Mobile app: native or cross-platform?

You want an app on iOS and Android. Before even talking about screens, a technical decision will weigh on your budget, your timelines and maintenance: develop natively or cross-platform?

01Native: one app per system

A native app is written in each system’s official language: Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android. In practice, these are two separate apps that share the same design and the same server.

• direct, immediate access to every phone feature;
• maximum performance for heavy uses (video, 3D, real-time processing);
• but two codebases to develop, test and maintain.

02Cross-platform: one codebase for two systems

With Flutter or React Native, most of the code is shared between iOS and Android. These technologies are now used by a great many consumer apps.

• a single development for both stores, hence shorter timelines and a smaller budget;
• an identical experience on iOS and Android;
• updates released at the same time on both systems.

For the vast majority of projects (e-commerce, booking, catalogue, customer area, business app), cross-platform now offers a smooth experience that users cannot tell apart from native.

The right technology is the one that serves your users and your budget, not the one that is fashionable.

The Codex team

03How to choose

Ask yourself these questions:

1. 01
   Which features are essential? Payment, maps, notifications, camera, offline mode?
2. 02
   Who are your users, and on which phones? In Algeria, Android dominates by far, but a B2B or export-oriented app must often cover iOS too.
3. 03
   What is your plan for two or three years? A quick first version to test the market, or a product set to grow strongly?
4. 04
   Who will maintain the app? A single codebase is easier to evolve.

04And the back office?

An app is never alone: behind it, a server manages accounts, orders, notifications and statistics, and an admin dashboard lets your team manage the content. Plan for it from the start, whatever the choice between native and cross-platform.

05Our approach

At Codex, we develop iOS and Android mobile apps both natively and cross-platform. We recommend the technology after the scoping workshop, once the features and users are known. You can see several delivered apps in our recent projects.