Mobile App Development: Native vs Cross-Platform
Mobile App Development: Native vs Cross-Platform
How many of the people you know don't use a smartphone? Grandparents aside. More than 25% of the world’s population use smartphones daily for shopping, entertainment, booking, banking, traveling and more. If your company is contemplating mobile app development - native or cross-platform - this is your chance to seize the moment! Just think about it: the number of free app downloads has reached 197 billion in 2017 - that’s 26 times more than the world’s population! - and is expected to reach 352,9 billion in 2021.
We get your concerns. Does my business need an app? What technology should we use? Is it a good idea to invest in mobile development? Listen, developing a mobile app can just be the leverage that will give you the upper hand over your competitors. Companies from banks to retailers use mobile apps to increase sales, reach more customers, form brand awareness and other marketing purposes. Yours can be one of them if you figure out what trends to follow and which method of mobile app development to use: native or cross-platform. Don’t worry, TRM Solutions is here to help you out.
Native vs Cross-Platform
So, which approach should you choose for developing your mobile app? You are probably looking at native and cross-platform variants, not knowing which way to go. To answer your question, think about the following:
What is your business goal?
What audience will use your app?
Which basic functions should it perform?
Will the app be only available for one or multiple operating systems?
Your answers will show you the right app development path. Both native and cross-platform development have their strengths and weaknesses, and the final choice will depend on the requirements and functions you want your app to have.
We’ve put together a short overview of both approaches so you could have the full understanding of the difference between native and cross-platform mobile app development.
Native App Development
Native mobile apps are built for a particular platform and can use all of the platform’s APIs and features. This allows native apps to realize the full potential of the device. That said, you’ll need to build a separate app for each platform which is time-consuming and costly. Not to mention you’ll have to employ as many mobile app developers as the platforms you’ve selected. Native apps are built using platform-specific programming languages: Java for Android, Objective-C and Swift for iOS and C/C++ or .NET for Windows. Here are some of the key features of native mobile apps.
Excellent performance. Since native apps work seamlessly with the device’s built-in features, they perform better and faster.
Familiar UX. The navigation and UI of native apps are familiar to the users, which is definitely an advantage in terms of the overall user experience.
Visibility in app stores. Thanks to the two features mentioned above, users tend to rate native apps higher, making them easier to find in app stores.
Immediate access to the platform’s new APIs and features. You can start implementing new features in your app right after the manufacturer had rolled them out.
Cross-Platform App Development
Cross-platform apps can work on different operating systems with a single code base. To create a cross-platform app, one mobile app developer is usually enough - but make it a skillful one. Sounds pretty convenient, doesn’t it? However, cross-platform apps sometimes compromise their performance for the sake of a wider range of devices, compared to native apps. They can also freeze or lag because of communication inefficiencies between the code and the device’s hardware or software. Still, cross-platform apps have great features like:
Single code base. Instead of writing new code for each platform, developers can use the same code or alter it slightly to work across multiple platforms.
Uniformity. Cross-platform apps have the same overall look and feel on different devices.
Time and cost saving. Since the app code is written only once, it allows companies to hire fewer developers and the development process takes less time. Besides, cross-platform apps increase profits as they allow to expand into multiple markets and target diverse users.
Easy launch and update. The initial launch, as well as subsequent updates and changes to the app, can be rolled out simultaneously to multiple platforms.
Cross-Platform Frameworks
To build a cross-platform mobile app, you’ll need to master one of the frameworks that accelerate the development process. The most popular of them are Xamarin, Ionic, Cordova and React Native. Let’s have a closer look at these cross-platform development frameworks.
Xamarin is the king of frameworks for building cross-platform apps. Developers use it to create native apps for multiple platforms with a single C# codebase. With up to 75% of app code shared across platforms, Xamarin helps you build apps for Android, iOS and Windows with native user interfaces and API access. And did we mention it’s open-source?
Ionic is a free and open-source HTML5 framework with a single codebase. It offers a set of tools for building hybrid mobile apps (small websites running in a browser shell). Handy native plugins allow developers to easily access device features like Bluetooth, HealthKit or fingerprint authentication. AngularJS creates a powerful SDK for building rich and robust applications with Ionic. And thanks to the framework’s focus on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, apps are built faster, cheaper and with minimal maintenance.
Apache Cordova (former PhoneGap) is a robust framework for hybrid mobile app development. It helps to build cross-platform mobile apps with HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3. Cordova supports iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Blackberry 10 and Ubuntu. It can be extended with native plug-ins which give you access to native device capabilities.
React Native is a framework developed by Facebook that allows building apps using only JavaScript. Because React Native uses the same UI building blocks as regular iOS and Android apps, it’s almost impossible to distinguish a React Native app from an app built using Objective-C or Java. Here’s an interesting feature: you can build one part of your app in React Native and another one - using native code. Handy!
Conclusion
Without a doubt, both native and cross-platform mobile app development approaches have their pros and cons. Native app development is great for simple as well as complex apps that are supposed to run on one platform only. On the downside, they can be expensive and take too long to create. Cross-platform will be the best option if you want your small or medium-sized app to run on several platforms. You’ll also benefit from cross-platform app development when your budget is low and the time constraints are strict.
Still wondering which approach to choose? Let TRM Solutions help you. Contact our mobile development experts to start building your solution right away.