Hybrid App vs Native vs PWA: The Better Choice for App Development

Introduction

In the current scenario, when different companies have come up with their own mobile devices and operating systems, we do need applications which are compatible with most of the devices. Different Operating systems work in different ways, and only applications with specific architecture are compatible with it. Hence, we do need a platform where developers are not only able to make applications for specific platforms but for other platforms also. Currently, different kinds of applications are available, like hybrid mobile applications, Native and PWA. in this blog, you will find a comparison between all such platforms.

What is a Hybrid Mobile application?

As the name suggests, hybrid mobile applications are those which work on both android and iOS. It contains several elements that allows users to render it on the web browser and acts in a similar way to the application. Hybrid mobile applications are deployed in a container which uses a special kind of object, mobile WebView. It renders the data on the web browser. It uses different technologies such as CSS, JS, HTML and HTML 5. Such applications use their own embedded browser which is invisible. For example, iOS applications use WKWebView and Android uses WebView.

Different advantages of building Hybrid Mobile applications.

Different Hybrid mobile application development companies work solely on hybrid mobile applications due to several advantages . Some of the applications are listed below.

• Hybrid mobile applications do involve low cost.

With the hybrid approach of building mobile applications, businesses do not need to invest huge amounts of money in the development of several other applications for different platforms. Hybrid mobile application, works in both web browsers and mobile for different OS such as Android and iOS.

• A huge amount of the audience uses hybrid mobile applications.

Several online application publishers, like Google PlayStore and Apple store have large groups of audiences. Hence your applications can receive a large number of downloads.

• Hybrid applications are integratable with similar applications.

Hybrid mobile applications can be integrated with different other applications without any hassle. Such mobile applications work better with integration and do not cause friction.

• Works on several platforms.

All applications are not only limited to its own OS. such applications work better on different platforms and frameworks. Hybrid mobile applications are interactive, great and seamlessly work with different mobile platforms.

Many times due to different drawbacks of Hybrid mobile applications, users do not prefer such applications. Hence, they go for native applications.

Why Native application?

Applications which do need huge graphics, like graphical applications, animations, and HD games, works well on Native applications. Native code is much faster than JavaScript and HTML. Despite several standards such as WebGL which allows hybrid applications to work with best performance, native applications are preferred. Native SDKs let devices access different features that are available out of box with several SDKs.

Different advantages of Native mobile applications.

• Native applications perform in a better way.
  • If we talk about the performance of native applications, they are much faster and give the best performance. Native applications use different technologies like HTML5, CSS and JS. it provides more security and performance. Different companies use mobile device management solutions, which best use cases of native applications.
    
    
    
• Native applications are much easier to make.
  • Different native applications are easy to make since very few constraints are available for making new features and services. Different APIs can be integrated with Native applications and you can make it more creative.
    
    
    
• Native mobile applications can be easily integrated with different mobile hardwares.
  • Several mobile devices do contain different kinds of hardware, hence you as a developer might need to leverage such in your applications. With Native mobile applications, you can access all hardwares and integrate with your native application.
    
    
    
• Native applications do not always need access to the internet always.
  • Different native applications can work without access to the internet as all the pages live on the web servers. Native mobile application functionalities are independent of the internet. Hence even if you don’t have access to the internet you can use native application.

Most of the time, it is not possible for different companies to build native applications or hybrid applications for different reasons such as security and complexity. Hence in order to avoid such complexities many companies do go for PWA.

What are Progressive Web Applications?

Progress web Applications are a new form of web applications, which establishes best practices for building reliable, engaging and accessible applications. Web applications do give user experience just like native applications.

Different advantages of Web applications are following.

Different progressive web applications have a significant number of features like the following.

• Progressisve web apps are more reliable.
  • All progressive web applications are reliable since it gives users only meaningful content without any network condition constraints. Different levels of functionalities depends on the concerned application.
    
    
    
• Progressive web applications are Responsive.
  • Many progressive web applications are able to adjust to different screen sizes along with orientation. It ensures that user experience is great for all different users. With a great responsive web design helps users to make sure that application continues to work with several new devices.
    
    
    
• Engages different users with great user experiences.
  • Native applications are considered to be more engaging than web applications. A user can easily have an icon on the home screen which can give alerts and push notifications for users. All such features are not only available in web applications but also in progressive web applications.
    
    
    
• Highly Secure
  • Different progressive web applications are more secure since it uses HTTPS servers for loading. With such protocols it becomes more secure and avoids malicious activities to occur.

Which one to choose, Hybrid, Native or Progressive Web Applications?

Native application development has grown its ecosystem in a substantial amount of time, different tutorials and predesigned components are available along with several community support and guides. All hybrid applications and PWAs are built in enhanced format. Different JavaScript libraries are available that can be used in the applications. Different compiled applications cannot use JS libraries since native devices may or may not handle such requests. 

Native applications can access all different hardwares in devices and leverage it. PWA can access different features in different HTML5 compatible browsers. Big companies like Google and Apple release new software hence it becomes important to make sure applications are compatible with new updates.

Conclusion.

With several advantages and disadvantages of applications over others, we can conclude a few points that you can consider while you build a mobile or web application. If you want to make your application work with high performance and integrate it with several hardwares available in the device, native applications would be a best choice. Progressive web applications are a great choice when you want to make an ecommerce website along with a mobile application since it involves different transactions hence it is important to make it secure. A company can choose mobile application or hybrid application, if the team wants to build quickly and are familiar with the web technologies. It totally depends on the company for choosing what kind of application they want while considering different factors.

Author Bio:

James Grills is a technical writer with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of mobile application development, Artificial Intelligence Development and IoT technology. He is a marketing advisor – currently associated with Cumulations Technologies a mobile app development company in India.