A Comparison Review Between Progressive Web App vs Native App vs Hybrid App.
In 2019, the number of available apps in the Google Play Store is 2.6 million, and Apple’s App Store remained the second-largest app store with almost 1.8 million available apps. Almost 4.1 billion Internet users using the internet on earth now. Our daily life is extremely related to these statistics. Every day we use native apps through Android and iOS device, Progressive web apps through e-commerce sites, and many more.
In recent time there’s been a lot of enthusiasm about Native Apps vs. Progressive web apps vs. Hybrid Apps. Here, the progressive web app is one step ahead over native, and hybrid app thus being responsive, it resembles native mobile apps also. In this discussion, we will review three major kinds of apps,
- Progressive web app
- Native app
- Hybrid app
Progressive Web App
People are no longer satisfied with just responsive websites. To overcome this problem progressive web app has been turned into the market. Progressive web apps are those that resemble native mobile apps. Therefore, they are designed according to the device specification along with the browser and screen size. Progressive web apps even work offline. Most of the enterprise companies are now turn into progressive web app from traditional websites. Here they got both higher conversion as well as customer engagement. There are many examples of progressive apps for inspiration like Flipcart.com, Alibaba.com, and many more. Some best framework for building progressive web app is React, Angular, and Polymer.
Features of Progressive Web Apps
- Progressive web app provides limited access to the device’s features just like another traditional app.
- Progressive web apps are for everyone. A device with a browser all it needed to use it.
- Almost every device like desktop, laptop, mobile, tablet, and many more if it exists; supports Progressive Web Apps. Thus it will fit in any device!
- PWA even work in offline! Service workers, a feature of Progressive Web Apps allow it work on low-quality networks.
- While using PWA, anyone feels just like an app they are using. They have app-style interactions and navigation.
- Progressive Web App will always be up-to-date with the latest updates.
- No-one without proper authorization can tamper with your app just because PWA always served via HTTPS, ensuring that no-one without proper authorization can tamper with your app.
Disadvantages
- IOS is yet to provide support thus you got a little support from Apple regarding PWA.
- Your app can not be found in the app store.
- Outdated web browsers don’t support PWA too well.
Examples
AliExpress, Flipkart, Twitter Lite, OLX, Pinterest
Native Apps
Native apps are specially developed for the mobile operating system. Actually, they are platform-specific apps thus you have to use platform-specific programming language for different platform app. That means, for Android, you have to use Java, for Windows platform, you must apply C#, and finally, for the iOS, you have to use Objective C or Swift. Native apps may need to use the features that are present on the device, such as its camera, contact list, GPS, and Bluetooth. In order to use a Native app, you need to install the app first.
Features of Native Apps
- Native app provides fast performance with reliability.
- You can have complete access to phone’s hardware through Native app.
- Native apps can even modify system settings, thus the app gets full access to the camera, database, and contact list.
- You can have full app support from the app store. Therefore you can download as much app as you want.
- Every app has to get the approval of the app store. So the user can assure about the security and the device compatibility issue. You can have fast, smooth animations by Native app.
- Native app adopts Native looking UI.
Disadvantages
- Cost of app maintenance and updating is relatively higher for Native apps.
- The app approval process is quite lengthy.
- It is not easy to maintain the bug and update for the developer due to multiple platform.
Examples
PUBG Mobile, Mesenger, andy Crash, Snapchat, TikTok
Hybrid Apps
Hybrid applications generally built using Web Technologies. However, Hybrid app can deploy to the App Store also. There is a common concept for Hybrid app, is that write once, run anywhere. A Hybrid app can be built by using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The different platform code is generated automatically at the app building time. The device capabilities are exposed through JavaScript APIs. Despite having some limitation, Hybrid app is best for low budget business purpose. There are many frameworks available in the market to develop Hybrid Mobile Apps like PhoneGap, Ionic Framework, Mobile Angular UI, and many more.
Features of Hybrid Apps
- Hybrid app runs everywhere, developing it all it needs
- Through the interface, you have access to the Hardware.
- Hybrid app provides all the aspect of the Native apps.
- Hybrid app provides unified development, thus there is a requirement of developing, and maintaining separate code bases for various mobile platforms, but Hybrid apps can develop alternative and provides this service unified.
- Offline support is a significant plus point of Hybrid app.
- With the help of Minimum Viable Product, Hybrid app can achieve faster development.
Disadvantages
- Hybrid apps put an extra layer between the source codes which may cause a lack of performance.
- Debugging is a complicated process for Hybrid app.
- Due to specific framework, feature of Hybrid app remain stable.
Example
Twitter, Gmail, UBER, Evernote, Instagram
Comparison at A Glance
My Words
Looking at the above discussion, we can summarize in a few points:
- Native is too expensive because doing something for multi platform always costly. Therefore you have developed it twice. Otherwise, choose Native if performance and access to device hardware features are important to you.
- Progressive Web App is best for the e-commerce website as well as for the app. It offers so many options like chat, the map even video call. However, PWA has the highest reach with so many companies, along with the highest user.
- Choose Hybrid if you need to use more of the hardware. The hybrid app, also offers apps, in a limited time. But it depends on your requirement.
