Today, smartphones are everything for peoples doing their day-to-day activities. We can't ignore mobile phones are denied the influence of mobile phones in over life are daily activities. 

In that mobile apps play a major role from an ordinary communication device to a major point of activities like bill payment. This leads to development innovative a mobile app and even many companies are now focusing on developing mobile apps for their customers alongside having a website. 

But their mobile apps development is depended on what type of industry they are going to focus, how they are going to be used and many others. You need to have the best frameworks for mobile app development that is a major tool in developing a mobile app. This blog brings you a great understanding of different types of apps available and to help you decide on what technology you should use to build your app. 

Types of Mobile App 

       * Native Mobile app  

       * Web app 

       * Hybrid-mobile app 

1. Native Mobile Application 

Native apps from the name indicate which are developed specifically for mobile an operating system. It is developed within the mobile ecosystem which follows OS technical and user experience guidelines. Which makes it faster than any other app with easy navigation and high performance. 

They can be accessed through icons on the device's home screen which are installed through an application store.  

Since it follows guidelines of OS can take full advantage of all the device features like camera, the GPS, the accelerometer, the compass, the list of contacts, and so on. Even they can make use of the device’s notification system which can work offline. 

Benefits of Native Apps 

Faster and responsive 

Since it is developed for a single platform, its fastest and reliable app. 

Which also offers a great responsive experience for all users. 

Easy to view device functionality 

The native app makes the component of the device flexible to access like a camera, microphone, compass, accelerometer, and swipe gestures super easy. Even other app offers, but it’s easiest on native. 

Match app UI/UX to platform conventions 

It offers dozens of different UI/UX that makes a user feel like home and you no need to compromise the UX or UI it will be user friendly for all platforms. 

Disadvantages of Native Apps 

More than one codebase 

iOS apps will not run on Android and vice versa, so you will have to work with different codebases for every platform you choose to build in. 

Costly and time consumption 

The cost of a native app is a little higher than any other app. 

Most developers specialize in one platform (Android or iOS), so to have your application developed on both platforms will require two separate developers (or teams), which can also add to time and cost. 

Examples of Native Apps 

A large number of the most popular apps out there like Pokemon Go, Twitter, Facebook, and Waze, are fully native. 

However, it’s becoming more difficult to distinguish apps that using purely native code like Swift, Objective C and Java. Some apps are relying on hybrid solutions or cross-platform SDKs, due to the advancement in hybrid technologies. 

2. Mobile Web Apps 

Web apps are really websites that are not mobile app. But in some or many ways, look and feel like native applications. Which is run inside the website a browser and mostly written in HTML5.  

It first looks like a web page and users feel like they are accessing any web page. But a little later it will navigate to some special URL where they have the option of installing them on the home screen or create a bookmark of that page. In recent times, it a little difficult to differentiate between native and web apps. 

Progressive Web Apps 

Until recently, web apps lacked the functionality of native apps, like the ability to send push notifications, work offline, and load on the home screen. 

However, there have been a few improvements to browsers and web apps that offer these features. Apps that take advantage of these features are called Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). 

There are a few steps you need to take in order to turn your web app into a progressive web app. 

Top PWA examples 

Trivago Hotel Booking, Pinterest, OLX, Forbes 

Advantages of PWA 

Offline mode 

PWAs can be cached by the web browser and used even when offline. That’s great news for businesses with product catalogs because it allows their customers to browse products even when not connected to the internet. 

Improved performance 

PWAs uses service workers, which run separately from the main browser thread and help in delivering much better performance than traditional web apps. 

Low on data 

PWAs are much smaller than mobile apps, and they require a lot less bandwidth than traditional web apps because they can take much better advantage of caching. 

App store independent 

PWAs are an app store-independent, which is great news for smaller businesses and independent app developers. 

Disadvantages of PWA 

Compatibility with iOS 

Since iOS 11.3, it’s been possible to run PWAs on Apple devices, but you can forget about compatibility with older devices. In Apple, PWA is not allowed to access some important features of the devices. 

Issues with legacy devices 

PWAs have been around for just a few years, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that older mobile devices with outdated web browsers don’t support them too well. While this problem will inevitably solve itself in the future, it may be a source of customer complaints about some companies. 

PWAs can’t do everything 

PWA can't do everything that a mobile native app can do. PWA is written in JavaScript, which is results in not battery-efficient apps. 

 

3. Hybrid Apps 

It will look like a native app while installing. But it will work like a web app.  

They are mostly built using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It runs on the environment called a WebView, which is a simplified browser within your app. 

Why Hybrid? 

The first and foremost thing to consider hybrid app is because of its ability to function whether the device is connected to it or not.  

It makes the process of integrating the app with the mobile device's file system and Web-based services easy.  

They also come with an embedded browser to improve access to dynamic online content. 

Advantages of Hybrid Apps 

Single codebase to manage 

The major advantage of hybrid you need to manage only one code base for native and web apps. That is simple build an app and tweaking it a bit that it can work on both platforms. 

You save time and money 

Because of its single codebase, it needs only a few developers and less time to finish both the apps. It is less expensive than native applications. 

Easier to scale 

It can be easily scaled to the different platform once it is completely built. Like you can launch in windows Mobile app. 

You still have access to devise features 

Hybrid app is let to access the device features like native apps. 

Some developing platforms like PhoneGap act as a bridge between the native SDK and the web view in which the app runs. 

Disadvantages of Hybrid Apps 

Performance 

One of the great drawbacks of a hybrid app is its performance. 

Because hybrid apps load in a browser-like component called web view, they are only as good as the web view.  

WebView is responsible for displaying the UI and for running JavaScript code. 

In the early days of mobile, Google and Apple didn’t give web view the same engines used by their mobile browsers, Chrome and Safari. Since then, the web view has vastly improved, but it hasn’t reached native performance yet. 

Example of a hybrid app 

Some popular hybrid app is Instagram, Baskin Robbins, Twitter, Gmail, Uber 

Best Mobile App Development Frameworks 

When you want to build an application, you need to start from scratch and put a lot of effort into developing code that can further used in different platforms. 

It takes more time in development and needs knowledge in a wide programming language. But a framework can simplify this whole development process. A framework can help in solving a wide range of problems, but keep in mind it also increases the size of the app. 

The mobile application development framework is a library that inherits different basic structures of the application that improves application. It just assembles an application. 

Even the framework is the base of your future application, you need to select the right framework which is of utmost importance. A framework either makes or breaks the application. 

Why Use Frameworks for Mobile App Development? 

      * Frameworks for mobile app development decide on how and when to allow reuse of the code and design. 

      * The best mobile framework will Encapsulation feature technologies that help in providing data security. 

       * A mobile framework can be customized for the implementation of business requirements. 

Here are some best mobile app development frameworks that you may find. 

1. Xamarin 

Xamarin is basically a cross-platform framework with libraries of C# and native platforms which is in a .NET layer. It is formed of three main components such as Xamarin Platform, Xamarin Cloud, and Xamarin Insights. 

Xamarin Platform offers APIs, controls, runtime engines, encryption, authentication, virtual machines, and much more in the Xamarin framework. Xamarin Cloud is an automated testing platform that helps you in ensuring your product’s quality over a variety of devices. 

Xamarin Insights keeps track of application crashes and exceptions. 

Benefits offered by Xamarin for developers 

Similar performance as a native app 

Using Xamarin developers can achieve performance similar to the native app with little or no difference. 

Hardware consistency  

It offers many APIs which allow integrating with many hardware components which results in improved user experience. 

Xamarin Forms

It pays the way for developers to write UI code which intern shared between Android and iOS applications. 

Architecture compatibility

Xamarin supports two popular architecture such as Model–View–View-Model (MVVM) and Model–View–Controller (MVC).  

MVVM used to create different processes with the same codebase, while MVC helps separate application logic and presentation, accelerating the development process. 

Offline application support

With the help of cloud and data synchronization features, it is possible to work offline. 

Some drawback of Xamarin 

Operational overhead

With Xamarin, you have to link and reference code over several operating systems and .NET frameworks. This increases startup and download times. 

Complexities with code support

Xamarin needs developers who are familiarity with native mobile development, frameworks, and architectures. Which is difficult to find, since not all developers want to learn two very different programming. 

Everything depends on the application

When it comes to the customized application, you need to write native code for that platform even though you can share between platforms.  

Sometimes it results in large file size, which may affect application performance. 

2. React Native 

React Native is also one of the open-source mobile app development frameworks developed by Facebook, which is based on ReactJS and JavaScript. 

You can develop both iOS and Android mobile applications along with native component APIs. 

Advantages of React Native 

Native UI 

Applications will look like native apps since it uses native UI components in development. It is hard to differentiate between the React Native app and native app. 

Simplified development 

It allows using declarative programming, which defines only what the program has to do, but it won't tell how it should be done.  

It's easy and simple to code in declarative programming which results in the product which is easier to maintain. 

Modular architecture

With the help of architecture modularity, you can separate application code into several independent blocks That makes the development process flexible. 

Third-party support 

 Many have created third-party services like APIs and plugins for React Native applications. Some of them are maps, payment systems, graphics, and more. 

Hot reloading

The changes in code will immediately affect the environment once you have saved it. 

Disadvantages of React Native

Application performance 

There is a JavaScript bridge between the React Native application layer and the hardware components through which each interaction has to pass. If there are many interactions, then it worse application performance. 

Failed to overcome complexity 

React Native is suitable for building apps with many screens, interactions, transitions, and multiple animations. 

Initialization 

Some React Native app takes a long time to start up. 

Native platform updates

It lacks behind each new hardware update. The React Native team trying their best to keep up with new hardware features. 

3. Flutter 

Flutter is the best tool for cross-platform mobile app development which is developed by Google. The app in which developers are compiled to native code. It has its own graphical engine called Skia. 

It makes use of Dart and native widgets to create stunning mobile apps. 

Advantages of Flutter

Application performance 

An ahead-of-time (AOT) compiled language makes the application to communicate directly with the native platform. Which even makes complex applications to have a high performance and less startup times. 

Hot reload 

Rebuild the application instantly after every change. 

A full set of unique widgets 

It has its own graphic library which is 2D open-source. This makes the flutter app to have its own widgets.  

The own material Design widgets for Android and Cupertino widgets for iOS, which works vice versa. 

Everything is a widget 

In Flutter, the application layout can be simplified using a widget. Since widget specifies its own layout model. Even it is easy to optimize because it is relatively small and also comfortable to handle. 

A number of packages available 

Flutter has tools for handling images, HTTP requests, WebSocket connections, various net protocol clients, push notifications, and embedded databases even for accessing device sensors and cameras. 

Disadvantages of Flutter 

Immaturity

The major drawback is how young the framework is. There’s no way to know for sure whether the flutter framework is going to succeed. 

Third-party support 

Third-party services like payment systems, tax automation software, and even Apple and Android TV are not supporting in flutter.  

The new tool is yet to come, but it will definitely take time. 

Application size 

In the Flutter app, all UI components belong to the application directly, which end up apps being quite large. 

 
4. Ionic 

It is built with Angular and Apache Cordova and can be used to build apps for more than just one mobile platform.  The Apps can run on iOS and Android. With comes up with usual web technologies like HTML, CSS, and Angular and are designed like web apps. And Cordova, pay the way to make use of the device’s native features. 

Pros 

       * You can use the developer who knows basic technologies like HTML or CSS along with angular to develop the app or even software engineers to develop it. 

       * This framework saves a lot of saves time and cost. 

Cons 

       * The performance is less compared to native apps. 

       * It is not suitable for apps with high graphics processing requirements 

       * You need to bound to use a plugin for accessing native functionality if you develop an app in Ionic. 

5. PhoneGap 

PhoneGap is a hybrid app platform, and it's quite popular because it’s easiest framework for a web developer to begin development. It leverages web-based technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to help to build platform-independent mobile apps.  

It bridges the gap between mobile app development and web application and provides a framework to develop and deploy mobile applications across all platforms. And Cordova is the engine of PhoneGap and open-source which is backed by Adobe. 

Pros of PhoneGap 

      * Developers can rely on basic languages like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3 to efficiently run the app over various operating systems. 

      * PhoneGap enables you to leverage app store discoverability, so you can easily install like a native app. 

      * It comes with a strong backend framework which helps in fast product development by reducing the development effort 

Disadvantages

      * It does not support all the functionalities as of the native app. 

      * It doesn't support for the latest plugin that can be used to add additional features. 

      * The performance lacked when compared to apps developed for individual platforms. 

 
How to Choose the Right Frameworks for Mobile App Development: 

All this platform is suitable for developing an efficient mobile app, but the question here is what will suit my application. It is always better to work with the most suitable framework other than the best framework. In order, to find the most suitable framework, answer the following question to yourself: 

       * What is the target platform of your app? 

       * What kind of framework do you need? (Like a native mobile app framework or a hybrid one or a web app) 

       * What are the major functions of your application? 

      * What plugins do you need in order to run the app successfully? 

      * How your app will interact with a user and other website applications? 

If you have figured out the answers to these questions, then you will find the best frameworks for mobile app development. But keep things in the mind, the frameworks evolve continuously and they get new features that will make software development easier and faster. 

Conclusion 

If you look into the Mobile app, different types of apps can be developed differently. All has its advantage and disadvantage. The thing is, you need to figure out the app before you start building.  

Infinijith Help you in figuring out which framework is perfect for you and develop it by inheriting all your requirements. Infinijith helps you in transferring your idea into reality. 

You can also hire our mobile app developers who are experienced over various platforms to build your dream mobile app.