Deciding whether to support your business’s digital real estate by investing in the development and launch of a digital application takes extensive market research to determine which type of mobile app best suits your customers—and your company.
While a mobile app is generally designed to run primarily on laptops, smartphones, tablets, or any other mobile electronic device, they can be built very differently depending upon the goals of your company.
Whether you build your mobile app as a web app, a native app, or a hybrid mobile app depends on what goals you’re trying to achieve and how much of a balance you are looking to strike between accessibility and functionality. Follow along as we break down the advantages and disadvantages of each framework, and show how each is best leveraged in industries where mobile applications are frequently used to support customers’ digital journeys.
What are the types of mobile application technologies?
Customer-facing mobile applications are purpose-built tools focused around supporting a limited scope of activities. Depending on how accessible you want your application to be, you’ll have a choice of several different frameworks to pick from.
Web-based apps
Cross-platform mobile web applications are built using HTML, CSS, and some form of a framework based on JavaScript. They are different from apps using other frameworks in that web-based apps are websites designed to be accessed and used through a web browser on mobile devices. While the app might be accessed through an icon on the device home screen, that icon is actually directing the user to the experience through a URL like a website. The app is not downloaded to the device.
Examples of popular web-based applications include:
Netflix
Facebook
Spotify
Advantages
Web-based apps provide some unique advantages over traditional mobile applications.
Lower development time and costs: Because they aren’t tied to a specific codebase and don’t require customized builds to work on different devices, web-based applications keep development times and costs low.
Highly adaptive: They are designed to naturally work within the user interface (UI) of the devices through which they are being accessed because they are web-based and benefit from being accessed through a web browser that has already been optimized to adapt to the device and operating system they are being used upon.
No downloads needed: Users aren’t required to download a resource-heavy mobile application in order to access the experience. As such, they also don’t need to constantly update the app, as web-based applications are updated and maintained outside of the user experience.
Disadvantages
As with any development process, there are disadvantages that must be considered when using this approach.
Internet access required: As a web-based experience, access to the internet is required for web-based mobile applications to properly function.
Quality could vary: User experience (UX) and UI could vary greatly depending on the browser being used. Indirectly, this also makes the experience tied to the device and operating system upon which it’s being used.
Native apps
Native mobile apps are usually what we think about when we think about mobile apps. They are developed to run on certain devices with a specific operating system in mind. In order to customize the mobile app to work within operating system (OS) environments, developers use platform-specific software development kits (SDKs) and programming languages.
While this gives them access to the full scope of features and functionality each operating system allows, it does limit each build of the app to that specific platform. Keeping in mind that large IPs will have invested in developing apps across multiple platforms, popular examples of native applications include:
Airbnb
Waze
Pokémon Go
Uber
WhatsApp
Advantages
The customization and benefits to the user experience made possible by native apps makes this framework easy for developers to embrace.
Device-specific features that enhance functionality: Optimized for the platforms they are built for, native apps can take advantage of their hardware to improve functionality.
Faster load time: Native apps operate faster and more consistently than apps built with other frameworks.
Superior, seamless UX/UI: Operating systems dictate how users navigate applications, so building an application natively allows your app to mimic the UX/UI for all of the other apps being used on the device, providing a seamless experience for the user.
Disadvantages
The primary disadvantage of building native mobile apps is that in order to reach a wider audience, the development team will have to design, develop, and launch the app multiple times. They will need a version that works on iOS, Android, and any other platform their audience uses. This can drastically increase the cost of the app and impact future costs of maintenance and updates.
Hybrid apps
Hybrid mobile applications bridge the gap between web-based and native apps, often by taking advantage of app-embedded web browsers or other methods for gaining access to the web. Hybrid apps are built with web technologies, and then encapsulated in a framework that is OS specific.
The web technologies allow for cross-platform compatibility, while the surrounding framework ensures the app can be installed and run on a device like a native application. Popular examples of a hybrid development approach include:
The Amazon app store
eBay
Advantages
Hybrid mobile apps bring in the best elements of web-based apps and native apps, allowing them a degree of flexibility in design and deployment.
Compatible with several types of devices: Encapsulating the web-based functionality within the native-compatible allows cross-device compatibility.
Limits the number of times the app has to be developed for different platforms: Cross-compatibility removes the need for multiple development cycles and reduces the overall cost of development.
Does not necessarily require internet: Useful for businesses operating in countries with slow or unstable internet connectivity.
Disadvantages
As a mix of frameworks, hybrid applications also carry some of the drawbacks from each of the other frameworks. While they may behave like a native application, they don’t necessarily offer the same speed and performance as one. Another thing to consider is that while they are built as web applications that adapt to the operating system upon which they are installed, the user experience can vary greatly across devices and operating systems.
Types of mobile apps for different industries
Mobile applications are characterized by the fact that they are built to address very specific user requirements or help users address a gap in their personal or professional lives.
Lifestyle apps
These apps are designed to enhance or support various aspects of users’ personal lives that define their day-to-day activities. The U.S. lifestyle mobile app market is anticipated to grow from $2.14 billion to $3.33 billion by 2027, an annual growth rate of roughly 10%.[1]
Lifestyle applications can help users with:
Dating
Music, movies, entertainment
Food and dining
Travel
Fitness
Social media platforms
Productivity apps
Mobile applications focused on productivity help users to produce audio, text, and video content, as well as graphs, databases, documents, and presentations. Most often leveraged for business, productivity applications not only provide users with business solutions, but also provide businesses with monetization opportunities.
Productivity applications can be grouped into several general categories:
Communication and collaboration tools
Workflow and automation tools
Documentation tools
Time, task, and project tracking tools
Entertainment apps
Mobile applications in the entertainment market allow users to view video content, listen to audio content, and share their favorite content across other platforms. Data gathered through the application allows it to create lists of trending content and make recommendations to users based on their activity. Games and other media consumption applications also fall under this market segment.
Entertainment applications dominate the U.S. application market when we look at revenue generated in 2023, with Candy Crush Saga, as an example, generating $485 million.[2]
Financial apps
Financial applications are largely the purview of banking institutions providing mobile banking solutions to account holders. According to the American Bankers Association, 48% of banking customers use applications or web apps on their mobile devices to manage their bank account.[3]
In recent years, the scope of finance applications have expanded to allow users to perform a variety of financial tasks, such as stock trading, managing digital wallets, creating and managing budgets, engaging with insurance vendors, and making or receiving payments. Finance-focused mobile app installations and session lengths increased throughout 2023, showing users are becoming more comfortable managing their financial needs with digital tools.[4]
Financial applications, aside from those developed by major banking institutions, include:
Educational apps
Mobile applications focused on education facilitate learning in an accessible and meaningful way. Educational apps cross industry lines and aren’t only intended for students. They are also able to provide a powerful training platform for employers to educate their staff, and give professionals access to self-improvement and learning tools to improve their professional opportunities.
Some examples of learning applications include:
Sololearn
Health and wellness apps
Health and wellness applications allow users to track personal information and their progress toward personal wellness or fitness goals. Goals can include nutrition, sleep health, fitness levels, and stress management. When built natively or as a hybrid, health and wellness apps can sync with biometric data gathered by mobile devices in order to provide users with actionable insights.
Driven by 379 million downloads and 311 million active users, health and wellness applications generated $3.43 billion in 2023.[5]
Business apps
While productivity apps land squarely within this category, business mobile apps also include any bespoke mobile app a business has custom-built to support a business process. Custom-built mobile apps provide employees with improved productivity tools, better collaboration and communication tools, and strategic planning platforms. Some of the most prevalent types of business-focused mobile applications not covered above include:
Messaging and communications apps allow teams to securely communicate and share business resources. They can also be designed to allow customers to directly contact your team in order to improve the customer service experience.
Customer relationship management (CRM) tools allow your team to track and document customer interactions in the field and seamlessly ensure the customer experience between departments, even if your teams are widely distributed geographically.
Consumers prefer the transparency and convenience of online payment processing, so it’s important to provide customers with access to an online payment processing application to allow them to make payments for goods and services.
eCommerce and retail shopping applications support launching of new products and services and provide a scalable platform for future growth.
How to choose the right app type for your business
No one mobile app development approach is best for any of the major industries as a whole, as each of the above types of apps are leveraged by companies across industries.
Each of the mobile app types we’ve outlined at the top of the article come with their own benefits and limitations, so choosing what approach you should take in application development will be dependent upon what your priorities are and what goals you expect the app to help you achieve.
Web-based mobile applications are easy to develop, but provide limited functionality
Low-resource and maximum compatibility, web apps are a great way to provide content-focused experiences, as long as the user experience isn’t dependent upon mobile device features. This approach will provide a fast time to market and a low-cost solution that can be deployed across multiple platforms and devices. However, because they can’t be found or downloaded from the app store, you will need to ensure you’ve laid the groundwork for distribution ahead of launch.
Hybrid mobile apps strike a balance between cost and compatibility
Hybrid mobile applications have the benefit of feeling like a native app to users of multiple devices and platforms. This single codebase makes hybrid apps a viable and affordable way to improve your distribution options and provide users with an improved experience, but at a cost that doesn’t crush your budget.
Hybrid mobile applications have an additional benefit. Agencies and developers can leverage hybrid applications as a minimum viable product (MVP) to show functionality of an application before moving on to building a fully native option, if that is the goal.
Native applications take full advantage of mobile devices
Native mobile applications allow you to provide users with robust and dynamic experiences while taking full advantage of all of the benefits and features of specific mobile platforms. From push notifications to swiping gestures, native applications are able to fully access features and functionality and can be updated through the associated mobile app store easily.
This approach ensures your product operates at a high level and is feature-rich and functional from launch, ensuring that your mobile app makes the best impression possible.
Mobile application software and services
Unless you’re operating an agency or already maintaining the staff and resources necessary to build a robust mobile app from start to finish, you likely will need assistance building out the mobile app you’ve chosen to support your brand. You can explore the Capterra mobile application development directories and discover a professional capable of supporting your efforts at bringing your plans for a mobile application from planning through to launch:
Land on a mobile app format that will support your goals
Deciding which style of mobile application best suits the goals of your business is a complex undertaking that requires an understanding of the advantages and limitations of the technologies used to build the app. It also requires an understanding of how mobile applications are leveraged in different industries and what business processes are best folded into the mobile experience of users.
Using Capterra’s directories to identify a skilled agency with which to partner can ensure your mobile application has the scope, reach, and functionality necessary to support not only your internal business goals, but also the journey your customers are looking for through the resulting mobile application. To learn more about this process and how to find the right partner, you can explore some of the resources provided by experts in mobile app development and entrepreneurship: