What platform to choose for your MVP app: native or hybrid?

Going from scratch, you can choose to develop two mobile apps, one for each platform, iOS (Apple) and Android (Google), i.e., select native development strategy.

This way, native app development is relying on a specific platform’s native language. Native apps for Android are usually built with Java or Kotlin with its Java Development Kit (JDK), while Swift or Objective C programming languages are used for iOS applications.

Keep in mind that by this enterprise you are choosing two languages and two completely autonomous apps, with separate work cycles and separate frameworks.

Either way, hybrid apps point at several platforms with a single code base and many technologies used to develop such apps (i.e., React-Native on Facebook, Xamarin on Microsoft (with its C# language), and Flutter on Google (with the Dart language.)

Shooting from the hip right into the bull’s eye, let’s get closer to the distinct features of the MVP development methods. First of all, to safely verify your product-market idea on an MVP and test your product in a fast and economical manner, you may choose a cross-platform option. However, the fundamental thing is to find the balance between your budget and the MVP features your wish to propose to your clients, and choose the appropriate platform based on this.

Benefits of native MVP development

1
Perfect interoperability with your customers’ smartphone apparatus (take touchscreen functionality or a calendar).
2
Much lower personal information risks with frameworks and software development kits, following with information security and operation credibility.
3
Constant smooth updating with AI and IoT features.

4
Seamless performance: occupying the full operation capacity of your device, the native platform provides stable efficiency and the app production velocity.
5
Enhanced UX turned out to be the path to success for many global apps like Whatsapp or Spotify: provides complicated makeups and enriching interface features according to the user’s needs, allows animation supplements and offers enhanced interaction possibilities.

Drawbacks of native MVP development

1
Distinct codebases required for each app, on iOS and Android, with each feature being developed and tested twice.
2
Prolonged release time to test the app on two platforms by two separate teams.

3
More expensive one-time cost: choose the right option to pay, in parts or in one go, which is, though, 30-40% higher.

Benefits of cross-platform/hybrid mobile MVP development (using Flutter, React Native, Ionic or Xamarin frameworks)

Developer teams are more compact thanks to the rationalized building-up process on various devices and with only one group of proficient specialists.

Have reusable codebase shared and run across devices and platforms which is reengineered 70 - 95%

Extended target audience due to the broad array of users on multiple platforms - mobile and web.

Smooth recoding and, as follows, easy updating to new releases.

Summarizing this approach, you efficiently save your time, money and development efforts.

Just so you know, let’s see some prosperous app projects implemented on Flutter - both on Google App and App Store: Hamilton, official Broadway Musical app, Xianyu app by Alibaba, Google Ads, My BMW app, Hamilton app for Hamilton musical, powerful eBay Motors (a tool for buying, browsing, and selling cars from smartphones), and Groupon that lets you track your campaign capacity and customer satisfaction, Baidu Tieba - the widest communication platform from China, to name a few.

So, to determine which option is best for you, we are going to look at some points related to your project itself:

Native apps provide great projects’ long-term lifecycle due to their specific and stable toolkits and frameworks (SDK/JDK).

Keep in mind, however, that Flutter allows adjusting push notifications quite easily, by incorporating the native code, with additional plugins used to help.

Code security is stronger on native platforms apps where it’s safely protected and encrypted while hybrid apps are more demanding in this respect.

UI/UX design flourishes within native-platform devices which are superior to cross-platform apps falling behind them.

Regarding project sustainability, no question that the palm is handed over to native apps. They provide great projects’ long-term lifecycle due to their specific and stable toolkits.

Fighting for the development time, the battle wins cross-platform apps that are much faster to create.

Drawbacks of cross-platform mobile MVP development

Functionality and complexity

From the start, if your perspective device isn’t based on native features (like native modules, or JavaScript functions, performed natively on each platform giving a smooth native UX, push notifices) or outside service, stick to the cross-platform development. Still, to comprehensively reach for the native phone’s API, pick native apps to communicate straightly with the device.
With this in mind, remember about the possibility to refer to third-party communication services on APIs for voice and videos, and SMS that proposes only native iOS and Android apps development kits. Those are, though, easily expanded to the hybrid apps, sometimes backing up more platforms than planned.

Efficiency

Native apps are profitable if the performance is your crucial choice. That is if you need the maximized use of your funds and the smartphone features, opt for native functionality to get a quick, flexible and more sustainable app at the output.
In the meantime, yet having well-progressed performance-wise, hybrid apps are astern native apps, with more errors and more operation time. However, scrutinize carefully the growing smartphones’ tech capabilities.

Budget and release time

Native apps:
- take more time for the development
- cost higher due to the need to build two independent apps
Cross-platform apps:
- are a time-saving option for the development and swift market release as just one codebase is designed for two apps

Taking stock of the article, don’t race around and carefully analyze all the pros and cons, in order not to make any project miscalculations or planning deficiencies when choosing the app elaboration strategy:

1
Define your target audience and the market.
2
Weigh and analyze which platform this functionality is suitable for.
3
Describe your future app functionality.
4
Find a qualified developer able to help you implement your idea.

Thereby, you are welcome to refer to our team of competent developers and inspired designers to help your long-cherished MVP project to come true.

So, leave your contacts to our Entexy partnership manager and let us help you empower your startup idea till the realization!

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