Types of Mobile App Development

Mobile app development is all the rage nowadays. With a majority of the world’s population using some kind of mobile device, the demand for new mobile apps that enable users to do more is quite high. From basic utilities to custom, bespoken apps for specific businesses, there are a lot of mobile apps available for the users out there, no matter what mobile platform they use.

Now, there are a number of different kinds of app development platforms, which can be used to develop mobile apps. Using each of these have their own pros and cons, which vary according to the requirements of the owner of the app itself. These development platforms can be bundles into three main types, namely:

•       Native app development
•       Web app development
•       Cross-platform app development

Now, we know that all three of these types can be used to develop a mobile app, but today we will discuss the first two of these types. We will learn exactly what makes them different is, and how beneficial is it to choose one over the other. So let’s find out. 

Native App Development:

Native apps are just that – they are designed specifically for the individual mobile platform, which allows for a better user experience. Now, with native app development if your users own devices that use different mobile platforms, then you will need to have a separate app developed for each of these platforms, which not only takes time but requires a far larger budget too. Now, the issue with that is that because each platform has a different code base, making sure that user experience is the same across them all is very hard, as well as making sure that all of the different versions of the app are kept up to date at the same time.

The flip side of that coin is that native apps have unparalleled performance, which makes it an ideal choice for apps that prioritize performance over other metrics. A few other pros of native app development are:

     It is easier to integrate these apps with devices using that platform, which allows them to easily access all the different features and functions of the device itself. This makes it able to fully leverage the capabilities of the device, which takes us to the next advantage of native apps.

     They provide the best performance among all the different types of app development. They are very fast, and quite responsive too, which is a benefit of the app being designed specifically for that platform while taking into account all the quirks of that system. This helps when we develop apps that demand high performance, such as banking apps.

     These apps have the most ideal UI/UX design, as these elements are designed for that platform specifically. Native apps do not need to consider the limitations or issues of other platforms when developing their UI/US, so they leverage the best of the capabilities of that native platform to give the users the best experience possible.

Web App Development:

Next up, we have web app development. Now, many of the readers might be confused about the difference between a website and a web app. The easiest thing to understand is that a website is something designed specifically to give information, while a web app is a website that not only gives information but performs a lot of other tasks as well. While they might be different in function, they can both easily run in a number of popular browsers, such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.

The most interesting thing about these web apps, which makes them stand out from the other types of development platforms, is that they can only work if there is internet present. Without the internet, these apps won’t work.  That is not an issue that native apps or even cross-platform apps face when performing their functions.

These apps are usually developed using browser-based languages such as HTML and JavaScript to design the front end and using other languages such as Java, ASP.NET, or Python for the back end. To run them, you just need a supported web browser, no matter the device using it. You can easily run the same web app on an android device, an iOS device, and a windows device without any issue whatsoever.

A new type of web apps, called the Progressive web apps have recently started becoming popular, which aim to remove the internet requirement of web apps by allowing you to accomplish tasks offline easily, as well as take advantage of the different expanded functions of the device using the web app.

For many IoT-based systems, web apps are the platform of choice, due to their ease of usage. Some other advantages of web apps include:

     These apps are easy to develop, like HTML and basic JavaScript is required in combination with a back-end language such as Python, to quickly develop an app and release it to the market. Not only are they easy to produce, but you also do not have to develop a different app for different platforms. Rather, all you need to do is develop the app and launch it, and all the user needs is a compatible web browser to benefit from it.

Low-cost development is its main incentive. As they are not platform-specific, it is easy to find a team of web developers who will develop a good web app for you quickly and at a far lower cost than native app development. So if you are looking to have an app developed for your business, but lack a big budget, then web apps are the way to go.

As we have said before, web apps are easily accessible on any device running a compatible web browser, without having the need to require a separate code base for each type of mobile app platform. That helps it reach a lot more users than native or cross-platform apps, and allows you to do it for far less.

Finally, web apps are easily updatable. That is because as they are hosted on the internet rather than the individual device itself, they can be updated easily and quickly without the need to have each user update the app. Also, as there is a single code base, you only need to have the update developed for that single code base, which allows for quicker updating and a more universal user experience for all your users.

Cross-Platform App Development:

While there is also cross-platform development for mobile apps, the differences between native and cross-platform are quite fewer when compared to the difference between native and web app development. And with the rising popularity of Progressive Web Apps, and their increasing use within the Internet of Things applications, web apps to are fast bridging the gaps between them and native/cross-platform development in terms of functionality. Languages such as Python and their increasing use in web development are also helping developers from other platforms bridge over to web development and vice versa, which allows for greater inter-platform camaraderie. This will help create new advancements that will further drive the innovation within each of these development platforms

Conclusion

If you are on the lookout for a reliable yet reasonable mobile app development company, then there are lots of agencies that provide the best facilities to their users. Their teams are highly skilled to get you the mobile app your business requires, which will not only fulfill all that you require of it but will do so without breaking the bank.