The decision to develop either a web, native or hybrid app should be based on your business objectives. Before going into development, you should consider the following factors for understanding Hybrid VS Native App:

• Your API infrastructure should have reliable and easy access to your content and services and the complexity of features should be minimum, you need for your app to work.
• Always have an understanding of your users’ expectations and behaviors and adapt as market demands change and the quality of the user experience should be higher, you want your app to have.

Generally, choosing a development method should not be determined solely by cost. The user experience should be the most important factor that helps you decide whether to build a web, native or hybrid app.

Whichever approach you select should, above all, be quick, responsive, and reliable. As users are demanding more from mobile experiences, it’s important to keep up with their changing demands.

What is Native app development?

A native app is a mobile application developed especially for a mobile operating system. Native mobile applications are built for specialized platforms and are written in languages that the platform accepts. As an example,  Swift and Objective-C languages for native iOS apps and Java or Kotlin languages for native Android apps. Native apps are built using the specialized Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the selected operating systems.

 Native applications have the advantage of being able to easily access and use the built-in capabilities of the user’s device. As an Example GPS, address book, camera, etcetera. They are using native apps when a user sends text messages, takes pictures using the device’s default app, set reminders, or uses the device’s music application.

Finally, native apps are exactly that, native to the user’s operating system and it is only hence built per those guidelines.

What is Hybrid app development?

Hybrid means made by mixed characters or elements. Thus, a hybrid app is one of the types within cross-platform app development. Hybrid apps work across multiple platforms and behave. 

Therefore,  Some of the most well-known apps go for hybrid development as opposed to native apps. Examples for those companies that decided on hybrid app vs native are Amazon, Evernote, and Netflix.

Nowadays, the most common frameworks for hybrid app development are, Flutter and React-Native.

React Native, one of the platforms with the highest user base and customer loyalty, is a product of Facebook that was released initially developed for the internal use of Facebook.

React Native is by far one of the most popular and successful hybrid mobile application frameworks to date today and with great reason. It is an extension of the popular and well-made front-end web framework, React, and allows millions of front-end developers to start writing mobile applications as well. But the problem becomes with react-native is, developers had to find the time and motivation to learn the native iOS and Android development SDKs.

Against this backdrop, Flutter is eventually won out as the leading hybrid mobile application framework. The developer has complete control of your UI from the Dart code and no longer has to worry about learning the native SDK of the platforms for the developing process.

Flutter is a framework created by Google to innovate the world of hybrid app development. It uses Dart programming language and it is running on Android and iOS at a consistent highest speed.

Flutter is providing an amazing job at Design components for iOS, as well as for Android.

Even though there are so many older hybrid app frameworks in the app market, there is an upcoming list of big-name companies that are choosing Flutter for their mobile applications.  Here, there are a few notable apps that use Flutter:

• Google Ads app
• GrabFood’s GrabMerchant app
• Alibaba Group’s Xianyu app
• Nubank
• The eBay Motors app

Truly consistent UIs across both mobile platforms is another remarkable feature of Flutter. Because Flutter uses its rendering engine. Developers no longer have to link with platform-specific styling issues to get everything looking exactly like the design. 

Flutter does give developers to build some truly beautiful user interfaces.  Below are some of the user interfaces designed in Flutter.

Also recently there was a  challenge from Google and Lenovo to build a beautiful clock face UI for the Lenovo Smart Clock using Flutter. The winner, Particle Clock by Mickel Andersson, is not just uniquely luxurious. It also showcases how performing animations are in Flutter.

Hybrid VS Native Apps

 Before going to the development of apps, you should consider the following factors:

• How fast?
• The quality of the user experience
• The complexity of features.

Whichever approach you choose, it should be, above all, be fast, responsive, simple, and reliable. As users are expecting more from mobile experiences, it is very important to keep up with their changing demands. Your API infrastructure should have reliable and easy access for your consumers to your content and services.

In considering a hybrid application,  In some frameworks, the user doesn’t usually need to update the app in the app store. If the update in question is on a view that is loaded from the server, as the user navigates through your application they will instantly see the update. It is that simple. 

In contrast, for native applications, the user needs to update the app to see the changes and Nobody wants to update the app every month or so. It deploys unnecessary negative attention to the app which could cause the user to simply uninstall it.

In considering Native apps, they use hard to get into  programming languages for beginners that require experienced developers. And it only is built using the specialized Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the selected operating systems.

But Hybrid apps are using cost-efficient development due to a range of ready-made components, modules, and frameworks available,  And also reach a wider audience of iOS, Android, and Windows platforms simultaneously. Easy to work with, maintain, and upgrade.

Therefore, Expenses are more costly upfront for native apps compared to hybrid apps and development timeline can be much shorter for hybrid mobile applications. 

So, you should think well about the requirements, the budget and the timeline when deciding which one to choose before starting to develop your mobile app!