Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) vs. Native Apps vs. Hybrid Apps: A Detailed Comparison

In the modern digital ecosystem, businesses continuously explore new avenues to connect with users as effectively and efficiently as possible. As the number of devices and platforms grows, there is an increasing demand for applications that can work seamlessly across multiple environments, whether on smartphones, tablets, or desktops.

The decision on whether to develop a Progressive Web App (PWA), a Native App, or a Hybrid App is a pivotal one for businesses, as it can drastically impact several crucial factors including the overall user experience, development cost, and performance.

This article seeks to provide a comprehensive and detailed comparison between these three popular types of applications. By examining their key features, benefits, and the challenges associated with each, businesses can better understand the trade-offs involved and make an informed decision about which type of app best suits their needs and objectives.

Definition of PWA, Native, and Hybrid Apps

First, let us try to understand what kind of apps each type refers to as this forms the basis of comparison.

Progressive Web App (PWA)

A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a type of application software that is developed in usual web languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. PWAs are ontologically developed to work on each device and operating system with a single set of code. They utilize the latest web technologies to deliver the feel and look of an app that is installed from an application store.

Native App

A native app is an application developed on the Android platform using Java or Kotlin programming languages. These apps are downloaded from the Google Play Store and installed directly on its device. They have device access and control features in their apps and provide developers with outstanding and fast performance as well as full user control of the apps.

Hybrid App

A Hybrid App is a cross between a native application and a web application known as an app. They are usually launched using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, though hosted inside a native shell that enables them to access native application stores. Allowing the best of both worlds in their development, hybrid apps are developed with the intention of giving a native-like performance with web development-like freedom.

Fundamental Aspects of Native, Hybrid, & PWA Apps

PWA App vs. Native App vs. Hybrid App

Let’s now attempt to compare the three types of applications on various characteristics.

App Development

• PWA Development

PWAs are cheap to build across multiple platforms due to the use of a single codebase needed to build the app. PWAs are generated with web technologies including, hypertext markup language, cascading style sheets, and Javascript.

The necessity of implementing code that is unique to each platform is done away with, making the process faster and the job of supporting such applications less of a challenge.

• Native App Development

The creation of a native app is platform-oriented at its core. Android uses Java or Kotlin which are developed specifically for Android. If the app is to be built for a single interface, then development can be lengthy and may require a huge investment.

Moreover, updates are required on each of the platforms in case you have plans of putting your app on multiple operating systems; Android and iPhone, for instance.

• Hybrid App Development

Above all, hybrid applications are made with the use of web technologies but they are placed in native shells (such as Cordova or Ionic). They can be developed to run on different platforms with little changes only. In hybrid vs native apps, Hybrid apps have advantages in terms of cost, as compared to native apps because one set of code works for both iOS and Android.

However, more specific work may still be needed within development for at least platform-specific adjustments, especially when working with native device functionalities.

App Maintenance

• PWA

Since PWAs are delivered and run through browsers, updates can be pushed at once without forcing users to install new app versions. As such, maintaining and fixing bugs on these applications is lighter compared to native applications.

• Native Apps 

Native apps rely on the app stores for updates to be administered to the users. Updates must be downloaded and installed by the user independently, which may cause problems for most users being on the latest version.

• Hybrid Apps 

Hybrid applications, in general, may need more updating than the PWAs, simply because there could be different applications for the different operating systems. They also rely heavily on 3rd party frameworks like Cordova or React Native, which may have problems with the newer versions of a mobile operating system.

Performance and Speed

• PWA Apps

While PWAs are effective, they are constrained by web browser capabilities. They can be very fast and smooth but indeed they lack something when it comes to performance and slick animations as compared to native apps particularly applications that require a lot of processing and use a lot of resources. Still, a progressive app can use the service workers to optimize offline functionality and caching and improve certain performance rates.

• Native Apps

Native apps are the most effective and efficient kind of applications. It is because they are designed to work on a specific platform, that they can use device hardware as well as system resources making user experience faster and more efficient. This is why native apps are preferable for high-performance applications, like games or applications requiring many resources.

• Hybrid Apps

Examples of such apps are still being developed, but in general, it can be said that they provide some of the features typical of both native apps and PWAs, including performance. These are average performers who may not handle demands for high performance or those tasks that require a lot of processor commitment.

Hybrid apps are based on using schemes such as Cordova, React Native, Ionic, and Xamarin which may result in the fact that their speed and smoothness will not be as high as in native apps.

Usability and Graphic Interface

• PWAs

While talking about a PWA vs web app, a PWA has the added benefit of being launchable in a web browser, from the context of the present writing. That’s why the interfaces of these applications do not always endeavor to look and feel as smooth as native apps.

PWAs are an ideal solution for e-commerce websites aiming to deliver a seamless, app-like experience. Their capability to operate efficiently across various devices and browsers improves user accessibility and boosts engagement.

• Native Apps

Native apps are great for users because these applications are written for the operating systems they are designed to be used for. They can use all native widgets, icons, gestures, and animations supported in the operating system of Android environment, and achieve apparent and smooth design. Native apps are best suited for industries requiring high-speed responses and real-time updation of data.

• Hybrid Apps

They stand in between the native applications and web applications and as such hybrids, their UX could be almost anywhere. Some hybrid apps may look and feel almost like native apps, but they are often more likely to have aspects of general performance such as glitches, slower loading, and less-than-fluid interactions with native apps.

Hybrid apps are best suited for retail and E-commerce, travel, and media-related businesses.

Access to Device Features

• PWAs

PWAs have restricted hardware access as a result of various constraints posed by the web browser. As it is they get partial access to device features (camera, microphone, geolocation, etc.) but lack functionality like Bluetooth or background operations. Nonetheless, with the help of progressive enhancement, a progressive app adds more and more features, at the moment.

• Native Apps

Native apps are fully integrated into the hardware elements of the device and the options that are provided include the camera, GPS, sensors, Bluetooth, and others. That’s why native apps are preferable for those projects where tight integration with the device’s hardware is needed.

• Hybrid Apps

Plugins or APIs within the native wrapper possess full permission to access many parts of the device’s capabilities. However, the access could be less convenient or perhaps less exhaustive than those offered by native apps. Although frameworks such as React Native have brought those disadvantages to proximity, there are some constraints.

Offline Functionality

• PWAs

The primary operational characteristics of PWAs include offline or low connectivity environment functionalities. PWAs use service workers that store critical resources and enable the app’s operation even offline. A progressive app can deliver offline capabilities but perhaps is not as well performed as native applications in offline usage.

• Native Apps

Native applications are able to work completely offline since they are installed inside the gadget. This is so important with apps that must always have access to resources as is the case with messaging apps, music players, and games.

• Hybrid Apps

This depends on the kind of hybrid app being developed as well as the use of web views and local storage to allow offline capabilities. Nevertheless, apps that heavily rely on connectivity with the Internet may not be able to handle offline functionality well if the latter was implemented using the hybrid app approach.

Cost and Time to Market

• PWAs

In terms of cost, Progressive Web Apps can be one of the most effective solutions because it is faster to develop more platforms for one PWA than for each of the traditional ones. As you will learn, PWAs have the advantage of a short time to market because they do not require the blessing of the app stores.

• Native Apps

Platform-specific coding is more expensive in Native apps since a pre-existing app has to be created separately for the different platforms. Further, the design for having a native app for different platforms will also take considerable time as well as money. Maintenance work as well as updates also take a lot more effort than simply installing a program on your computer.

• Hybrid Apps

Hybrid app development is comparably a less costly affair than developing two distinct native applications for Android and iOS. Nevertheless, the hybrid app can require more time to optimize it and the resources it requires especially when dealing with certain features.

Security Features

• PWAs

PWAs rely on HTTPS to make sure that communication is secure. They are for the most part secure, but they do not offer the same types of security for specific application schemes regarding personal or privileged information.

• Native Apps

Native apps perform from the security that the operating system gives it, including biometric identification, secure data storage as well as encrypted data transmission. When dealing with consumers’ information, original apps are often significantly more secure.

• Hybrid Apps

Hybrid Apps can also be safe if the proper framework and plugins have been chosen. They are demand-driven since they use web technologies to invoke web services and hence can be more susceptible to cross-site scripting (XSS) and other similar web-based attacks.

Conclusion

The choice between Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), Native Apps, and Hybrid Apps depends on several factors including the Type of the App, Target Audience, Budget, App Performance & Functionalities to be incorporated.

PWAs are for businesses that are looking for an affordable solution to be developed quickly and to be compatible with multiple platforms. They are particularly suitable for applications that do not need to interface directly with the underlying system and which do not offer intricate functionality which needs to be programmed into the application.

Native Apps perform, update, and handle hardware operations at the highest level, and therefore useful for complex applications.

Hybrid Apps share the features of both but are cheaper and more functional as they use single development code and GUI. They are ideal for use in applications where availability is vital across platforms because they offer reasonable performance without needing much power.

In conclusion, PWA vs native app vs hybrid shall depend on the goals, users’ expectations, and resources available to an organization.

How can Appventurez help your Business?

With over a decade of experience in App Development, Appventurez is one of the finest app development companies across the globe. With our team of expert and experienced developers, we have created some of the best apps featuring cutting-edge UI/UX for our clients.

App development solutions at Appventurez are for all. We cater to all industries and businesses. Our team of dedicated professionals takes into consideration your business requirements and suggests what is suitable for your organization keeping in mind your short-term and long-term goals.