Native or hybrid? Let’s make biriyani!
Biriyani is serious business for Indians, and getting it right is important — but sometimes you just need to satisfy your craving as quickly as possible.
You also face this situation when creating an app for your business. Which one suits you best — native or hybrid?
You can order biriyani online, or you could call a chef to cook it just for you at your home. Either way, you’re eating biriyani — but they’ll definitely taste different. Similarly, though both native and hybrid apps will satisfy the basic needs and functionality of an app, they’ll greatly differ in their UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface).
Native apps are like calling the chef (developer) to cook for you. As there are different varieties of biriyani, like Hyderabad and Dindukal, we also need different apps for different platforms, like iOS or Android. It’s essential to retain the unique “taste” of each variety and create precisely what you want.
Hybrid apps, on the other hand, are like ordering from a restaurant — they provide one kind of biriyani to everyone. It’s easier, saves time and effort, but there aren’t as many options for customizingit. It’s the go-to option if you think all apps are the same and you just need something up and running as soon as possible.
The recipe
Native apps are written in specific languages for different platforms, so let’s look into the major market players — iOS and Android. Two different app versions have to be built, using Swift or Objective-C for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android. Creating two versions extends the development process, increasing your costs and probably delaying your launch date.
Hybrid apps are actually websites wrapped inside a native app container. So they’re built similar to web apps, using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with a single base code that runs on all mobile platforms seamlessly. Hybrid apps are also built on other platforms, like PhoneGap, Xamarin, React Native, NativeScript,and Ionic.
The flavors
Biriyani spices are like app features — the more they offer, the better we remember them. As native apps are platform specific, they can easily access and use built-in hardware elements, like the camera, mic, GPS, and accelerometer. They can send push notifications and provide best-in-class security, excellent performance, and an offline mode.
Hybrids are a bit different, though, with their portability, and plugins that allow you to access built-in hardware elements.They don’t even need APIs, as everything is handled via the web.
The garnish
Your taste buds are replaced every ten days.
Updates are inevitable for any app, but each approach handles them differently.
Hybrid apps can be updated with ease, as things are only changing on the server,which then loads into the app, without any need to update the app itself.
Updating a native app involves the user, and every update has to wait for approval from its respective app store before it can be installed manually by the user.
Still hungry?
For any business seeking growth, native apps are clear winners. Hybrid apps are lower in cost and shorter in development time, but they’re only useful in the initial phase of a business.
But what if you could build native apps as fast as hybrids, and for much cheaper?
Can you make biriyani yourself? If you have a simple solution for cooking like we have for building apps, then maybe you can.With low code platforms like Zoho Creator, building fully functional native apps has become as simple as dragging and dropping elements. That’s all it takes!
Low code apps could be your ultimate solution, cutting down on cost and time drastically, yet providing all the native features to the apps you’re creating. Apps built on Creator can be accessed seamlessly over different platforms, with top-notch UX and UI.
Zoho Creator comes with more than 50 pre-built apps that suit businesses and customer relations across a wide range of fields. Visit https://www.zoho.com/creator/ for your 14-day trial, where you can install apps and start using them right away, or create your app from scratch.
Now that we’ve addressed the confusion between native and hybrid apps — and decided low code is the way to go — it’s time for some cooking.
Let’s make biriyani!