The 21st century is the era of fast-paced developing technology; the mobile app market is swiftly expanding with the blink of an eye which makes it more competitive. In such scenarios, it’s quite difficult to catch up and ensure the visibility and accessibility of your app across different operating systems, that’s where cross-platform mobile development comes. We are a trusted flutter app development company that can help you grow your business with a reliable & robust mobile app.
Introduction to Cross-Platform Mobile App development
Before you jump into cross-platform mobile app development, you first understand what this is. In simpler terms, cross-platform development is building apps and software with a single codebase that can be run on various platforms. This helps a lot in saving time, money, and man force required for the development. This has made the cross-platform approach one of the hottest software development trends in recent times.
Difference between Native and Cross-Platform mobile app development
A native mobile app is an application that is built specifically for a particular platform by using the SDK that the platform offers. SDK is the “Software Development Kit” which all platforms, like iOS, Android, Windows, offer and it comprises different development tools along with a compiler and debugger. Usually, the platforms have their preferences for programming languages, for instance, iOS prefers Swift while Android mostly supports Java.
Cross-Platform Mobile app development is usually done by creating an application programming interface (API) whose function is to mediate between the operating system and the code. A third-party integrated environment (IDE) may help in achieving this. As a top-rated flutter app development company, our app developer specializes in creating affordable and efficient applications. Our custom and creative flutter app development solutions help customers all around the globe. As a top-rated flutter app development company, our app developer specializes in creating affordable and efficient applications. Our custom and creative flutter app development solutions help customers all around the globe.
Why Opt for Cross-platform Mobile Development?
For more than 10 years, we have been interacting with different mobile apps; mobile phones are the gadgets that 60 percent of the people in the world keep with them all the time and use for surfing the internet and internet service providers by expanding the service areas have further made it extremely easy to access internet whenever, wherever it’s required just by having a Smartphone.
Back then, for businesses to access their clientele, a simple desktop application or software used to be enough to cater to their needs, but things have drastically changed with a surge in mobile internet usage. More than 98 percent of people now use either Android or iOS based Smartphones which makes it almost compulsory for companies to provide applications for both operating systems. Originally native applications were built for different operating systems each having its unique code that can’t be repurposed for any other operating system, but advancement in technology and demand bring along new ideas and cross-platform mobile app development is one such option which shortened the development time and cost.
Cross Platform Mobile App Development For Developers
Cross-platform mobile app development is beneficial in a way that it cut short the workload as they will have to build application code for once and reuse a substantial account of code, whereas for businesses it will be greatly helpful in reducing development time, cost and maintenance.
Cross Platform Mobile App Development For Companies
These are enough reasons to turn towards cross-platform mobile app development as they will be able to quickly bring their application to the market which will bring quicker profits. More to this is the advantage of significant savings on marketing which the companies prefer to benefit from by building one cross-platform mobile app instead of multiple native mobile apps. As a flutter mobile app development company we deliver result-driven flutter & cross-platform app development services to solve your complex ideas.
No wonder, how lucrative all these sounds are but cross-platform mobile app development has its fair share of disadvantages. Some operating systems and platforms have restrictive feature support which sometimes hinders the inclusive user experience. Cross-platform tools that are available are not all compatible with all operating systems and there are chances that the limitations that cross-platform frameworks put will force you to turn towards native iOS and Android app development.
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Programming Languages used for cross-platform mobile app development
Most commonly the programming languages used for scripting of the cross-platform mobile app development tools are CSS, HTML, JavaScript, C#, Dart, and Typescript. Usage of the common languages makes the cross-platform frameworks quite simple to use.
Prominent Cross-Platform Mobile Development Frameworks
Increasing demand for cross-platform mobile app development has resulted in a surge of tools available for their development. Following is a list of prominent cross-platform frameworks that will help you in building your mobile app.
React Native
Facebook released this open-source, cross-platform app development framework. React Native makes use of JavaScript to offer a near-native experience to the users of both Android and iOS. Up to 90 percent of the codebase of React Native is reusable. Other notable features of React Native include:
- Regular updates
- Near-native UI & UX
- Time and cost-efficient
- Fast refresh and hot reloading
- Community support
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Flutter
Google released Flutter in 2018, and despite being a newbie in the cross-platform market, the framework is giving tough competition to its competitors. Dart is the programming language behind Flutter which according to Google is client-optimized and offers plenty of Flutter-compatible software packages which help in the development of complex apps. We are a flutter app development company having expertise in building mobile apps that are faster and provide a delightful native experience to users across the globe.
Other features that make Flutter stand out include:
- Up to 90% of code reusability
- Near-native user experience
- uses custom visual, structural, platform, and interactive widgets
- Offers customization
- Web support
- Fixes critical customer issues
- High app responsiveness
- Pixel-perfect UI
- Hot reloading
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Native Script
Released in 2015, this open-source cross-platform framework is one of the renowned cross-platform mobile app development frameworks. Developers while using the Native Script write the codebase in JavaScript and TypeScript. The framework is highly flexible and goes equally well with Angular and Vue.js as it does with JavaScript offering great working freedom to the software engineers.
Some noteworthy features of Native Script are
- Allows access to third-party libraries like Android SDKs
- Allows access to native API of Android and iOS
- Almost 90% of code reusability
- Seamless performance
- Platform-native UI
Xamarin
Xamarin is the oldest available cross-platform mobile app development framework, released in 2011, Microsoft acquires it five years later. You need to be proficient in .NET & C# if you are aiming to try Xamarin to build a cross-platform mobile app. With .NET you will be able to use multiple libraries, editors and languages while C# is used for writing the application from the backend.
Other key characteristics of this cross-platform mobile app development framework are:
- Offer tools like editor extensions, XAML, platform-specific libraries, etc
- Offers up to 96% reusability of the C# code
- Provide comprehensive development ecosystem
- Complete hardware support
- Near-native UX
Pros of Cross-Platform Mobile App development
The cross-platform approach is beneficial for businesses of all sizes; from start-ups to established corporations, everyone can build their digital product with the help of a cross-platform approach. This will help them in enjoying the following benefits:
Faster Development
One key feature of cross-platform solutions is that they are based on a single codebase. This means developers have to build one code and that will be sufficient for both Android and iOS-based projects. Developers take a cross-platform app as a single project but will be compatible across different devices due to the helpful development tools of the near-native frameworks like Flutter. This reduces the development time of the application as the developer will be able to reuse a significant part of the code between different operating systems.
Reduced Cost
An application built using a cross-platform will be almost 30 percent cheaper than native android and iOS apps built separately. The reason behind the reduced cost is that there is a single project for the developer and significant chunks of the code that he built can be reused between different operating systems. This naturally will cut short the development time and likewise the development cost of the mobile application. Moreover, fixing and upgrading a single code will always be time-efficient and cost-efficient as compared to the maintenance of two separate sets of code.
Wider Audience
Planning application development for your business is not easy. As most of the companies usually are in a fix over which application they should build first, Android or iOS? You can’t let your personal preference for Android or iOS make a decision for you in this as a single application for any of the platforms will deprive users of other platforms taking advantage of your application and will get in the success of your business. You can, however easily avoid such risks with help of a cross-platform mobile app that will let you target both markets simultaneously and thus will help you connect with a wider audience from the very beginning which will eventually pay off through revenue generation for your business in the future.
Reusable Code
One of the notable features of cross-platform frameworks is the reusability of the code. It means only one developer will be required to build and manage the code for both platforms. Whereas, if you want to develop native applications for android and iOS you will have to hire separate teams of developers for both who are proficient in the preferred languages of these native platforms and will then write separate codes for each platform.
Platform Consistency
Android and iOS are two entirely different platforms with diverse UX and UI. Cross-platform app development frameworks are well aware of these disparities. And most of them are handled by default during application development because of which designing becomes quite easy.
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Cons of Cross-Platform Mobile App development
Nothing is a hundred percent flawless and cross-platform application development has its fair share of disadvantages. Key drawbacks of relying on this approach are:
Low performing applications
One of the biggest disadvantages of cross-platform mobile applications is that they are comparatively low-performing than native applications. There is no denying that the longer your application will take to load, the more it will lose the audience. Not all cross-platform applications are slow but when it comes to complex applications like video call apps or mobile games, native applications will work far better than cross-platform applications. However, when it comes to simple applications, both native and cross-platform applications bear the same functionalities with minimal performance differences.
Harder code design
Native applications have to cater to the needs of only one platform therefore their coding is pretty simple but that’s not the case with cross-platform applications. With cross-platform applications, the developers have a lot more work to do with codes as they have to modify their design and features to make them compatible with different platforms and built a product that is user-friendly for the audience of both operating systems. Developers not only have to handle complicated features of different platforms. They also have to handle specific exceptions of various devices making appropriate coding a bit hard for them contrary to native applications.
Wait for new features
Yes, with cross-platform applications, users have to wait for a long time before the companies update their applications to support all the latest features introduced by Android or iOS. However, that’s not the case with native apps as Android and iOS provide SDKs with updates for their native apps more quickly than the cross-platform frameworks do.
Taking the right cross-platform application decision
If you are planning to build a mobile app for your business and are confused regarding the cross-platform. Go through the following criteria that will help you in making an informed decision.
Platform
Start by deciding whether you want to target a specific audience or maximum audience across multiple OS. If your business needs require reaching out to a specific Android/iOS audience, then a native application solution will be best for you as it will offer a flawless user experience.
But if your target audience is the users of different operating systems or you want to reach out to a larger audience, then your go-to application solution should be a cross-platform mobile app.
Native Feel
Often companies are very specific in their design and brand appeal. Therefore prefer their application to bear a native feel for their users. If that’s your preference, then native applications will let you offer a user-friendly and intuitive application to your users. Some popular cross-platform frameworks will also let you achieve that near-native feel for your mobile app, and to decide between the two, you need to figure out your preferences first.
Complexity
This depends largely upon your future goals about the application. You have to decide whether you want a simple application just to test your vision with MVP or your aim is to hit the market with the full-fledged operational application and give tough competition to the competitors. This will let you decide between a native or cross-platform mobile application. Apart from this, you need to focus on the functionalities of your digital product. Also, you must be clear about them before making the final decision. For instance, whether you want to reach the hardware of the device or just want to offer platform-specific functions.
Price and Time
Last but not the least, aspects like budget and time matter a lot. Cross-platform applications are quick to build a single code that will have to be written for both iOS and Android. This will save a lot of time, unlike native applications for which you have to hire separate developers. So, therefore, if you want to launch your product ASAP, then a cross-platform solution will be better for you.
Similarly, when it comes to price, there are several budget constraints that entrepreneurs face. Therefore to cut short their expenditures they can turn towards cross-platform mobile app development. It’s relatively cheaper than native app development as here you have to outsource project to a professional team. This is cost and time-effective, unlike native development where you have to employ a number of developers.
Bottom Line
Cross-platform mobile applications are a great way of saving development time and cost and enable you to maximize your market reach. Cross-platform mobile app development frameworks like React Native and Flutter, offer plenty of tools that make development swift and the digital product efficient. But in some scenarios a native application will be a better option; it all boils down to the unique needs of your business. Therefore whether you want a native or a cross-platform app, it’s better to discuss your goal with an expert. This is will help you get the best application solutions for your business’s unique needs.
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