Cross-platform or native mobile development

There are mainly two ways you can create mobile apps. The first and well-known traditional technique is creating a great native app. The other technique is the hybrid app. This is cross-platform app development where anyone can use the same code for multiple platforms.

If you are a new developer, you surely might be wondering which of these is perfect for you, right? We have got you covered if that’s the question you have. We will see awesome things to keep in mind and how you can implement that.

In this way, you can surely decide where to start your development.

Basic Overview of Cross-platform and native mobile development

We will start with the overview.

When you create a native app, you are creating it for a dedicated platform. For example, if you are creating an android app, you are only creating it for the android platform. On the other side, cross-platform application development is where one is creating the same app for multiple platforms.

You can utilize the same code for various platforms depending on what technology you are using. Usually, all the platforms allow you to create the same app for android as well as IOS. Some of the new technologies like Flutter also allow you to create apps for any desktop as well as the web.

This is the only difference between cross platforms mobile apps and native app. We will see more about it in the future. Before that, let’s talk more about it.

Performance and Security

We will start with the question that most people are concerned about. Which will perform better whether it’s a native app or a hybrid app.

The simple answer here is the native app. A native app will be always better if you compare the performance with cross-platform apps. When you are creating an app just for a single platform, you will surely make sure that it gives the best performance. Whereas, if you are creating the same app for different platforms, it’s hard to increase the performance across all the apps.

Now, let’s talk about security. The security of the native app will be better as compared to hybrid apps. However, it’s not a huge concern for most people. This is because the hybrid apps have enough security for small and medium-sized apps. If you are going with a huge company, you can surely go with the native app instead of going with the hybrid app.

The performance and security of native apps are slightly better than cross-platform.

Cost

This is where opinions start changing. The cost of any average native app is more. On the other side, the cost of cross-platform mobile apps depends on what technology you are using. There are many options here. You can go with the best React native or you can also go with Flutter. The development cost of Flutter will be more as compared to React Native. Therefore, it depends on the technology you are using. Overall, it will cost you almost the same.

However, you can use the same app on multi-platforms when you are building it on Cross platform technology. On the other hand, you will have to give the same cost to build a different app for other OS. This might be a headache for you.

The next thing you need to know is all the development options. If you have chosen to go with cross-platform apps, you will have to update it after a while as the app life is less in cross-platform apps.

Functionality

Talking about functionality, the native apps will use the device function to implement the functionality. Whereas, the cross-platform app won’t use the device function here.

Native apps have been widely used. Therefore, you can implement almost all the things in Native apps whereas the cross platforms apps have various limits as of now. The developers and the tech giants are already working on solving all the things here. It might take more time. Usually, cross-platform apps use services and APIs to implement functions.

There are many restrictions in the architecture and flexibility. In some of the cool technologies, it will take a lot of time to implement permission-based features such as geolocation or camera. It’s fairly easy to implement the same thing in the native app environment.

Offline mode is easy to implement in native apps whereas it will take a lot of time to do it in cross-platform apps. However, you can still do it with an ionic framework and many others. The point is that it takes time to implement.

Time for Development

Now, if you talk about the time taken for the development, the cross-platform will be developed in the least possible time.

It’s very easy to implement the functionalities in cross platforms apps and you can easily create the apps for all the platforms with just one code. Therefore, you will surely save a lot of time here.

The users don’t have to wait for the app to come on all the platforms. When the app is ready in one platform, it will be available for all the platforms very soon. Therefore, the users can surely use the app for all the platforms.

It will save you some marketing costs as you don’t need to market both of the apps. When you run ads for one app, it will also promote the second app as that’s already ready for you.

Final Words

To conclude, these were some of the factors that will help you in choosing from Cross-platform or native mobile development.

For complex apps with a huge number of functionalities that need better performance and security, you might want to go with any native app development. Whereas, for the people who want to be the fast runner and want to get in the market fast, you can go with the best cross-platform apps. The good thing is that you will save a lot of money when it comes to any cross-platform app.

Decided which development you want? Contact us today and one can develop any app for you in Cross-platform or native.