So What Exactly Are Native And Hybrid Apps?

Native apps are developed in a platform-specific programming language, making them compatible only with the corresponding platform. Android apps are developed primarily in Java, whereas iOS apps are developed in Apple’s Swift

Hybrid apps, on the other hand, are developed using web technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS in combination with native elements. They are essentially platform-independent websites displayed using a native webview, which is a native component provided by operating systems like Android and iOS to load web content.

Factors that help the decision between Native and Hybrid Applications

User Experience

User Experience in Native Applications are obviously the best because they are better suited to take control of OS features like Gyroscope, Graphics, AR/VR kits etc. However most applications that do not use such OS features can be easily built in Hybrid without any compromise in user experience. So if you are building feature applications like Gaming, Animation etc. Native applications are the best for you. Otherwise, there is no clear choice between the two approaches.

Cost

Cost is probably the most important factor that influences how companies develop their app Here, the hybrid approach has the upper hand. Because hybrid apps can be built for any platform from a single code base, they are much cheaper to build than native apps.

Time

It’s almost always faster to build a hybrid app than a native app. The fact that hybrid apps can share a single codebase to run on multiple platforms also dramatically shortens the time to market. Companies that decide to build a native app often end up launching on one platform sooner, which inevitably angers and alienates the users of other platforms

Maintenance

Developing native apps means there are multiple codebases to maintain (one for Android and one for iOS, at least). Because Android developers are typically not fluent in iOS development — and vice versa — companies that decide to develop a native app should be ready to keep at least twice as many developers on their payroll as companies that choose the hybrid approach

Conclusion

The verdict of this hybrid vs native app showdown is clear: hybrid apps are perfect for developing minimum viable products with limited budgets and timeframes, while native apps are suitable for products that require flawless performance and custom features.

Hybrid Application frameworks

Many frameworks have played their part in the market.

React Native

What is React Native ?

It is a JavaScript structure for composing genuine, robust, natively rendering mobile applications for iOS and Android. It depends on React, Facebook’s JavaScript library for building UIs. However, as opposed to focusing on the browser, it targets mobile platforms. It is developed by Facebook for the iOS but lately, it is available for Android too. Just code once, and the applications are accessible for the two iOS and Android stages which spare development time. It comes with native component & modules that improve app performance

Why to choose React native ?

React Native uses a set of components such as , , , , which map to their native iOS and Android counterparts, as well as some platform-specific components such as and for iOS or and for Android

Based on this, one could argue that it is definitely much easier, cheaper and faster to write mobile apps in React Native instead of native iOS and Android

And one more important thing to choose react-native is it is easy to debug the errors and correct the mistake irrespective of platforms and the approach remains the same for debugging for both iOS and android

Advantages of React Native

React Native over Ionic

Ionic uses WebView to deliver a native-like experience. React native delivers pure native experience and is also a lot more stable to develop large projects

If your product is solely a mobile app that needs to work cross-platform and needs to look and feel like a native app, you should pick React Native. If you are looking for an elegant user interface that matches your website in the form of a mobile app, you could consider Ionic instead.

React Native over xamarin

Xamarin is a free version, but you need to spend for an enterprise level application, while React native is open source.

Working with React Native for an Year, I found that React Native not only offers ample benefits over Xamarin but also has a brighter future in the mobile market. The framework is flourishing despite the intense competition from Google’s Flutter framework

React native over Flutter

As JavaScript is widely used by most web developers, it’s easy to adopt the React Native framework. Dart is rarely used and less known in the developer community. Considering this, it’s clear that React Native leads in the programming language category.

React Native has great developer support in terms of IDEs and language features. Flutter is fairly new at this point

Conclusion

Do you have a small team with limited time and resources, and need to make an app for both platforms? Go React Native.

Do you want to take advantage of fast build time, and features such as hot reloading and live reloading? Go React Native.

Do your developers have a strong React / Web development background? Go React Native.
Is your app going to look and behave the same on both platforms? Go React Native

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