Native, HTML5 & Hybrid App: WHICH IS BETTER TO MAKE AN APP?

Mobile apps have grown the requirement of the hour & each and every top app development companies are starting really very difficult to make a complete app for their company that would consequently boost their sales. There is a lot of curious and confused entrepreneurs who go crazy trying to decide on how to approach their Mobile App. If you’re confused and wondering whether to build a hybrid mobile app or a native mobile app, don’t worry, this article will help you decide your mobile app strategy.

First of all some stats:

79,4% of all mobile devices use Android

16,4% of all mobile devices use iOS

Source - Forbes.com

Overview:

Native Apps:

• Native apps are smartphone and tablet applications developed precisely for a specific mobile operating system. For iOS we usually use Swift and for Android we use Java. and have full potential of the platform can be leveraged which will drive great user experience and larger app capabilities (especially around phone hardware). Can be pricey based on requirement and take longer to develop. 

HTML 5 Apps:

• HTML apps use industry standard technologies like Java, CSS & HTML5. This way to the mobile app development creates cross-platform mobile apps that are fit with multiple devices and responsive.

Hybrid Apps:

• Hybrid apps are basically web apps hidden behind a native app shell. They are cross-platform and can be immediately distributed between app stores without the need to develop two different versions for  Android and iOS. Most of hybrid apps are built using cross-compatible web technologies (HTML5, CSS, Javascript etc.) and then they are wrapped in a native app using platforms such as Cordova

Let's define all three in details:

	Native	HTML5	Hybrid
App Features
Graphics	Native APIs	HTML, Canvas, SVG	HTML, Canvas, SVG
Performance	Fast	Slow	Slow
Native look and feel	Native	Emulated	Emulated
Distribution	Appstore	Web	Appstore
Device Access
Camera	Yes	No	Yes
Notifications	Yes	No	Yes
Contacts, calendar	Yes	No	Yes
Offline storage	Secure file storage	Shared SQL	Secure file system, shared SQL
Geolocation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gestures
Swipe	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pinch, spread	Yes	No	Yes
Connectivity	Online and offline	Mostly online	Online and offline
Development skills	ObjectiveC, Java	HTML5, CSS, Javascript	HTML5, CSS, Javascript

1) Native Mobile Application:

Native mobile applications are the best & there are some of the features that you get simply with native apps. This platform provides you the quick & high-quality graphics and it also supports fluid animation that is must important in gaming & animation related activities. Additionally, address book, the camera, Geo-location can be simply integrated into mobile apps.

In a nutshell, native apps provide the best usability, the best features, and the best overall mobile experience. There are some things you only get with native apps:

1. Multi touch - double taps, pinch-spread, and other compound UI gestures
2. Fast graphics API - the native platform gives you the fastest graphics, which may not be a big deal if you’re showing a static screen with only a few elements, or a very big deal if you’re using a lot of data and require a fast refresh.
3. Fluid animation - related to the fast graphics API is the ability to have fluid animation. This is especially important in gaming, highly interactive reporting, or intensely computational algorithms for transforming photos and sounds.
4. Built-in components - The camera, address book, geolocation, and other features native to the device can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps. Another important built-in components is encrypted storage, but more about that later.
5. Ease of use - The native platform is what people are accustomed to, and so when you add that familiarity with all of the native features they expect, you have an app that’s just plain easier to use.
6. Documentation - There are over 2500 books alone for iOS and Android development, with many more articles, blog posts, and detailed technical threads on sites like StackOverflow.

Native apps are developed applying IDE. IDE provides tools for developing version control, project management & other tools professional developers require. You need these tools as native apps are more complex to develop & the experience need to develop native apps is relatively higher as compared to the other platforms. Just cut & paste work is not going to help you and it needs a various amount of skill set to accomplish this task.

If you are a professional app developer then you do not have to be exchanged on proven APIs and frameworks, or the benefits of having your code all in one place. Till now, we observe native apps from the app developer’s view, but the viewof the end user should also be noticed. In my evaluation, native apps are the actual rockstars as the user is capable to simply find them in the app store, it delivers fast performance and in short, if provides you everything that you expect from a mobile application.

2) HTML 5 Mobile Application:

These apps are mobile web based app or to put it in simple words, an HTML mobile app is a web page or a set of web pages designed in such a way as to work on a small screen.

From a developer’s point of prospect, if he/she has experience developing web apps, then HTML5 would be a cakewalk for you but if you are new to the development, HTML5 is the best & simple way to start with as opposed to the native or hybrid development. These days, HTML5 has grown the most popular way of developing mobile apps and the reason behind this is various User interface frameworks are present for solving the most typical & complex problems that developers face.

So if HTML5 apps are easier to develop, easier to support, and can reach the widest range of devices, where do these apps lose out? We already reviewed the major benefits of native development, so we'll just reiterate that you can't access native features on the device. Users won’t have the familiarity of the native look and feel, or be able to use compound gestures they are familiar with. But strides are being made on all fronts, and more and more functionality is supported by browsers all the time.

But in spite of some of these things HTML apps are not much taken by the users as they can not have the familiarity of the native look & feel of the apps that the users are accustomed to. Furthermore, the great concern with HTML5 apps is protection. Though the underlying database might be encrypted, the security concerns are always there with HTML5 apps. For, if security is the concern, then Native apps would be a better choice.

3) Hybrid Mobile Applications:

Hybrid development combines the best (or worst) of both the native and HTML5 worlds. We define hybrid as a web app, primarily built using HTML5 and JavaScript, that is then wrapped inside a thin native container that provides access to native platform features. PhoneGap is an example of the most popular container for creating hybrid mobile apps.

For the most part, hybrid apps provide the best of both worlds. Existing web developers that have become gurus at optimizing JavaScript, pushing CSS to create beautiful layouts, and writing compliant HTML code that works on any platform can now create sophisticated mobile applications that don’t sacrifice the cool native capabilities. In certain circumstances, native developers can write plugins for tasks like image processing, but in cases like this, the devil is in the details.

On iOS, the embedded web browser or the UIWebView is not identical to the Safari browser. While the differences are minor, they can cause debugging headaches. That’s why it pays off to invest in popular frameworks that have addressed all of the limitations. You know that native apps are installed on the device, while HTML5 apps reside on a Web server, so you might be wondering if hybrid apps store their files on the device or on a server? Yes. In fact there are two ways to implement a hybrid app.

Local - You can package HTML and JavaScript code inside the mobile application binary, in a manner similar to the structure of a native application. In this scenario you use REST APIs to move data back and forth between the device and the cloud.

Server - Alternatively you can implement the full web application from the server (with optional caching for better performance), simply using the container as a thin shell over the UIWebview.

It yet continues the great question that which framework is to be applied for App development. Mobile development is a constantly moving target. Every six months, there’s a new mobile operating system, with unique features only accessible with native APIs. The containers bring those to hybrid apps soon thereafter, with the web making tremendous leaps every few years.

Well, in my opinion, native apps are the best because:

A Quality of the apps:

Native apps are a way forward than hybrid or HTML5 Apps in quality & user experience.

User experience:

It is absolutely not possible to derive the great user experience in your app by applying HTML5 and much more.

Support from a platform:

Either it is Google or Apple, both would support app developed on their native platforms on primary priority, in case they make any modifications in their OS version, App store system and much more.

Access to all native APIs:

If you need access to each native APIs as well as device features then Native apps are most relevant.

Complete use of functionality & hardware:

As native apps run on the device OS, so they are capable for making full use of device functionality & hardware. They can enter functions like GPS, Push notifications, offline address & SMS messaging.

Simplified configuration and efficiency of monetization:

By native apps, the significant benefit is that the users know perfectly where to find the apps & if monetization is your goal, app stores make that easy as well.



In Conclusion:

There are clear and distinct advantages and disadvantages for both hybrid and native approaches, and that is why this discussion is still relevant. Speed to market, one source code, cross-compatible web technologies, easy updates, availability of resources, and lower (initial!) budget costs make hybrid applications very appealing. However, even with 4G network coverage most phones today are not at the point where a seamless hybrid app experience is actually possible. In the long run, the biggest detraction of hybrid apps is that a company will likely spend more time fixing and tweaking the app because of user complaints about UI elements or performance driven issues.

Additionally, native apps have the added advantage of functions that are specific to the OS on which the app is built (e.g., camera, GPS, address book, etcetera). Furthermore, a native approach offers the best in class security for a mobile application, the best performance, a highly responsive user interface, and access to all native APIs. In other words, the original investment may be higher but a company will save time and money in the long run while offering a great user experience and an industry standard app performance.

Each approach has its pros and cons but at the end of the day a native approach will have the biggest benefits for a company’s bottom line.

source : www.hyperlinkinfosystem.com