Pros & Cons of Native Vs Cross-Platform Development

8 min readOct 13, 2022

In the app development world, there are two main categories of apps: native and cross-platform. The differences between these types of apps can be confusing to many people. It’s important that you understand which type of app development is right for your business so that you don’t waste time or money on an app that won’t work well for your users or generate ROI. So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each!

Pros of Native Development

Native apps offer a more user-friendly experience.

When comparing native vs cross-platform development, it’s important to note that there are several reasons why one platform may be better suited for your app than another. One of these reasons is the user experience — how an app looks and feels to its users.

Native apps use the native platform UI (user interface), which makes them faster and easier to navigate than their cross-platform counterparts. They also have access to more features built right into the operating system, such as GPS tracking or fingerprint recognition sensors, so they can accomplish tasks that would be impossible with web technologies alone.

Native apps have a better UX because they’re designed with specific hardware features in mind; when you compare them side by side with their cross-platform alternatives — which often require additional third party plugins or workarounds just so they can function properly on mobile devices.

You’ll notice how smoother everything runs when there isn’t any lag time between pressing buttons onscreen and having those clicks registered by software running within each respective device’s hardware specifications

You can take advantage of latest features.

Native apps can take advantage of the latest features available in their operating system. If you want to use a new feature on iOS or Android, it will be available first in native apps and then later in cross-platform apps.

While you wait for cross-platform tools to catch up with the latest operating system, your users will be able to enjoy the new features without any work from you as a developer.

Not only that but when these updates are released by Apple or Google, they’re already done for you! This means no waiting on third party developers who may not have time on their hands or resources at hand to integrate these changes into their software packages before launching them out into marketplace space (which we all know can take weeks/months).

Cons of Native Development

With native development, you will have to pay more. You need to hire a developer and it would take a lot of time to develop the app as well. Moreover, as you are developing a brand new application, you won’t be able to take advantage of latest features that are introduced in the operating system or SDK (Software Development Kit).

More expensive development process.

Native app development is a time-consuming process. Developers are needed to build the apps, which can take months or even years of development. Apps also need to go through QA testing before they are published on the app store, and this can add weeks (or even months) onto your development cycle.

More time consuming.

The biggest downside to cross-platform development is that it’s not as quick. Native app development can be much faster and easier than cross-platform development, because a native app will only require one codebase — you don’t need to spend time building multiple versions of the same app in different languages.

This means you can use the same codebase for both your Android and iOS apps, saving yourself time and money by not needing to build two separate versions of the same product.

Cross-platform apps also tend to require more testing than native apps — this is because they usually have many different components working together at once, making it harder for developers to get everything working properly at all times. This is especially true when developing an app with React Native or Xamarin (two popular examples).

Pros of Cross-Platform Development

Cross-platform development allows you to build your app for multiple platforms at the same time, rather than in phases. This can be a huge advantage if you’re looking to get your app out quickly or don’t have much work underway on any one platform.
Because of this, cross-platform development can save you money by reducing the costs associated with building apps for each individual platform. You will also save on time spent developing separate codebases that must then be integrated later in order to create an app.
Extensive testing is possible when using cross-platform frameworks because they allow developers to simultaneously test across multiple devices and operating systems (e.g., iOS and Android). This means that any issues discovered during testing would only need to be fixed once instead of multiple times across all platforms where they appear — a huge cost savings!
Apps built using cross-platform frameworks are written once but show up everywhere: both Apple’s App Store and Google Play are supported out of the box by most popular libraries like React Native or Flutter which offer similar functionality across their platforms via shared JavaScript codebases — making them perfect choices if there’s some overlap between what users expect from those services (e.g., messaging).

Work Across Multiple Platforms Simultaneously.

Working across multiple platforms at the same time is definitely a pro. It saves you time in development and allows you to reach more customers faster. If you’re working on both iOS and Android versions of your app, it helps if they come out at roughly the same time (or at least close enough) to avoid confusing consumers who might think they’re still using older versions of an app they’ve downloaded.

With cross-platform development, it’s possible for developers to test their apps simultaneously on different operating systems without having separate teams of developers working in parallel — a definite plus!

Cross-platform tools make building for multiple devices easier by eliminating some of the differences between them (such as writing code in Objective C for iOS). They also allow developers to develop their apps quickly so that new features can be released simultaneously across all platforms — not just native ones but web too!

Lower Costs.

One of the best things about cross-platform development is it’s cheaper than native development. When you’re building an app, you’ll need to pay for:

Developers (technical and design)
Designers (visual designers, UX designers)
Quality Assurance testers/editors/project managers.

With native apps, all of these people must be in-house at your company. However, if you’re building a cross-platform app, some or all of them can be outsourced to contractors who are already qualified in the language(s) they’ll be working with! This will save your company money while also freeing up time for other parts of its business operations.

Another way that this benefits companies is by making it possible for small teams to build mobile applications without hiring additional staff members or outsourcing work overseas when there are capable developers within their local community.

Extensive Testing Is Possible.

Native development has the advantage of being able to extensively test on real devices. It is possible to test on multiple devices, operating systems, screen sizes and resolutions. With cross-platform development testing is limited to a single device and screen size. If you want to test your app on other devices or with other form factors such as larger screens or vertical orientation then you will need a separate version for each one.

Cons of Cross-Platform Development

Cross-platform apps are not a magic bullet that can solve all your mobile development needs. When you develop cross-platform apps, you have to write code for each platform separately and maintain two codebases. This can be very difficult and time consuming, especially if you want to change something in one of the platforms later on.

It’s also not always possible for cross-platform mobile development tools to support every feature available on a particular platform. The limited access to native features means that users might experience some performance issues when accessing specific functionality like push notifications or location services from within a cross-platform app.

Developing Cross-Platform Apps Is Difficult and Time Consuming.

Cross-platform development is difficult and time consuming.
Developing a cross-platform app is not easy, nor should it be taken lightly. There are a lot of different things that have to go into creating an app from scratch, including design and coding. The major difference between developing native apps and cross-platform apps, is that when you’re building for iOS or Android you don’t need to worry about how the user interfaces (UI) are going to look on each device because they both use the same language (Objective C or Java).

Not All Mobile Features Are Supported By Cross-Platform Mobile Development Tools.

It is also important to note that not every feature is available on all platforms. For example, your mobile application may not be able to do something that is possible on iOS or Android. For example, Apple’s ARKit technology enables developers to create augmented reality apps for iPhone and iPad users, but Android devices don’t support this yet.

Similarly, some features may be available on one platform but not another due to the nature of their product ecosystems (e.g., Apple vs Android).

Native development comes with pros and cons, but building with cross-platform technology is a different set of pros and cons

Native development is more expensive and time-consuming than cross-platform. This means that if you want to build a mobile app for your business, you need a large budget. Also, it takes plenty of time to write all the codes and test them on different devices.

However, there are some benefits of native development:

The user experience is better because each platform has its own UI elements designed specifically for that device (e.g., iPhone vs Android).
You can access more hardware features using native languages like Objective C or Swift instead of JavaScript or HTML5. For example, if you want to use Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) in your app then you should use native language because it performs faster than HTML5 Bluetooth connections which can cause battery drains quickly if not done properly!

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no clear winner when it comes to native vs. cross-platform development. When choosing one over the other, consider your needs and budget first. If time is a major factor for your project, then cross-platform might be better suited for you. However, if you have specific features that need to be included in the app, then native development may be best suited for your needs.