Consumers often prefer investing their money on stuffs that possess the one-size-fits-all attributes. But, with mobile app development, one can’t follow this approach.
There are basically three approaches that can be followed for developing a mobile application. That is, either you can create a native application that supports a particular mobile platform, a mobile web application (HTML5) or a hybrid application (which is the combination of the other two options).
From a business perspective, it can be said hybrid applications are quite beneficial as they are perfect to target a wider mobile audience base, and they facilitate a cost effective and convenient way that doesn’t require one to create individual applications to reach different mobile platforms. Therefore, if you are looking for a viable option, you might consider hybrid mobile apps as a lucrative choice.
With Hybrid mobile app development, you will get a simple and easy way to code by deploying HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript like programming languages and launch the app for multiple platforms. It helps developers to include more native features as compared to mobile websites, for instance, there are apps like accelerometer, Geo-location, camera, etc. All such amazing, impressive apps can be created without learning or focusing on different platforms.
However, since almost everything (though not all) has certain pitfalls along with benefits, the hybrid mobile app development also exhibits some advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, before beginning the development process, it is worth considering its pros and cons.
Benefits Of Developing A Hybrid Mobile App:
Blending the utile features of both the native mobile apps and mobile web apps, the hybrid mobile apps deliver acoustic performance. Let’s have a look at some of its features.
- Offline Usability: Since, hybrid applications store some data offline via the API of a device, it allows users to easily access the application even when they are offline (either due to poor connectivity or data costs). Thus, unlike mobile web apps that limit its usage in the absence of network connectivity or poor signals, hybrid apps offer accessibility independence.
- Application Speed: The mobile web apps are a way slower than the hybrid applications. The hybrid mobile apps instantly deliver amazing performance (unless, it’s not featuring any heavy or bulky graphics), as it doesn’t require any network communication.
Pitfalls Of A Hybrid Application:
- Degraded Performance Than Native Mobile Apps: Native applications are considered as the best among all, as they are coded specifically for a particular platform. And since, every platform possesses certain specific quirks and foibles, native apps are much better than hybrid as they allow developers to focus on a particular platform.For instance, the iOS and Android are the two most popular and in-demand platforms, which exhibits completely different developing environments. Hence, an expert skilled developer can focus on the requisite platform and deliver an enhanced and smooth performance comparatively.
- Unique Features Of A Platform Can’t Be Integrated: Since, every platform possesses certain unique features and functions, hybrid apps can’t access and leverage these different features. Hence, by creating a hybrid app, you might be missing on the best feature of a platform. For instance, by creating a hybrid app for Android, Windows and iOS devices, you can’t integrate the features like widgets in Android, smooth and uninterrupted animated graphics in iOS, and Live Tiles in Windows. Thus, you won’t be able to create an innovative and advanced application, as all the unique features that make these platforms distinct from each other can’t be incorporated in a hybrid application.
- Debugging A Hybrid App – A Daunting Task Even For The Most Seasoned Developer: It’s really tough to develop a perfectly running, bug-free application at once; there is always a great probability of having some errors and bugs left after coding. Have you ever wondered that how the debugging of a hybrid application can be accomplished? It could be a daunting task even for the skilled developers, as it involves multiple platforms. On the contrary, the Native app developers have more control over their applications and are well-aware of their app behavior on the platform for which it has been developed. Moreover, with the native app development, developers can fix the bugs in more precise and convenient fashion, as it offers advanced and highly resourceful debugging tools.
Wrapping Up:
Indubitably, developing a hybrid mobile app will allow you to reach a huge group of mobile audience in a cost-effective fashion, but there are certain pitfalls as well. However, the native mobile apps incurs more development cost but, offer more cohesive and better user experience. It is thus advisable to consider the pros and cons of the development approach well in advance before beginning the mobile app development process.
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