And it’s no wonder why more and more apps are emerging. They affect nearly every aspect of our lives, from finance management and entertainment to and more.

While you don’t necessarily have to create an app for every platform, most businesses would see not developing an app for all platforms as a missed opportunity.

Budget concerns are usually the primary reason why mobile app developers choose one platform over another, but there’s still a way to build an app for multiple platforms while sticking to your budget.

In this article, we’ll review everything you need to know about cross-platform mobile app development.

Chapter #1: Native vs Cross-Platform Mobile Development

which is better: native app development or cross-platform app development, and you’ll get different answers every time.

That’s because each has its advantages and disadvantages, and which you choose really depends on what your goals are.

Let’s start by defining what each is and go from there.

1.1 What is Cross-Platform App Development?

A cross-platform app is essentially a mobile app that can run on multiple operating systems. 

Instead of developing various app versions for each platform, with cross-platform apps, you only need to create one version that .

There is only one source code that will work on Android, iOS, Windows, and so on.

As you can guess, this has a ton of advantages, like saving time and money on building your app, which we’ll get into more in the next chapter.

1.2 What is Native App Development?

Unlike cross-platform apps, native app development means building a mobile app for a specific platform, whether that’s Android, iOS, or something else.

The mobile app is created with for that one platform. For example, building an iOS app would mean developing a native app using Objective C or Swift.

Many will argue that native app development is the way to go because creating an app exclusively for one platform means delivering an app with optimal performance and the best user experience. 

In short, everything is tailor-made for the targeted platform.

For businesses that want to create an app that works on all platforms, going the native route will mean much since you’ll need multiple codebases and developers proficient in the necessary coding languages.

1.3 Cross-Platform vs Native: At a Glance

Chapter #2: Advantages of Cross-Platform App Development

Developing a cross-platform application comes with a wealth of advantages. Let’s take a look at a few.

2.1 Wider Audience Reach

Having your app available on all platforms means having a wider audience reach. 

Cross-platform mobile apps can be deployed for many different platforms and aren’t limited to just one, like with native apps.

When , you’ll likely find device and platform preferences that may lead you to develop your app for just that one platform. But why not maximize exposure?

PRO TIP:
Find out what platforms your target audience uses first before deciding if it makes sense to develop a cross-platform app. You may find that your users are only mostly using just one platform, in which case, native app development may be a better choice.

2.2 Lower Development Cost and Less Time

Cross-platform mobile app development is all about writing the code once and watching it run anywhere. That’s the beauty of it.

Having reusable code will without a doubt decrease the time it takes to develop and launch your mobile app, which of course, .

Your app developer will only need to write one codebase which can then be used on multiple platforms, which is a cost-effective way to develop an app.

2.3 Easy Maintenance

Once you publish your app in app stores, the work isn’t done. You’ll still need to , and release code updates from time to time.

This will keep your app fresh and will improve the user experience. 

With cross-platform development, maintenance is made to your single codebase can be synced and deployed across all platforms and mobile devices.

When working with multiple codebases, it can take a lot of time to make updates to each one as well as catch any bugs that may be present.

Chapter #3: Disadvantages of Cross-Platform App Development

Cross-platform apps have come a very long way over the years and have improved considerably. 

They’re much faster, flexible, and more robust than ever before, but that’s not to say they come without limitations.

Let’s take a look at a few of the challenges cross-platform app development still faces.

3.1 Always One Step Behind

Native app development speed, particularly with UI frameworks, is fast. But when new components or layouts are introduced to expand the developer toolkit, it can take time for this to be available with cross-platform mobile apps, putting them one step behind native apps.

3.2 Lower Performance

While cross-platform apps can perform well, they can’t quite match the speed and performance of native apps. 

Remember, , so you can expect these apps to run at optimal performance.

With cross-platform applications, performance depends on a number of factors, but overall, they don’t perform as well because they aren’t fully integrated with any particular operating system. 

The code isn’t written for a specific platform as it is with native apps, which affects the app’s overall performance.

3.3 UX Challenges

Cross-platform mobile apps can deliver a good user experience and user interface, but it’s not always quite as good as the .

Since cross-platform apps share a single code base, it’s not designed specifically for any particular platform which can result in sub-par design. 

Additionally, cross-platform apps don’t have access to all built-in features of devices, which can also result in the UX and UI to suffer.

Chapter #4: Choosing A Cross-Platform App Development Tool

There’s a wealth of tools and to help developers create cross-platform .

Let’s take a look at what’s popular today.

4.1 Flutter

has been around since 2018 and was created by Google as an open-source SDK. Today, it’s a framework used by many for developing high-performance cross-platform mobile apps.

It offers a variety of UI widgets and components to make your app look great. Developers can customize animations with their rendering engine, and Flutter has a hot-reload feature that helps developers view code changes live.

4.2 React Native

is another major player in the cross-platform world. It was created in 2015 by Facebook and is a framework based on the JavaScript programming language.

React Native is known for building natively rendered apps for Android and iOS with beautiful UX and UI.

It also offers a hot-reload feature, allows access to third-party plugins, and overall, offers a very stable app when compared to other cross-platform frameworks out there.

4.3 Xamarin

is an open-sourced cross-app development framework created in 2011 and acquired in 2016 by Microsoft.

This framework uses the C# programming language, which allows it to work seamlessly on several platforms like iOS and Android.

Xamarin has a huge community of contributors, which gives developers steady and reliable support when developing an app using the software.

It also allows for sharing over 75% of the code across platforms, making development faster.

PRO TIP:
Take time to research the various frameworks available for cross-platform app development. These tools have come a long way and you may be surprised at what they offer and how they can give your app a more native feel.

Chapter #5: Should You Develop a Cross-Platform Mobile App?

At this point, you may still be wondering, is cross-platform development the right choice?

There’s one codebase, which means it’ll take less time and money to develop an app for multiple platforms, but is it worth a potentially slower app with less visually attractive UI than a native app?

Keep in mind, , whether it’s cross-platform, hybrid mobile app development, , or native app— all have their pros and cons.

And you could argue a valid use case for each one.

Whether or not you should go for multiple platform app development really depends on your goals and what kind of app you plan on making.

Here’s what you should consider before making your choice.

5.1 App Complexity

This is the biggest factor when it comes to deciding if you should develop a cross-platform app or a native app.

For simple apps that are displaying mostly just information fetched from a network, cross-platform is a fine choice, as it doesn’t require many resources.

 or one that’s heavy with graphics (such as games) that requires more heavy processing, native app development is your best bet.

5.2 Budget

As mentioned earlier in this article, , especially if you want your app to run on multiple platforms.

and you need it to work on several platforms, cross-platform development is a good choice as long as your app isn’t too complex or resource-heavy.

5.3 UX/UI

If you plan on having a gorgeous or unique visual interface and user experience, this can only be achieved in native app development where you’ll have access to a wealth of UX and UI components.

Creating a cross-platform app will place many limitations when it comes to how the app will look and feel, which you’ll need to consider when building your app.

Cross-platform apps have surged in popularity. , cross-platform apps are faster, flexible, and more powerful than ever before.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the ideal solution for your project.

In our package, we can help guide you through the technical aspects of your mobile app project and find the right solution for your app, whether that means taking the cross-platform route or the native route.

Have you built a cross-platform app before, and if so, what have been your favorite tools and frameworks to work with?