When it comes to app development, we are often confused with the choice of having a ‘web’, ‘hybrid’ or a ‘native’ app.
No doubt, the development experts understand the differences between these apps, but what about those who don’t? If you are an entrepreneur starting off with your own app project, you might as well relate to this.

Sometimes, the only thing that people may know about native apps is that they cost slightly more. Having got the cost estimations between the two, most of you usually stop your search there.

However, that should not be the case.

There are a lot of reasons why your app developers should recommend going native for your next mobile project.

So, the idea behind hybrid apps is that they should make the process of app development much easier. However, that is not what happens ideally.

The reality is that managing a hybrid app and getting it to work is quite painful. In fact, large companies such as Facebook with some of the finest engineers working for them have recently ditched hybrid apps.

From this alone, it should convince you that if a large well-funded company cannot bear the pain, neither should you! People want the idea of hybrid apps to work, but in reality, getting an app to work across multiple platforms is a nightmare.

Hybrid Apps:
Sometimes, you may not have the money or resources to build an app for each device. In such an instance, you will result in building a hybrid app that can work across multiple platforms. This is a great app for the times when you would like to launch for the marketplace fast. Most businesses try to skip the initial hassle and go with these apps before moving to specific apps later.

What works in favor of them?
You will have one codebase to manage
The main advantage of a hybrid app is that you do not have to build two or three apps, you just build a single app and tweak it to work on multiple platforms.
Saves time
Since you only need to manage a single codebase, you will require about half the developers that you would need for multiple native apps. Besides that, you can use the same number of developers but cut the time in half. In addition, developers who work on hybrid apps will usually charge less.
Scaling is easier
Once you build the app, scaling it to another platform such as Windows is quite easy and happens within a short time.
You retain access to device features
Just as with the native app, you will be able to retain the same level of ability when using a hybrid app.
And what doesn’t?
Performance Suffers
The biggest disadvantage of a hybrid app is that its performance will suffer.
Are you ready to compromise on that? Pause here for a moment and think. With so much competition around, performance is what consumers are looking for. Before you choose the hybrid way, keep this thought in mind.

Since these apps will launch using a browser-like component, they are only as good as the component on which they run. Earlier, Google and Apple did not agree on the WebView. While it has vastly been improved, it does not have the same efficiency as running a native app.

Running cross-platform apps is difficult
Making the hybrid apps run efficiently on multiple platforms is no easy task. In some instances, it could cost almost the same as running native apps. The cost will depend on how close you want to get to the native app experience.
UX will suffer
Most Android and iOS users tend to be quite loyal to their platforms. They thus understand how native apps are supposed to work. For these types of users, even subtle differences can be quite frustrating.
No Hidden Costs
Hybrid apps are generally a pain due to a variety of custom plugins which may demand tweaks from time to time. Some functionalities even require your developer to code from the scratch due to incompatibility of certain plugins with the device OS. This leads to additional costs and time overruns that are not foreseen during the planning stage.

Progressive Web AppsUntil very recently, web apps did not have the functionality of native apps. For instance, they could not work offline and did not have push notifications. Besides that, they could not be located on the home screen.

However, because of recent improvements to browsers and web apps, progressive web apps now offer the above-mentioned features. When an app is able to make use of such features, it is called a progressive web app. If you want to turn your app into a web app, you will need to follow the steps outlined here.
Using progressive web apps will mainly depend on the goals that you have. The first thing you need to know is that they only work on Google Chrome.

Thus, if you wish to cover audiences in the iOS and Android markets, these are not designed for you. In that sense, they are not replacements for native mobile apps. However, they are a great way to provide the mobile-app experience without going all the way.