Choosing Between a Native and a Hybrid App

When should we pick a native app for our use case?#

Here are the scenarios listed below when we should go ahead with a native app. Pick a native app when:

• You have heavy graphic and hardware requirements, like when developing a mobile game, a video editor or a game streaming app. In this scenario, even a tad bit of lag is unacceptable. We cannot compromise on performance.
• Say you intend to write an app with heavy UI animations, like, a fancy social app having a lot of animations, a finance app containing a lot of real-time charts and graphs and so on. In this scenario, again, it’s unacceptable to have any sort of lag in the application. The application needs to be as responsive and reliable as possible.
• The app is pretty complex and relies on hardware access, like camera, sensors, GPS, etc., to function. In this scenario, we typically have to write a lot of platform-specific code. A GPS, sensor-based health and a step-tracking app is good example of this.
• The look and feel of the app and the user experience are expected to be just like the native OS and when the UI needs to be, not just functional but flawless.
• You have other businesses in the same niche competing with you with native apps. It would be a blunder to offer our service via a hybrid app. Users today aren’t installing as many apps as they used to. Don’t expect them to show mercy on you when you don’t have a better product than your competition.
• The app needs to support new mobile OS features as soon as they are released.
• You are a business that can afford dedicated teams for Android and iOS. You should go ahead with native apps. Don’t even think about the hybrid app approach.

When should we pick a hybrid app for our use case?#

Pick a hybrid app when:

• The app requirements are simple. You have no plans of adding any new complex features in the near future. A news app is a good example of this. Developing a news app as a hybrid app will provide the same look and feel across all the platforms.
• You cannot afford dedicated codebases for different platforms but still have to hit the market. There are two approaches to this: either launch with a native app on one platform or write a hybrid app. It entirely depends on how you want to go ahead.
• There are instances where you don’t need dedicated apps and a hybrid app is good enough to serve your requirements well. Yes, the native apps provide top-notch performance, but you cannot entirely discard hybrid tech on the grounds of performance and the availability of other native features. It all depends on your requirements.
• You just need to test the waters with a pre-alpha release or an MVP (Minimum viable product). In this scenario, it doesn’t make sense to learn the native tech to write the app. You can quickly launch the MVP via a hybrid app and have separate codebases later.
• You have a team that is not fluent with the native technologies, and it would take a lot of time to learn a particular native tech. This scenario is a trade-off between costs and performance. Also, developer sentiment is another aspect to this.

So, these are some of the general rules that you can follow when deciding on the two types of apps. Another good approach is to look for businesses in the same niche. Research what technologies they have used to build their apps. See if it is viable for you to do the same.

With this being said, let’s move on to the next lesson, where I discuss progressive web apps.