20.08.2020
It's of no surprise, that the mobile
app industry thrives actively. With over 3.5 billion smartphone users across
the globe (according to Statista), mobile applications require rapid updates and innovations. The
competitiveness in the industry is at a strain․ Every year mobile users spend over 380 billion dollars on new smartphone purchases. Besides
the traditional need for mobile phones, smartphones are used to facilitate life
and cut off a significant amount of time. The apps, which are the easiest to
use and are eye-friendly win the game.
According to a study on mobile usage
by Smart Insights, over 90% of mobile time is spent on apps. While according to another
study by global tech and protection and support company Asurion,
the average person struggles to go a little more than 10 minutes without
checking their phone.
Today, the two major mobile app
development models that stand out in the industry are Native mobile app development and Hybrid mobile app
development. Both of these approaches have
an outstanding amount of users due to the growing number of startups and
new businesses.
As there is an overwhelming need for
thorough information on mobile applications and their development methods and
procedures, we at CodeRiders share
our own experience.
In this article, you’ll learn about the
pros and cons of both Native and Hybrid mobile app developments, as well as get
a general view of Ionic and Flutter
technologies.
Native Mobile App Development
Native
mobile app development requires building apps for specific mobile operating
systems. In this case, developers create apps for dedicated
app stores, such as Google Play and The App Store. Consequently, a native app
is an app for a specific mobile device. There are 2 main mobile operating
systems:
With native mobile app development, you will need to
develop one application for iOS and one for Android and upload them separately
in the corresponding app stores.
IOS is exclusively created by Apple
Inc. for its hardware, while Android is developed as an Open Handset Alliance
(OHA), and is sponsored by Google. OHA is explained as a consortium of 84 firms
to develop a publicly available standard or open-standard for mobile
devices. HTC, Sony, Dell, Motorola,
Intel, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, BlackBerry OS
are among the 84 firms.
Developers use Objective-C or Swift languages to build applications for iOS users and Java or Kotlin languages for Android users.
Advantages of Native Mobile App Development
Native apps have better battery backup and are faster. On the other
hand, they are more considerate regarding the mobile's memory. This ultimately
results in the improvement of the overall speed and performance. However, this
may also be disputable as today’s hybrid app development technologies offer a
wide range of solutions for a scalable and fast application.
Native apps are specifically made for one operating system, thus it's
logical that they should be better customized and more thoroughly considered. These
may include custom screens and gestures, customized simple and intuitive
navigation and maps, common places for buttons like menu, search, etc. Native
apps maintain aspect ratio, which is the ratio of the width and height of various
screens and is an indicator of high-quality images.
Bugs during the development process take time and make the developers go back and forth during the development process. If you’re doing native app development, there are fewer chances of getting stuck in bugs as they don’t rely on cross-platform tools, such as Xamarin or Cordova.
Disadvantages of Native Mobile App Development
Native app developers code for one specific platform and use separate
tech stack for iOS and Android. Thus, these processes are highly tailored and
require a more in-detail approach. Most of the time, clients hire separate
teams.
Although native app development saves time wasted on bug fixing, the
overall development process is much trickier and time-consuming. If you’re
working with time and material model and pay an hourly rate, then time is money.
On the other hand, native app development requires more labor. Another
complicated issue is the scarcity of native app developers that ultimately and
artificially enhances rates.
Maintenance and support service is also more expensive. Let’s also not
forget that native apps require more upgrades from time to time after new
versions of operating systems are being released.
Native apps are usually usable upon downloading from the corresponding
stores (App Store or Google Play). The downloading process, in its turn, takes
some time on such activities as finding the application, accepting terms and
conditions, allowing or denying some functionality, filling in some required
sheets. A lot of users simply don’t have that much time and patience to spend
on such a lengthy downloading process; as a result, the app owners lose 20% of
their potential users at some stage of an app funnel.
Although native apps are more secure, less time consuming, function offline, they’re simply not good fits for limited-budget companies. Today, according to Statista there are 2.560.000 apps available in the leading app stores. Hybrid apps are simply taking the role due to their flexibility and affordability thus it’s an additional burden for startups or low-budget companies to spend money on developing an app for separate platforms.
Hybrid Mobile App Development
Hybrid or cross-platform app development is the next stage of mobile app
development. It allows to develop a single mobile app for multiple platforms. A
single codebase is being used for mobile app development for both iOS and
Android users.
Ionic and Flutter technologies are the most commonly used ones for cross-platform
app development. We, at CodeRiders also use the
above technologies for developing apps for mobile users. To give you more insights
about our hybrid app experience, let’s dig into our latest project which is in
the EdTech industry. We developed an app for a Hong Kong-based English school.
The app is of internal use and connects teachers, students, and parents. It
includes such EdTech solutions as:
If you’re interested in more in-detail EdTech solutions, I suggest checking the article on educational industry solutions by CodeRiders.
We compared and discussed the differences and contradictories while
speaking about the advantages and disadvantages of native app development. Now,
let’s have a more thorough discussion on hybrid app development as well as
analyze some of the best tech stacks that you can choose while developing a cross-platform
mobile app.
Advantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development
We have already drowned out the major arguments and parallels between
the advantages and disadvantages of native and cross-platform development while
discussing the native apps. As mentioned some things that make hybrid apps more
preferable include:
Let’s see what’s the difference between Native and Hybrid approaches,
and understand why Hybrid wins over Native.
Everybody, at least once, got frustrated using their favorite app because
of the update of the specific operating system. This is especially an
up-to-date topic for native apps. Nor is it only annoying but it’s also very
costy for many users to change their mobile device as soon as the operating
system is updated. On the other hand, the scalability of the app becomes so
poor that companies simply get no other choice than hiring new development
teams or the previous ones to roll out new versions with each update. A hybrid
app or a cross-platform app easily bypasses such problems, and most of the time
companies just rely on the software maintenance support that is usually provided
by qualified software development agencies after the project ends.
Native apps are less flexible as they run on a specific operating system
thus it limits the ability to work in harmony with other apps. Simplicity is
number one priority for attracting more users to install your app. Limited
integration often annoys users cutting out the chances of scoring high in the
store. Hybrid apps take advantage of this issue as they both perfectly connect
with mobile’s system environment and get easily integrated with other apps in
the store without a slightest of friction.
Google Play Store and App store are the 2 ‘’giants’’ in the online app
market. According to the recent research by Statista,
there are 2.560.000 apps available in Google
Play store and 1.847.000 in App store in the first quarter of 2020. Thus, these
two dominants have rather strict rules and guidelines for publishing an app. If
you are serious about your product, it’s obvious that you should, first of all,
submit your app to these stores. Although these two welcome both hybrid and
native apps, it’s always less risky to develop a hybrid app, which has the
potential to be submitted at least to one or hopefully both of these stores.
An eye-friendly and attractive design is the number one feature that catches our attention while choosing which app to install. We may do it subconsciously, but it’s a fact. However, your app isn’t the winner among other options just after it’s installed. A consistent experience is also crucial. Hybrid apps provide these features across both iOS and Android platforms. Cross-platform apps function perfectly for mobile meantime embracing the web. With hybrid approach, you can be sure that your app offers superior UI experience. It helps easily and quickly download graphics and content. The adaptation process to various device screens is much faster ultimately causing faster data display and smoother data streaming. The companies that value and target on high engagement on both iOS and Android, choose hybrid mobile app development model.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development
Although hybrid mobile apps are ideal solutions for the limited-budget
businesses, require less time, and allow reaching wide audiences there are
still some drawbacks that should be taken into consideration.
Hybrid mobile app is developed for multiple platforms thus it should be
adjusted accordingly. There should be a mid-oriented interface for both iOS and
Android users. So, challenges may occur for Android users if the developers
heavily focus on iOS functionalities and vice versa.
As hybrid mobile apps are less flexible when it comes to operating in a
specific system, the loading process may take more time. However, the loading
time difference is so little that the users won’t be able to notice it. Plus, this
isn’t related to content-oriented apps, as they are simple and don’t require
complex functions.
Nevertheless, these don’t prevent hybrid apps from being a widely-used
and up-to-date solution for many businesses. So, checking out the
“best-practice” technologies in Hybrid mobile app development is also advised.
After you decide to develop a mobile application via the hybrid model, take
time to understand which is your ideal technology for building the hybrid app. As
I’ve already mentioned, CodeRiders developers work with Ionic and Flutter technologies. Thus
I’ll speak about these two.
Ionic and Flutter
Although Ionic and Flutter are
separate mobile app development technologies and have specific functions, there
are still some things that they share in common, and make them stand out among
other technologies. Both Ionic and Flutter give a chance to create a UI framework
that works everywhere, has great performance, is highly scalable, and has a
nice and neat look wherever it runs. Unlike other cross-platform approaches
that highly focus on mobile development, Ionic and Flutter have one shared
codebase designed to address mobile, desktop, and the web.
Common to this case, there is
also the main distinction between these two. Ionic embraces open-web
capabilities even in case of a little possibility. Therefore, Ionic is entirely
based on open-web technologies, which include web languages that are used to
build Ionic apps, standard-based UI components running in your app. On the
other hand, Flutter has the approach of creating a brand new ecosystem from
scratch. Thus, almost everything about Flutter is based on its own standards
that aren’t included in nowadays browser capabilities, web languages, etc.
Flutter technology is a great
solution if you’re looking for strong animations. It has outstanding options
for widgets that are incorporated to ensure the native performance of the
application. Some of the options include icons and fonts, navigation,
scrolling.
Ionic is easier to move across
the platforms and is based on the look and feel.
Choosing between Ionic and Flutter is something that should be done together with a technical person. This is why CodeRiders usually provides free consultations and explains all of the details of the used technologies, development methods, etc. – so non-technical clients can get deep into the process and understand what the development cycle is going to be about.
In
conclusion, entrepreneurship is a challenging experience nowadays. A lot of startups
and even big enterprises prefer fast and more convenient mobile app development
solutions to fulfill their instant strategies. Hybrid mobile application
development is often more preferred over native mobile app development. Taking into
consideration its fast results, low-cost budget, scalability, less testing
time, easier usage, and the rest of the advantages it has – Hybrid app
development wins for sure!
Let us become your ultimate partner for your mobile development needs.
Subscribe to Newsletters
Keep up with the most trending tech news articles. We promise not to disturb you with spammy messages. You will receive only quality emails.
Follow us
Weather you need e-Commerce, CRM, BI, Integrations, Big Data or Real time dashboard solutions - CodeRiders is here to analyze your needs and come up with a comprehensive software solution!
CodeRiders professionals will solve your problems with web and mobile development, in building custom software, outsourcing software services, or just consulting your development needs.
