The number of mobile app users is increasing daily, and more people, whether iOS or android, are performing their day-to-day routine with the assistance of hybrid or natively built mobile apps. It is challenging for entrepreneurs to identify whether to select Hybrid app development or native app development.
2.87 million apps are currently available on the play store in 2022, and 20% of users open their apps nearly 50 times on their smartphones in a day. And on iOS, there are 2.22 million apps available to download in 2022. It is not possible to understand the minds of consumers about their choice of operating system in smartphones because they use both platforms equally.
The guide below contains factors that will help entrepreneurs decide whether they should choose Native app development (Android or iOS) or Hybrid app development (cross-platform).
Note these factors before moving to Native or Hybrid app development choice
First of all, the answer to the choice of choosing the app development platform depends on the below factors:
What is your purpose for building the app? Are your objectives aligning to an app that should be available on both platforms? Or, you are targeting a specific ecosystem of either android or iOS.
The budget of your app development since Hybrid apps sometimes cost more than native apps.
The speed of the app development, because developing an app with a hybrid app development takes lesser time than developing it for both the platforms separately.
Once you have noted down the above requirements, you can compare the below topics according to your requirements.
Native app development
A native mobile app works on a specific platform, either Android or iOS. It enjoys the power of hardware and software integration by the platform. Apple provides better optimization, and unlike Android, developers do not have to prepare the app by keeping thousands of devices in their minds.
Benefits of opting Native app development on the below factors:
Optimization: Take advantage of the reliability of native apps, which once optimized on specific platforms, stays optimized for coming years.
Complexity: Native apps are simple to develop since developers have to focus only on one platform offering the best experience on it. But since the optimization is tough, it takes more time.
Quality: Native apps provide the best quality experience in terms of UI because they enjoy the power of software and hardware provided by the OS
Device-Feature: If you want to use specific device features running on a specific platform, opt for a native app
User experience: With the native app, you can provide the best offline experience to users
Budget: Native apps require more budget, specifically on android, because there are more devices. If you are good on the budget, you can opt for developing separate apps for both platforms
Demographics: Best if you are targeting a specific country or country. Like, people in the USA opt for iOS devices as compared to people in India who opt for Android devices
Hybrid app development
On the other hand, hybrid apps work as web apps, making them platform-independent. They simply do not reside solely on the operating system and use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript type of languages to provide the user experience directly from the cloud. Although hybrid apps enjoy complete access to the internal program interfaces, they do not operate offline like Native apps.
Benefits of opting for Hybrid app development on the below factors:
Budget: Hybrid apps are cost-effective, taking less amount of writing codes catering to both the platforms
Platform: Hybrid apps work on various platforms, that is, Android and iOS
Complexity: The lines of code remain the same to execute on both the platforms
Time Frame: The development timeframe of hybrid remains fast since developers do not have to code separately for all the platforms
Free or paid app: Best if you want to create paid apps since free apps are not valuable on the app store
Device-specific feature: If you do not want to use any specific device feature, hybrid apps are the best choice
Demographics: Best to select hybrid app development if you are targeting worldwide users.
Conclusion
With more people relying on mobile apps for their day-to-day activities, entrepreneurs shift their focus from websites to mobile apps for more reach. But, Hybrid or native app development is a tough choice for entrepreneurs. After analyzing factors like optimization, complexity, time frame, budget, demographics, entrepreneurs can determine whether to select hybrid or native app development. Or they can directly approach a top app development company to discuss the project and decide the platform.