Mobile App Development: Native vs. Cross-Platform

Better user experience or bigger cost savings? That’s the big choice in app development. Native and cross-platform are the two main approaches. Both sound great, but each comes with its own pros and cons.

Back then, companies only focused on products to succeed. Today, it’s not enough. We now live in an app-first world. From shopping to banking, almost everything happens on mobile. If a business wants to stay connected with people, having an app is no longer optional. 

But here’s the catch. With so many tools and frameworks out there, choosing the right way to build is still tricky.

Take Facebook’s Lightspeed project. Their Messenger app had become heavy and slow, crossing 130 MB in size. The team rebuilt it with native tools, cutting the codebase and making it 84% lighter and faster. It took more effort, but the results were worth it.

This shows the real trade-off. Native development takes more effort and time but delivers smoother performance. Cross-platform saves cost and speeds up development, but often misses that native touch.

So, how do you decide what’s best for your app? That’s what we’ll explore here. We’ll compare native vs cross-platform app development, covering costs, performance, and more to help you decide with confidence. 

How to Choose Between Native and Cross-Platform 

Native and cross-platform development are fundamentally different in the operating system you want your app is to function. When you develop applications using the native approach, your interface components and user experience stay unscathed. 

You might notice a slight impact on the performance or experience design with cross-platform development frameworks. 

Native vs Cross-Platform: A Quick Comparison

Having said that, choosing cross-platform vs native mobile development is imperative to business success. To help you decide what’s best for your organization, we’ll explore the two development processes, what they entail, and their pros and cons. 

What is Native App Development? 

Native mobile development is the process of building apps specifically for a particular mobile operating system, such as Android and iOS. 

Developers use platform-specific languages to develop the native application. Building Android apps includes Java, Kotlin, and Python. 

For the iOS mobile OS, the languages include Objective-C and Swift. Each OS comes with its own design system, development environment, and guidelines. Because native apps are written for a single operating system, they can fully leverage device hardware and OS-level features. 

This results in higher performance, smoother interactions, and seamless integration with capabilities such as GPS, camera, sensors, and push notifications.  

Some well-known examples of native mobile applications include:

Popular Native app tools

Tools for Android App Development

• Android Studio
• IntelliJ IDEA
• Kotlin
• Jetpack Compise
• Firebase

Tools for iOS App Development

• Swift
• Objective-C
• Xcode
• Appcode
• CocoaPods

Advantages of a Native App

• Native features enable applications with higher performance and UX.
• APIs enable hardware sensor integrations for Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, etc.
• Native apps load faster as they are stored on the device.
• They offer offline functionality, allowing app use without a network connection.
• Apps built with native follow platform-specific design guidelines.
• Separate codebases minimize bugs and reduce dependencies.
• They fully leverage platform APIs and tools.
• Native apps achieve better rankings in app stores.
• Access to extensive APIs increases scalability and customization.
• Native development delivers superior responsiveness.

Disadvantages of a Native App

• Increased time to market due to coding two apps.
• Requires developers skilled in platform languages.
• High maintenance costs.
• More lines of code may leave more room for bugs.
• Not a worthy investment for simple apps.

What is Cross-Platform App Development?

Unlike native apps, cross-platform app development allows developers to build applications that run on multiple platforms, such as iOS and Android, using a single codebase. 

This is made possible through cross-platform app development frameworks like React Native, Flutter, or Xamarin, which provide the tools, UI components, and plug-ins needed to enable the “write once, run anywhere” approach.

Developing an app of this sort is comparatively faster and cheaper, as you can reuse almost 70-90% of the code for multiple other platforms. 

The main advantage of this method is efficiency. By reusing code across platforms, businesses can achieve faster development cycles, lower costs, and better ROI compared to building two separate native apps. 

You will get a separate executable file for each compilation, with the .apk extension (Android) or .ipa (iOS).

This makes cross-platform development especially attractive for companies aiming to reach a wider audience quickly.

Some well-known examples of cross-platform mobile applications include:

Popular cross-platform app tools

• VS Code, Xcode, Atom, Android Studio, and WebStorm for React Native apps
• Visual Studio for Xamarin or .NET MAUI apps
• Android Studio, IntelliJ, and VS Code for Flutter apps

Advantages of a Cross-platform App

• Code reusability with a single codebase.
• Shared codebase reduces UI/UX, security, and functionality issues.
• Development time is faster.
• Eliminates the need for separate teams.
• Reduces costs with unified efforts.
• Code sharing is possible between mobile and web.
• Faster and cheaper development for wider reach.
• Easier maintenance with one codebase.
• Consistent app experience across platforms.
• Quick updates based on feedback.

Disadvantages of a Cross-platform App

• Slower performance due to extra processing.
• Limited access to some device features.
• Less smooth user experience.
• Updates and OS features take longer to reach.
• Native apps get faster updates than cross-platform ones.

How to Decide on an App Development Approach

As you may have understood by now, both native and cross-platform development have their distinct pros and cons for deploying enterprise mobile apps. So, which one should you pick for your business? 

Deciding between native vs cross-platform mobile apps is crucial, and to pick the right one, you need to consider a few key factors. These include: 

Time to market:

One of the biggest deciding factors when considering cross-platform vs native mobile development is the time to market. 

While cross-platform entails quicker development and iteration, native app development is more time-consuming, albeit providing a more consistent user experience.

So, if your business needs to deploy the app quickly to start obtaining quality user feedback, cross-platform development would be the better option. 

Testing feasibility:

Your enterprise mobile app development process will remain incomplete without a proper testing round. 

Deciding between native vs cross-platform development plays a crucial role here, too, as native apps are more challenging to test as they involve individual testing for different app versions of different operating systems. Contrarily, cross-platform apps are easier to test due to their single codebase. 

If you have the time and resources to invest in a proper native app testing phase, you can go ahead with it. However, if you lack the resources and want to quickly ship the product, opt for cross-platform development. 

Development budget:

As is evident already, cross-platform is a more cost-efficient option than native mobile app development. 

The latter involves deploying two standalone apps when targeting both operating systems, which would require hiring more developers, investing more resources, and ultimately, spending more money.

So, if you’re on a tight budget and the limitations don’t seem too problematic, choose cross-platform development. Otherwise, prioritizing user experience and app updates with native app development should be your choice.

App performance:

How you want your app to perform will also influence the choice between cross-platform vs native mobile development. Mobile applications often entail high computing requirements, specifically for gaming apps. 

If your enterprise needs an application with accelerated performance and seamless user experience, a native app is the best fit. However, if that’s not your enterprise goal and you’d rather leverage a wider audience reach and quicker time-to-market, opt for a cross-platform mobile app.

Security:

When evaluating native vs cross-platform mobile app development for enterprise applications, it is essential to prioritize security.

Especially for apps that store and manage large amounts of data, such as a banking mobile app. In such cases, a native app is better as they have tighter security due to being built in the OS-specific environment. 

Native app development also entails access to native libraries, allowing developers to ensure app encryption. However, if you want to prioritize maintenance, a cross-platform mobile app would be the better fit. 

As mentioned earlier, cross-platform app development involves easier maintenance due to the shared codebase. Moreover, since you’ll be dealing with just one app instead of two standalone ones, maintenance costs will be lower too. 

Final Thoughts

The debate of native vs cross-platform isn’t about which one is universally better, but about which one is right for your specific business goals. 

Although both native and cross-platform development can help you build a successful app, you must consider the tools, frameworks, benefits, and limitations of the two to ensure efficient development. However, the need for expertise stays constant on either side of the decision. 

If you’re still unsure, our technology consulting team can help you analyze your requirements and choose the most effective approach.