Which is better? Native App or hybrid App? [closed]

Question

I want to develop a simple App for iOS, Android and windows phone.

I just wondered that a simple HTML5, JS and CSS combination can work in all of these platforms.

I want to know which one will be efficient?

No problem with time and coding. But if i can achieve everything with HTML5-JS itself, i will chose Hybrid development. I want to know the major difference between the Native and Hybrid Development with example(I know that the main difference is HTML5-JS supports cross platform).

Note : I am not making a game app.

Answer 1

In my experience, these cross-platform solutions like PhoneGap and others never really hold up to expectations unless the app you're developing is super simple. Even basic things like transitional animations and small UI tweaks will be an uphill battle using these tools.

Native development might take longer (if you're building an app for more than 1 platform), but the advantage is that you get full control over what you're making. Performance-wise, native development is still, and will probably always be, far ahead from cross-platform development, simply because it doesn't have the overhead of being nested within a browser, or any other run-time interpretive platform.

Also, from my experience, the myth of being able to write code once and have it work on all platforms instantly is a sort'v holy grail. Many people claim to have achieved it, but you will always find yourself writing platform specific code (in the form of "if explorer, if safari, if chrome" etc).

My advice, write a solid architecture for your app. Build the app once in one platform, work out all the glitches in the design, then copy the design to other platforms. It'll take you a little bit longer, but the strength of your app, and the flexibility to add / change features and other small things in your app will be worth it.

As an example, take Facebook. Their previous app (if you remember) was a cross-platform app. It was slow, non-responsive, would crash all the time and was practically unusable. About a year or so ago, after countless complaints, they released an update with their native app, and suddenly, all those problems disappeared (well, at least most).

Answer 2

The main difference is about UI component which is the main thing in an app. You can't achieve the native look and feel like native dialogs, notifications and native animations in a Hybrid app.

I want to know which one will be efficient?

Efficiency is not an issue, Hybrid app will be a single app that will support multiple platforms which is cost and time effective.

PROS of Hybrid app

1. Cost effective, A single app will be developed thereby saving cost paid to developer for making app in different platform.
2. Time effective, Time will be saved for making different app for different platforms.
3. Will Update very fast, Unlike you update from google playstore the app will be updated on the server end only and you do not need to re-install it again.
4. Smaller in size. As the resources used for support of multiple screens will be handled by HTML .

CONS of Hybrid app

1. No look and feel like native app.
2. App will not even show static behaviour, if server is down.

If you are willing to compromise with the UI , Then you should go with Hybrid app.