Native App vs Responsive Website: How To Choose Between Them?

In the ever growing pool of start-ups and new business shelling out huge, the mobile market is one ruling all. It is a pool of potential active users who are eager and vigilant. The need to befriend with mobile adaptability is not limited to only big brands and reputed business, every startup to small business is churning out to get its share of profit.

As recorded, the channel of users has changed drastically over the years and so is the sales source. The shift from a well-defined targeted platform to a new channel of lucrative business has snatched away the sleep of the mighty business owners. But this process of adaptability has not only raised confusion from a prospect of marketing but equal parts from the technical view.

Product managers and marketers dig out deep to impress the customers, and the way they can potentially do it is with the user experience through native apps and responsive webs.

But don’t you get something hazy here? Apps and webs? It’s like we are looking at a two-sided mirror and finally landing upon something same scale informative.

For businesses, it is primarily decided whether to develop a website product mobile friendly or to make it a mobile app. The former is for web apps (responsive) and latter is mobile apps (native).

First of all, we should know what are native apps and responsive webs

What are Native apps and Responsive Webs?

Native App

The app development platform is of two types Native and Hybrid. While here we are talking about native app – it is a platform that gets thumbs up impression from a user’s point of view. This is an expensive set of app development as developers create a unique code for each OS- both iOS and Android and others. As there are some hidden set of approval and other procedures for every OS, it takes time and money both. However, the end result is worthy of the investment as the apps function brilliantly in the longer run with little or no obstacles. For quality, performance, speed, and functional benefits- this app is a winner!!!

Responsive Web

There stands two type of mobile-friendly websites- Responsive and Adaptive. Again Responsive is a clear leader when developers decide on making mobile-friendly websites. This web platform has an edge for a vast user network as it is responsive to adapt on its own to the device it is viewed on (TV, tablets, smartphones, desktop). It accounts for its preset sizes for the way it is displayed. This is certainly exceptional in responsive webs only unlike for adaptive webs it has to be developed for every screen size.

Which is Preferred: Native apps or Responsive webs?

This is not a question taken by choice or as a fluke, it is a well-thought decision and thoroughly depends on your business and product prospects right from the business objectives, purpose, offer, product or service, user base and audience.

Whether you need to make a native app or a responsive website, both time and money are spent. Albeit it is not a choice between spending money and time even, the development of either of the two should focus on business growth.

Remember, something that worked for someone else’s business may necessarily not be working for your business. So, go with a strategical approach instead and a business prospect in mind.

What works for your business either a native app or a responsive website can easily be finding with the needs you have. Undoubtedly both platforms are packed with certain pros and cons, and knowing it may help you to choose from one. For that let’s binge into the pros and cons of both.

Pros and Cons of Native apps:

Native app platform is a quite intense surgical solution for a mobile app development business. It is vast and takes into account every particular OS and form individual code for each OS. Let’s unleash the pros and cons for better understanding:

1. Apps can work without internet connection as well:

A great edge native apps possess is certainly a boon for users and that is – you necessarily do not need an internet connection. Well, it is not wrong to say that the world is running with the internet everywhere and anywhere but still at times reaching to a secured connection is a problem. Here come these apps where users necessarily don’t need an internet connection to use your product. As soon as the app gets downloaded, it gets stored in the user’s device and a user can take use of the functionality anytime.

As said by a strong mind “native apps work its best on both online and offline world and both complement each other pretty well.”

2. A better performance is guaranteed:

Native apps are just smooth in loading time. Apps load smoothly and perform all the functions with more ease. Here the native elements are designed precisely keeping in mind the mobile performance of the app. You can add bountiful of advantages in user experience with native apps right from its faster action, less complexity and in turn providing a much better user experience.

For the final outcome, a mobile app development company prefers native apps over hybrid as in the long run benefits of a native app are just brilliant. Needless to say, Instagram is built on a native platform.

 

3. Users have access to wide functionalities:

With native apps, users have a better pool of accessibility. As native app gets installed on the mobile device it gets access to all the mobile functionalities. The app is now installed on the phone and now works in harmony with the other tools.

It directly gives a user the best experience with the app but also gives businesses new dimension.

4. Users are able to get more security:

Security is the concern for almost everyone today. Apps that pass the legit note of security and wins users heart are there to stay. On the other hand, apps that carry a suspicious note with unnecessary information extraction are always under users suspect. A suspicious app will not be installed and if installed will not stay for long on the device.

It is another concern for choosing between native apps and responsive webs. Users when connect with a business through the internet are exposed to both the trackers and webs. However, in apps users are less exposed as the business is able to handle the connection without the indulgence of the third party.

Therefore, when the concerns are for security a native app settles with a preference.

5. You can add more advanced features:

In native apps, there is always a room for adding more features. Whatever feature you want to add, you can simply add to native apps without any hurdle. Website load time, performance, navigation and several other features add to the problem, wherein mobile app doesn’t deal with any of the problems.

6. Strengthen brand awareness:

If you are looking for growing your brand awareness you can do it by building a native app for your business. This way you are adding the brand value by simply boosting your apps’ user base. Designing an app comes as a potential prospect for business growth because of its brand awareness.

You may reach the audience you might have missed by new methods of branding through apps, create a user base and in turn promote it on app stores and other channels. Moreover, you can give your audience time to time reminder by regular push notification (though it should not be too often as it marks redundancy and lowers your app value).

When business owners decide to go for a native app, the cost will be high than a responsive website but they should see that a native app will stay on the user’s mobile main stage and that adds to all the branding. It is a bright day for any product when it sets a space into users’ life and mobile device is the platform.

Responsive web, on the other hand, is a long route for branding. For that product should be known first and then searched on a mobile navigator and if all functions well with no page load errors, you finally get to access it.

In a nutshell, Native app

“The native app has pros of high product quality and a wide range of development possible. The only effective cons are Time and Money where many businesses compromise.”

Pros and cons of Responsive Web:

The responsive web came into the limelight when businesses thought that a poor performance of a website on the mobile phone may result in a potential user/customer choosing the competitor instead of them. As millennials create the major market and majority access through their mobile devices, responsive webs are a necessity for any product or business. So, let’s find out the pros and cons for better knowledge:

1. Internet connection is must:

In the responsive web, a user cannot function without any internet connection. For poor connections as well, responsive web deals with major disadvantages of no proper page loading and errors. As it pulls information directly from the browser, the product is not readily available anywhere or everywhere.

This is a feature that irks users as with a constraint of internet your business is not accessible to users and you may lose your reach.

2. Performance is poor:

Responsive webs showcase images and animations that are too slow and heavy when the website opens on the mobile device. As users will have to wait for long, all goes to the fact that it will be downloaded by the browser. The poor performance is therefore accounted turning to consumption of more time, low page speed and bad images with low resolution.

The larger content like images and videos always works differently for desktop and mobiles.

3. There is a lack of natural or native element:

Responsive webs lack majorly in imparting the native element to the website when it works on mobile. It generates a different ecosystem because UI and UX conventions for iOS, Android, Windows, Mobile and other operating systems stay with a difference. If you build an app that is same for each OS and web, it will never give a native vibe to the users. Users like to use something that looks natural and if your web looses the native component, users may not use it for long.

4. Push notifications is a drawback:

You can blame it to responsive webs for no push notifications. As push notifications are a great way of branding and users will have timely updates of your apps, it is not present with responsive webs.

More to it, responsive webs are not capable of using the phone functions that native app can use. The functions like a phone camera, calendar and other features cannot be used by responsive webs because their functions are only limited to the browser.

This tends to limit the functional features and performance of the responsive web as compared to the native app. QR codes, voice recognition and augmented reality are some technologies that can’t be used with the responsive web. A native app works sagaciously to this regard.

In a nutshell, responsive webs

Responsive webs lacks as a comparison is made between native apps and responsive web, but of course, both have diverse features and usability. Responsive webs may work well for companies that are not looking for mobile app development and solely focusing on the responsive web.

The final thought is if your business or product is small and it targets not huge audience then you can always look for responsive web. However, for big budgets and big businesses that are targeting a huge audience, native apps is the call. From branding to faster performance, native apps are just ingenious.