Mobile
4 min read
Native vs hybrid apps: which is right for your business?
Swift and Kotlin or React Native and Flutter? A plain-English guide to choosing the right approach for your mobile app.
When you decide to build a mobile app, one of the first technical choices is whether to go native or hybrid. Both can produce excellent apps. The right answer depends on your product, your audience and your budget.
Native apps
Native apps are built separately for each platform: Swift or Objective-C for iOS, and Kotlin or Java for Android.
Best performance – ideal for graphics-heavy apps, complex animations and demanding features.
Full device access – the newest platform features are available on day one.
Higher cost – two codebases usually mean more development and maintenance time.
Hybrid (cross-platform) apps
Hybrid apps use one shared codebase, typically React Native or Flutter, that runs on both iOS and Android.
Faster to market – one team builds for both platforms at once.
Lower cost – shared code reduces development and maintenance effort.
Great for most business apps – booking, e-commerce, marketplaces, dashboards and content apps all work very well.
How to decide
Do you need to launch on both iOS and Android quickly? Hybrid is usually the better fit.
Does your app rely on heavy graphics, AR or advanced hardware features? Consider native.
Is budget the main constraint? Hybrid lets you reach more users for less.
Do you already have a web team using React? React Native can reuse their skills.
Our team builds both native and hybrid apps, so our advice is based on what is right for your product, not on what we prefer to build.
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