Each approach has its pros and cons, and the right choice depends on your business goals, target audience, and budget. In this post, we'll compare these three technologies to help you make an informed decision.
Feature |
Native Apps |
Hybrid Apps |
PWAs |
---|---|---|---|
Performance |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Best) |
⭐⭐⭐ (Moderate) |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Better) |
Development Cost |
💰💰💰💰 (High) |
💰💰💰 (Moderate) |
💰 (Low) |
Maintenance |
🔧🔧 (Moderate) |
🔧🔧🔧 (Complex) |
🔧 (Easiest) |
User Experience |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Best) |
⭐⭐⭐ (Good) |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Better) |
Versioning |
🔧🔧🔧 (Complex) |
🔧🔧🔧 (Complex) |
🔧 (Easiest) |
Offline Access |
✅ (Full) |
✅ (Limited) |
✅ (Limited) |
App Store Presence |
✅ (Yes) |
✅ (Yes) |
✅ (Yes) |
SEO-Friendly |
❌ (No) |
❌ (No) |
✅ (Yes) |
✅ You need the best performance and seamless user experience.
✅ Your app requires access to advanced device features (e.g., AR, Bluetooth, Sensors).
✅ You have a budget (almost 3 times as compared to PWAs) and time to maintain separate apps for iOS, Android and web.
✅ You need a single codebase for multiple app platforms.
✅ Your app does not require high-end performance.
✅ You want a balance between cost and functionality.
✅ You have budget (almost 2 times as compared to PWAs) and time to maintain separate web application.
✅ You want to reach users via web browsers without app store restrictions.
✅ SEO and web discoverability are important.
✅ You have a limited budget and don’t need complex hardware functionalities like Bluetooth, Sensors, Contacts read, Messages read, etc...
✅ Huge advantage for startups as only single code needs to maintain.
✅ Achieve Time To Market fast as compared to other options.
Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses.
Native apps excel in performance but are expensive. Usually, every functionality needs to be maintained in iOS, Android and web with same look and feel which can be time consuming. Versioning is a challenging task to manage, or we need to force users to upgrade to the latest version to avoid versioning issues.
Hybrid apps strike a balance between cost and performance. Versioning is a challenging task to manage, or we need to force users to upgrade to the latest version to avoid versioning issues.
PWAs are cost-effective but lack full native capabilities. Versioning is not a big deal as refreshing a page, new version will be loaded. Taking benefits of cache memory, we can achieve faster performance. With the help of Service Workers, we can achieve auto update feature as well.
Your choice should align with your business goals and user needs.
We have the most experienced Top 1% of Tech Talent Teams who can deliver superior technology solutions.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2025 | TechAvidus