Mobile apps are getting more and more popular with businesses because they help increase brand visibility and reach more people. According to statistics, by 2026, people will download 143 billion apps from the Google Play Store. To put that in perspective, in 2021, the number of downloads was about 30% lower. Let that sink in — only five years apart.

Mobile app downloads worldwide from 2021 to 2026, by store

(in billions)

What kinds of mobile apps are statistics talking about? Most often, these are simple utilities, such as calculators, notes, and games, but there can also be native apps, complex cross-platform apps available in official application stores. 

However, this is only a part of the mobile app market. There are also progressive web applications (PWAs), as well as internal corporate applications — including those developed with Drupal mobile development expertise — that run seamlessly on both iOS and Android. Instead of being in the store, they are distributed within the organization through MDM systems or private channels. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the most popular solution types and explore the benefits of mobile apps for business.

Native mobile apps

Businesses can hire development companies to build native mobile apps for a specific platform and then publish them in app stores to reach more customers through the App Store and Google Play. End users get access to native functionality that leverages the in-pocket hardware, delivering a great mobile experience — smooth animations, instant camera access, offline storage, and GPS.

But here’s the trade-off: native apps don’t come cheap. You’re looking at two separate codebases, two development teams (or at least developers with deep expertise in each platform), and twice the maintenance work. Feature parity can become a full-time job. Every update has to be mirrored. Designs need to stay consistent. It’s powerful — no doubt — but it’s also resource-heavy.

So, who is native really for? Typically, teams with high expectations and the budget to match. Think enterprises, funded startups, or digital-first companies where mobile is the primary touchpoint. If your product needs to feel like it was made for the phone in your hand, and you can afford the ongoing cost, native might be the way to go.

Progressive web apps

Progressive web apps have some limits, such as limited access to Bluetooth, camera controls, motion sensors, and background services or restricted push notification capabilities on certain platforms, particularly iOS. However, PWAs are still a popular way to give users an app-like experience. With built-in tools, developers can set up smart caching. This helps your site load faster, work offline, and quietly update files in the background.

PWAs are a good fit for minimum viable products (MVPs) or internal tools where full native capabilities aren’t as crucial and you just need to validate an idea quickly.

Hybrid apps

Hybrid apps are often seen as a compromise: development is faster, and the budget is lower. This is convenient if the business needs to release the product as soon as possible without expenses on full-fledged native solutions for each platform. Inside such an app, there is a web application launched through a built-in browser, but the user doesn’t even notice it — the interface looks like a regular mobile app, launches on click, and works “as if natively”.

Hybrid is about reuse: the same functionality can be compiled once and launched on several devices simultaneously. Due to this, the cost of support is reduced, and development is faster. This is especially suitable for simple apps, where launch speed is critical but not super performance. However, this approach has its limits. Hybrid apps are less responsive, process animations more slowly, and cope worse with heavy tasks, especially on older devices.

Cross-platform mobile apps

Cross-platform is no longer a compromise. It is a strategy that helps businesses launch mobile products faster, easier, and without losing quality. Instead of putting together two separate teams for iOS and Android, a business can get by with one and write a single code that works on both platforms. This saves resources, simplifies maintenance, and reduces time-to-market.

It might seem that the platform or device you use matters for cross-platform apps, but it doesn’t. These types of mobile apps still provide a native look and feel. Developers can also connect your app to other functionalities — like payments, social media, or maps — to make it more useful and keep users engaged. It’s a solid middle ground between building two separate apps and delivering a unified user experience across platforms.

But if you are a product owner, CTO, or product manager, you know: behind the versatility, there are always details. What limitations does the platform impose? Will the UI be the same on different devices? Will the UX suffer? Is it worth giving up native solutions for this?

In practice, modern cross-platform frameworks cope with this surprisingly well. Yes, there are technical nuances. Yes, access to specific platform capabilities may be limited. But in most tasks, you get everything: speed, scalability, and excellent user experience.

That is why in Attico, we develop flexible and secure mobile apps with Mobile App Platform (MAP). It’s our solution to cross-platform development, tested in projects of different scales and complexity.

MAP: our approach to mobile development

MAP is an open source-based constructor for creating multibrand and multilingual mobile apps. Utilizing MAP is crucial if you want your mobile apps to help local teams deliver the right content to local customers, in their language, and especially content from the local website. 

MAP can be used to rapidly and easily create new apps focused on user registration, managing their data, and providing different types of content. Attico developers make the MAP well-suited for integration with headless websites by developing components using alternative frontend technologies.

Among the advantages of MAP are cross-platform, high performance, availability on Google Play and Apple Store, individual design according to customer requirements, as well as scalability, which allows the app to be reused in other markets and when creating applications for other brands.

With our product, you don’t need to develop a bunch of standalone, different applications to amplify your company’s mobile presence. This approach allows you to reduce time-to-market and costs several times.

How mobile apps help businesses

Mobile apps offer a range of advantages that help businesses improve user experience, engage audiences, and ensure reliable performance. Below are key app benefits for business that make mobile apps a valuable tool for companies today.

Notifications

Did you know that push notifications can increase app engagement by up to 88%? Push notification messages draw attention to your app, even when it’s closed, and the smartphone screen is locked. They can be segmented and personalized to meet user needs.

Another option is in-app notifications, which the users only see while actively using the app, such as banners or pop-ups. This type of notification can be tested using A/B testing to show users the same interface element or in-app scenario in different variations to see what works best.

Personalization

In addition to the above mobile app benefits, personalization provides users with a customized user experience. One smart move — several outcomes: with the A/B testing tool for mobile apps, you can test different experiences for your customers. Users can customize the look and feel of a mobile app or their preferences and receive personalized content based on them. Apps can analyze user behavior and offer them customized recommendations and updates, as well as geo-targeted content.

Access to device features

Mobile business applications integrate well with built-in phone functions like camera, file access, phone calls, local data storage, contact list, or GPS. The user needs to send a photo — and the application immediately offers to open the camera and take a picture, so there is no need to search for it in the gallery. As a result, the user copes with tasks faster and is less distracted. Fewer actions, less effort — more chances that users will complete the task they need to complete. The application integrates with the phone system and works stably, especially when working with media, geolocation, or offline access.

Intuitive user experience

Mobile apps don’t depend on the browser, which means there’s no “back” button, refresh, or address bar getting in the way — you can just stay focused on what matters. At the same time, apps have functions based on advanced gestures like ‘tap’, ‘drag’, ‘swipe’, ‘hold’, and even pinch-to-zoom with two fingers. All of this makes the interface feel more natural and intuitive. In fact, many actions take just a single tap — you can scroll through screens, open menus, or confirm choices. Everything feels quick and effortless, as if your finger casts a spell.

Offline access

One significant benefit of a mobile app over using a website on mobile or desktop is that it can work offline. Of course, an app may need an internet connection to perform most tasks, but users can still access basic content and functionality even if the connection is bad. When the app accesses the internet, accounts are synced, and data is transferred to the cloud or server.

Visibility

World statistics claim that users spend an average of 4 hours a day on mobile apps. Even if we assume that most of this time is spent on social media and gaming apps, your app can be on the screen next to these icons, just one touch away, and constantly catch the users’ eye. Such visibility and convenience work as a mini-advertisement for the brand and significantly increase the likelihood that your customers will return to you again.

Performance

Mobile apps provide high performance: they do not depend on internet speed as much as websites and use the device’s native features, which allow the screen to be displayed faster and respond to user input. Apps can store some data directly on the phone and not load everything from scratch each time.

Security

Mobile apps are generally more secure than websites. They protect users’ personal information through facial or fingerprint recognition, in other words biometric authentication, as well as application isolation and encrypted data storage.

Last but not least

If you’re running a startup or an enterprise, having a mobile app can help you with your business operations, as well as effectively connect with your audience. Do you need help building one, or just need a reliable Drupal maintenance team? Attico is here to help with its highly qualified expertise and wide range of services. 

Author: Yauhen Bayeu

Yauhen is a Frontend developer and Team lead at Attico, a Drupal development company based in Vilnius, Lithuania, with over 11 years of experience in the industry.