Types of Mobile Application Development: Native, Hybrid, Platform-Based Approaches, and More
By: Alex Lashkov
Tags: Mobile Apps, Mobile Applications, Mobile App Development

Mobile is still booming. In 2020, an average user spends more than three hours per day on mobile. That said, the timeshare of mobile websites is continually decreasing and is currently at 12 minutes daily.

This means a straightforward thing: apps are more convenient to use on mobile devices. This is a more natural way of solving tasks. And this is why businesses across the globe are forced to develop mobile apps whether the goal is to get more users, sales, or automate processes and enhance employee’s productivity. Today we will review types of mobile development and compare native, hybrid, and platform-based approaches and their pros and cons.

Native App Development

Native mobile app development is a classic way of building apps. The approach assumes that every mobile OS has its restrictions, peculiarities, and best practices to follow. To build a useful and fast app, you should create it from scratch taking all these best practices, peculiarities, and restrictions into consideration from step one.

Though there are ways to create apps for iOS and Android using one code base, usually this approach has limitations. This is why for more or less complex products companies need to code native apps for all platforms. Pros of this method are mentioned above: the business gets a fast and reliable app that works right in the specific OS’s environment.

However, the native app development is costly, takes lots of time, and ties the business to the specific OS and developer. For iOS, for example, to keep up with the pace of new iPhones releases, companies will need to adapt somehow to make their apps look and work right on an ever-growing range of devices. With Android, the situation is even worse, as there are hundreds of manufacturers with thousands of tools of multiple form factors.

The company whose primary business is not software development may be too hard to cope with these cons. The only way to overcome them is to outsource mobile development, but this will trigger other questions like project control, post-release support, and improvements, etc.

Hybrid applications

Another approach to mobile app development is to combine mobile and web approaches. As a result, the company may get an actual web application but wrapped into a mobile packaging. So, users can launch this factual web app as a mobile application.

Usually, this approach is used by businesses that want to test their hypothesis with the minimum viable product, have a tight budget, or move to mobile some specific web application features.

It is clear that this method can’t give you the functionality of a native mobile app. Hybrid apps also will lack in performance and usability. However, this method provides good cost-efficiency and allows going much faster than the native app development process.

When thinking of going with a hybrid app, it is a great idea to conduct a proper analysis first. There is a limited range of tasks hybrid apps can effectively solve. For example, it will be hard to automate complex business processes or create a sophisticated product like a game.

The progressive development of web apps

Though this is technically not a mobile apps’ development approach, it should be on the list as well. Progressive web app development or PWA is an approach the main idea of which is to get the functionality of a native mobile app into the web app. In practice, this means adding features like push notifications, mobile hardware access (vibration, etc.), touch gestures, etc.

The PWA best practices can help to improve the web app’s mobile UX significantly. For the user, this approach also provides a seamless experience across multiple devices as the app looks almost the same on the web and mobile. If made right, the PWA web app is indistinguishable from the hybrid app.

Cross-platform app development approach

May seem similar to hybrid apps; however, there are several significant differences. While the cross-platform approach is also assuming re-using the application’s code, it focuses more on using a unified toolset for pushing this code to multiple mobile OS’s simultaneously.

There are several frameworks for doing so, including React, Xamarin, Flutter, Titanium, and others. This approach can also save the company resources and time and help build prototypes for testing with real users.

And like hybrid development, the cross-platform approach has its limitation in terms of scalability, performance, and the complexity of the business logic you can move to mobile.

Platform-based app development approach

Another way of tackling building a mobile application is to create such an app within the specific ecosystem. For example, 1C:Enterprise customers can use mobile app builder to make the app that allows working with mobile business automation products.

There are several versions of the mobile platform, and each of them provides different capabilities for businesses.

Mobile client and client with offline mode

This implementation facilitates interaction with infobases online, just like every client-based application works on a desktop.

So, the user can use a tablet and connect to the production database. This allows high-quality automation for multiple processes. For example, workshop staff can work with a specialized software “seat” to see their workday tasks and mark completed ones. The workshop team lead can track the status of any task and employees’ load in real-time. There are no costs associated with mobile app development. The app can be created via editing some forms in the application.

Another option allows working with the data with no internet connection using a local infobase stored on a device itself.

Mobile platform

This is an offline-only app that works only with a local infobase. So, the user can use a tablet and connect to the production database. This allows high-quality automation for multiple processes. For example, workshop staff can work with a specialized software “seat” to see their workday tasks and mark completed ones. The workshop team lead can track the status of any task and employees’ load in real-time. There are no costs associated with mobile app development. The app can be created via editing some forms in the application.

The most significant advantage of this approach is that mobile configurations are developed similarly to desktop applications. This makes it easier for companies to create a mobile configuration and push it into an end app for Android, iOS, or Windows devices. Such applications better integrate into the business processes, align with 1C:Enterprise ecosystem, and require just a fraction of the native app development budget.

There are two important factors associated with 1Ci products-based development:

Mobile app development is almost identical to building the desktop app with the same toolkit involved. Accessibility is very high. 1C developer can deliver terrific results from scratch just by taking a course on working with 1Ci products for mobile development. You will not need to hire a dedicated mobile developer, which saves lots of resources.

Mobile websites

If the PWA approach assumes adding more mobile-specific features to the web application, the mobile website approach creates interfaces that can automatically adapt to the user’s OS and devices. Such websites can be built with HTML5, and when the user opens it via the mobile browser, the overall experience will be much better than with just a mobile-friendly resizeable website.

Sure, this rapid application development method is nowhere close to building even a hybrid app and can’t provide the functionality of native and platform-based apps, but in some cases, this can be a fast and cheap way of handling the mobile traffic.

Final thoughts

There are lots of ways of crafting mobile applications and application architecture and moving essential business processes to mobile. The most effective, time and resource-consuming approach is native apps development. A rare company can afford such projects and achieve outstanding results.

So, most companies choose between hybrid and platform-based applications or even consider PWA web apps and HTML5-fueled mobile websites. Platform-based application development approach provides the highest efficiency as the app is created natively within the environment of a specific platform like 1C:Enterprise. The highest possible level of efficiency can be achieved with minimal need to write new code and cross-platform software delivery.