What you should choose — Native vs. Cross Platform?

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According to Statista, In 2023, mobile apps are projected to generate more than $935 billion in revenues via paid downloads and in-app advertising.

Are you planning to build an app? Or, still, confused about which one to choose between Native and Cross-Platform applications? This blog comes to the rescue of all entrepreneurs who are willing to get an application developed but have no clue how to start!

The initial stage of getting an app developed is mere inception of the idea that you and your business require an app. After this, the next step is to make a decision on the type of app you are looking for? Under this your options are narrowed down to two:

1. Native Applications
2. Cross platform Applications

Native application development involves platform-specific development. These applications developed fundamentally for one specific mobile device so that they can take full advantage of all the device functionalities such as a camera, accelerometer, compass, GPS, contacts list, and so on. To use the Native Applications, users have to download them from App stores such as the Apple App Store, the Google Play store, and many others.

In contrast to the Native apps, Cross-platform apps are coded using HTML/CSS and JavaScript and are used and compiled for multiple platforms. Cross platform apps can be developed using cross-platform tools which makes them run through different mobile devices.

Below is a comparison made between both native and cross-functional applications. This will help you better understand:

1. User Experience: Native apps provide more responsive UI especially when it comes to animations.
2. Performance: Native apps run very smoothly on all mobile devices. In cross-platform apps the performance is a bit slow.
3. Device-specific features: Native application leverage complete advantages of the platform functionality. Cross platform apps have very restricted functionality.
4. Distribution via App stores: Apps developed via Native tools are always welcomed by app stores like Apple which is not the scenario in case of cross-platform apps.
5. Multiple Platform deployment Cost: The cost in the case of the Native app is huge. However, it can be rightly said value for money. The cost is huge because they have to adopt best practices for app development with huge expertise about that specific platform.
6. In the case of Cross-platform apps, financial investment is very low. Cross platform apps are very economical for small businesses.
7. Developers support: Experts mostly like Native app coding because they can easily get solutions in different forums.
8. Security: Native apps are more secure when compared to Cross-platform apps.
9. Access to new OS Features: In the case of a cross-platform framework, they do not support all the features of an OS. Developers need to wait for the update.
10. Code Reusability: In the case of Hybrid apps the codes are reusable. They need to write the code for once and then reuse it in other projects too.

This article was originally Published on Sphinx blog.