Mobile apps can be generally broken down into native, hybrid and web apps. Going the native route allows you to use all of the capabilities of a device and operating system, with a minimum of performance overhead on a given platform. However, building a web app allows your code to be ported across platforms, which can dramatically reduce development time and cost. Hybrid apps combine the best of both worlds, using a common code base to deploy native-like apps to a wide range of platforms.

There are two approaches to building a hybrid app and coming up with hybrid mobile app design are:

Web View app
The HTML, CSS and JavaScript code base runs in an internal browser (called Web View) that is wrapped in a native app. Some native APIs are exposed to JavaScript through this wrapper. For example, Adobe Phone Gap.

Compiled hybrid app
The code is written in one language (such as C# or JavaScript) and gets compiled to native code for each supported platform. The result is a native app for each platform, but less freedom during development.

While both approaches are widely used and exist for good reasons, we’ll focus on Web View apps because they enable developers to leverage most of their existing web skills. Let’s look at all of the benefits and drawbacks of hybrid apps compared to both native and mobile web apps.

Benefits

• Developer can use existing web skills
• One code base for multiple platforms
• Reduced development time and cost
• Easily design for various form factors (including tablets) using responsive web design
• Access to some device and operating system features
• Advanced offline capabilities
• Increased visibility because the app can be distributed natively (via app stores) and to mobile browsers (via search engines)

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