With total number of app downloads topping 175 billion last year with a revenue of $86 billion, apps are all the craze these days. More and more companies are looking at ways to reach users on a global scale by the use of these mobile applications. Which makes it all the more important for them to understand the kinds of apps to be able to make a decision as to which kind of app would best suit their market needs.

A native app is an application that is ‘native’ to one particular platform and uses it’s SDKs as opposed to a cross platform app, which is compatible with different mobile OS. Most of the information available on the web pitches the native way against the cross platform but it is rather a question of functionality whether you should go for a native or a cross platform application.

A native app would be built using objective-C and swift for iOS while Java and Kotlin would be used for android. On the other hand, cross-platform apps are made on Cordova, Xamarin and Unity mostly. While cross platform apps may seem more lucrative, a native app has a lot of advantages over a cross platform one.

The code runs faster

Native apps that are developed using the platform’s core technologies are more efficient and can make use of full processing capacity of the hardware.

More visibility in the play store

Naive apps have the advantage of being listed on and easily discoverable on the app stores.

User Experience

Different platforms have different UX conventions. Having native apps for each platform makes sure that the user experience is smooth and seamless with the platform.

Integration of new platform features

Mobile OS are evolving at a fast rate with new features being introduces every now and then. A native app makes it easier for these features to be integrated upon release.

On the other hand, a cross platform app has performance and UX issues. The rendering of web based components in cross platform apps takes up a lot of processing power. The user experience also suffers as it is difficult to met the Human Interface Guidelines for all platforms.

After weighing all the pros and cons of these two kinds of apps, it should be clear which is the right option. While cross platform app development has it’s own benefits, an app that is resource heavy and aimed at general masses would do better as a native app.