There are over 14 billion smartphones and 4.4 million apps in the Apple and Google Play stores. So, if you plan to build a mobile app, there’s no better time.
However, before you move ahead, you must decide between native and cross-platform app development. It is essential because your decision will significantly impact your budget, time, and your app’s functionality.
So, which way should it be? Should you go for native mobile apps or cross-platform ones? As an agency for cross-platform app development and native app development, we can help you with both. But budget and time constraints may not allow that. Hence, to help you make the right decision, we have compared the pros and cons of both approaches in this blog. Read on to dig further:
Native vs. Cross-platform app development: The definition
What is Native app development?
Native app development builds mobile apps exclusively for a single platform (Android or iOS). Each operating system has guidelines, design, integrated development environment, and languages. For example, you can build a native Android app on Java and Kotlin, but you will need to learn Swift and Objective-C to build iOS applications.
Similarly, there are specific security requirements for each operating system. Developers need to follow them. Otherwise, the app may not be approved on the respective app stores of each operating system.
Upsides of Native app development
- Since applications use native device functionalities, they have high performance and impressive user experience.
- Native mobile apps can easily access native device functionalities like GPS, NFC, Bluetooth, etc.
- There’s higher visibility for native apps as they’re listed in app stores. Also, visitors find them more credible when downloading them from the official store.
- Since native apps are designed natively, you get impressive visual interfaces.
- Developers get access to each API and tool on the platform. It means the sky is the limit to what they can do on the mobile app.
- Native mobile apps rank higher as people find them legitimate and faster and better.
- Scaling native apps is more accessible because of resource management flexibility and various available tools.
Downsides of native app development
- You have to spend more time coding each app separately, increasing the time-to-market.
- The cost of maintaining native apps is higher as you must keep two apps separately.
- Even the development costs are higher as you hire separate developers for each platform.
What is cross-platform app development?
Creating a mobile app that seamlessly runs across multiple platforms is called cross-platform app development. We build cross-platform apps using Xamarin, Flutter and React Native. Once ready, we can deploy these apps on Android and iOS.
Each cross-platform app has a single codebase for multiple platforms, which we combine with OS runtime environments for execution. These environments interpret the app code during runtime and execute accordingly.
The following components are involved in cross-platform app development:
- Web browser
- Self-contained environments
- Hybrid of native and web components
Startups and small businesses favor cross-platform app development as it involves writing less code and maintaining only one codebase across both platforms.
Pros of cross-platform app development
- Cross-platform mobile apps take less time to develop as you only have to write the code once.
- The maintenance cost is less than native app development as you don’t have to maintain separate applications for each operating system.
- Making changes is easier in cross-platform mobile apps as the source code is platform-independent.
- You can release application updates faster because of shared source code.
Cons of cross-platform app development
- Some cross-platform apps don’t support hardware sensor integrations. As a result, you may face performance issues on your mobile app.
- A single error in the codebase can cause the app to crash on both platforms.
- The user experience is not as great as native applications because cross-platform mobile apps lack native UI enhancements.
4 Things to consider when choosing between native vs. cross-platform app development
1. Application complexity
Cross-platform development is an excellent choice for building essential mobile apps. Like the ones displaying information fetched from the internet. However, if your app also involves heavy processing or needs access to native device functionalities like Bluetooth and voice recorder, it would be wiser to consider native mobile app development.
2. Cost
You can build high-performing mobile applications with native app development. However, it would cost you a fortune. You must go for cross-platform app development if you have a limited budget. It is affordable, and you can save around 30%-40% on mobile app development.
On the other hand, if budget is not a concern for you and performance is your only goal – native app development is the route you should take.
3. Development time
Cross-platform mobile apps take less time to develop. Hence, they’re perfect for scenarios where you need them ASAP. If you want to get an MVP app to pitch to investors or test the waters before development, cross-platform app development is perfect. It is because you don’t have to work on two app versions.
However, if time is not a constraint and performance is your only concern, you can opt for native app development.
4. UI/UX
If you aim for stunning visuals and an immersive user experience, you should choose native app development. Achieving these elements with cross-platform app development is impossible as the approach heavily limits the UI/UX of mobile apps.
5. Security & maintenance
Native applications are most secure as we develop them in OS-specific environments. On the other hand, cross-platform app development platforms risk falling prey to security vulnerabilities. Also, you don’t get access to native libraries that allow the encryption of apps. So, you must choose native app development if security is your goal.
However, cross-platform app development is better if you aim for maintenance. It is because you only have to maintain one codebase compared to native app development, where you have to keep two separately.
In conclusion
You must choose a native mobile app to build a high-performing, visually stunning, secure, and stable mobile app. However, cross-platform app development is better if you have a tight budget and want to ease maintenance.
While this might’ve given you enough overview, you can seek help from a mobile app development agency if you’re still confused. They have enough experience to know what works best for you.
