Not All Apps are Created Equal

A ‘web app’ is a website that has been optimized for mobile browsers, like Safari or Chrome. Because it is accessed via the browser, it doesn’t need to be downloaded onto the device and won’t take up storage or memory. It can be interactive and functional, but it won’t have complex functionalities or work with any of the device’s operating system features. This means that web apps may be less expensive to develop than mobile apps. Even in its most advanced form, a web app may not necessarily have the same high-level security or push notifications found in mobile apps, your web app, and the user experience may be

slower and less intuitive than that offered by a mobile app. Depending on your needs, timeline, and budget, a web app might be exactly the right choice for you. Web apps notwithstanding, typically when we think of an app we are thinking of the mobile variety, which would be downloaded from the app store onto a device. Mobile apps must run on one of two large operating systems: iOS, which only includes Apple devices like iPhones and iPad, and Android, which is a more open platform developed and supported by Google, and used on devices built by a variety of companies.

The two operating systems are not only separate from, but also incompatible with each other, giving rise to two categories of mobile apps – native and hybrid. Native mobile apps have a singular purpose and are built in a specific programming language for either the iOS or the Android platform. With native, what works for one will not work for the other. Hybrid mobile apps, on the other hand, are built to work with either platform. So, what are the pros and cons of going with a native mobile app? Fast and reliable, native apps tend to offer a superior user experience, integrating smoothly into the platform they are designed for and easily tapping into device functions, like the camera and microphone. On the other hand, if you go with a native app, you will need different code bases for the iOS and

Android platforms, which means extra time and costs will be involved in development, maintenance and upgrades. A hybrid app is easier and faster to develop than a mobile app, and requires less maintenance. Because only one code base is needed, it can be tweaked for both platforms, so you may save time and money on maintenance, scaling and upgrades. Hybrid apps look like a native app on the outside, but on the inside, they behave more like a web app, running on a sub-browser within the app itself. They can still access device features using bridge solutions, but you may find that you have to compromise on user experience and on performance – for example the speed of the app will entirely depend on the speed of the user’s browser - depending on the web view where the app loads.