Using a Hybrid Tool for Business Mobile Apps
So, you have decided to build an app for your business. You are probably thinking about hosting platforms for your application and how you might efficiently develop it without breaking the bank. The main mobile platforms are Android and iOS, each with their own native programming language. To access the full functionality of each platform, you would normally need to develop the application in each platform’s native programing language, (Android uses Java or Kotlin and iOS uses Swift or Objective C) however with the development of webtools, such as Cordova, Ionic, or React Native, you can now develop applications across platforms with hybrid development models.
Cross-platform or “hybrid application development” confers numerous benefits to the development process. This blog will look at the pros and cons of the Hybrid development model and will go over a few of the tools that are currently available on the market.
What are Webtools?
Positive Aspects of Hybrid Application Development
The positive aspects of hybrid application development focus on reducing the costs and difficulty of developing applications for multiple platforms. These platforms typically include iOS, Android, and websites. This means that you only need to have one development team per application rather than one team per platform. The main benefit is that there is only one code base to create, deploy and maintain. Additionally, many improvements have been made to the hybrid development model including the ability to access native device features and reducing the effect on the application’s overall performance.
The positive aspects of hybrid application development for customers include:
- Lower costs as you only need to create one development team
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Larger hiring pools (non-specialist)
- Faster development cycles
The positive aspects of hybrid application development for developers include:
- User friendly interfaces
- Easy to learn tools
- Library of ready to use resources
- Reusable code
- Easy to maintain
Tool Comparisons – Xamarin, React Native, Ionic
There are several popular competitors this blog will discuss, including Xamarin, Ionic, and React Native.
Xamarin
Xamarin
Xamarin is a Microsoft-supported framework for cross-platform mobile app development that uses C# and native libraries wrapped in the .NET layer.
React Native
React Native
React Native is the framework that allows for building close-to-native mobile apps (not “HTML5 apps” or “hybrid apps”) using JavaScript and React.JS.
Ionic
Ionic
Ionic is the framework that aims at developing hybrid apps using HTML5 and Angular
Tool Comparison Chart
Why SphereGen Uses the Hybrid Application Development Model
SphereGen uses the hybrid application development model for several reasons, including having a single code base for multiple platforms, ease of use, and a range of ready to use plugins and integrations. SphereGen has had a great experience using Ionic for a recent mobile application development project known as Celebrity Shuttle.
Ionic is an open-source Software development kit (SDK) for hybrid mobile applications and is known for its UI elements and native component library for IOS and Android. Ionic uses HTML, CSS, JS, and Angular for application development. It allows web developers to create web pages that are run inside an iOS/Android devices’ browser. The device then renders the webpage and displays it as a native application.
For Celebrity Shuttle, we utilized Ionic to build a mobile application on Android, iOS, and the web. As a small company, Celebrity Shuttle did not have had the technical resources to develop an application on multiple platforms. By using a hybrid development model, we were able to effectively build a high-quality mobile app with a great ROI.
Conclusion
The benefits conferred by utilizing a hybrid application development model make it clear that it is a cost effective and efficient method for most types of application development. Though each development team will have their own preferences, we have found that hybrid application development delivers quality products at a fraction of the cost. By reducing the amount of code your development team must create, deploy, and manage, your business can devote more time to serving customers and improving its product or service.
