Hybrid Mobile App Development: A Complete Guide

Mobile phone usage in the past decade has seen a significant rise which is creating a need for every business to become mobile-friendly. However, there is confusion among businesses related to hybrid mobile app development. Over the years, mobile app development has inclined towards scalable, highly functional, cost-effective hybrid solutions. 

Hybrid mobile app development has its pros and cons. Many businesses are opting for hybrid apps due to their benefits in terms of budget, time to market, and other factors. As reported by Forbes, 37 out of the Top 50 retail apps in the United States are hybrid. Additionally, widely used platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, and Uber rely on hybrid applications. This raises the question about hybrid mobile application development, its benefits, and why it’s super lucrative among big tech companies.

What is Hybrid Mobile App Development?

Hybrid mobile app development means creating an app using a single codebase that can run on multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows. Unlike native mobile app that needs separate codebases for different platforms.

Hybrid apps blend the features of both web and native mobile applications. When a development company builds hybrid software, it uses a single codebase that works across all platforms. This approach allows developers to write the code once and deploy it everywhere.

This functionality is enabled by specialized tools that facilitate communication between the native platform and the web view. These tools allow hybrid mobile apps to be compiled and converted into native applications.

How Does Hybrid Mobile App Work?

Developers create hybrid apps using hybrid mobile app development languages and tools like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This code is then wrapped with a native application using open-source hybrid mobile app development frameworks like Ionic, Flutter and React Native.

This enables the app to operate via each platform’s embedded browser rather than a web browser, allowing it to be installed on mobile devices and listed in app stores for distribution, just like traditional native apps.

Plugins provide complete access to device hardware and features, such as the GPS, camera, and address book. Additionally, wrapper solutions offer a collection of UI components to design a native-like interface.

Advantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development

Following are the advantages of hybrid app development that every business should know before opting for hybrid app architecture.

Ease of Development

Development is simpler in hybrid mobile app development than in their native counterparts. The developer doesn’t have to learn multiple languages for each platform instead one hybrid app development language will work. 

Hybrid development mainly revolves around web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JS. Furthermore, developers can opt for frameworks as well like React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, etc.

Cross Platform Compatibility

hybrid apps are cross-platform compatible which allows the developers to write the code once and execute it on multiple platforms. Hybrid apps are not tied to a specific platform, making them a great choice for businesses looking to save time and money by avoiding the need to develop separate apps for each platform.

Scalability

Scalability is an important aspect for business and enterprise because once your user base grows, your app should be capable of catering to more users. Hybrid apps offer easy scalability as the developer will change the code once and it will reflect for all the platforms.

Cost Effectiveness

The cost of app development is on the rise. Developing native apps for each platform is more expensive due to the need for separate development kits, specialized engineers, and longer development timelines. 

In contrast, hybrid apps eliminate the need for platform-specific tools and specialized developers for each platform. This approach significantly reduces costs, helping businesses save money and boost profitability.

Unified Experience

Hybrid phone apps allow to reuse the design elements across various operating systems, This creates a uniformity of your application throughout different operating systems. This provides the same experience to the users regardless of the platform they are using.

Easy to Maintain

A hybrid app development approach helps you maintain only one codebase that reflects on every other platform. Developers can focus on a single codebase rather than managing multiple ones and monitoring different platforms. This allows them to work on a unified back-end and update apps across all platforms simultaneously.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Mobile App Development

Like all the other technologies, hybrid mobile apps also have some disadvantages that you should consider before opting for them. 

Slow Performance

Building a hybrid mobile app requires developers to write more code than usual as it will run on multiple platforms. this makes the app heavier and will affect its performance. Moreover, as you are relying on a single codebase, you might miss out on some native features of hybrid apps that will affect the performance and user experience.

Longer Time for New Updates

Rolling out New features on a hybrid app requires extra effort. Since hybrid app development depends on third-party frameworks which are not always updated. Therefore, it will take longer to deliver new updates and features.

App Testing 

Testing a hybrid application is comparatively more intense and time-consuming because you are creating an app for multiple platforms and will be testing the app on different platforms. This will take more resources and will increase the overall app testing time.

Six Stages of Hybrid App Development

Hybrid mobile app development merges web technologies with native features. Let’s explore the different stages involved in creating a hybrid app.

Planning

The first and foremost step is to do planning and understand whether the solution you are looking for your business will work or not. If you are sure that a hybrid app will be a better choice will provide you with the best ROI.

Designing the Architecture

The design phase plays a crucial role in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). During this stage, software architects create a detailed product architecture, guided by stakeholder input and a thorough analysis of business requirements.

Testing & Debugging

After the developers have written all the code, it’s time to test both the front and back end of the app.

Maintenance

Maintenance is an important part of app development, no matter how intense your testing is, the final release will come up with bugs. Therefore, it is highly important to have a good support system and maintenance team 

5 Most Popular Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development

App development requires working on frameworks and there are several options that businesses can use.

However, every hybrid mobile app development framework has good points and drawbacks as well. Following are the frameworks for developing a hybrid mobile app.

React Native

React Native is by far the most popular framework that was released by Meta in 2015. Multiple tech apps like Uber, Skype, Bloomberg, and Instagram used react native for their hybrid mobile app project.

Key Advantages of React Native

• Approximately 90% of the codebase can be reused across both Android and iOS platforms.
• A vast community of developers supports it, thanks to its widespread popularity.
• Easy setup for new developers through Node Package Manager (NPM).
• Offers numerous plugins that enable compatibility with device hardware components.
• Accelerates the development process compared to many other frameworks.

Flutter

Flutter by Google is a popular but relatively new framework in the hybrid mobile app development world. It was released in 2017 but according to statista recent report, it is similar in popularity to react native. Flutter’s hybrid mobile app development framework is famous for its speed and reliability. 

It allows developers to create highly creative and good-looking UIs with flexible designs. Many well-known brands like Amazon, Alibaba, BMW, and Toyota are using Flutter for their hybrid mobile app.

Key Advantages of Flutter

• Features an extensive library of pre-built widgets, enabling developers to design intuitive and interactive UIs.
• Highly efficient, significantly reducing time-to-market.
• Easy to get started, making it accessible for individuals with basic coding skills.
• Ensures apps are responsive and adaptable to various screen sizes.
• Simplifies testing with a single codebase for multiple platforms.
• Provides high performance and delivers a user experience similar to native apps.

Xamarin

Xamarin is one of the best mobile hybrid app platforms from Microsoft. It is a powerful native cross-application platform through C# in the .NET framework.  It supports around 90% of the sharing across iOS, Android, and Windows which offers a near-native platform performance because it compiles near-native performance as it compiles C# code with native code. 

Xamarin is advanced and better than Java and Objective C. However, it is not being used nowadays as Microsoft discontinued Xamarin on 1st May 2024.

Key Advantages of Xamarin

• Allows developers to reuse up to 90% of the codebase across multiple platforms.
• Delivers high-performance apps with a native-like user experience.
• Simplifies testing, updates, and maintenance processes.
• Includes built-in testing tools for quality assurance.
• Provides a comprehensive toolkit for mobile app development.

Ionic

Ionic is another popular platform that utilizes HTML, CSS, and JS and has built-in support for AngularJS, making it a good choice for front-end development. It is good with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and a rich library for front-end development with premium UI components.

Key Advantages of Ionic

• Offers a wide range of UI components and layout options.
• Provides pre-configured app setups with innovative designs.
• Includes testing and debugging tools for creating interactive applications.
• Leverages Angular concepts, making it easy for developers familiar with Angular to use.

Framework7

Framework7 is utilized to develop web apps and mobile apps that provide a native feel and appearance. It offers components for popular JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte. 

• Relies on its custom DOM7 instead of third-party libraries for DOM manipulation.
• Developers can begin building apps with just HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript knowledge.
• Offers a wide variety of widgets and components.
• Open-source and available for free.

Conclusion

Hybrid app development is a cost-effective way to develop phone apps as developing an app for each platform will be costly and takes more time. There are tons of tools and frameworks for hybrid apps available in the market. Now, you have to decide after looking at the advantages and disadvantages which framework is a good choice.