Native or Hybrid App: Which One is Better?

In today’s digital age, mobile applications are the standard for connecting with customers daily. People are using apps for their basic tasks like banking, catching cabs, grocery shopping, or ordering food. The global mobile application market is projected to reach $777.4 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 14.4% from 2023 to 2032, so business owners are seeing it as a promising field to generate high revenue.

It is also an excellent opportunity for an innovation-driven mobile app development company to provide the convenience and prompt experience that users seek. This further enhances the capability of businesses to improve their services and, thus, customer experience.

Various development approaches, such as Native and Hybrid, are used to build different types of applications and their internal functionality. Both methods are significantly different from one another and can be applicable depending on the requirements and focus area.

Suppose your objective is to develop an application that can quickly reach out to the audience on different platforms, providing a consistent user experience. In that case, hybrid app development will be the right approach for your needs. On the other hand, if your focus area is to scale applications on a particular platform or you have done market research to find out at what platform you have the target audience, choosing native technologies might be the best approach.

What is Native and Hybrid App Development? The Basic Difference!

Businesses, in recent times, are required to develop different types of to reach more user groups, such as:

Android apps for Android device types
Windows and macOS applications for desktop users
iOS apps for Apple devices
Web apps that function on the browser

In order to save time, resources, and cost, businesses usually choose an effective app development approach that will be cost-efficient and fulfill all the requirements, too. There are several factors that need to be considered, such as feature releases, bug fixing, and software maintenance. And different approaches to app development address other issues.

Native applications explained…

Native apps are built for specific platforms or device types, using particular technologies for which they are designed.

Table: A tech stack commonly used for Native App Development across different platforms.

Platform	Programming Languages	Development Tools/IDEs	UI Frameworks	Testing Tools	App Distribution
iOS	Swift, Objective-C	Xcode	UIKit, SwiftUI	XCTest, XCUITest, KIF	Apple App Store
Android	Kotlin, Java	Android Studio	Jetpack Compose, Android Views	Espresso, UI Automator, Robolectric	Google Play Store
Windows	C#, C++	Visual Studio	UWP (Universal Windows Platform)	MSTest, NUnit, Appium	Microsoft Store
macOS	Swift, Objective-C	Xcode	AppKit, SwiftUI	XCTest, Appium	Mac App Store
tvOS	Swift, Objective-C	Xcode	TVUIKit, UIKit, SwiftUI	XCTest, XCUITest	Apple TV App Store
watchOS	Swift, Objective-C	Xcode	WatchKit, SwiftUI	XCTest, XCUITest	Apple Watch App Store
Wear OS	Kotlin, Java	Android Studio	Jetpack Compose, Wearable UI Toolkit	Espresso, Robolectric	Google Play Store
Game Development	C++, C#, Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android)	Unity, Unreal Engine, Xcode, Android Studio	SceneKit, SpriteKit (iOS), Android OpenGL	NUnit, Unity Test Runner, Appium	Apple App Store, Google Play Store

Hybrid app development explained…

In contrast, hybrid applications are native apps with an embedded web browser. Web technologies are used to develop these apps using a single codebase that functions seamlessly across platforms and devices. Moreover, using cross-platform app development frameworks, developers can efficiently build a hybrid application using a fixed set of libraries and other functionalities.

Table: Tech stack for hybrid app development, commonly used across platforms.

Component	Tech Stack
Programming Languages	HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Frameworks/Libraries	Ionic, React Native, Flutter, Apache Cordova, Xamarin, PhoneGap
UI Frameworks	Ionic UI Components, React Native UI, Flutter Widgets, Quasar (for Vue.js)
Mobile Frameworks	Apache Cordova, Capacitor (for Ionic), React Native, Flutter
Cross-Platform Tools	Xamarin, Ionic, PhoneGap, Flutter, NativeScript

Standard Differences Between Native and Hybrid App Development

Feature/Parameter	Native App Development	Hybrid App Development
Basic Difference	Built specifically for one platform (iOS, Android) using platform-native languages (Swift, Kotlin)	Combines web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) with native app features, runs inside a native container
Time to Market	Longer development time, varies based on the platform	Faster development than native apps due to a single codebase for multiple platforms
Codebase	Separate codebase for each platform (iOS, Android)	Single codebase for multiple platforms (iOS, Android) with platform-specific tweaks
Performance	Best performance, optimized for specific device hardware and capabilities	Slower than native apps, as they rely on web technologies for the development. Though better performance than web apps
User Experience (UX)	Provides a superior, platform-specific UX with deep integration into device features	UX can be inconsistent compared to native apps; relies on web technologies to simulate native UI
Access to Device Features	Full access to all device capabilities like camera, GPS, and notifications	Limited access to device features via plugins or frameworks like Cordova or Capacitor
Development Cost	Higher cost due to separate codebases and platform-specific expertise required	Lower cost compared to native apps since a single codebase is shared across platforms
Maintenance	Requires individual updates and maintenance for each platform	Easier and more cost-effective to maintain due to a shared codebase
App Store Presence	Published in platform-specific app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play)	Published in app stores, similar to native apps
Offline Capabilities	Excellent offline capabilities, can store large amounts of local data	Supports offline functionality but may rely on web view or local storage mechanisms
Third-Party Library Support	Full support for platform-specific libraries and APIs	Limited third-party library support; depends on frameworks and plugins for native functionality
Scalability	Can scale efficiently with platform-specific updates	Scalable across platforms but may face challenges with performance optimization and UI consistency
Security	Strong platform-specific security features	Less secure than native apps due to the use of web-based components; relies on third-party plugins for enhanced security

Conclusion

Now, as we can understand the contrast between the native and hybrid app development services, hybrid apps are easy to build with a single codebase. They can also function consistently across multiple platforms. Hence, if you want to develop an app faster or young out feature quickly, you can use this approach. However, they may not be as fast and versatile as native apps.

However, native apps are designed for a specific platform and only understand their user experience. Hence, they can easily tap into the potential of specific OSs. However, building a platform-specific application takes more time and effort, which may end up being costly. Therefore, make sure you are clear about your specific project requirements and make a smart choice for your needs.