Summary: As mobile apps grow in the business world, companies face a problem: Misconceptions still surround mobile app development. Many businesses venture into mobile app development without truly understanding the difference between each approach. Others enter the mobile app world with false beliefs about the pros and cons of each method…that could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. To help clear up confusion, we’ve created a handy comparison chart to help you understand which mobile app approach is right for you.
**This post was originally published in 2016, and updated in 2019**
Native, mobile web, or hybrid? For companies considering mobile apps, that is the million dollar question. Which direction do you take?
The answer: It depends. There’s no single correct answer that applies to every situation. Each option (mobile web apps, hybrid apps, and native apps) has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The right path for your company depends on a variety of factors, such as:
- What are you trying to accomplish with your app?
- When do you need it?
- Which skills do you have in-house?
- How much can you spend on the app?
- What features do you require?
- How many platforms do you want to reach?
For instance, what if you need an app that lets salespeople access data while on the road? Or, what if you need an app that lets employees scan inventory with their smartphones? Or, what if you just need dashboards available on your executive’s tablets? Which option is best in each scenario?
To help you understand all of the options, as well as the pros and cons of each, we’ve put together the comparison chart below. It lists the differences between each approach and will help you get a better feeling as to which one is right for you.
A couple of quick notes about the chart:
- It is not an “either/or” choice. Even if you’re building native or hybrid apps, you can’t ignore the mobile web. After all, what if a user doesn’t want to download your app? Or, what if your app isn’t available on the user’s mobile platform? In the age of mobile, a mobile web app is table stakes. If you have or create web applications, they must work on any mobile device. The question is, do you also need a native app?
- Mobile app development options have come a long way since we published this chart back in 2016. We’ve seen an explosion of mobile app development frameworks, which deliver near-native performance with less development effort. I won’t get into all of the options, but here’s a nice article if you’d like to learn more. In this chart, we’ll be grouping these options in with the “hybrid” approach.
- Some points (like development cost), require more information than we can fit on the chart. For these points, we’ve included a link to outside articles that contain more info.
- (UPDATE) As a commenter pointed out below, distributing an app via an app store comes with its share of risks–which cannot be properly explained in a chart format. When placed in an app store, a native application is controlled by the app store’s owner (like Apple or Google). For instance, if Apple/Google decides an app doesn’t meet their terms of service, or if they decide the app isn’t right for their store, the app is removed. Am I saying you shouldn’t build a native app? Not at all. Just be aware that the app store model puts your app at the mercy of a third party.
- If you don’t want to read everything in the chart, we’ve included a list of “Key Takeaways” at the bottom that summarizes the most important points.
Native |
Hybrid/Mobile Dev Frameworks |
HTML5 (mobile web) |
|
|
Skills/tools needed to reach Android and iOS |
iOS – Swift (or Objective-C), xCode, UIKit |
HTML, CSS, Javascript, Mobile Development Framework |
HTML, CSS, Javascript |
|
Distribution |
App Store/Market |
App Store/Market |
Web |
|
Development speed |
Slow |
Moderate |
Fast |
|
Development cost |
High |
Moderate |
Low |
|
Maintenance cost |
High |
Moderate |
Low |
|
Graphical performance |
Great |
Good |
Moderate |
|
App performance |
Great |
Good |
Moderate |
|
Device Access and features |
|||
|
Camera |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Push Notifications |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Contacts |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
|
Offline access |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Geolocation |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
File upload |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Gyroscope |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Accelerometer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Swipe Navigation |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Microphone |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Key Takeaways from the chart:
- Native applications are very expensive. While cost varies dramatically depending on the application, surveys find an enterprise app ranges from $50k – over $1,000,000, with an average cost of $271,000.
- Native applications provide the best user experience: If your app requires a great user experience to succeed (like a consumer-focused app), create a native app. The native approach provides the most ability to customize your app to fit the device and provide the best overall experience.
- Mobile Web apps (HTML5) device access has come a long way. Mobile web apps can access almost every feature on the device.
- In most cases, a business will not need a native app, unless the app requires a great user experience (as explained above) or great graphics (like a game). The hybrid and mobile web approaches can handle most everything, at a fraction of the price.
- Don’t underestimate maintenance costs. As explained in this article, you should budget roughly 20% of the application’s development cost for maintenance.
Summary
As you can see, there’s no straightforward answer. But, hopefully, this chart sheds some light on the mobile app decision. What do you think? Feel free to share in the comments.
I think it’s worth mentioning that push notifications are coming to web also.
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/push-notifications-on-the-open-web
I considered adding this point to the chart, but decided against it as push notifications are specific to Chrome right now. I fully expect that to change, but for now there’s not enough browser adoption of this feature.
What about the costs and risk s of getting into an app store? Plus maintaining approval.
It’s a good point, and definitely something to consider in a mobile app decision. I’ll update the “notes” section with a brief explanation of this process.
great article..
I really appreciate your post and agree with you. Thanks for good information and way of explaining., This will be really useful. thanks for posting such information.I have one request that i wanted to know about some more free websites where i can post my android apps.
I’m ome of native app development. I think pros of Native Apps are:
Since native apps work with the device’s built-in features, they are easier to work with and also perform faster on the device.
Native apps get full support from the concerned app stores and marketplaces. Users can easily find and download apps of their choice from these stores.
Because these apps have to get the approval of the app store they are intended for, the user can be assured of complete safety and security of the app.
There is a downside to working “with the device’s built-in features” — your app may misbehave or fail if the vendor changes or deletes those features in some future version. When considering the number of platforms (typically Android, iOS, Web), you also have to worry about your app working with different versions of each platform and, on the Web, different versions of different browsers with different options set/disabled.
If you are going to adopt multiple platforms, you need to have sufficient support, development and test staff to keep up with the platform vendors. For me, I’d wait until the app has reached enough maturity and stability as a Web app (lowest cost platform) before graduating to multi-platform versions.
Great one, but native is the best 🙂
Hi joe,
Thanks for sharing all mobile app comparison chart in this blog. It’s really helpful in understanding the difference between them.
Excellent information and very helpful on The Mobile App Comparison Chart: Hybrid vs. Native vs. Mobile Web so know the difference. Did you know how to care for smartphone correctly lest something happen to your favorite smartphone will be a problem? read more displayverzekering.nl
This chart is incredibly misleading. A great deal of these web options just don’t work on all mobile platforms. Examples of non-working web-app features on iOS: photo capture, geolocation & microphone. Therefore annotating that cell with a green box is simply untrue. I’d accept an orange colored box with caveats around “only available on Android devices” at a push.
It’s all very well having a particular preference as an author of these articles, but please make the facts – the reality – clear and don’t bend the truth to match your preferred narrative.
Thank you for an otherwise useful article.
For me exists a better possibility: shareable business logic (call to services, computation, local storage, …), written in JS, and native user interfaces. Of course, JS business logic MUST be shared also in web applications.
This is the best quality/productivity compromise.
For this reason I’ve created a framework for my company: aj-framework
Take a look, it’s completely open source
https://github.com/bfortunato/aj-framework
Well, very good post with informative information. I really appreciate the fact that you approach these topics from a stand point of knowledge and information.
Nowadays, with a variety of uses sky is the limit for mobile applications. An amazing mobile apps regularly makes a similarly great online vicinity in the applications market.
Since native apps work with the device’s built-in features, they are easier to work with and also perform faster on the device.
Native apps get full support from the concerned app stores and marketplaces. Users can easily find and download apps of their choice from these stores.
Because these apps have to get the approval of the app store they are intended for, the user can be assured of complete safety and security of the app.
There seems to be a ton of buzz lately about building a “Progressive Web App”, which seems part Google marketing, part reality.
With a hybrid framework like Ionic 2 supporting PWA, I believe the hybrid option now can bypass the app store distribution model and have the PWA (web version) be “installed” (or so it seems to the end user) on a mobile device?
http://blog.ionic.io/announcing-pwa-support-in-ionic-2/
Hi,
Quick Question: do hybrid apps support TouchID?
Thanks
Hello there,
Anyone contemplating a mobile app is often bugged by this problem – Should I develop a native or hybrid app? Well, there are various factors that go into answering this tricky question. To help you decide, we bring you the most famous case of LinkedIn and Facebook, the social networking giants. These two decided to go back to native after working with the hybrid/HTML5 based approach for mobile development and with this infographic you would know what were their pain points with hybrid app and why they went the Native way?
I had recently gone through this infographics on Why LinkedIn & Facebook decided to go the NATIVE way?
its so much informative for the viewers.
Why LinkedIn & Facebook decided to go the NATIVE way?
I hope it may help you!
Since it’s been over 6 months since this article was written there have been advances in terms of enabling push notifications outside of the native app. See goroost.com, https://mobiforge.com/design-development/web-push-notifications. Has anyone had experience with this type of development for push notifications?
This was a very well laid out explanation of 2 distinct approaches to mobile web app development. As, a s/w developer, I believe that each approach has its own benefits and drawbacks. It isn’t really possible to say that one is better over the other. Native development may be necessary in apps with rich media content whereas, hybrid apps would work fine in all other cases.
Thank you for sharing your article. This is very informative article to native, hybrid and mobile web development.
Keep it up.
This is a very nice article, it would be helpful to me for my further projects, Thanks for sharing.
Thanks For Your valuable posting, it was very informative.I am working in Erp In IndiaIf You need any more information kindly make me call to this number 044-6565 6523.
I found that remarkably worthwhile. Thanks for the update. I will be back to search for more information very soon.
Nice article. i think we sometimes undermine the human factor though that has been discussed below as agency problem: https://navdeepmahajantechblogs.blogspot.com/
Thanks for sharing this information, I found it very useful. It really helped me in understanding the key difference. The comparison that you explained was very informative. surely I will use it while creating the app.
Its very informative and will be helpful to develop a mobile app.Choosing the right Platform and right technology for developing your app is very important.You can find out some more interesting information about Hybrid vs native.Do visit: http://bit.ly/2Ki4bHA
Nice article. i think we sometimes undermine the human factor though that has been discussed below as agency problem
Thanks for the sharing. Nice article
I think It depends on requirements of the project, for a minor static project we can opt for cross platform approach but for a large scale or multimedia oriented project where we can’t compromise with quality we should go for native.
Native web apps and hybrid mobile apps are different in many ways.
Thank you for sharing a detailed comparison between Hybrid, Native and Mobile Web apps. I am a developer myself so I believe that each technology has its own pros and cons. However, for the best user experience Native is always the right choice. I have written some Blog Posts on the given link: http://adrenotechnologies.com
Regards
Chris Melia
Very informative and detailed analysis of Native and Hybrid mobile app. I work as a developer myself so I agree with the writer that the native ap is usually better when you need higher performance and uniqueness in the app. Great job!
Thanks for explaining the difference so perfectly!! This is the first time I visit this website, but surely will read more of your blogs after reading this amazing piece of writing!
It needs a great user experience to succeed and the ability to customize your app.
Hello,
Awesome article!! I really enjoy your article.
All info about hybridJ vs. native vs. mobile web mentioned by you in this post is marvelous. I always prefer native. because native app development is usually associated with inefficiency, less developer productivity, and slower time to deployment, React Native is all about bringing the speed and agility of web app development to the hybrid space with native results. This article helped me a lot. Keep writing and keep sharing.
Thanks again for this knowledgeable article.
The Mobile App Comparison Chart: Hybrid vs. Native vs. Mobile Web (2019 Update), thanks for sharing the content.
Nice stuff about the mobile app comparison chart hybrid vs native vs mobile web.
Thanks…
Hey, very nice information about “The Mobile App Comparison Chart: Hybrid vs. Native vs. Mobile Web”.
This is very informative blog for mobile app development . Thanks for sharing.
Hey,
Thanks for putting together this post on hybrid vs native app development. I particularly find your thoughts on the cost of native apps development very interesting.
I’m glad to find another amazing mobile app development blogger.
Cheers.
The hybrid development application could be the right choice as it provides an easier approach to development, cost savings and platform compatibility.
Nice Blog.
While native apps do offer a better overall user interface experience, the hybrid apps come with their own advantages as well. Google’s Flutter mobile app creation uses a clear code framework that has transformed the world of mobile apps for iOS and Android operating systems with ease of deployment and economic efficiency. Developers can use it with ease and effortlessly as an open-source platform with a single code base.
Thanks for sharing it is really helpful
Thanks, Joe you shared such good information
I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well. I just bookmarked this post for future reference.
useful and valuable details you shared, thanks for the important blog post. It helped me a lot.
Hi Joe Stangarone,
It’s a good read, we are into app and game development since 2011. We have similar post on Hybrid vs cross-platform apps. if you like to check out here is the link. By the way it is not for linkbuilding, just i would like share the information. Check this link: https://www.juegostudio.com/blog/hybrid-app-vs-cross-platform-app-development
Thanks for clarifying! We were looking forward to creating a mobile app for paper help company Eumagnate and has lots of confusion between native and hybrid mobile apps.
Pingback: Mobile Applications: Native Vs. Web – RaddTech
Great post and I got extremely information from your article. I appreciate your work and requesting you to please keep posting other articles.
Native languages have all the necessary instruments to create clear, familiar interfaces that meet guidelines. Achieving the same effect in cross-platform apps requires real effort from developers, who might even need to consult with native app developers. All cross-platform frameworks can imitate native interfaces. The performance will still be worse, however, and they’ll work slower and their design will be a bit different.
Summary: Company perceptions still surround mobile app development as mobile applications expand in the corporate sector. Many companies create mobile apps without really knowing the difference between them. Others are entering the world of mobile app with erroneous notions about the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. We have developed a simple comparison diagram to assist you determine the appropriate approach to your mobile app. to remove misunderstanding.
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The debate surrounding which app type is best is still very relevant today as the lines between the three approaches are becoming increasingly blurred. While the discussion to differentiate the three mobile apps continues, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t choose an approach for the technology, but instead, choose based on what you want your app to do. If you choose an approach that doesn’t allow your app to utilize device features, for example, then you’ll end up wasting a lot of time and money when you decide to add features.
Informative, very well written. The comparison that you explained was very informative.
This article gives very accurate information about the difference between native, mobile web, or hybrid mobile app development. But at last success of app development depends upon selection of development methodologies, app development process and your app development team.