what-are-the-different-options

There are different options available for app development. These include native app development, web apps, cross platform development, mobile web, responsive app design and hybrid approaches used for developing mobile apps. There’s a lot to consider when choosing the option for your app. The main factors for selecting your option include:

  • The quality of user experience and the performance you want your app to have
  • The required features and their complexity that you intend to include in your app
  • The available budget

 

The different development options include:

  • Native apps – it means you’ll write the app in the native language/platform for the device, the most popular being Objective-C or Swift for Apple devices and Java for Android devices; it’s an app developed exclusively for a specific mobile platform, leveraging all its capabilities. It’s the most basic way to build an app, writing it for a specific kind of device. Building a native app provides the most optimal product experience on mobile devices. However, a higher budget and more time are required for native apps. A native app is basically an ideal app and if the budget allows this should be your first priority. A native app allows the best way of integrating the app with preferences, local settings, and notification apps. The majority of successful consumer apps are built on either Native iOS or Android.
  • Hybrid Apps or Cross platform Apps – Develop in one place and compile/build to multiple platforms. These apps can be developed a lot faster and with low budgets. You can leverage one codebase and customize for multiple platforms instead of creating a new codebase for each platform. Making one cross-platform app functional across all platforms is fast but also brings some cons with it from the user experience and functionalities point of view. The application might also require a lot of customization for each platform.

The major disadvantage of cross platform apps – Each platform has its own unique style and affords certain flexibilities missing in others. This may put you at a disadvantage because you may not be able to leverage the unique functionality and tools of the respective native platform when developing an app for multiple platforms.

Cross Platforms also face many issues from user experience point of view. Even Facebook started out with a Cross-Platform mobile app but changed directions to Native iOS and Android after realizing the User Experience was not optimal.

  • Mobile web – what you’ve got is basically a web app, hosted on the web; it will be accessed by the device’s browser. It’s a special version of the website, resized to fit a mobile device screen. Reading and navigating is a lot difficult in these kinds of apps. It requires zooming and resizing to read or click. The user experience is never good on these apps. This is when you need to think developing a native app.
  • Responsive App – Through Responsive Web Design, a website responds to user behavior and environment based on the screen size, orientation and operating system of their device. Responsive Web Design is mostly used for informational web pages. As the user switches from one device to another (for example, desktop to iPhone), the website automatically adapts to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities. This eliminates the need for resizing, panning and scrolling by the user in order to view the website on the new device.

 

Based on the required customization level, the user experience and the level of performance required in a business related app, it is advised to develop a native app for both Android and iOS platforms. These two mobile app platforms cover over 96% of the market share of mobile operating systems.

An example for better understanding:

Building a hybrid app or a cross-platform app instead of a native app is like using Google Translator to communicate in a foreign language. If you use Google Translator for speaking to someone else or for translating a document that is originally written in English, there will always be mistakes in it and the experience would not be good. Google Translator might work for simpler words and phrases but it will not work better for complex words, sentences and some sayings or adverbs used in that particular language. It will also lack localization and other linguistic features. Similarly, hybrid and cross-platform approaches might work with some apps that require a basic level of features and design. But typically a high level of performance, quality and user experience cannot be ensured with complex apps developed through Hybrid and cross platforms. But for more complex app requirements, a hybrid app typically won’t feel as good to use as a native app.

 

We suggest the following blogs to give you a better understanding of the topic.

 

Do you want to have a mobile app, website, eCommerce solution or a software for your business? Do you want to be one step ahead of your competitors? Do you have any innovative idea that you want to make app for? Contact us for a free 30 minutes consultancy and we’ll help you being one step ahead of your competitors. To know more About iFahja, visit our About us page and our profile.

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