The Difference between Native App, Hybrid App and Web App

To reach your existing and potential customers, one of the most effective and direct tools is the App.

With this article we want to provide a complete analysis of what concerns the development of an App, in order to help you make the best choice for your business.

Let’s start by explaining the difference between iOS and Android.

As many of you already know, there are two systems that dominate the market: Android and iOS. The former is developed by Google and represents approximately 80% of the market; the second one is developed by Apple and constitutes about 16% of the market. Two different systems represent two different consumer attitudes like amazon restricted products approval. For example, iOS users are generally more willing to spend money on apps and are also more demanding. For this reason, it is common to find a paid App on the App Store which is free on the Google Store. The programming languages ​​are different, they have different rules, just as the possibilities offered are different.

Now let’s try to understand the substantial differences between the three main types of App.

Native App

Native apps are applications developed specifically for an operating system. As mentioned above, a Mac application will not work on a Windows system and vice versa.

Native apps use a different programming language from one operating system to another: iOS largely uses the Objective-C language, Android uses Java. Each with its specificities.

The benefits of developing Native Apps:

• Speed, reliability, better responsiveness, higher resolution that ensure a better user experience;
• Access to hardware and software installed in the device: camera, file system, address book;
• Push notifications that allow you to notify users and attract their attention (also for promotional purposes);
• Native offline operation.

A Native App not only allows you to have excellent performance and to take full advantage of the functionality of the phone, but adapts to each platform to provide users with an ideal experience.

Web App

Who among you has not surfed, at least once, in a mobile version of a website? Here is the Web App. It is an App that works like a website, without any difference between platform, development system and code. This means that users will not have to install the application on their smartphones and as a result will not affect the memory capacity of the device. But by their uncontrollable nature (web content can change) they cannot be published in the Stores and therefore do not take advantage of the enormous visibility that the digital Markets offer.

Faced with this, however, they have several advantages:

• Written with HTML Markup;
• They must not be subjected to the market approval process;
• Shorter development times.

Hybrid (or cross-platform) app

The missing link between the two types of App just described is the Hybrid Apps, also called cross-platform. Compared to apps developed natively, they are faster to develop and less expensive. Another important advantage of hybrid development is that only one version is generated, regardless of the number of platforms on which you want to be present. However, all these benefits come at a cost: the App’s performance is lower, making it less stable since the system is less adaptable to each platform.

Which one to choose?

There is no single and unambiguous answer to this question.

In choosing the right App, a lot will depend on your project, the target audience, your needs, the objectives set and the budget you decide to invest.