Anyone who asks an app developer these days what type of app development is preferred will often hear the word cross-platform development. As the name suggests, a cross-platform app works platform-independently but is based on a single code. The app can be made accessible for various mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android, as well as other systems such as Windows, macOS, or watchOS.
Many companies appreciate the fast development time and low costs. The app feels like the product of native development and can also access many relevant native functions such as GPS or push notifications. Choosing the right app development services for your business is essential if you want the perfect cross-platform mobile app. This article will look at the pros and cons of a cross-platform app, especially for your business.
Pros and cons of a cross-platform app
Cross-platform development offers a cost-effective way to make your app accessible to many potential users. This form of development via frameworks also offers many advantages - but it can also have slight weaknesses in some areas.
Here you can see all the advantages and disadvantages at a glance:
Pros
Cross-platform
To make your app available to a large number of potential users, it should be available and accessible on as many platforms (Android, Apple & Co.) as possible. Cross-platform technologies and frameworks offer an efficient way to do this - whether mobile apps or for platforms such as Windows, macOS, or tvOS.
Favorable development
To make your app available on several platforms despite native development, it only has to be designed once but programmed individually for each operating system. With cross-platform technologies, around 90% of the code can usually be reused. Compared to native development, this results in cost savings of over 80%.
Time-saving
Since the app only has to be developed once, valuable time can be saved and the time-to-market is kept short. In this way, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can be quickly implemented to validate your business model.
Native look & feel and native functions
While hybrid development and web apps also offer a cost-effective way to make apps accessible to multiple platforms, they have a downside: they don't feel like native apps, nor can they access all of the functionality. In contrast, cross-platform apps can map most native features by compiling development code into the native system language.
Easy developer search
Especially if you opt for a cross-platform approach using a progressive web app, the range of developers is very large. Because these are made with classic web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and PHP. Finding native development experts is proving more difficult. Furthermore, it often happens that several developers have to be called in for the cross-platform development of native apps since there are only a few who can program on all operating systems.
Cons
Operating system updates
Cross-platform applications are also affected by operating system updates. Because the frameworks have to be adapted to new updates. Furthermore, community plugins that are potentially used must also be updated. Correspondingly, some places can lead to compatibility problems.
Limited functionality
Although cross-platform applications can access a large number of system-specific functions, they do not represent the complete range of functions. The more specific the function, the more likely it is that it cannot be performed. However, plugins can be used to enable such functions. In the run-up to development, the requirements for the app functions should be clarified and checked in detail.
Performance
Compilation makes the app larger compared to native app development and can result in slight losses in performance. However, since mobile devices are becoming more and more powerful, potential losses are already going unnoticed by users today.
Special Content
