Quick Summary - Cross-platform apps are based on the idea of creating one codebase that will work on all platforms. Many companies are attracted to them for offering lower upfront development costs while maximizing their potential audience.
These points hold mostly true, but there are some things you should be aware of.
8 mins read
August 25, 2021
Having covered technical (and marketing) considerations for Native Apps (iOS and Android), let’s look at Cross-Platform Apps. At the risk of oversimplifying, a cross-platform app is a viable consideration when you don’t require high-performance software that requires a constant Internet connection to work. A cross-platform app is also an option for cost-effectively* maximizing your potential audience. Additionally, cross-platform apps may be your only option for supporting obsolete and legacy systems.
We have to put an asterisk on “cost-effectively” for a couple of reasons. It is true that you can save time and money creating one cross-platform app compared to an app for Android AND iOS. Cross-Platform Apps, however, are more complex to develop and require more skillsets. This considered you’re likely to save between 40-60% on a single cross-platform app vs two native apps – in development only. However, long-term support (testing, debugging, etc.) can run up to 300% more compared to a single app.
A lot of companies turn to Cross-Platform Apps on the idea of “build once, run everywhere.” That’s true for fairly simple apps with limited functionality. However, more features add complexity and risks for security vulnerabilities and feature functionality on a device by device and operating system. This makes it imperative to work with an experienced software architect to determine its optimal specifications to avoid budget and time overruns.
n most cases, a good portion of the technical stack for native apps is already defined for you – or at least limited in number/variety of options. You’ll use either Java or Kotlin for Android, and Swift or Objective-C for iOS, for example. With cross-platform apps, there are many more options and possible combinations.
The easiest way to narrow these options down to get started in defining project requirements is to determine what’s most important for your app — performance, appearance, features, and functionality, etc. Fortunately, you have three main options to choose from:
To compare the various pros and cons of each:
The key issue with cross-platform apps is that they often require 2-4 programming languages. This inherently increases the complexity of the app, increases testing requirements, and makes debugging more difficult compared to native apps.
The sheer number of possible combinations of technologies that can be used to develop a cross-platform app is daunting. By defining whether your app will be compile-time, runtime, web-based, or a game, provides some direction – as with the following chart. But, nothing compares to discussing your software with an experienced software architect.
If so, this handy calculator will help determine how much it would cost.
As we’ve noted, the upfront costs of creating a cross-platform app run about 50% less than creating native apps for Android and iOS. This can work well for startups engaging an international audience. It’s important to note that long-term support will cost more comparatively, though this may not be quite so bad as it sounds with respect to the software development lifecycle.
You will likely need to maintain peak development efforts following the launch of your app. But, as continued improvements reduce bugs, improve the customer experience, and app performance, it will decline over time. You can reduce your team size or reassign the developers from the first project to subsequent projects.
With the ongoing escalation of ransomware and cyberattacks, the software development industry is about to get serious about software security and secure software development. Cross-platform apps have greater risks and vulnerabilities to cyberattacks –
Malicious code can:
An Android app, ostensibly, is mainly only at risk of attacks against the Android OS. However, threats like Androidos_USBattack.A and Troj_Droidpak.A can transfer between connect PCs and Android devices. A cross-platform app would be vulnerable to attacks targeting Android, iOS, Windows, etc.
This warrants reviewing our post about President Biden’s EO on CyberSecurity –
With so many technology choices available even after determining the type of app you wish to develop, a software architect is essential for defining all of your project requirements. If your project requirements are ambiguous or ill-defined, odds are high that changes will be necessary midstream in your app’s development. This can significantly increase costs, create delays in launching your app, and actually – increase the chances of your app failing. That’s really bad news if you have a tech-first startup reliant upon it.
Many established companies with their own development teams specializing in say desktop software, mobile, or web-based apps will want to bring on specialists for whatever segment their team lacks. This may also extend to outsourcing or augmenting your team with specialists in specific technologies, programming languages, and even development tools.
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