Native apps do not run on the web browsers. Native apps are specific and platform dependent. For example Android and iOS. These are built in a specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE) only. These apps could be downloaded from their own stores i.e. Apple App Store for iOSor Google Play Store for Android. Native apps are generally built by the programming language that best suits and is recognized by that platform. Native Apps are the most popular types as the users mostly search for the apps first in their smartphone’s store.
HTML5 Apps are also known as Web Apps. This is because an HTML5 mobile app is a web page which works like any other app. HTML5 apps can work on diverse mobile platforms. For HTML5 Apps there is no software development kit for a developer to work with. There are frameworks & templates available for developing the web apps like React, Angular and Vue.js.
Is it “HTML5” or “Native Apps” or a mixture of both (that could be termed as Hybrid)? To know and draw a conclusion, here is a comparison over the two:
- HTML5 stands for Open standards and there is no Proprietary control on apps created by HTML5;whereas the Native Apps for mobile are totally controlled by App stores and markets like GOOGLE and APPLE. This might disturb the open-source philosophy of the many apps.
- HTML5 apps are less in performance if compared to native apps, since their performance may depend on some issues like the speed of internet connection and other concerns.
- Compared to HTML5 implementations Native apps are better in performance, because they can directly work on function of the device itself, for instance, Camera GPS can be directly invoked by Native Apps.
- Unlike Native Apps which are provided with one-time buying options, HTML5 apps are generally concerned towards ADS for selling,(these apps are mostly free).
- When compared to the Native Apps, User Interfaces(UI) build through HTML5 are fragile and less spontaneous for some app deployments.
- Different from its counterpart, HTML5 has been often condemned for not having the essential level of DRM (Digital Rights Management), to support all the multimedia services that it needs to.
Choosing the most appropriate technology for app development depends on a number of factors, such as app features, time-to-market &UI/UX requirement etc.