What are Hybrid Apps?

A hybrid application is a software app that combines elements of both native and web applications. Hybrid applications use a native “shell” to wrap web content. Anyone and everyone finds or experiences this type of app via app stores or via online web stores.

Once users download a hybrid app from the app store and install it on their device, the shell then connects to whatever capabilities the mobile platform provides through a browser embedded in the app. The browser, complete with its plugins, runs on the backend and is not visible to the end user.

One of the major draws of hybrid apps from a development standpoint is that they allow developers to write code for a mobile application once while still accommodating multiple platforms. With an extra layer between the source code and the target platform, hybrid apps do sometimes perform slightly slower than native apps.

Hybrid app development services include the creation of an app capable of running on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Android, and iOS. Hybrid app frameworks allow developers to use a common codebase across both iOS and Android devices as well.

A few examples of high-performing hybrid apps featuring higher user engagement include:

• Gmail – The most popular email client is technically a hybrid app. Leveraging the potential of HTML5, the Gmail app includes an organized inbox to categorize promotional and social messages.
• Evernote – With rich design and strong performance, this hybrid app gives a completely fluent experience for note-taking and project management.
• Instagram – The leading image-focused social media platform is among the most popular hybrid applications. This hybrid app supports offline data and observes user engagement every day.
• Uber – The famous taxi-booking hybrid app runs on m.uber.com. The app features a simple and intuitive user interface with super easy navigation.
• Amazon – With a top-notch user interface, the Amazon app stands out and makes the shopping process extremely appealing. It also features a simple and fast checkout process.
• Twitter – The famous social media hybrid app delivers superior UI performance and encounters a large volume of traffic every single day.

Hybrid applications features include:

• The ability to function both when connected and disconnected
• Deep integrations into both the device’s local file system and a set of Web-based services
• Improved access to dynamic online content through their featured embedded browsers

Hybrid apps work similar to web apps in that users download these apps to their device just like native apps. Hybrid apps use web technologies including HTML, HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript and also run code inside of a container. To access device-specific hardware, the device’s browser engine renders HTML, JavaScript, and native APIs. Hybrid apps generally share similar navigation elements as web apps. If an app doesn’t need support from a database, it’s then functionable offline.

Hybrid or Native Approach for Mobile App Development?

Choosing the right type of mobile application to develop for a business is a complicated decision. Many decision-makers and app teams find themselves asking: Hybrid approach or native approach — which is better? The answer is somewhat relative. It depends on what a business aims to accomplish by having a mobile app in the first place.

The difference between native and hybrid applications is in the way they’re developed. While comparing hybrid apps to native apps, here are some questions to keep in mind:

• What are the time constraints in the development of a mobile app?
• What’s the budget for the mobile app development project?
• What particular features does the app require?
• In what specific ways will the app serve the business priorities?

Native apps are specifically built for the platform they’re installed on. They take advantage of a mobile phone’s hardware, including the camera, accelerometer, and GPS. Native apps are also in the same language the platform’s operating system is in.

Web apps are commonly written in HTML or JavaScript. They don’t require downloading, and users access them through the device’s web browser. Web apps don’t have the ability to leverage the hardware on a chosen platform.

Hybrid apps combine native and web apps. The installation and operation of these apps are similar to a native app, but they have the inner workings of a web app. They’re, essentially,  the best of both worlds.

The Best Hybrid App Development Frameworks

There’s an unprecedented demand and rise in popularity for hybrid mobile app development services. Thankfully, there are many capable and worthy hybrid mobile app development frameworks available on the market. Dev teams must have a solid understanding of each one in order to choose the best option for their projects.

The hybrid application frameworks are the heroes behind the success of hybrid mobile apps. A few of the top options for these frameworks include the following developer favorites.

Ionic

Ionic is an open-source mobile app framework for building high-quality cross-platform hybrid mobile apps from a single code base in React, Vue.js, and Angular. It takes a web-first approach to build high-quality iOS, desktop, Android, and Progressive Web Apps. Ionic has already helped to develop more than 5 million applications. The minimum requirements for Ionic are iOS 7 and Android 4.1.

The features of Ionic are as follows:

• Ionic features a rich library with front-end building along with premier user interface components.
• It offers seamless app UX across iOS, Android, and Web platforms from a single shared codebase.
• With hardware-accelerated transitions and touch-optimized gestures, Ionic is fast by default.
• There’s built-in support for JavaScript Frameworks, or it’s usable without any framework at all.
• Ionic gives users light and dark theme choices, so they have the option to choose the one that’s most eye-friendly.

React Native

React Native is a famous hybrid mobile app framework capable of rendering impressive mobile apps for both iOS and Android. It makes use of building blocks in platforms for developing effective cross-platform mobile apps.

• React Native features the ability to write code once and use it anywhere — like iOS, Android, or Windows — without rewriting the code for each operating system from scratch.
• It has flexible support for various third-party libraries for enhancing performance and other capabilities.
• The framework comes with a specific set of JavaScript functions called Native Modules that have native execution in each platform.
• React Native provides ways to make the app’s UI simple and easy to use.

Flutter

Flutter is an open-source framework by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform apps from a single codebase. Flutter deploys apps to multiple devices: mobile, web, desktop, and embedded devices. It’s a complete software development kit with a collection of tools, libraries, documentation, APIs, frameworks, and more.

• Flutter helps to build effective UIs, deploy them to the system, and fix any bugs, all in the same place.
• The mobile app framework with its unique feature, Hot Reloading, reduces the time taken for rendering change to sub-seconds.
• Flutter features an impressive repository of ready-to-use and highly functional widget collections.
• The framework offers enhanced integration capabilities that make it easily scalable and flexible. Flutter can re-engineer a legacy app to adjust it to new requirements or build a quick wireframe.

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova , formerly known as PhoneGap, is a top hybrid app framework supported by the Cordova framework and Adobe. It allows developers to create apps using standard web APIs. The framework provides reliable cross-platform compatibility with just one code for all platforms. The Apache Cordova framework is cost-effective and an incredible choice for companies or projects with budget constraints.

Apache Cordova has many worthy features, including:

• Apache Cordova offers greater access to native APIs for developing feature-rich mobile apps.
• It creates a single app, running on a single code for all mobile platforms.
• The framework comes with strong backend support.
• It’s considered easy and cost-effective to maintain.
• It offers notable UI libraries for upgrading the interface.

Xamarin

Xamarin is an open-source mobile app platform for building native and high-performance apps for iOS, Android, and Windows by Microsoft with .NET and C#. It provides users with a relatively limited cost, a higher audience reach, and a native UI experience.

• Developers get full support to access native APIs and tools for Android, iOS, and Windows platforms.
• Xamarin works on tight deadlines and budget-friendly terms and helps develop the app in less time.
• Xamarin is easy to develop and maintain. The resources by the Xamarin community and libraries are helpful options for developers.
• It features code reusability between different mobile platforms.

Framework7

A free and open-source framework, Framework7 helps developers build mobile, desktop, and web-based apps for iOS and Android devices with native appearance and feel.

Framework7 comes with a stunning set of ready-to-use UI elements and widgets that run seamlessly on the iOS and Android platform. In addition, it comes with the following benefits:

• It’s an open source and free to use framework.
• The framework has easy and familiar jQuery syntax to get started without delay.
• Framework7 has a built-in FastClick library to control click delay for touch UI.
• It features a built-in grid system layout for arranging the elements responsively.
• It’s paired with extra tools like Electron and NW.js for building native desktop apps.
• The framework dynamically loads pages from templates via flexible router API.

NativeScript

NativeScript helps developers build mobile, desktop, and web-based apps for iOS and Android devices with native appearance and feel.

Some of the noteworthy features of NativeScript include:

• It allows developers to code once and run it across several platforms.
• NativeScript uses a developer-friendly Command Line Interface (CLI).
• It creates a native user experience and performance on all platforms and devices.
• NativeScript allows users to directly access all iOS and Android APIs.
• The framework uses an XML-based markup language similar to HTML.

Onsen UI

Onsen UI is an HTML5 framework for creating innovative and usable UIs for hybrid and mobile web apps. It helps mobile app developers focus more on the application’s main functionality by making UI development simpler. Onsen UI is compatible with AngularJS, but it also technically works with any other framework. There are three layers in Onsen UI: CSS components, web components, and framework bindings.

• Onsen UI framework provides developers with several ready-to-use UI components, including a toolbar, tabs, stack navigation, side menus, and more.
• It optimizes all its animations to perform well on a broad range of devices. The framework takes extra effort to ensure smooth performance on low-end devices as well.
• The framework provides a grid system to place the elements in the screen.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Apps

Each type of application comes with pros and cons. It’s up to dev teams and their clients to decide the best option to fit their needs. The advantages of hybrid apps include:

• Scalability – Hybrid apps easily operate on different platforms. Developers gain the capability to target multiple operating systems without much effort.
• Development time – Hybrid apps typically have faster build times compared to native apps. Writing code only once saves a significant amount of time.
• Reduced costs – Hybrid apps reduce costs compared to native apps and are definitely cheaper to develop compared to building two versions of a native app for two different platforms. With the reduced time required to build a hybrid app, the overall cost for development reduces as well.
• Code reusability – The code in hybrid apps takes the write-once-run-anywhere approach. This allows for the same code to be deployed across all mobile platforms.
• Updates – It’s easier to launch patches and updates for this type of app, and these updates don’t need approval from the app store. Users benefit from the latest version and updates without the hassle.
• Offline support – Hybrid apps work online and offline without an internet connection. Some hybrid applications even use local servers to store data.

The disadvantages of hybrid apps include:

• Performance – Hybrid apps sometimes perform slower than their native counterparts. This extra time comes from the need to render the app’s views within a webview, as well as the fact that there’s a layer between the OS and the source code. There’s potential to make implementation mistakes when dealing with OS frameworks, which result in vastly degraded performance.
• Functionality – With one single code for all platforms, some of the native features are missing in a hybrid app, especially for apps with complex features.
• User experience (UX) – When not developed or designed correctly, hybrid app interfaces are poor in terms of UX. The design of hybrid apps sometimes aren’t suitable for each operating system.
• Graphics – Hybrid apps often face many quality issues and aren’t suitable to render 3D graphics. To design attractive graphics or add 3D elements, a hybrid approach might not be the right option.
• Debugging – Debugging and figuring out the exact issue in hybrid apps is more challenging than in native or mobile apps.

Working With BairesDev on Hybrid App Projects

There are many aspects to consider when trying to find the best hybrid app development company for a business. It all depends on the special business requirements, financial resources, and what the business and users prefer.

With so many hybrid app development services on the market, it may be difficult to make the right choice.

Choosing an Outsourced Hybrid App Development Team

A few of the factors that developers must consider before hiring a hybrid app development company include:

• Cost – Businesses must set a realistic budget and ask potential companies for a price estimate. They must also determine whether to spend a higher upfront cost, which may or may not result in a higher return on investment.
• Post-launch services – Apps constantly need updating and maintenance. Just because the app is live doesn’t mean that the hybrid app developer’s work is complete. Hiring companies should make sure that the hybrid app developers offer future consults and services.
• Expertise – Outsourcing providers need to have knowledge of hybrid mobile application development. Experts should be able to fulfill all the tasks connected to the building of the mobile app.
• Location – Sometimes, location matters and companies like to work closely with hybrid app developers. Location plays a major role in deciding which hybrid app development company is the best, so companies must decide between onshoring, nearshoring, or offshoring.

Hybrid App Tech Is Here to Stay

Hybrid app technology reigns supreme on tablets and mobile phones. Unlike trendy tech solutions that usually come and go, hybrid applications are here to stay.

There is no one right choice between native applications and hybrid applications. It depends on the developer’s understanding of current and future needs. The hybrid approach is definitely worth considering, as it drastically reduces the cost and time of mobile app development. Businesses and users should try to determine what the future state of the app requires in order to make the choice clear.