Hybrid vs Cross-platform App Development – Which is Better for Performance, Security & Complex Business Needs?

Introduction

The popularity of smartphones is growing in every corner of this beautiful planet that is becoming a hotbed of innovations. Much of this innovation from a business perspective is related to mobility solutions. The rise of mobile application development over the last decade on a global level has been so stunning that it would not be possible to believe if we do not have these statistics shown below:

Statista reports that,

• There are 6 billion mobile users out of the total population of 8 billion people. Stunning, isn’t it?
• As we enter 2023 now, it is predicted that the number of app downloads worldwide would be around 299 billion by the end of this year.
• This shows a rise of around 50 billion app downloads to the figures of 247 billion in 2020.
• Mobile apps are projected to have USD 935 billion in revenues via paid apps, in-app purchases, and in-app advertising models.

Just have a look at the image shown below which shows the number of app downloads in recent years:

While these are a few of many, there are way more reasons why businesses are finding the right mobile app development company to build a custom mobility solution. After all, it is exactly what is needed to accelerate business growth, increase visibility, and bring their products closer to the target audience than ever before.

Mobile App Development Process Categorization

Mobile application development services are further categorized into three different subsets: Native mobile app development, Cross-platform app development, and Hybrid app development.

We all know that native mobile app development is considered the best approach as it gives a unique user experience, performance, and customization to make the best use of hardware devices and OS upgrades. However, there are a few more reasons why hybrid and cross-platform app development services are dominating the world of building mobile apps.

And even brands like Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, Evernote, Uber, Airbnb, Tesla, etc. have leveraged cross-platform app development or hybrid app development services. It is a well-known fact that hybrid mobile apps and cross-platform mobile apps are popular among enterprises, SMEs, and startups. They use a single codebase to build apps for multiple operating systems including Android, iOS, Windows, etc.

With time, new ways of delivering greater mobile experiences to app users are increasing. And as there are multiple methods of developing a mobile app, there is a question that remains always on people’s minds who are looking to build their next mobile app – Should I opt for Cross-platform app development or Hybrid app development for my business?

In this article, we will show you the main differences between hybrid app development and cross-platform app development, and what to choose when app security and app performance are prioritized.

Native vs Hybrid vs Cross-platform App Development: The Basics

Let us start with a basic understanding of what they actually are and what they consist of.

What is Native App Development?

Native app development comprises specific tools, frameworks, and languages for a specific OS. It means a set of everything specifically used to create native Android apps, and a different set of everything to build native iOS apps. For Android, Android Studio works as an IDE, and Kotlin or Java can be chosen as the coding language. Whereas for iOS, Xcode works as IDE, Objective-C or Swift can work as the programming language.

As a result, two separate resource teams, development environments, and coding efforts are needed to build two separate apps to target Android and iOS users.

Native App Development benefits more when the project scope includes more device-specific features, no-code portability, advanced GUI experience, high development cost, better performance, and access to device hardware.

What is Hybrid App Development?

Hybrid app development framework blends web technologies and elements into mobile technologies to deliver the power of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS3. A codebase is created using them and then wrapped inside a native container called the WebView. This is where the UX and access to limited hardware functionalities are added. This is how a standout mobile app is created.

Tools like Apache Cordova, Ionic, and Visual Studio are used to create stunning hybrid mobile apps. The hybrid app development approach is ideal when there are fewer device-specific features, high code portability, moderator GUI experience, low development cost, average performance, and moderate access to device hardware in the project scope.

What is Cross-platform Development?

The cross-platform development approach uses a native rendering engine to create native-like app experiences. The codebase, as in the hybrid app development, is written in JS that connects to native components via the so-called bridges. This provides close-to-native UX.
Cross-platform apps are free of platform hook. They offer seamless functionality, easy implementation, and cost-effective production. Yet, do not expect outstanding performance. Customization is also a pain since it is limited to the framework you use. Yes, mobile developers use the same native elements to create the app, but they differ in providing a great user experience with different UI.
Flutter, React Native, and Xamarin are the popular frameworks used to create cross-platform mobile applications to deliver native-like UX. They offer seamless functionality, easy implementation, and cost-effective production.

Hybrid App vs Cross-platform App: What to Choose and When?

As a top mobile application development company in Canada and USA, Bytes Technolab Inc has world-class expertise in delivering end-to-end software solutions. This also includes helping our clients with a human touch in deciding the right approach and technology stack with our discovery workshop that will boost the chances of success for your next mobile app development project.

We will now have a look at our striking aspects of Mobile App Performance, Security, and complex business needs.

• App Performance

There is no competition if native app development is a viable option for businesses looking to develop a mobile app. At the same time, the cost of mobile app development to create two native mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms would almost double that of developing a cross-platform app or hybrid app.

For budget-constrained projects and those who need to release products faster, it remains a competition between hybrid and cross-platform app development. For better performance, it is essential to integrate next-gen features of the upcoming version of smartphones. This is where after the native app development, the second preferable decision is to go all out for best cross-platform app development.

Flutter and React Native are also the two most popular cross-platform app development frameworks right now to integrate and deliver native-like experiences.

• App Security

The security of your next mobile application should be the priority regardless of the project scope and all the factors. App security has been the key issue to address in recent years. A single security breach could cost millions of dollars and serious damage to your brand and reliability in the market. There is nothing more critical than your customer’s personal and financial data.

Native apps, for sure, are more secure than hybrid and cross-platform combined, as they have more built-in security features based on the native OS. It leaves us with a debate as many believe that Hybrid apps are more vulnerable compared to cross-platform applications as they are also not safe from browser threats along with others.

• App Functionalities

Though native app development leads the game in this, we will try and keep our focus on the choice between cross-platform and hybrid app development. It is all about developing and integrating features that make the most of the hardware’s latest functionalities. 

For example, smartphone features including fingerprint authentication, face recognition, image recognition, camera features, scrolling, navigation, etc. are the latest and one would want to integrate them into the next mobile app to deliver next-gen experiences.

Definitely, most of these features are simply not possible to be implemented using the Hybrid app development approach. However, a cross-platform mobile app development approach will allow us to include a majority of them to deliver around 90% of a native-like app feel and experience.

• Application Complexity

Again cross-platform app development wins the race here compared to hybrid app development. Our React Native developers and Flutter developers have crafted and built custom mobile applications with bespoke and customer modules. We always advise enterprises and SMEs to go for MVP development using cross-platform technologies as long as the project scope does not require extensive coding.

Hybrid app development is preferred only when the project scope is simple and does not require major animations and complex features.

Ideal Scenarios to Use Hybrid & Cross-platform Development

When to Choose Hybrid App Development?

• You have a bigger audience who will use your app on many platforms – mobile and web
• When you develop simple apps to connect with your customers without major animations and other complex features
• When you are time-bound and want to create an application to launch on multiple platforms
• Test your idea in Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

When to Choose Cross-platform App Development?

• Initially low on budget, cross-platform is the ideal choice for a full-fledged app or an MVP app.
• If you are unaware of which groups to target, launch your app to target both audiences.
• Your app is not complex and does not require extensive coding.
• You want UI performance to match with Native apps as it shares a similar codebase.
• You may wish to add features quickly as the code base requires only a little tweaking.

Comparison Table: Native vs Hybrid vs Cross-platform

To summarize, the following table presents the general characteristics of all three forms of mobile app development approaches.

Final Takeaways

Regardless of the industry your business falls into, businesses in 2023 must join the bandwagon of building a customized mobile application and integrate cutting-edge technologies like AI-ML, AR-VR, Blockchain, IoT, etc. 

As far as the selection for custom mobile app development services is concerned, it all depends on a case-to-case basis. Every project idea is unique and beautiful in its own way and which is why you need experts like us to shed some light on your project journey before it even begins, right?

Our hybrid app developers and cross-platform app developers will collaborate with you, hear your ideas, ask the right questions, and make futuristic recommendations to define a strategic roadmap. 

Don’t have an in-house mobile dev team and wish to hire or scale up to accelerate your next mobile app development project? No problem. Bytes Technolab also offers flexible engagement models to let you hire and onboard your own team in 48-72 working hours. Contact our business team for more details and let’s build a great mobile app together for you.