With the increasing adaptability of Mobile Applications, every organization wants to develop Mobile Application to enhance its brand, retain customers, grow revenue and increase operational efficiency.

 

Either its your team building the mobile application or getting it developed from your technology partner, you would have to make the right choice of technology and framework as per your requirements, users and scalability.

 

We will review and compare 4 types of mobile apps along with their technologies and frameworks available for building your app:

 

Main types of Mobile Applications

 

Let’s get started by comparing the different options to help you choose the right one for you.

 

1. Native Apps :

   Native app is the most widely used traditional way of making apps. A native app, or native application, is built in a specific programming language, for the specific device platform, either iOS or Android.

    

   Native iOS apps are written in Swift or Objective-C and native Android apps are written in Java or Kotlin.
   With this type, you would have to create different apps with different codebase for different platforms. Your team will have to be familiar with two languages and platforms. You wil need to maintain two seperate codebases, test cases, etc. In short all your actions, efforts, resources would be doubled and it would take more time and resources to build the app on both the platforms.

    

   But still many prefer Native apps, because they are Fastest amongst all types. They also cover reliable wide range of device related functionalities due to which interactions with camera, microphone, compass, accelerometer and swipe gestures are super easy

    

2. Hybrid Apps

   Hybrid Apps mostly use the Web languages like Javascript, HTML5 & CSS. They run in web pages optimized for mobile view using a simplified browser within your app. Hybrid Apps can be built using frameworks like Cordova, Ionic, Onsen UI, etc

    

   Hence if you are familiar with making websites using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, this is the easiest way to make mobile apps quickly with a minimal learning curve. With this you can write Mobile app with one codebase and build for iOS or Android or both. These apps do have access to mobile features like notifications, camera, GPS, etc. So Apps are built using single codebase

    

   But this type has its own limitations and it can be slow especially on iOS Devices because Mobile apps are not optimized to display web pages. However, with recent changes there is a lot of improvement in performance of Hybrid apps.
   Along with savings of time, money and resources, you also get similar look and feel of Mobile app on both the platforms.

    

3. Hybrid Native Apps or Cross-Platform Native Apps

   Hybrid Native Apps also known as Cross-platform Apps are the ones that work on several platforms. With this we enjoy the benefits of Native Apps and Hybrid Apps. These apps have access to device features like Camera, Notifications, GPS, etc. Additionally almost 80% to 90% same codebase is used to deploy applications on Android or iOS. There are many frameworks for building Hybrid Native Apps like Flutter, Titanium, Native Script, React Native, Xamarin, etc.
   Hybrid Native apps are relatively newer and use JavaScript, but do not render a webpage to the user. Instead they use native code for the interface, which solves the performance issue. Although they are termed as "Native" but still they are not as performance oriented as Native Apps as they primarily use Javascript language

    

4. Progressive Web Applications (PWA)

   Progressive Web Applications are Websites that behave like Mobile Apps. These can be installed on your phone and then they can be used like an App. All the device features like Camera, Audio, Video, etc which can be used in a browser are available to PWA
   When a user visits the PWA site, a banner asking to "Add to home screen" pops up and with this the PWA is installed like an App on the device. Compared to native mobile and Web applications, PWAs are lightweight and can be quickly installed and loaded.

   PWA's are primarily writted using Javascript language. Many Frameworks like Angular, Vue, React (React JS) support PWA.

    

 

Choosing the right one:

Mobile Type and Framework selection is the first step to deicde before starting any Mobile Application project. All of them have their own pros and cons. There are several factors like requirements, size, complexity, budget, resources, timeline, etc which need to be considered before making the right choice. Make sure you have the right people and make informed decision along with your team or Technology Partner.
 

Thank you for taking time to read.