If you still spend time creating a real adaptive design for all platforms, then the main advantage of cross-platform development is reduced to nothing – the speed of the product to the market.
– Possible problems with integration
Since cross-platform implies the presence of some kind of unification, the process of integration with other operating systems and devices can be delayed and significantly increase development time.
– Competition among development tools
Competition is not always good. After all, for projects that were implemented on frameworks of the old wave of popularity, remember the same Xamarin and React Native, this may mean a deterioration in code support.
The presence of a weaker community also plays a role here, which is why news and innovations within the community spread slowly. In fairness, we note that now this problem is being actively solved by the development of the Flutter community.
– Poor performance and reliability
Cross-platform applications will never be faster and more reliable than native ones. This is due to the small relationship between the development tools and the hosting platform.
What to choose: native or cross-platform application
In order to understand which application is suitable specifically for your business, you should pay attention to and answer the following questions:
What is your audience using?
If the division is 80/20, then it is better to stop at one native application. If the situation is 50/50, then you can consider cross-platform development.
How much time is allotted for development?
The financial side of the issue also depends on time. From a cost standpoint, a cross-platform application seems like a more attractive option. However, even here there are nuances that we considered in the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches.
What is the functionality of the project?
Native development is perfect for products with great functionality and complex logic. And for simpler simple projects without complex graphics and a large number of animations, cross-platform is enough.
What are you striving for?
The choice of approach directly depends on the benefits you want to receive. Weigh all the pros and cons, do the calculations and build on that.
Native development is suitable for mobile applications that need to work offline and use the device’s hardware as efficiently as possible. Also, natives are your topic if you want to get a responsive application with access to device resources and services.
Most large companies prefer native development. For example, Sberbank and the Sberbank Online application with all services. Our team has developed such modules as Sber Business Idea Evaluation, Currencies and Metals, and Sber Dialogues using native development tools: Swift and Kotlin.
Services of the native Sberbank Online application written in Kotlin and Swift. Image: Digital Habits
Cross-platform development is convenient for writing a simple application. It does not involve complex animations and calculations, and also requires constant access to the Internet. This development approach is great for getting to market quickly. And if you already have a website, but want an app that’s fast and inexpensive, then a cross-platform app can meet your needs.
A prime example of the use of cross-platform development is Google, which launched its own cross-platform application development tool called Flutter in May 2017. With it, the company developed Google Pay version 3.0.
The look and feel of Google Pay 3.0, which was developed using the Flutter cross-platform development tool. Image: Flutter
Results
Native apps seem more attractive due to user experience and high performance, but the choice depends on the goals of the application and the benefits you want to achieve. For simpler applications and games, cross-platform development is suitable, and for complex products with many functions, it is better to look at native ones. Experienced developers advise, if possible, to always choose a native application, since in the future it will bring more profit and less hemorrhoids.
A cross-platform solution needs to be adapted to OS updates. For this reason, for large projects with a large set of features and perspectives, it is better to opt for native development. This will provide good support from the operating system vendor (Apple and Google), improve the quality of frameworks and the emergence of new frameworks from these companies.
Why Flutter is the best choice to start app development in 2022 and how much it costs
Flutter is a cross-platform application development framework maintained by Google. Flutter was first introduced in 2015 and during this time has gained immense popularity among developers. More and more projects decide to make applications based on this framework. Flutter allows you to develop an application with a single code base that will work on all platforms – Web, iOS, Android, Window, Mac, Linux.
Now Flutter is used by companies such as Yandex, Google, BMW, Alibaba, Tencent and many others.
If you are planning to develop a mobile application, then at the moment Flutter is the best solution in terms of speed, price and features.
Why should you choose Flutter?
Flutter provides its widget library and allows you to create an attractive user interface with minimal effort. If necessary, any complex animations or interface elements can be implemented on Flutter – the engine allows you to control every pixel on the screen.
With proper organization of processes in the application and multithreading, it will be impossible to distinguish the speed of the application from native Swift or Kotlin.
What are the features of Flutter technology?
Flutter is used to develop cross-platform applications
Flutter provides a hot reload feature. Thanks to the hot reload feature, the developer can make changes and instantly see the changes in the application, which speeds up development at times
Flutter has access to any native features of the platforms
Flutter offers a huge library of widgets
Thousands of open source libraries have been written for Flutter
Flutter allows you to develop custom widgets and complex widgets
Flutter compiles to native code and gives native speed
Flutter provides 2D to create vector animation
Flutter lets you create 2D games
Flutter provides a one-stop solution for development, deployment, and change management
Flutter has a highly efficient portable GPU rendering of the user interface, which allows you to implement any modern interfaces and animations of any complexity on Flutter