Just to help you Decide: Native Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Web App

When it comes to making a decision for your mobile strategy, there are generally two variants of mobile app that can be created: web app and native app. A web app is an HTML5, JavaScript, CSS app running in a mobile browser whereas; a native app is the one that is downloaded and installed on the mobile device. It’s important to note that a third variation of mobile app also exists, i.e. a hybrid app (we will discuss about this later in an upcoming blog). Building either native or web app, depends upon various factors that are highlighted in this blog, but the major influences are your business needs, end-users and the target app feature set.

Now before digging into those influencing factors, let’s first understand both of the app variants.

Native Mobile Apps

Native Apps are downloaded from online app stores for specific operating system & reside within the mobile device (Smart phones & Tablets) with their icons on Home-screen for easy access. Most of these can work without internet connectivity.

Native apps are much faster than the mobile web apps & also they can further be speeded up by upgrading the processor.

Mobile Web Apps

Mobile Web Apps are accessed on the mobile browser of any internet enabled mobile device, by typing the URL, so in general we can say; these are platform agnostic apps but strictly depending upon the internet connectivity or cell signal.

Their speed constantly varies depending upon network or signal strength & if you are supposed to use them, you always have to be in a good network or a Wi-Fi range.

So if you are planning to have any of the two-native apps or mobile web apps for your business, you must evaluate various aspects related to application development and app performance mentioned in below evaluation chart.

Also a very interesting & informative statistics had been published by Yahoo! Advertising Solutions that represents the breakdown for the usage of both; Native & Mobile web apps, as preferred by the users based on different activities they will perform & the content they browse via app.

We hope this is helpful for you to decide what is right for you!

As shared the choice of platform depends upon the business needs and target app feature set. Moreover, in some cases a business may require to go on both the platforms to target all the fragments of audiences. It is important to evaluate all aspects related to app development then set the priorities. Your decision should help you to achieve enhance your mobile presence and bring actual value addition for your business.

If required, we would be happy to assist you further in your decision making process!