Cross-platform development: pros, cons, and use cases

There’s a simple principle in software development: If you want to attract many end users, make sure your app is available on all platforms your target audience uses. Some users prefer Android smartphones; others are dedicated to Apple devices; and some use web or desktop software.

To ensure your app is present on all platforms, you’ll need a diverse team of specialists that will most likely consist of a:

• Kotlin developer for Android
• Swift developer for iOS
• .NET developer for Windows
• JavaScript developer for web

Even if you hire top specialists, there are still risk factors. First, it’s always a challenge to gather a diverse team of developers, QA engineers, and project managers with expertise relevant to your specific project. Moreover, maintaining and managing such teams requires a lot of money and effort on the part of your business.

Also, you’ll have multiple projects, one for each platform. The pacing may differ, so you risk releasing your products on different dates. Additionally, any changes, updates, and maintenance activities will be multiplied by the number of platforms you support.

One way to tackle these issues when delivering your application to several different platforms is to use the cross-platform development approach.

Cross-platform development uses specific frameworks that contain universal technologies, wrappers, and tools to run on multiple platforms. These technologies commonly include:

• JavaScript + HTML + CSS
• React
• C#
• Dart

In this article, we focus on JavaScript, as it’s the primary technology used in React Native — the framework we’ve dedicated this article to.

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of cross-platform app development in general, starting with the benefits of this approach:

• Fast. Applying a cross-platform approach, developers can create applications quickly. There’s no need to develop a separate codebase for each platform.
• Easy to maintain. With cross-platform development, solution maintenance is easier, since developers only have to update a single codebase rather than multiple.
• Consistent user experience. By using cross-platform technologies, developers can ensure the user experience is consistent across all platforms. Having a familiar and convenient interface across platforms can improve user satisfaction and loyalty and consequently decrease the churn rate.
• Interchangeable team. Instead of hiring developers with diverse skill sets, you can get a team of JavaScript developers who will be able to cover all your needs. Also, it will be easy for you to find new developers and expand the team due to the popularity of JavaScript.
• Cost-efficient. Creating a single app for multiple platforms significantly cuts costs, as you don’t need to create a separate codebase for each platform and keep various developers on staff.
• Wide reach. You can cover a wide range of platforms with a single codebase and expand your pool of potential users.

Now, let’s take a look at general disadvantages and potential issues you may encounter in cross-platform development:

• Performance. Native technologies are more efficient than cross-platform technologies, as they use a platform’s core programming language and APIs to compile. A cross-platform framework, on the other hand, transforms code into the language of the platform. This results in slower data processing that can affect the performance of complex applications like games or video editors.
• Large app size. Even the simplest cross-platform app often weighs 80–100MB without optimization. On the bright side, developers now have ways to reduce the size of an application, and modern mobile networks allow users to download large apps.
• Integration issues. Cross-platform technologies often don’t give access to all the possibilities of an operating system (OS) because they don’t keep up with OS updates. You may need to wait till the cross-platform framework’s developers add functionality present in the new version of an OS.

Cross-platform technologies are suitable for a wide range of applications. Many world-famous products use cross-platform technologies, including Slack, Skype, Figma, Airbnb, Uber, and Dropbox.

From our experience, cross-platform frameworks like React Native are the most suitable choice for applications such as:

• File system applications — notepads, notes, code editors, calendars
• Client–server applications — chats, messengers, time trackers, password managers, streaming applications, and game clients

However, cross-platform technologies have their limitations too and may not be suitable for all types of applications. For instance, applications that require heavy graphics processing or intensive computations on the client side may not perform well in a cross-platform environment.

Therefore, it’s important to carefully consider application requirements before choosing this development approach.

Read the full article on our blog and explore technologies that allow world-class products to provide a consistent user experience on multiple platforms simultaneously.