Published on January 7th, 2017 | by Guest

Pros and cons of building a cross platform mobile app

There are clearly plenty of options to select from when you decide to develop a mobile app. You can create a native app or a web app. You can even develop a cross platform mobile app so that you have to maintain just one codebase for your app!

Here are some of the pros and cons of cross platform mobile application development that will help you decide whether this approach is good for your business or not:

Pros

Speed

Cross platform mobile apps are relatively fast to develop rather than building one app separately for Android and iOS. This is because a single code base is used across all the platforms. New code need not be developed for the various mobile platforms and hence the development time is significantly decreased.

Costs

Cross platform mobile apps are very cost effective as they require you to develop code just once. Unlike native apps for various platforms, that require a separate code, that significantly increases costs, cross platform apps help in saving costs.

Simplicity

Cross platform apps are simple in terms of development and maintenance. They can be synced across all the available mobile application development platforms. There are various technologies that support cross platform development such as appcelerator, PhoneGap etc. Just one team of developers could provide you with all that you require to develop an app that will work seamlessly on all available platforms.

Cons

Platform limitations

Each platform has its own uniqueness and flexibilities. Using a common platform for developing apps for various devices you may not be able to leverage from these unique features provided by these platforms.

User experience

Both iPhones and Androids have different screen resolutions, sizes and features. Designing a common app for the two platforms could result in the app offering a good user experience on one platform and a not so good experience on the other. A great example is Facebook that developed a cross platform app, but later on moved to developing separate app for the two mobile platforms.

Integration challenges

Integrating the app with the local settings and preferences is a challenge for various platforms.

Clearly, there is a lot to consider when you select a method for developing mobile applications. You will need to decide whether you wish to develop for a single platform or for multiple platforms. You will also need to decide whether you would want to develop an app separately for each platform or create a cross platform mobile app. Make a decision after thoroughly understanding the pros and cons of cross platform mobile apps development!

Author bio:

EliteMobApp.com is a USA based leading mobile application development company offering cross platform mobile app, hybrid mobile app and native mobile apps development services at affordable rates.

Tags: app, building, cons, cross platform, mobile, pros