It’s a great idea to consider building a hybrid app. But what benefits of hybrid app development make it a popular choice among businesses? Let’s find out.
As Singapore is advancing very rapidly in the tech world, more entrepreneurs have started investing in building digital products. To be specific, most of them are built for mobile devices. And without any doubt, you can fully trust these frameworks. Simply because the best two are backed by tech giants like Google and Facebook.
So, let’s dig deep into our topic today and look at some of the important benefits of hybrid app development for your business. But for our readers who don’t have a good understanding of this topic, we will start with the basics.
What is Hybrid App Development?
In general terms, a hybrid app is a software application that combines elements of both native apps and web applications. To put it in a broader perspective, these apps are basically web apps that have been put in a native app shell.
A hybrid app may be defined as an HTML5 web app within a native wrapper.
When you download hybrid apps and install them locally, the shell can connect to the mobile platform through a browser that is embedded in the app. It is visible to the end user and its plugins & browsers run on the backend.
According to the report of Low code explosion, 74% of the top 50 retail apps on the USA app store are hybrid apps. Some of the companies that use hybrid apps are Amazon, Walmart, Nike, and many more.
Why Does it Make More Sense to Shift from the Web to a Hybrid App?
If your business still operates on web-based platforms, that’s a bad sign. Most of the buying, especially by the young generation, is done online. No wonder mobile app revenues are projected to reach almost 613 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.
This alone justifies the need for businesses to go mobile. And hybrid app development seems like the right choice. Because it offers a native-like feel and performance at a lower cost.
So, if you are ready to take the leap of faith in this approach, our experts can offer free consultations to help you with any of your queries. Get in touch now or continue reading to know more about the hybrid app development approach.
Key Benefits Of Hybrid App Development
1. Enhanced UX/UI
Hybrid mobile development combines the advantages of native and web apps. It offers a consistent and better user experience across iOS and Android platforms, embracing mobile e-commerce. Another key advantage is that the content, pictures, and graphics can be loaded quickly, as it is not heavy in comparison to native or web apps.
The apps adapt to different device screens for quick data display. Because of the flawless UI experience, the chances of application approval on the app store further become high.
New to the design world? As a leading mobile app design agency, we can help turn your ideas into reality.
2. Wider Market Reach
With hybrid app development, businesses can build a single app that can be deployed across multiple platforms, such as iOS, Android, and web browsers. This means that businesses can reach users across a wide range of devices and platforms. All of this without having to invest in separate development efforts for each platform.
In addition, you can distribute hybrid apps through app stores. This provides a ready-made audience for businesses looking to promote their products or services. Apple and Google Play app stores offer businesses a platform to reach millions of potential users and customers.
Moreover, developers can update hybrid apps in real time. This allows businesses to make changes and improvements to their apps quickly and easily. Thus, making it possible to deliver new features and functionality to users without requiring them to download a new version of the app.
3. Shorter Development Timeframe
It is one of the important benefits of hybrid app development. Building these apps required a short development time in comparison to native apps. The coder needs not to prepare a new code base for different platforms. Rather it is doable to use the existing web development tool kit.
Tech experts can write this code across platforms using their knowledge base of Javascript and HTML.
4. Enhanced Performance
Hybrid apps are not dependent on network connections. As a result, they offer high speed and performance. The working of hybrid apps is more commendable as compared to progressive and responsive apps.
Hybrid apps exhibit better speed on all devices even with a high number of users. For example, you can take a glimpse of the performance standard of hybrid apps by checking out brands like Twitter and LinkedIn.
But the experts may argue on this point. As native app development is an option that may be suitable for businesses that require a high degree of customization, performance, and integration with device features.
Again, this may add up the cost, as to build a native iOS or Android mobile app, you have to hire two separate teams.
5. Offline Availability
A large number of the population on a daily basis faces internet connectivity issues all over the world, especially when it comes to rural areas. People there have limited internet plans or poor connectivity.
Therefore an important element of modern-day mobile applications is offline support and it is one of the essential benefits of hybrid app development.
Most mobile applications do not provide offline support. Statistics indicate that 70% of users abandon an app because it takes too long to load. Hybrid systems have the feature of offline accessibility because of which the end-users can use the app hassle-free. And without any performance glitches.
Top Hybrid App Development Frameworks
Hybrid app development frameworks have made it easier for businesses to create powerful, cross-platform mobile apps without the need for specialized programming knowledge.
These frameworks provide a set of tools and pre-built components that developers can use to build and deploy hybrid apps quickly and efficiently.
1. Flutter
It is a relatively new hybrid framework from Google that has gained a lot of attention in the development community. Flutter is a free and open-source framework that allows developers to build beautiful, high-performance apps for iOS, Android, and the web using a single codebase.
It offers a fast development cycle. Flutter’s hot reload feature allows developers to see changes to the app in real-time, without the need for a full rebuild. This makes it easy to experiment with different designs and features and iterate quickly.
Another advantage of Flutter is its performance. Flutter uses a reactive programming model, which means that the app reacts quickly to user input and delivers a smooth and responsive experience. Additionally, Flutter uses its own rendering engine, which allows it to deliver high-quality graphics and animations.
Flutter also offers a rich set of customizable widgets and pre-built components that make it easy to build beautiful and intuitive user interfaces. Developers can easily customize these widgets to match the branding and design requirements of your business.
A Piece of Advice
As you will read further, it will become more clear that Flutter and React Native have a neck to neck competition in terms of all aspects. So, for some people, it becomes difficult to choose between the two technologies.
If you need a little help there, this article, Flutter vs React Native can help you make the right decision in under two minutes.
2. React Native
React Native is a popular hybrid app development framework that allows developers to build high-quality, cross-platform mobile apps for iOS and Android using a single codebase. It is built on top of the React framework, which is a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
One of the biggest advantages of React Native is its ability to create native-like user interfaces. React Native uses native components, which means that the apps built using this framework deliver a native-like experience. This is particularly important for businesses looking to build high-performance, complex mobile apps.
Another advantage of React Native is its fast development cycle. Similar to Flutter, React Native also offers a hot reload feature that allows developers to see changes to the app in real-time, without the need for a full rebuild.
This makes it easy to experiment with different designs and features and iterate quickly. React Native also offers a large and active community of developers, which means that developers can benefit from a wealth of resources, tutorials, and third-party libraries to help them build their apps.
Additionally, because React Native uses JavaScript, which is a popular programming language, it is relatively easy to find developers who are familiar with the framework. However, one limitation of React Native is that it may not be as fast as building a native app.
While React Native does offer native-like performance, it may not be able to match the performance of a truly native app in all scenarios. Moreover, some developers have reported that React Native can be difficult to set up and configure, particularly for new developers.
In short, creating an app using React Native can truly help you win the hearts of your potential users.
3. Ionic
One of the most popular hybrid app development frameworks is Ionic. Built on top of AngularJS, Ionic provides a comprehensive set of UI components and tools that allow developers to create beautiful, high-performance mobile apps for iOS, Android, and the web.
Plus, Ionic offers a wide range of pre-built UI components, making it easier for developers to create visually appealing and responsive interfaces for their apps. Performance is another area where Ionic shines, thanks to its built-in optimization for Angular, a popular JavaScript framework.
This results in faster and smoother app experiences for users. Another benefit of Ionic is its ease of learning, as it relies on web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are widely used and well-documented.
Finally, the Ionic community is large and active, offering developers access to a wealth of resources, including plugins, extensions, and documentation. So, you won’t face the talent gap issues, in case you choose to go ahead with this technology.
4. Xamarin & PhoneGap
Xamarin allows developers to build native apps for iOS, Android, and Windows using a single, shared codebase, while PhoneGap leverages web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create hybrid apps.
Ultimately, the choice of a hybrid app development framework will depend on your specific business needs and the type of app you want to build. If you’re not tech-savvy, I would strongly advise you to consult a reliable digital product development company.
Final Words
One thing that has grown progressively amidst this uncertainty is consumer spending on mobile apps and installations. Between 2019 and 2021, consumer spending on mobile apps witnessed a significant increase, reaching almost $50 billion in 2020.
Hybrid apps have primarily contributed to the growth of mobile app development. More than 70% of the leading iOS retail apps are hybrid apps. Surely these applications are the future as they work both in the urban and rural framework.
Wish to develop a futuristic hybrid mobile app? You are just in the right place. Applify is a leading hybrid app development company in Singapore with over 200+ tech experts, pre-vetted and ready to deploy.
