With a great demand for mobile apps, choosing the right technology that provides the caliber of performance, security, and quality might be crucial
Continuing our Helppier Mobile development article series, we are happy to share the process of choosing the best technology to develop the Helppier SDK.
Mobile devices have become one of the most used devices because of their portability and flexibility. As a result, there is a greater demand for mobile applications that function on these devices, increasing the need for mobile app developers with more expertise.
But which development technologies can provide the caliber of performance, security, and quality needed for our SDKs? At Helppier we always used web technologies but, for mobile development, there are several options and we wanted to make sure that, whichever technologies we decided to use, worked all in all target devices and new updates.
A brief introduction to native and cross-platform technologies
With new technologies and frameworks emerging every year, the mobile app development sector is constantly changing. Among the many solutions on the market, native and cross-platform development are popular instruments for creating mobile applications.
Additionally, these two tools have prompted responses from potential users who want to know which is better for developing Android and iOS applications.
Since both of these technologies are well-established and useful, choosing between native and cross-platform may not be as easy as it seems. The scope of your project and your specific demands are key considerations because each has unique qualities that may apply to different needs and expectations.
However, which is the most efficient? Cross-platform or native?
We took a closer look at the following to assist us in deciding between native versus cross-platform development in mobile development:
- What is native and cross-platform mobile development?
- Native versus cross-platform development in mobile development comparison.
- Which is the best fit for us?
What is Native App Development?
The creation of a mobile application for a single platform—typically Android or iOS—is referred to as “native app development.” This is made possible by specific technologies. For instance, to create an iOS app, we need AppCode, Xcode, or Atom, whereas to create an Android app, we need Android Studio.
Again, while Android apps use Java and Kotlin, iOS apps need developers proficient in programming languages like Objective-C and Swift. So we need to learn these technologies if we want to create a native app that works on Android and iOS.
What is Cross Platform Development?
Applications that run smoothly and without issues across various platforms are developed using cross-platform development. Any app we create using this technology will unquestionably run on iOS and Android.
Today, there are numerous open-source frameworks for creating cross-platform mobile apps. Flutter, React Native, and Kotlin Multi-Platform Mobile are a few of the most well-known.
Let’s examine how native and cross-platform development stack up against one another.
Native Versus Cross-Platform Development in Mobile Development
To decide which of these mobile app development technologies is best, let’s compare and contrast the features between them.
Performance
Native apps are quick and responsive in performance assessment reports because they run on a particular operating system.
Additionally, they are developed with the primary programming language and APIs, which greatly increases app efficiency. The software can take advantage of the device’s processing power because the app is stored on the device.
On the other hand, some developers contend that when compared to native apps, multiplatform applications perform poorly. But the most recent cross-platform frameworks give developers all the tools they need to make apps with a native-like user experience.
Also, native apps tend to be larger because they are compiled from the source code and include additional features and graphics.
In our case, we don’t want to increase the size of the client application with all the types of content needed, so a cross-development approach using web components will give us just that and will not require much storage space.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
Cost
Native app development requires two separate teams with different skill sets, which adds time and expense. Since it enables startups and businesses with limited resources to cut development costs, the cross-platform solution may be a good choice. We need a single developer or team to create an app that will function simultaneously on both operating systems.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
User Experience
Utilizing native SDKs, mobile engineers create native apps that have a unified UI.
Native apps integrate with a device and offer a more user-friendly experience because they have interfaces that are tailored specifically for that platform.
However, in our case, we need to add the same type of content on all devices and our web development background allows us to more easily create a consistent and user-friendly interface across all platforms.
Also, native UX elements are not available to cross-platform apps. As a result, it cannot provide the same UX experience on all platforms.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
Management
It can be challenging to manage large teams of different developers using native app development tools to make mobile apps that run on iOS and Android. This is because developers with proficiency in various programming languages will be required to create these apps. Collaboration and communication requirements increase as the number of people working on a project increases.
In contrast, cross-platform divides the management responsibilities among a single developer or team, focusing all of the energy and attention on a single area.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
Code Reusability
It is impossible to adapt code created for one mobile platform to another when creating native apps. Developers might need to write different codes because native development tools use different languages.
Instead of writing new code for each OS, programmers can create a single codebase with cross-platform. Because less code needs to be written or tested, this can hasten the development process. With this approach, we can be sure that our application logic will be the same across all platforms because it uses a single codebase.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
Community
The cross-platform approach appears to be gaining popularity, even though many users are still curious to learn about native app development. This makes it simpler to have more communities where you can always learn what other tech industry professionals are saying about various strategies.
Google Trends, StackOverflow, and Reddit are a few top sources. If industry professionals use technology frequently, it will advance more quickly because it will have access to a robust ecosystem, multiple libraries, and industry best practices.
🏆 Winner: Cross-platform development
Why is Cross Platform Development the Best Alternative to Helppier SDK?
Cross-platform development is the most effective way to shorten the development period when making an app for both iOS and Android. Again, cutting-edge technology that is constantly evolving is used in cross-platform development. We sum up the following advantages:
- Quick and frequent updates are easily possible.
- A wide number of functions is possible because of HTML 5
- Favorable maintenance costs.
- Enormous cross-platform audience
- Code reusability (no need to add more code to the app).
- Small size.
After these analyses, we can conclude that, in our case, a cross-platform development will bring the most beneficial results.
What’s next?
We are excited to keep sharing articles about the Helppier Mobile development. Stay tuned to not miss any part of this process. If you haven’t our previous articles, please check the begging of this process at our Helppier for Mobile: The pursue for the best mobile SDK article.
