Cross-Platform Development
We build apps for iOS and Android from a single codebase — saving time and budget without compromising quality.
Get in touchAbout Cross-Platform Development
Cross-platform development enables building a mobile app for iOS and Android from a single codebase, reducing development time by 30-40% and substantially lowering maintenance costs. Instead of writing two separate native apps, we use React Native or Flutter which translate shared code into native components for each platform.
React Native — a framework from Meta using JavaScript/TypeScript and React for UI — is ideal if you already have a React web app. It has a huge npm ecosystem and is used by Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Discord. Expo simplifies getting started with pre-configured setups and cloud builds.
Flutter — Google's framework using Dart and a custom rendering engine — draws every pixel itself, ensuring identical appearance on all platforms and impressive animation performance (60fps). Hot Reload shows code changes instantly. Flutter also supports web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Choosing between React Native and Flutter depends on the project. React Native is preferred when you have React developers or need deep integration with a web app. Flutter excels for apps with custom designs, complex animations, or multi-platform support. Both provide access to native device features via plugins.
Cross-platform development does not mean quality compromises. Modern frameworks deliver performance comparable to native apps. UI components adapt to each platform's guidelines: Material Design on Android, HIG on iOS. Native modules can be written for performance-critical features. The app publishes to all stores in one release cycle.
History of Cross-Platform Development
The "write once, run everywhere" idea predates mobile by decades — Java promoted it in the 1990s for desktop apps. In mobile, cross-platform became relevant after 2010. Early solutions like PhoneGap/Cordova used web technologies inside a native wrapper, but the results were slow and felt non-native.
In 2015, Facebook introduced React Native — a revolutionary approach where JavaScript code translated into real native components rather than rendering in a WebView. The result looked and worked like a native app. Facebook proved the approach on its own apps.
Google responded with Flutter in 2017 (stable version December 2018). Flutter took a radically different path: instead of using native components, it renders every pixel through its own graphics engine (Skia). This ensures identical appearance across platforms and impressive animation performance.
By the early 2020s both technologies had matured. React Native received a new architecture (Fabric, TurboModules) with significantly improved performance. Flutter expanded to web, Windows, macOS, and Linux. JetBrains is working on Compose Multiplatform based on Kotlin.
Today cross-platform development is mainstream, not a compromise. React Native and Flutter rank in Stack Overflow's top 10 loved frameworks. BMW, Alibaba, Google Pay use Flutter; Microsoft, Shopify, Discord use React Native. Time-to-market savings reach 30-50%.
Advantages
- Single codebase for iOS and Android
- React Native or Flutter — your choice
- Development time reduced by up to 40%
- Native-level performance
- Unified UI/UX across platforms
- Simple updates and maintenance
- Access to native device APIs
- Publishing to all app stores