For those new to this area, native applications are what you download from the App Store,the Android Market, the Amazon, or a similar service.For most people, native application appears to be a natural choice as these applications are trendy and provide rich user-experience. Web applications, as the name suggests, are accessed through your web browser have been around for years. They’re not as trendy, but are easier to develop and maintain, and can be used across devices and platforms.
Opting between a native app and a web app isn’t a technical decision; it’s a strategic one. Based on various factors, you need to analyze both options and evaluate which approach produces greater value for your business. A rich user interface, or a platform independent application with much wider user access?
This article provides a comprehensive list of advantages/disadvantages of the two approaches, which you can weigh against requirements of your applications to meet your business objective/goal.
Performance: Native apps use more of the device resources and capabilities and therefore are faster than web apps.
User experience: User interface of a native app has full control on device hardware and produce an application, which is quite an eye candy. On the other hand, user interface for a web app is limited to the browser capabilities and experience may vary.But a common misinterpretation is that only native apps will give users an offline experience. Not true. With HTML5, Web apps can store data, store static resources such as images, CSS and JavaScript, and share content via social networks and work offline similar to native apps. You can also have an icon of the web page on the device desktop, just like of a native app.
Cross-platform Applications: When you develop native apps you have to create a version for each operating system i.e. different version for Apple iPad / iPhone, Google Android ‘Droid’, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and more. If you build a Web app, the fundamental code stays the same across all devices, and it is much easier and faster to deliver just the right version to each device using device detection and content adaptation. Web apps are the best way to reach broadest audience with much less effort.
Time to Market: A Web app can reach more users on more platforms, quickly and easily, than a native app. Single codebase is deployed across all platforms (quicker development) and there is no need to go through any approval process. The web is an open platform and hence and no waiting to get approved by App Store etc.
Maintenance: A native app is difficult to support and maintain after app is downloaded. Multiple codebases have to be maintained.In case of web app, users always get the latest version. There is a single codebase and app owner is in control.
Type of application / service: There are differences between what types of content or service fits best on web or apps. For example, a racing car game will work best as native app as it will often use heavy graphics and need to access the device APIs like accelerometer, location detection, and other advanced features which only a native app has access to.On the other hand, shopping (mCommerce) and services like inventory tracking, customer relationship management, financial reporting, business process automation are best supported by the web apps. For these services, web applications tend to be more versatile, portable and cost-effective than their native counterparts.
There is a steep rise in the trend of Internet surfing on mobiles, smartphones and recent entrant -tablets and studies suggest that web on mobile will be the dominant channel in the near future. According to Google, desktop web will soon be irrelevant.
To summarize, the type of application, which will produce the most benefit, is entirely dependent on your business needs, but it’s worthwhile to at least evaluate a web application before deciding or else you might end up spending a lot more time and money than essential.