Cross-platform development for mobile platforms is often a good way to cut development costs and bring your solution to the market faster. By developing a cross-platform app you make it immediately available on all major platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and more.
Our pool of highly skilled mobile developers are well-versed in the modern cross-platform tech stack, including PhoneGap, Xamarin, and React Native, and will help you build your app on time and on budget.
Cross-Platform vs. Native App Development: Choose the Best Option with Vital Technologies
Each approach has a number of advantages that are outlined below. Please feel free to get in touch and a mobile development expert will get back to you to discuss your specific case.
Cross-Platform Applications
Native Applications
Cross-platform HTML5 apps can be a little less snappy if you need a complex UI or an animation-heavy game. This does not apply to the Xamarin framework, which uses C++, not HTML5.
Performance
If you need complex computations or CPU-intensive animations, building a native app for each platform may be your best bet. Native code will ensure the best possible performance and hence the optimal UX.
Creating a cross-platform mobile app can save a lot of development time. Code collaboration and reuse is easier, and the resulting app becomes available on several major platforms at once.
Time to Market
Native apps take longer to develop. If time to market is critical, a cross-platform app may be your best option. Or, you can focus on your most important OS first, and develop for other platforms later.
Cross-platform development typically costs 30% to 40% less compared to native apps. Cost savings will be even more significant if you require more than two platforms to support.
Development Costs
Native app development is more expensive. For example, instead of hiring one HTML5 or Xamarin developer, you’ll need a separate software engineer for each platform you want your app to run on.
Cross-platform apps are typically easier and less expensive to maintain due to the large code overlap between platforms. In the case of HTML5 apps, code reuse can be as high as 90%.
Maintenance
Due to the nature of native app development, such products require a dedicated software or QA engineer to maintain each platform-specific solution.
Cross-platform HTML5 apps may require more work to make them achieve the same level of UI polish and UX quality as native apps.
User Experience
Creating a slick, polished look and feel may be easier with native apps, with all the contorls and UI features readily available to developers.