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Mobile Development Choosing Between Native, Web, and Cross-Platform Applications.

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fugenx mobileapp
Mobile Development Choosing Between Native, Web, and Cross-Platform Applications.

Native apps are a great way to create a powerful and responsive product. Web applications are good for simple projects when you need to get the job done. Cross-platform applications include: good for some things, terrible for others.

Which type is best depends on your goals and ideas. But making the right choice is key to financial and business success. In this article, we will discuss three types of mobile apps in detail. In the end, you will get a better understanding of what to expect from these three types of mobile apps.

Native Applications
Native apps are compatible with a specific mobile platform (Android or iOS). Usually, customers get them from app stores.

Native apps are the gold standard for mobile app development. Native applications written with platform-specific policies and technologies can show the best performance.

Benefits
Integration with devices. Since they are written for a specific platform, native applications will fit like a glove. They make full use of device capabilities. GPS, memory management, cameras, microphones all these, and many other features are available for native applications. This allows for more enjoyable user experience.

Great show. Native apps are refined with a focus on platform specificities. They are usually fast, responsive and suitable for yours. In other words, if you think of anything, your developers can do it.

No internet connection required. Native apps are installed directly on the device, so they don’t need to be connected to the Internet. This is a great feature if people want to use your product without a cell connection or Wi-Fi.

Intuitive UI / UX. Native applications must follow specific design guidelines. For Android, it is Material Design and Human Interface Guidelines for Apple. These guidelines will help you achieve the natural design. Following the platform, the guides keep the interfaces and navigation user friendly and simple to understand. The user experience is smooth and seamless. There are no limits to possible improvements and customizations. Native apps allow you to have all of this.

Discovery in stores. Almost all native apps come from Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Having your product in the store will increase its innovation and distribution opportunities. Apart from that, stores provide great support for their apps.

Disadvantages
You need more than one. Since they are developed for a specific platform, the native app only works on one platform. Unlike other types of applications, parts of native code are not shared between platforms. So you need to develop an app for every platform you support.

As a result, you will need to hire a larger development team and plan for a longer development timeline.

High development costs. Native applications are complex projects that require professional development and support. This can damage your budget.

However, if the price only stops you from developing a native app, you need to seriously consider how you can narrow the scope to make it work. You can always invest in a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) native app first. This way you can have a functional app on the market anytime. Later, when your budget is more generous, you can improve your app as needed.

Example of native application:
Instagram is our top choice as an example of a great native app. It is available for both iOS and Android, but these apps are completely different and unique to each system.

Web Applications
Web applications are developed as websites using a combination of HTML5 and JavaScript. These websites are then wrapped in an invisible native web view container. Any are built utilizing technologies similar to Cordova and Phonegap.

When thinking about a web app, imagine that a website has become a mobile app. They have a lot.

Benefits
Development is easy. If time is your only criterion to market, the web app is a great solution. Because they need less planning, less architecture, and less development, web applications will be ready in a few days.

Fewer requirements. Web applications don’t need to be written in different languages to support different platforms. Generally, C plus Cordova or PhoneGap is more than enough.

Low cost. Developing a web app is a lot easier than developing a native app. Besides, you only need one, which can cut your costs in half.

Disadvantages
Poor UI / UX. And that means we are poor. Without native features, web applications appear to have turned websites into apps. Which they are — but it doesn’t help their overall comfort and design.

Low efficiency. Web apps do not match native applications when it comes to efficiency. They are slower, buggier, logier, less displayable, and very limited in their functionality.

Consistent issues. Web app users are bound to experience lags and bugs. No matter how much you try to improve them, web applications are always behind their Native counterparts. This will alienate many of your potential customers.

Cross-platform applications
Cross-platform applications are easier to develop than native applications and can share parts of their code across platforms. The advantage of cross-platform applications through web applications is that they have direct contact with the mobile operating system.

They are usually developed with Xamarin, React Native, Appcelerator or NativeScript. However, direct access to the operating system means that it is not a complete command for everything it offers.

Benefits
Shareable code. Some parts of the code (up to 80% of the time) are shared across devices. This increases the speed of development, resulting in fewer developers.

High-performance UI / UX. In cross-platform development, UI and UX are provided with native controls. This means that it is easy to achieve design performance close to the native application.

Disadvantages
I still need some Native code. Parts of code for cross-platform applications can be shared between platforms. However, parts that cannot be shared still need to be written in the local language.

Performance concerns. Some components of cross-platform applications are explained on the go. This affects the overall speed and performance of your application, which means it runs much slower than the native app.

Frameworks and plugins. Everything in a cross-platform application relies on frameworks and plugins. This affects app performance and design as it has limitations on what your app can do.

Example of cross-platform application:
Facebook Ad Manager is a great example of a cross-platform app. Developed with React Native, it is available for both Android (left) and iOS (right).

Resolutions
Choosing is easy, it depends on the goals you are going to achieve and the functionality that will power your mobile app. If your application’s work requires a large amount of activity or information processing rate (such as games, social networks, geolocation services, photo exchange services, etc. you need to create a native application.

If the speed of work is not that important, and the user only needs access to the mobile Internet, you can definitely come up with a web application.

To get more info about Native vs Cross-Platform apps for Mobile Application in UAE/DUBAI.

Fugenx technologies a mobile app and game development company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with our services is spread across some major regions such as the US and India.

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