javascript code. They produce an application that works across several different mobile platforms.
Hybrid apps appear to offer the best of both worlds, by creating a native app that has web app within itself. By combining these methods, hybrid apps allow most of the functionality and user interaction a native app can offer, while also having web-rich content.
The table below outlines the pros and cons of the two possible approaches to building mobile apps.
| App Type | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Native | High user functionality and use of device hardware such as GPS and camera, Can take advantage of in-app purchasing, Easy platforms for delivery i.e. Apple’s App Store |
Have to be platform specific i.e. iOS, Android and Blackberry OS, Development time is separate for each platform |
| Hybrid | Functionality of a native app with the updated content of a web app, Cheaper and quicker to develop than native apps becase development time is shorter, Delivery through traditional app channels (app stores and markets) |
Can still be reliant on internet connection, Potential for app/device hacking when connected, Performance time of the app can be slower than a native app |
PhoneGap is the most popular hybrid app publishing tool and several web publishing tools have integrated with it. The first is Dreamweaver, one of the most popular tools for web designers. PhoneGap also integrates with JavaScript, and there are several JavaScript libraries that use touch actions, in order to work on mobile devices. These include JQueryTouch, JQueryMobile and SenchaTouch. If these tools are used to create a mobile website, it can quickly be converted to an app using PhoneGap.
From our experience the most successful hybrid apps are those that are quite simple, such as an RSS or news feed application, that do not use many native phone features such as the camera or the accelerometer. These apps are also limited to around five screens (or views or pages). We have found that larger or more complex hybrid applications perform significantly more slowly than the equivalent native apps. This is because hybrid tools aren’t able to optimise application performance for each platform.
Corona is an exception to this. It only publishes on iOS and Android but it produces good quality games. Corona uses a programming language called Lua, which is a scripting language. Lua is not difficult to learn, but is not a commonly used language either. Publishing for Corona costs the Corona licence and the individual app-store licence.
To sum up, when making the decision of whether to create a hybrid or native application you need to consider the following things: What is the purpose of the app? What features and functions will it includes? How large will it be?
The answers to these question can help you decide which type of app is right for you. To find out more about hybrid and native applications, leave a comment or send me a message.
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