We can categorize the mobile apps into three types based on technology that we used to code them
- Native Apps
- Web Apps
- Hybrid Apps
Native Apps :
Native apps are developed specifically for mobile operating system(OS).It means, developing an app specific to Android plaform OR app specific to iOS plaform but not common for both platforms[Android & iOS].
In simple words,the code you create for one platform cannot be reused on another.
- Some of the techologies used to build native apps are React,Swift,Java,Kotlin Objective C, C++ ..etc
- Pros : Native apps are faster and more reliable interms of performance
- Cons: Native apps are higher cost compared to other types of apps – due to the need of creating app duplicate for other platforms[OS], this required sepearte support, mainteince and platform specific developers
Web Apps :
The behaviour of the web apps are quite similar to native apps, but these are accessed via web browser on your mobile device.
- Some of the techologies used to build web apps are HTML,CSS,JavaScript..etc
- Pros : Though this can be accessed on browser, compare to native apps we require less device memory and no customized code w.r.t platfrom(OS) which diectly reduce developement cost
- Cons: Web apps are dependent on browser and always require internet to access the URL on your device
Hybrid Apps :
Hybrid app is the app that combines elements of both native apps and web applications. Hybrid apps are popular because they allow developers to write common code for a mobile app that can be used on multiple platforms
- The techology used to build hybrids apps are combination of web technologies and native APIs. Examples: Ionic, Angular, Java, HTML ..etc
- Pros : Support mutiple platforms, fast and relatively easy to develop, low-cost maintenance
- Cons: Hybrid apps lack in performance, speed and overall optimization in comparison to native apps