Server-driven UI pros and cons

Android iOS Compose SwiftUI

Explore the pros & cons of Server-Driven UI in native mobile apps & how to simplify it.

Server-driven UI (SDUI) has become a popular architectural pattern in mobile development, this allows any client user interfaces to be controlled by backend services rather than being hardcoded in the client. This approach is increasingly relevant in native mobile development.

We will go through the pros and cons of SDUI, see the challenges of integrating it with native applications, and discuss how you can adopt SDUI and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls.

What is Server-Driven UI (SDUI)?

In traditional app development, the UI is developed into the client, for any changes to the user interface, it's required to update the app's code and push a new version to app stores. With SDUI, the server dynamically sends UI layouts or sets of components to the client, and the app is responsible for adjusting its interface.

All UI components are defined on the client as a standalone unit and arrangements and layout come from the server, and the client-side renders them as needed. This helps iterate much faster and better control over the user experience.

Pros of Server-Driven UI

Faster and More Flexible UI Updates SDUI allows developers to update the user interface dynamically, without waiting for app store approvals. Quick changes is crucial for apps that require frequent updates, such as e-commerce, media apps, or anything running promotions or A/B tests. For example, if you need to change the layout or add a new screen or section for a campaigns or paywall, with SDUI you can instantly push those changes to all users without a new app release.
Consistent UI Across Platforms With the backend managing UI logic, SDUI ensures that Android and iOS apps present consistent interfaces. Instead of handling platform-specific code for each update, you manage one central UI logic that is rendered consistently across all used platforms, and reduce the overhead in maintaining multiple codebases.
Reduced Client-Side Complexity Moving UI management to the server means your app becomes leaner, and the client-side is focusing on rendering views rather than handling UI logic. This reduces code duplication between platforms and simplifies the client-side architecture. Developers will delegate complex UI structures to the server and focus on, developing standalone components, enhancing performance and animations.
Real-Time Personalization Because the UI comes on the server and render existing UI components on the client, it's easier to implement real-time personalization. The server can provide and generate the UI based on many factors such as, user data or location. and make it possible to dynamically personalize the user experience for different groups of users. SDUI can change the entire layout of the app for different versions or screens or section and make it easier for A/B testing or regional campaigns without any client-side changes.

Cons of Server-Driven UI

Performance Overhead One of the biggest concerns with SDUI is the reliance on the server for rendering UIs. When the app depends on real-time data from the server to build its screens, this could be concern for no internet apps and users on slow connections might experience blank screens while waiting for the data to load.
Offline-support and internet dependency Server-Driven UI (SDUI) is heavily depends on internet connectivity for loading and rendering the app's interface. Since the UI is fetched dynamically from the server, users in offline or poor network conditions may experience blank screens or broken layouts. This dependency makes offline support a challenge, as the app cannot function properly without fetching the necessary UI components from the server. To solve this, caching mechanisms are necessary.
Backend Complexity Delegating UI logic to the server increases the complexity of the server infrastructure. Instead of just serving data, the backend must now manage the rendering logic, keep track of different app versions, and handle potential personalization or A/B testing layers. This requires many infrastructure in advance and often makes the backend harder to scale and maintain.
Difficult Debugging Dynamic UIs introduce an additional layer of difficulty in debugging. Errors might occur on either the server or client side, and diagnosing these issues requires visibility into how the server has been generated UI. Tracing UI bugs can be trickier to compare with traditional static UI.

How to Integrate SDUI in Native Mobile Apps

When integrating SDUI into an existing mobile application, it's crucial to consider which parts of your app are the best candidate to use this approach. A hybrid strategy is often the best way forward, where some screens remain static, while dynamic screens like marketing pages, forms, paywalls, or onboarding flows can be handled by SDUI.

Identify Use Cases for SDUI Start small by developing UI components that need to be updated frequently and make sure they are reusable by configuring it with their parameters. For example, content-heavy sections or promotional banners are ideal candidates. These can be handled dynamically by the server while maintaining the core app experience using native code.
Use Declarative UI Frameworks Both Jetpack Compose and SwiftUI, being declarative, are great choice for SDUI. You can create flexible UI components that can render dynamically based on the data coming from the server.
Implement Robust Caching To minimize performance issues, implement local caching mechanisms to store the server response. This will guarantee that if once users open the app with internet connection they can use the app while they have poor network conditions or even in offline mode, and when the client could get a new response from the server it should update the cache and update UI. In addition preloading can also improve performance, as screens load quickly from the local device while waiting for new data.

Overcoming SDUI challenges by using an external Service

SDUI can be difficult to manage internally, especially for teams with few resources. Rather than developing the full system in-house, you might want to think about using an outside provider that specializes in managing the complexity of SDUI. While the external service handles UI rendering, versioning, and performance optimization, your team may concentrate on improving other areas of the app rather than building all infrastructure in-house and allocating time and resources to developing SDUI.

Conclusion

Mobile app development is made more flexible and quick using Server-Driven UI, offering customization and iterations more quickly without having to wait for the release of a new app version. It does, however, come with certain drawbacks, such as higher backend complexity and performance overhead. The advantages of SDUI may be balanced without compromising user experience if you choose a combination of approaches and choose properly which parts of your application ought to be dynamic.

In addition, a significant amount of development time and resources may be saved by using an external service for handling the SDUI's infrastructure. Your team can concentrate on providing the best possible user experience while outsourcing the complexity of UI control and performance optimization to third-party providers.