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Should you build apps cross-platform or native?
It’s one of the most important decisions in mobile app development and one that can have long-term impact. This could shape how quickly you get to market, how smoothly your app performs, how much it costs to maintain and how easily you can respond to new challenges. With mobile app revenue set to hit $935 billion and downloads predicted to exceed 290 billion by 2025, your development approach is key to setting your product up for success.
So, how do you decide? Here’s what we’ve learned from helping clients define their best-fit mobile strategy.
Is cross platform app development right for your organisation?
If speed, efficiency and reach are your priorities and you want to avoid duplicating effort across iOS and Android, cross-platform development could be the right fit.
Frameworks like React Native, Flutter and Xamarin allow you to write your app once and deploy it everywhere. By 2025 Gartner predicts that 70% of enterprises will adopt cross-platform strategies.
The benefits of cross-platform app development
1. Faster time to market
By maintaining a single codebase for both iOS and Android, cross-platform development cuts down on duplicated work. This accelerates delivery, which is valuable for industries like retail where customer experience and speed are important. Organisations report up to 30% faster launches and up to 40% cost savings compared to native apps.
For example, a fintech partnered with NashTech to rebuild its mobile wallet using React Native, speeding up development cycles while seamlessly integrating blockchain and digital currencies. This resulted in faster time to market and smoother updates.
2. Easier updates and maintenance
A unified codebase means updates, bug fixes and new features can be deployed simultaneously on both platforms. For retail organisations running frequent campaigns, updating products, or managing high-traffic apps, that agility turns into a real competitive advantage. It also means smaller teams can do more, without the complexity of maintaining two separate codebases.
3. Sustainability-friendly
Using one codebase instead of two means less work for developers and less energy used by servers. This reduces energy, storage and maintenance needed to operate, which helps reduce your environmental impact as you grow. Over time, this leads to a smaller environmental footprint. For organisations managing dozens of apps, the cumulative impact can be substantial.
And if your organisation tracks ESG goals, cross-platform app development can support those efforts while keeping things efficient.
Looking to quantify and report these gains? Here’s a practical guide to building a strong data foundation for effective sustainability reporting.
Limitations of cross platform app development
While frameworks like Flutter and React Native have improved significantly, some challenges remain, especially for apps with demanding performance or integration needs.
Performance can lag
Cross-platform tools can sometimes lag behind native development when it comes to performance. This is particularly true for graphics-intensive or heavy-computation applications, such as games, augmented reality (AR), or other high-demand multimedia experiences.
Integrations can get tricky
Need to tap into native APIs like Apple HealthKit, advanced camera features or device-level biometrics? Cross-platform apps offer plugins for many common APIs, but integrating tightly with native features can require writing custom native modules. This chips away at the time and simplicity savings you were hoping for in the first place.
UI and UX can feel off
Though modern frameworks aim to replicate native UI behaviours, there are often subtle differences in how components render or respond across platforms. In brand-sensitive or high-touch applications, like luxury retail, financial services, or healthcare, these small inconsistencies can interrupt user satisfaction.
Third-party dependencies can create risk
Many cross-platform frameworks rely on open-source libraries and third-party dependencies, which are not always updated in line with the latest OS versions or security standards. If they’re not actively maintained, organisations can be exposed to security vulnerabilities or face delays when platform updates require immediate changes.
| Cross-platform leads to faster time-to-market, lower costs and easier maintenance which is ideal for businesses focused on scalability and broad reach. But there are trade-offs in performance and user experience, especially for complex apps. |
Is native app development the better choice?
Native apps remain the gold standard for delivering high performance, platform-specific functionality and tailored user experience. Native apps are built using platform-specific languages like Swift for iOS, Kotlin or Java for Android, which allows developers to tap into the full capabilities of each operating system.
The benefits of native app development
1. Higher performance and UX
When performance and user experience are business-critical, native development still sets the standard. It offers direct access to device-level features like GPS, sensors and Bluetooth and delivers the responsiveness today’s users expect. In fact, 49% of users uninstall an app within 30 days due to lag or poor performance.
For customer-facing apps in competitive sectors like finance, retail, or healthcare, native development provides faster load times, smoother interactions and the flexibility to support advanced features.
One telecom provider partnered with NashTech to replace its outdated Cordova app, which lacked support for essential features like secure Bluetooth integration and blocked future upgrades. We rebuilt the app from the ground up using Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android), resulting in a high-performance mobile platform with seamless Bluetooth connectivity and a significantly improved user experience.
2. Stronger security and compliance
In regulated industries, native apps integrate better with platform-level security features like biometric authentication and secure data storage. This control is crucial for meeting rigorous compliance standards such as PCI-DSS, GDPR and HIPAA, which is important in protecting sensitive data and reducing regulatory risk.
Limitations of native app development
Native development comes with a hefty price tag. Because you’re building separate apps for iOS and Android, you need separate codebases, separate teams and more time to get to market.
This means higher upfront investment, longer development cycles and increased maintenance over time. Coordinating updates and ensuring feature parity across platforms can also introduce operational overhead, especially for smaller teams with limited in-house expertise.
Hiring and retaining native developers can be challenging too. While demand for native apps is high, experienced Swift and Kotlin engineers are in short supply making it harder to scale or move quickly.
| For organisations where speed, cost efficiency and team agility are priorities, native development can be a barrier. But for those focused on quality, performance, security and long-term scalability, it’s often worth the trade-off. |
What to consider before choosing your development approach
If speed, reach and budget are your main drivers, cross-platform might be the way to go. If you're building something complex, security-heavy or highly performance-sensitive, native may be a better long-term fit.
Here are four things to think about before you decide:
1. Audit your app’s requirements and compare that against what’s realistic
Does your app rely on features like Bluetooth? Are high-performance graphics or advanced animations involved? How often will you be updating it? Map out what the app needs to do and what your team can realistically support.
2. Understand the characteristics of your end users
Who are your users and what devices do they use? You need to understand your users’ preferences and their devices to determine whether a cross-platform approach is viable or if you need something more tailored.
3. Security, compliance and data protection
Identify whether there are industry-specific regulations (PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) you need to account for. If you operate in a regulated space such as finance (PCI-DSS), healthcare (HIPAA), native apps can offer stronger controls and clearer compliance pathways, particularly around data encryption, user permissions and device-level security.
4. Decide if sustainability is a priority for your technology strategy
Drill down into the long-term operational impact of your chosen approach (including maintenance and energy consumption). If your organisation has its eyes set on ESG goals, choosing a more efficient approach can make a meaningful difference in meeting those commitments.
When a hybrid approach makes sense
Sometimes it’s not about picking one or the other. You can use native development for the performance-critical areas, then layer in cross-platform tools for UI and less intensive features.
Uber is a good example of this. They use native code where speed and precision are important (like real-time GPS and payments) but mix in web components (like Node.js and web views) to keep things flexible and fast to update. This way they get the best of both worlds.
Need help choosing the right approach?
We’ve helped businesses across finance, telecoms, retail and healthcare navigate these exact decisions. Whether you're going native, cross-platform or somewhere in between, we can help you find the right approach and build something that works now and scales later.
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