If you ever wondered about Mobile App Development technologies, you might be familiar with the term Native, Hybrid, or Web apps. Although users will feel almost the same using either type of app, yet, they share differences.
Not only one can easily know whether he is using a Native, Web, or Hybrid app but also after going through the below information you will get a better idea about the actual difference.
Table of Contents
What are Native Apps?
In simple words, Native apps are the apps that are downloaded through Google Play/App Store. Native Apps provide a proper app experience to Mobile App users. These apps are developed for specific platforms and can use all the device features. Instance, Native apps can use cameras, GPS, Location, microphones, Data Analysis, contacts, sensors, and many more features.
The other functionality that makes native apps separate from web apps is that native apps can also be coded to work in offline mode.
What are Web Apps?
Web apps are the applications developed with most on HTML5. The concept of Web Apps is different from the Native Mobile Apps. Web Apps are websites that give the feel of an app-like experience to the users.
The one feature that makes Web Apps accessible offline is the browser’s cache memory. On the other hand, a Native Mobile App uses the device’s cache memory to load the previously visited pages. Like the Native Apps, the Web Apps can also send Notifications to the users using Firebase or other API integrations.
From the installation perspective, the users get an option to install web apps while visiting the website. For example, web apps developed with Knowband Progressive Web App Builder provide a pop-up for adding to the home screen while visiting the website.
What are Hybrid Apps?
Hybrid Apps are becoming trendy these days because of several benefits to the developers. Not only the developers can code the Hybrid Apps within very less time but also, they will not have to write the code from the scratch. Instance, most of the Hybrid Apps are just a wrap-up of an existing website. By following this way, developers can save a lot of time in app development. This fact makes Hybrid Apps useful for start-ups and small businesses. We can also consider the Hybrid apps as a combination of Native and Web Applications because of the design in HTML5.
For the installation part, the users can find the Hybrid Apps on the Play/App store, unlike web apps. While accessing, the Hybrid Apps, the apps use the browser’s cache memory to provide a smooth user experience to the app users.
Differentiation Based on App Features:
Offline Functionality:
The device Cache works better than the browser cache. Which provides advantages to the Native apps on the Web and Hybrid Applications.
Thus, if you are looking for an app kind from the Offline Functionality aspect, Native Apps are the right option to go with.
Speed:
There is a big rivalry between Native, Web, and Hybrid Apps when it comes to speed comparison. Although Web apps are much lighter in the size the native apps. Yet, Native Mobile Apps provide a better user experience.
Modifications:
If you are managing a website and a Native app, then you will have to put effort differently into both. Along with Web end changes, you will also have to modify the App end changes.
On the other hand, as the web apps shares dependency on the Web ends, it is much easier to manage the modifications in the Web and Hybrid apps.
Platform Dependency:
Platform dependency is much easier to achieve with Web Applications, as HTML5 is compatible with most web browsers.
On the other hand, if you are developing Native apps, you will have to write codes for Android and iOS separately. There are various languages and frameworks that are available for Android and iOS Development. For example, Dart is the most used technology for Android Apps, and C# is specially tailored for iOS Mobile Apps.
There are also other popular frameworks available such as Flutter, to take care of both Android and iOS apps with the same code.
UI:
If you are looking for comparing the Native and Web or Hybrid apps based on UI, then there is no comparison. While the User Interface of Web and Hybrid apps depends on Websites. The User Interface of Native Apps is different.
The developers can create App specific UI, using all the tools and XMLs available for App development.
In the end,
Either native apps, Web apps, or Hybrid apps, the final goal of all sorts of apps is to take the business into top gear. There are differences between the apps based on various characteristics that we have tried to cover up. Also, there is no code way to build Web Apps and Flutter-based Native Apps. The eCommerce sellers using PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, and WooCommerce, can use Knowband Mobile App Builder to make their white-labeled no-code mobile apps.