hand-head-btn Contact Us
Mobile App Development

A Native, Hybrid or PWA? How To Decide And Choose The Best App For Your Business?

Today, users find mobiles as their best companion when it comes to curating valuable information at a fingertip as compared to desktop. The mobile experience is indeed key to complementing the user demands while influencing them to upsell.

As enhanced mobile experience matters, it depends on how you build your business apps. The option is immense in web and mobile app development technologies. But, do you think having just a native app is right to fulfill your business goals?

Certainly not. Today, any mobile app development company can offer a multitude of options in the design and development of your business app. On the other hand, customers also love to explore different scopes for their specific business needs. You can get hold of browser rendering or web technologies for hybrid application, leverage the benefits of cross-platform apps or more versatile forms of PWAs or progressive web apps.

Amidst the wide options in mobile app development, it is bending your mind. It puts you in trouble as you fail to make the right decision about the best performing apps including native, hybrid, and PWA.

To help you with the right decision about your choice of applications, a comprehensive comparison- native vs. hybrid vs. PWA can be well integrated to offer improved mobility experience to your customers.

Let’s find out which best features and specifications from this bouquet of app development mythologies matters most for your business and user experience.

[Also Read: How ECommerce Evolved – Magento Vs Shopify Vs Bigcommerce – Which One To Select And Why?]

Comparison between Native Apps V Hybrid Apps V PWA

As you comb through our analysis, you will develop a better learning curve, and choose the right one for your specific needs.

Native Apps – OS system intensified

Although it is not much into gleam, it offers high-performance, app stability, and simplicity. This is what makes an app successful. More often, native apps are so significant for promoting fluid user experience which is so relevant with complex graphics-based apps such as gaming or video streaming apps.
This is the very first step to building a native app for both operating systems.

Features

  • Designed and built for specific operating systems including Android or iOS
  • Convenient for Standard UX/UI design and development
  • Inbuilt support for hardware and software devices to increase app responsiveness
  • Better adaptability with inbuilt features such as camera, microphones, GPS, and special abilities
  • App development needs specific language curve
  • Free SDK to accelerate the development process while ready-made solutions, libraries, and tools shared by communities offer a similar objective

Benefits

  • High responsive and performance to touch
  • Proper optimization of device resources
  • Better retention of native look and feel
  • Ideal for gaming apps
  • No requirements of plugins to add features like GPS, cameras and microphones
  • Runs smoothly even in absence of internet connectivity or low connectivity

Disadvantages

  • Highly expensive
  • Incompatible with different versions of operating systems
  • High development skills in both Android and iOS development

Hybrid Apps- Multiple Mobile Platform Compatibility

Hybrid apps are a confluence between native and web technology. It is compatible with multiple platforms while easily installable through the device app stores. Integrated with platform-specific plugins, this offers native-like experiences.

Features

  • Basic programming codes are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Apache’s Cordova platform to enable transition of a responsive website into mobile apps

Benefits

  • Cordova being a wrapper around HTML5/JavaScript, it runs on its own interface known as a webview. It provides access to devices’ functions and hardware easily.
  • One code base for all mobile platforms, hence it reduces designing costs, development time, and also maintenance costs
  • Easy and fast development process for application
  • Ingrained features of the progressive web applications, it means they can run offline too
  • Possesses responsive web design features and thus easily compatible with different operating systems
  • Hybrid apps can act like native apps, enabling them to be installed from app stores and viewed mobile browsers. This increases its visibility.

Disadvantages

  • Slower performance due to lack of optimization
  • UI/UX standards are not superior
  • Unable to perform like native apps
  • No large community and library support, hence difficult to access updates
  • Absence of internet, some hybrid functions may not be available

Progressive Web Apps – Interactive Web Apps within a Browser

To simply put, progressive web apps are mobile apps that run on browsers. They mimic the functions and characteristics much like a native application. So, they offer native-like experience and gestures, but designed and built on the web.

Features

  • Hosted on a server and distributed via URLs instead of app stores
  • Easily found on search engines by users
  • Comes with a tag “add to home screen” that behaves like an installed app rather than a real app

Benefits

  • Cost-effective as no app store expenses involve
  • Embedded with service workers to work offline
  • Interactive by nature enables faster development of instant messaging, push notifications, webmail and online sales
  • Easy transition of an app programmed with Angular, React.js and Vue.js into a mobile app
  • Base programming languages are HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript, hence fast development of apps

Disadvantages

  • Push notifications not available on iOS
  • On iPad, it does not enable split or side views like native apps
  • Performance is bleak as compared to native apps
  • No scopes for code programming in the backend
  • Phone contacts and location cannot is inaccessible

Comparison overview

Characteristics Technologies
Native Hybrid PWA
Code Reusability Write twice High High
Popularity High Moderate Moderate
Performance High Moderate Moderate
Native Device specifications High Low Very Low
Distribution App stores App stores URLs
Device support Exhaustive Moderate Limited

The Takeaway

Every platform has its own benefits and shortcomings. Yet, you have to determine how you can leverage the best benefits of the apps for your business. As you compare them in terms of their performance and cost-effectiveness, native apps seem to lead. However, PWAs also offer flexibility while Hybrid apps offer faster development benefits.

Bytes Technolab, an advanced and expert mobile and software application development company harbors excellent skills and knowledge in software development technologies. We can offer better insights into your decision making.

Get in touch with us today.

Table Of Content

hire-image
  • Dedicated Team with Your Oversight
  • Proactive Project Management
  • Comprehensive Quality Assurance
  • Advanced Security Measures
  • Guaranteed 100% Delivery
START A ConversationSTART A Conversation

Subscribe to Blog

Related Blogs

AI-Powered Medical Imaging: Bringing Precision Healthcare into the Future

AI-Powered Medical Imaging: Bringing Precision Healthcare into the Future

Many new healthcare advances will arise when artificial intelligence and medical imaging combine. The aspect that changes is as immense as the s...

Selecting the Best Adobe Experience Manager Solution for Your Needs

Selecting the Best Adobe Experience Manager Solution for Your Needs

Creating and managing engaging content across various platforms is important for eCommerce stores in this ever-evolving digital commerce era. Th...

How Adobe Commerce Development Partner Boosts Your eCommerce Success?

How Adobe Commerce Development Partner Boosts Your eCommerce Success?

Modern retail owners have turned to accredited eCommerce development companies as their technical consulting and implementation partners. By han...