Difference between Native\Hybrid\Webapp

OVERVIEW

In Today’s World, Mobile, without apps is of very limited use, from ordering food to getting a ride, from connecting on social networking sites to playing games, all the major activities are handled by Apps.

Apps on mobile can be divided into three main categories

1. Native Apps
2. Hybrid Apps
3. Web apps

Major Platforms :

Before I proceed to define these apps in detail, let’s find out the languages and SDK for the Major platforms available with us.

There are three major platforms/operating systems available in the mobile market.

1. Android
2. iOS
3. Windows

Most of the market share is occupied by Android and iOS.

 

Android :

Language used :   Java

SDK Used :        AndroidSDK

 

 

iOS

Language used :   Objective C or Swift

SDK Used :        iOS SDK

 

1. Native apps :

Native apps are the apps which are built in their native languages.  i.e. for android, the apps are created using android SDK & java.

e.g. Twitter

For iOS, the apps are created using iOS SDK and Swift or iOS SDK + Objective ‘c’.

e.g. Twitter

For both iOS and Android Twitter is a Native app, That means the company has two separate code base, one for Android and another one for iOS.

Native app known examples

1. twitter                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

2. Pokemon go game          

                

 

The advantage of Native Apps

   1.More robust & responsive

The user experience of native apps are outstanding as compared to hybrid apps

    2.Push notifications

Native apps can send push notifications, which is extremely helpful especially gaming apps

   3. Easy Deployment of Native apps in the play store

With help of Android SDK, you can easily deploy the native apps on play store

  4. Native apps are more secure

As compared to web apps, native apps are more secure and reliable

 The disadvantages of Native apps

1.  Required different code base as per the OS.
   1. As we already discussed above that Twitter is a native app, that means that we need two different code base, i.e. one code base in Java + Android SDK, and other in Swift + iOS SDK
   2. Maintaining different code base for different platform  makes the native apps more costly
2. Takes more time to build
   1. building the same app for two different platforms with two different code base is going to take time.

2. Web Apps :

A web app uses the web browser to access the application over the internet. However, that creates confusion difference between website and web app.

a website is more concentrated towards providing information in the readable form to end user.

example, Wikipedia is a website, as you might have used it, you can notice that it is more concentrated on being informative to the customer.

Web app on other hand is a sophisticated form of a website which provides lots of functionality rather than being merely informative.

example facebook is a web app when opened in a browser, it provides lots of features and functionality.

The majority of Web Apps are built in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5.

Advantages of Web apps

1. Need not to install from play store
2. do not take any storage space in mobile

2. Hybrid apps :

Hybrid apps are the apps which are built with a combination of Web apps and Native apps.

As we already know that web apps are built in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5, These apps are then hosted inside Native apps That uses web view, this allows them to control over accelerometer, camera, contacts, and more which would not have been possible over a web app.

Example : 

Yes, Uber is a hybrid app. And a pretty awesome one at that. The mobile app basically runs on m.uber.com which basically provides a webview on its app.

Advantages of Hybrid apps

1. One code base for all the platforms – 
   1.  This is perhaps one of the crucial reason for hybrid apps getting popular, you don’t need to manage different code base for iOS or Android.
2. Reduced Delivery time
   1. Apps can be reached to the desired audience in a fairly quick time as compared to Native Apps.
3. Cost Effective solution
   1. As compared to native apps, hybrid apps are more cost-effective as they are easier to build and scale in most cases.

Can we identify Native apps \hybrid by seeing them?

The answer is No, we cannot. most inbuilt apps and the apps available on the play store are native apps, however, you can not tell if its a native or hybrid app just by seeing it.