The sudden surge in the demand of cross-platform mobile app development could be attributed to substantial growth in demand of multi-platform apps. Businesses are no longer willing to miss an opportunity to reach their prospective target audiences either on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Moreover, with total revenue within the global mobile app market forecasted to reach $682.90 Billion by the end of 2027, businesses are actively looking for opportunities to capture a chunk of this thriving industry. Both MNCs and SMEs are proactively seeking mobile app development companies that can help them build and deliver advanced, intuitive, functional, and user-friendly mobile apps.

If you are a new business willing to invest in cross-platform app development but hesitating due to the cost and complexities associated with it, then this guide is for you. In this guide we will compare cross-platforms and native app development, we will also elaborate why businesses must invest in cross-platform mobile app development. Additionally, we will also outline the best cross-platform app development frameworks and the average cost associated with building a cross-platform mobile app.
Before we get into the details, let’s first understand what cross-platform app development actually entails.

What is Cross-Platform App Development?

Cross-platform app development is an advanced software development methodology where an application can operate almost equally well on multiple platforms. This method gives us a heads-up on any typos that start-ups make when distributing an app across several platforms and lets them avoid having to write code for every single one of those platforms individually. It’s a method of reducing costs that can make time-to-market as short as half and broaden your product’s market reach accordingly.

Cross-platform application development begins at a far-reaching point, with universal programming languages and frameworks that operate across all devices. It will also ensure that the startup focuses on keeping users engaged no matter what operating system they use; if their users disappear, then even more trouble awaits.

Cross-Platform vs. Native App Development

The codebase is the primary factor distinguishing cross-platform development from native app development. While a native app is created solely for a platform, leading to excellent performance and optimal use of all the tools, the time and resources spent on its development are burdened.

On the contrary, cross-platform mobile app development provides the perfect balance between performance and efficiency, as has been mentioned earlier. It would be suitable for startups aiming to revolutionize the digital market with little investment.

Why Startups Should Consider Cross-Platform Apps

Here is what makes cross-platform app development a lighthouse of hope for startups:

• Higher Audience Reach: As soon as startups develop an app that caters to several platforms at once, they will acquire more users at a faster pace.
• Cost-Effectiveness:  Startups usually struggle with a limited budget. With cross-platform development, a single codebase is used as an ideal solution.
• Faster Time-to-Market: Time is of the essence, and quickly launching an app gives a winning opportunity to startups.
• Simpler Maintenance: It is less challenging to update a single application than to update more than one offered by several native apps.
• Uniformity in Design: Implementing a uniform user interface and experience design on all platforms can go a long way toward brand ubiquity and end-user enjoyment. Less time is spent fighting with the specifics of each platform, and more time is spent focusing on what really matters.
• Resource Allocation: The concentration of the world’s best developers on one single programming language can free up highly specialized talent to take on other projects.

As you can see, for a startup that wants to shake the world with its digital product, cross-platform app development is not just a smart choice; it’s the only real choice they can make.

How Do Cross-Platform Applications Work?

Cross-platform applications alleviate the disparity between operating systems by operating under a common development toolkit. The toolkit transforms a universal codebase into native components used to interact with the corresponding platform in all cases. To elaborate, the workflow for cross-platform applications is as follows:

1. Unified Codebase: Developers initially create a unified code using such languages as JavaScript, TypeScript, or Dart. This codebase consists of app logic, user interface, and actions. The codebase must be generic enough to function on any platform and definite enough to execute all activities needed.
2. Framework Translation: The framework being used, including React Native or Flutter, could be seen as a translator component. It interprets the unified codebase and converts it into platform-specific components. For example, a button in the code will look like a typical iOS button on an iPhone and like an Android button on a Samsung device.
3. Native Performance Emulation: They replicate the efficiency of a native app via plugins, modules, or software that interact with native APIs. Software such as smooth animations, rapid execution, and access to device features such as notifications, cameras, GPS, and hardware sensors are enabled.
4. API Integration: Cross-platform apps only maintain functionality by integrating with native APIs. It is thus possible to access and use the camera, location service, and many other features available in a native app despite maintaining one codebase.
5. Single Deployment: With the app ready, it is packaged for various platforms through the use of tools available in the framework. The process bundles the resources required and compiles the code into a format accepted in the various app stores, such as the Google Play Store or App Store.

By going through these steps, startups can develop robust applications capable of running on all platforms to provide a uniformly engaging user experience. This method remains cost-effective and efficient for maintaining the application.

Choosing the Right Framework: Native, Cross-Platform, Hybrid Apps

The appropriate framework for startups is critical because it may influence the app’s performance, user experience, and maintenance costs by a great deal. Startups often choose the following three types of apps: native applications, cross-platform mobile applications, and hybrid applications.

Native Applications

Native apps are apps created with the languages and tools available for one platform in mind. As a result, they have the best performance and user experience as they have full access to the device’s capabilities and features. The problem is that native apps have different codebases for each platform, which means they have the highest development costs and maintenance adds more costs to that.

Cross-Platform Apps

Cross-platform apps are apps written with either React Native or Flutter. These applications demonstrate reasonably good work while requiring minimal effort, so most startups choose cross-platform platforms to get as much coverage as possible.

Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps are web applications that are put in a native container.

While they are based on web technologies and utilize a web view, they occasionally use native characteristics as well. It is easier and faster to develop, but it may also offer slightly worse performance and lack the experience of a full native.

Depending on the priorities, resources, and long-term goals, there are some merits to each approach, so it is up to the startup to choose.

Top Cross-platform Development Tools

In the context of app development, however, choosing the right tool is vital to creating efficient, robust, and scalable applications. Here are some of the top cross-development tools that have revolutionized the field:

Flutter

This is Google’s UI toolkit for crafting beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It offers fast development cycles on all platforms, a fast UI that is fully customizable and portable, and deployment to multiple platforms with native performance.

React Native

Facebook developed React Native, which provides a reliable experience for developing truly native applications on native platforms through a common developer experience based on JavaScript and React. This technology is distinguished by its capability to reload, which is achievable thanks to its large community. Direct support only.

Titanium

From Appcelerator, Titanium delivers an open and extensible platform for creating native applications on mobile systems utilizing a single JavaScript code across various devices and operating systems, including iOS, Android, and Windows. The technology has direct access to native APIs and offers a great number of third-party modules.

Xamarin

Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned framework that allows developers to build native apps for Android, iOS, and Windows using a single.NET codebase. It features strong integration with Visual Studio, native user interfaces, and the possibility of .NET features and C# language.

Cordova

Apache Cordova is a cross-platform mobile app development framework originally created by Nitobi. The framework allows developers to build hybrid mobile apps using Javascript, CSS3, and HTML5. The framework allows wrapping up of Javascript, HTML5, and CSS code, thereby eliminating the reliance of developers on platform specific APIs such as iOS, Windows, and Android.

Unity

Unity is ranked amongst the top 10 most popular cross-platform mobile app development frameworks. The framework was launched Unity Technologies, as a gaming engine for the Mac OS X. However, with frequent upgrades the engine currently supports a wide range of platforms including consoles, mobile, virtual reality, and desktop. However, it is ranked as one of the most preferred framework amongst Android and iOS developers, specifically when it comes to game development.

Ionic

Ionic developed and launched by Drifty Co. in 2013 is an open-source UI toolkit, ideal for cross-platform app, desktop, and web applications. Similar to Cordova Ionic allows developers to build cross-platform apps using Typescript or Javascript, CSS, and HTML. It consists of an amalgamation of pre-design UI tools and components that aids the developers in building highly interactive cross-platform apps.

Out of all these cross-platform app development framework flutter continues to be one of the most preferred app development framework amongst developers globally.

When to Develop a Cross-platform Mobile App?

In the high-velocity technology industry, mobile app development is a strategic decision for startups. When do cross-platform mobile apps make sense as an alternative?

1. Growing User Base: Start-ups that want to quickly gain market share across iOS, Android, and other systems should consider cross-platform apps.
2. Optimizing Resources: Cross-platform development lets you create applications on many devices using the same code base if there is not enough money or people.
3. Keeping Brand Consistency: A consistent brand identity can be maintained across different platforms through the use of cross-platform solutions.
4. Speeding-up Launching: Rapid deployment becomes possible with cross-platform development when it comes to validating an app concept in ‘the wild’.
5. Streamlining Maintenance: After launching, updating all platforms at once becomes possible with post-launch cross-platform applications by making changes in one place only.

If new companies meet these criteria, their presence will be felt widely, efficiently, and effectively in the competitive mobile ecosystem through their applications.

How Much Does Cross-Platform App Development Cost?

The overall cost of cross-platform app development is based on factors that determine the financial investment. Such as app complexity, the features’ number, functionality it consists of, design, platform, developer experience, etc. Taking into account the abovementioned factors, the monetary sum spent for the cross-platform mobile app creation varies from $20,000 to $65,000.

Final Word

Cross-platform app development opens doors for startups that have previously failed to overcome the costs, resources, and platform alignment bottlenecks. With a unified codebase and development environment like Flutter and React Native, startups can reach out to more customers, waste fewer resources, implant products on the market faster, and cope with maintenance issues.

Aside from the development stage, continuous support and upkeep are very important for your cross-platform app to prosper. Whether you choose to employ an in-house dedicated team, dealing with potential challenges in hiring and retaining skilled developers, or assign the job to a well-known app development company in Dubai, it is necessary that you guarantee smooth updates, bug fixing, and continual enhancement.

Always keep in mind that the launch is not the end; it marks another beginning towards perfecting any program so that it can fit changing user requirements over time. Therefore, be careful when making decisions about which way will lead you during this process of developing apps for multiple platforms, but do not fear taking risks either!

FAQs

Q1. From where to hire cross-platform mobile app developers?

Many different companies, like AUN Digital, can be hired for their cross-platform mobile app developers, which specialize in developing various kinds of apps.

Q2. What are the advantages of cross-platform mobile app development?

Cross-platform mobile app development offers advantages such as cost efficiency, faster development time, and reaching a wider audience across multiple platforms.

Q3. What are the challenges of cross-platform mobile app development?

Although there may be trade-offs between performance and accessibility, this approach limits access to native features, and ensuring the user experience is consistent across platforms poses another problem.

Q4. How do you ensure that a cross-platform mobile app works well on different platforms?

In order to ensure that the app functions properly on all operating systems it is run on, thorough testing using solid frameworks should be done while keeping up with new platform standards.