native or hybrid?

Personally, Native

Depends on the requirements and audience.

@tisaconundrum isn't it a bit complicated than hybrid?

@Jumpshot44 so where should I start from?

There's no doubt that native is better than hybrid if that's what you're asking.

Native if you need any sort of native functionality... hybrid is ok for cutesy games or simple web apps. I'm a huge fan of Xamarin though! (c# dev)

Native

native tends to be faster

I vote native in most cases

@rubikscub3 Define complicated.

Even when writing hybrid code, you still need to learn how each mobile platform works. And you need to learn the hybrid framework you're using. And don't get too excited about the "you only code once and works every where" fallacy. It's already hard enough to code for the web with all its cross-browser compatibility issues. Writing hybrid apps is merely the process of adding a more browsers to the mix.

@rubikscub3 - in my opinion you should gather the requirements and understand the user base. Is it an app used on iOS, android, windows mobile? Maybe hybrid or maybe not. Maybe a tool like Titanium or PhoneGap can help you. Or maybe not. It is worth researching in my opinion.

Yes understand each framework and yes you will have to tweak for each platform but cross platform tools can make building and maintaining some apps a lot simpler. In other cases where they cannot help and maybe you will only want to deliver iOS or android then go native.