What are the different types of mobile applications?

Advantages and disadvantages of different types of mobile applications

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Native mobile applications	Better user experience Faster Direct access to the system's resources	Development code is platform specific Not robust Burdens mobile's resources
Web applications	No need to create an OS-specific application It is system independent, no need to install the application It has better responsive behavior	It is browser independent, and might be incompatible with some browsers Requires continuous internet connection
Hybrid mobile applications	Shorter development time Less maintenance required	Not as reliable as native applications Slower transition between pages Requires extensive testing

Native mobile applications

These applications are specified to a particular OS platform and are usually installed on the mobile to operate. An example of this application can be WhatsApp. Native Applications are mainly developed in programming languages, such as Java, Python, and React.

Advantages

Following are some of the advantages of native mobile applications:

It provides a better user experience since it's tailor-made for a specific operating system and thus works faster and more efficiently.
Since they're installed on the mobile, it has direct access to the system resources. All the application's processing and output rendering of components is done on mobile (client-side). This reduces the communication gap between the application and the processor.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of native mobile applications are as follows:

Due to the limitation of being OS-specific, the development code cannot be used on another platform. This increases cost and development spending.
It's not robust as it requires application updates over time for proper functionality.
It burdens the mobile's memory resources.

Web mobile applications

These applications run directly over the web browser and do not have to be system-specific. These are actually responsive versions of websites that can run on any operating system. An example of this application can be Facebook, where the user enters the application URL on the browser and accesses it. Most of these applications are developed in programming languages, such as Javascript, HTML, CSS, and Ruby.

Advantages

Some of the advantages of web mobile applications are as follows:

From the developer's perspective, there is no need to create an OS-specific application. This eliminates the development costs.
It's system independent, which removes the need to download the application. This saves the storage resources and also eliminates the hassles of updating the application over time like in native mobile applications.
It has a responsive behavior, which means that its design responds correctly to the user's behavior and adapts to its system's environment. This provides a flexible application mobile user interface making the application more interactive.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of web mobile applications are as follows:

Since the web application is browser dependent, it is possible that some browsers do not provide all the functionalities of the application due to compatibility issues.
These applications require a continuous internet connection to operate.

Hybrid mobile applications

These are basically mobile web applications that are encapsulated in a native mobile application. These applications can be installed on mobile, which might be running on different system platforms and then require a web browser to run the application. An example of this application can be Gmail, which requires internet access to work. These applications are developed in C and mainly in HTML5.

Advantages

Some of the advantages of hybrid mobile applications are as follows:

Hybrid applications are more economical to develop than native applications since it has a shorter development time frame. This allows quicker time to market them.
It allows the development and deployment of various devices simultaneously without any need to build them individually. This reduces the need to maintain them.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of hybrid mobile applications are as follows:

They are not as reliable as native applications. Hybrid applications require plugins to be installed (mainly by a third party) to get the latest feature. This might result in compatibility issues with the system's resources.
Since it requires continuous connection to the application server, it has a slower transition between pages.
It requires more extensive testing as it deals with a wider variety of system platforms.

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