Hybrid App Development – All You Need To Know

You would agree, the choice of building mobile apps depends on business needs and user expectations. While web-based and native apps have several benefits, hybrid mobile applications have garnered popularity. It is because of their adaptability across various platforms to build applications that provide consistent performance regardless of the platform. Besides being cost-effective, hybrid apps make it slightly faster to reserve a spot in the app store market.

Through this article, we’ll explore some essential facets of hybrid app development to help you decide if it’s the right approach for your business.

So, let’s dive right in!

Table of Contents:

• Hybrid vs Native App: What’s the Difference
• What is Hybrid App Development?
• What Are Hybrid Apps?
• Why Choose Hybrid Mobile App Development?
• Key Benefits of Hybrid App Development
• What are The Most Popular Hybrid Mobile App Development Frameworks?
• How much Does Hybrid App Development Cost?

As the name suggests, this approach entails creating a single mobile application that is compatible with various operating systems – Android and iOS.

Hybrid development adopts an approach to write the code once, run everywhere to build an app. It leverages different plugins to enable unrestrained access to the features of the mobile device. Web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are the core of these apps while deploying a native container. Some popular examples of applications that amaze customers with their high performance, interface & functionality include Twitter, Instagram, Uber, Gmail, and more.

It is a software application that combines elements of both native apps and web applications. They are primarily web applications in a native app environment that connect with the mobile platform capabilities embedded in the app.

Hybrid apps use shared code to deploy across multiple platforms – Android and iOS. It offers a perfect blend of both native and web features. It provides a unique avenue for enterprises looking for an app that works on various devices to expand their business operations. It lets you engage customers irrespective of the platform they use. Whether you want an app to entice, be a game, or take photos, these types of apps offer tons of excellent options to leap into the mobility world.

Let’s look at the core advantages of how this mobile development approach helps businesses from around the world seamlessly leverage multiple platforms. It is the most sought-after approach thanks to the growth in the number of mobile users, app usage, device fragmentation, and more.

Enhanced UX/UI

Hybrid mobile development combines the advantages of native and web apps. It offers a consistent and flawless user experience across iOS, Android platforms. It is about making it work for mobile by embracing the web. Further, the lightweight hybrid app UI helps in loading content and graphics quickly. The apps adapt to different device screens for quick data display and seamless data streaming. The excellent UI experience even improves the chances of the application’s approval at the app store.

Wider Market Reach

They are perfect to target different platforms with one solution. In this competitive marketplace, it becomes a lucrative and cost-effective option to reach out to a high number of users using different mobile platforms.

Shorter Development Timeframe

One of the main advantages of hybrid mobile apps is that they are easier and faster to develop than a native app. It enables organizations to leverage their existing web development tool kit to eliminates the need to create a new codebase across each platform. With knowledge of JavaScript and HTML, the code gets written while the application operates across all major operating systems.

Easy to Maintain

Hybrid mobile application development offers simplified maintenance. For native apps, the development teams need to roll out new versions for every platform with each update. A hybrid app eliminates versioning and makes app management as simple as updating a web page, that too in real-time.

Cost-effective

This approach enables the targeting of multiple platforms without maintaining numerous code bases. Unlike native apps, with a single code base for various platforms, the hybrid apps enable development teams to accelerate the development process. It reduces the time to market significantly. The app can be published on multiple mobile app stores with a common code.

Offline Availability

Mobile applications commonly suffer from limitations arising due to the lack of offline support. It is a challenge for companies who cater to customers from rural areas or places where internet connectivity is a challenge.

Statistics indicate that 70 percent of users abandon an app because it takes too long to load. The offline accessibility feature helps overcome this challenge. Therefore, the end-users can have uninterrupted access to the app’s data without performance glitches.

Enhanced Performance

Hybrid apps offer high speed and performance just like native apps. In fact, in some cases, they are even faster than progressive and responsive apps. The reason being no dependency on network communication. Further, even apps with a higher number of users exhibit better speed on all devices. They have proven their performance standards with brands like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the hybrid app development frameworks and their unique features:

• React Native
  It is one of the top choices of development teams across the globe. It is not only the most preferred option for creating hybrid apps but also popular for native & cross-platform apps. This is because it comes equipped with a world of advanced features and functionalities such as code reusability, live reload, community support, native plug-ins, and more. It is a logical option for companies looking to build high-performance apps by delivering users a native-like experience.
• Flutter
  Powered by Google, it is an open-source framework known for its speed and reliability to build highly interactive native interfaces. It offers a rich collection of widgets for customization, SDKs, and plenty of other development tools that make it quite easier and quicker to create hybrid apps.
• Xamarin
  Our next pick for this list is the Xamarin development framework. Owned by technology behemoth — Microsoft, it is compatible with any mobile platform. It enables developers to create universal apps without compromising the native design.
• Ionic
  It has gained massive popularity in the recent past. It offers an extensive set of features & tools. It is powered with integrations including native mobile UI components & layouts as well as debugging & testing tools to build interactive apps.

While several factors influence the cost of mobile apps though we can highlight the following variables that would influence and offer you a broad estimate of the development cost.

• Modules, functionalities and features
• Compliance requirements
• Design complexity and scalability of the app
• Development time
• Geographical location
• The expected outcomes (revenue/user base)
• Size and expertise of the development team
• Third-party API integrations
• Learning curve

With over a decade of experience in full-cycle mobile app development, Rishabh Software can help analyze project requirements and pick the right cross-platform app development framework for specific business needs. With a profound understanding of advanced hybrid app frameworks, our team of tech mavericks leverages the latest trends and technologies to provide consistent performances across all platforms at a price that fits their budget.

We build hybrid apps that deliver a native-like experience with our legacy presence and application of the latest technologies and frameworks. Our multi-domain expertise enables seamless operations across all major platforms including iOS and Android.

With agile development and project methodology, we provide end-to-end services from development, and testing, all the way to technical delivery and maintenance. We’re long-term business partners you can always count on for all your enterprise app development needs. Leverage our hybrid application development services with innovative technologies to propel your business to the next level.

• Design and Development: We strive for constant innovation and modernization to design and build user-centric hybrid apps
• Application Integration: Our proficient team stays updated and leverages the latest tools, technologies and techniques to integrate third-party apps for enhanced functionality.
• Maintenance & Support: We ensure optimal performance of apps even in peak traffic times. Whether it is monitoring performance, examining user behavior or quick bug fix, we provide on-demand app maintenance services.

If you have a unique idea or specific requirement for creating a hybrid mobile app, we’re just a call away.