Following are snapshots of the three main methods of developing mobile apps. Each snapshot includes a brief description, what it is best suited for, its pros and cons, and a list of development tools for it.
Native app development
In native app development, mobile apps are written for specific mobile platforms, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone. They live on the mobile device and are typically written using development tools from the platform maker. Code can’t be re-used from one platform to another.
Best suited for...
- Consumer-facing apps
- Games
- Graphics- and multimedia-heavy apps
Pros
- Typically perform better than Web-based apps or hybrid apps, particularly for games
- Have access to all the sensors, hardware, contacts and notifications on a device
- Distributed via a public app store --- the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Windows Store
- When installed, icon is immediately visible on a device’s home screen
Cons
- Shortage of developers
- Expensive to build multiple apps, one for each platform
- Expensive and time-consuming to manage separate code bases for each platform
- Long development time
- Versions across platforms can get out of sync because of differing development times
- App distribution can be slow because of the time it takes going through each app store’s approval process
Development tools
- For Apple iOS: XCode
- For Android: Google Android Studio
- For Windows Phone: Visual Studio
Web apps built with HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript
Web apps are built using HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript. They’re accessed via a mobile device’s browser, and are interactive, but can’t access all of a mobile device’s features such as contact list and sensors. They need be built only once and deployed to a Web server.
Best suited for...
- Business-to-business and business-to-employee apps Internal company services and resources
Pros
- Are built using Web standards, but should be designed as a “responsive” app
- Companies can use existing Web developers to create them
- Least expensive apps to build
- Only a single code base needs to be maintained
- Can be revised, updated, and deployed quickly
Cons
- Interface may not look like that of standard native apps
- Performance, particularly on games and sometimes graphics and multimedia, lags behind native apps
- Not available on app stores, where people often look for new apps
- May not be able to access all sensors, hardware, and features such as notifications on a device
- Icon is not on a device’s home screen unless the user actively puts it there
Development tools
Any development tool used to build Web pages with HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS can be used to build mobile Web apps. Some popular tools include:
- AngularJS, an open-source Web-application framework maintained by Google
- Ember.js, an open-source JavaScript Web-application framework
- React, an open-source JavaScript library initially built and now maintained by Facebook and others
- Backbone.js, a JavaScript library
- JQuery, a JavaScript library
- Meteor an open-source JavaScript framework
- Bootstrap and Bootstrap Javascript, a CSS framework often considered “mobile-first,” with an emphasis on “responsiveness”
Hybrid apps
Hybrid apps are built using built using HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript, and then put in wrappers that makes them run as native apps on different mobile platforms. They attempt to combine the best of native apps and Web-based apps, using standard Web development, but allowing the resulting apps to run as native apps on devices.
Best suited for...
- Business-to-business and business-to-employee apps
- Internal company services and resources
- Companies that want to deploy native apps to multiple platforms
Pros
- Are built using Web standards; require some special coding to access phone features through an API
- Companies can use existing Web developers to create them
- Can be revised, updated, and deployed quickly
- Run as native apps on each different platform
Cons
- Interface may not look like that of standard native apps
- Performance, particularly on games and sometimes graphics and multimedia, lags behind native apps
- Can generally access all sensors and hardware on a device, but there can be some lag time around support for new features
- Different code bases of the native application “shell” may need to be maintained
- Developers need to use additional software to turn Web apps into native apps
Development tools
This category has the widest variety of development tools, ranging from those that take existing Web code and turn it into native apps, to complete development environments. Following is just a small sample of what’s available.
- Apache Cordova, an open source platform that takes mobile Web apps using HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript, and builds native mobile apps from them
- Adobe PhoneGap, a variant of Apache Cordova from Adobe
- Alpha Anywhere, a development environment that allows people to build Web apps and also deploy them as native apps with little programming experience, but allows experienced programmers to use their coding skills
- Ionic Framework: A framework focused on the user interface, that works with AngularJS and Cordova to build native apps from Web apps
- OutSystems: Allows people to build Web apps and native apps using visual tools
- Kony: A platform that offers a wide variety of tools for building native apps for different platforms
- Xamarin: Cross-platform development platform for building native apps
- Appcelerator: A cross-development platform that lets you write apps in JavaScript, then build native apps from them
This story, "Native vs. HTML5 vs. hybrid mobile apps: The pros and cons" was originally published by ITworld.