Native vs Cross Platform

By:
Dhruv
Android Team Member

What should you choose? Or What should you consider for mobile app development? Native or Cross-Platform? Well, let’s get straight to the point for which you have come here.

I will be giving a very diplomatic answer to start with, that both the platforms or development techniques are good equally and significant. Both have their pros and cons about which I will be discussing in the article further. I will be giving you a brief about both the platforms. Then I will leave it to you to decide! Which app development method suits your needs, whether from a learning perspective or a job perspective.

Native :

As the name suggests itself, Native App development is the native or the traditional way of developing apps. The base is the native operating system of the device on which the app is going to run. For example — for iOS, there is the programming language called Objective-C and swift. For Android, there are programming languages called Java and Kotlin.

Pros of Native App Development -

• All the Native apps use the same programming language as their operating system, so they perform better, have faster performance, and are very stable.
• If there is a use case where all the particular special features of an operating system need to be squeezed out then, you need Native. Native provides the option to fully utilize all the capabilities of that particular operating system through your app.
• Researching your app audience and building according to it enhances the user experience of the app. If a majority of your app audience is using Android smartphones then making it with Native makes more sense. Using Android Studio with Java and Kotlin is more feasible rather than creating it on a Cross-Platform framework.

Side Note — These native frameworks are supported directly by the operating systems teams with the likes of Apple and Google, so they are usually bug-free and get more functionalities.

Cons of Native App Development -

• The biggest con of Native App Development is the cost ( when talking on a business scale ). The cost of creating an App natively once for iOS, and once for Android is very high and not a suitable option.
• Moreover, the development time also increases when we develop with Native because there are many new features and updates to try and include in the app.

Cross-Platform :

As per the name, cross-platform means a framework to make an app that runs on multiple platforms. These platforms could be Android, iOS, Windows, etc. The entire codebase of the app remains the same despite the change in the platform. Popular cross-platform frameworks include — Flutter, Xamarin, React Native, Ionic, etc.

Pros of Cross-Platform App Development -

• The biggest con of the Native App Development is the time constraint and, the cost of updation is the biggest pro of Cross-Platform. The cost of updating the app and putting in more features simultaneously for multiple platforms is very minimal.
• Owing to a single codebase for the entire application, the development time of these apps is faster and requires only a few people to work on it. It makes it suitable for big companies. Big companies always aim to spread their business quickly across multiple mobile platforms.
• If there is a use case where the app is on a limited budget and the complexity is not too high, then Cross-Platform is the way to go.

Cons of Cross-Platform -

• The biggest con of Cross-Platform is the User Experience. Cross-Platform tools currently provide a moderate to average user experience because they can replicate only some fundamental functionalities and User Interface of the Native thing.
• Further, keeping in mind whether a feature runs on a particular platform or not is a tedious task. It leads to the poor implementation of functions and sometimes sluggish performances.
• Consider a use case scenario where the app is complex and requires various features of the operating system to work, it is often better to use the Native rather than the Cross-Platform.

Side Note — In the current scenario, the apps made by Cross-Platform frameworks have a buggy experience. They might have fewer features in them. With the increase in technological developments and updation in tools, this might resolve.

Take Flutter as an example. Google constantly gives feature updates every month, making it the first choice while developing apps.

My Verdict-

Personally speaking, I would choose Cross-Platform!

Yes, you read it right! The reason why I choose Cross-Platform over Native is that it provides you with better options and opportunities. Let me explain it to you. We are not living in 2017’s where it was a thing of discussion to choose between Native and Cross-Platform. Most of the companies and app developers are going towards Cross-Platform. The reason is just that we have got many enhancements in the tech industry and updated cross-platform development tools that are doing better than some of the native platform’s tools. The companies don’t demand but, they do expect you to know how to work on Cross Platforms tools and sooner or later they will demand it too.

In my personal opinion, Cross-Platform is the next big thing and it will be one of the biggest paradigm shifts in the Mobile app development industry.