As a startup founder, you know just how rapidly the market landscape changes and evolves. The world of technology is full of opportunities and growth. To keep up to date with market changes you have to keep an eye on the latest technology and trends. One recent trend that every startup tech founder must have on their radar is cross-platform mobile app development, a technological term that has gained popularity in recent years.

This newly introduced term in the tech sector has piqued the interest of many businesses and startups, and for good reason. As we all know, in todays world businesses must develop applications for multiple platforms, most notably Android and iOS. This can be frustrating in that it eats up valuable development time that could alternatively be spent on more important and specific tasks.

The use of a cross-platform mobile development approach eliminates the need to create applications for multiple platforms, saving time. This is why cross-platform apps are currently one of the fastest-growing software development trends.

What is cross-platform app development?

Cross-platform app development is the process of creating a single codebase for mobile apps that can be deployed across multiple operating systems like iOS, Android, Linux, etc. This type of app development is advantageous because it allows developers to easily optimise and update applications without having to perform the same steps repeatedly on different platforms. It enables organisations to create mobile applications for as many devices as possible while keeping both development and ongoing maintenance costs low.

The present state of cross-platform app development:

According to Statista’s 2021 developer poll, Flutter became the most popular cross-platform mobile framework, used by 42% of all developers worldwide.

These statistics demonstrate the rising popularity of cross-platform apps among developers and the factors driving this trend.

But for a startup, is making the decision to develop cross-platform apps, rather than native apps a wise choice, or not? Let’s find out.

Reasons why startups should embrace cross-platform app development in 2023:

1. Cost-Effective Development: Cross-platform app development is far more economical than native mobile app development. Since the same codebase can be used to create apps on multiple platforms, startup owners can save money and time in the long run.

2. Time Efficiency: It takes a lot of time and effort to create an application for a single platform, let alone several platforms. With cross-platform mobile app development, startup founders can take advantage of the flexibility that comes with using one codebase across different operating systems, thus saving precious developer hours.

3. Easy Maintenance: One of the most important advantages of using cross-platform mobile app development is its ability to keep updates and new features quickly synced across all platforms. This saves startup owners time and money, as they can quickly update their applications instead of performing the same steps on each platform.

4. Multiple Platform Support: The main benefit of using cross-platform mobile app development is its ability to support multiple platforms with one codebase. This helps startup owners reach a wider audience quickly and effectively, thus increasing their chances of success.

5. Perfect for releasing MVP: Technology gurus always recommend launching firms with their MVP initially because the risks are low. Cross-platform app development benefits startups because it is a well-known & excellent option when it comes to minimum viable products.

6. Simple to code: Despite its basic infrastructure, cross-platform app development is popular because it offers a native app-like user experience. Naturally, startups are benefiting from it, since it allows you to skip the coding step whenever you want to release a new version of your software or app for a different operating system.

Cross-platform app development is, in a nutshell, a win-win situation for startups.

After a certain amount of time, you can always add more features to your MVP to make it more user-specific by paying attention to what your target market wants from your app.

7. There are countless development tools accessible: The concept of cross-platform app development is broad. It has a wide range of usable development tools and frameworks, including Flutter, React Native, Kotlin, Ionic, and others.

With the aid of the toolkits available, developers may create attractive UI designs while maintaining the smooth functionality of the app with these tools and frameworks.

Therefore, creating cross-platform apps is now easier than creating native ones.

8. Completely Cloud Compatible: No matter which cross-platform app development framework you choose, such as React Native, Flutter, or Xamarin, they all provide smooth cloud interaction. Additionally, the single code base that was utilized to create your program is flexible and coordinated with several extensions, making it scalable and adaptive.

9. Boost your Market Reach: Tapping into multiple marketplaces with a single codebase helps startup businesses boost their user base in an economical way. The greater the number of platforms your app supports, the larger the audience you can target. When you focus on a single platform, such as Android or iOS, you attract a limited number of users. With cross-platform mobile app development, however, you can launch your app on all platforms without additional work. More platforms translate to a larger audience reach.

Top frameworks of cross-platform app development:

1. Flutter: Flutter is an open-source mobile app development framework developed by Google. It aids in creating powerful applications with a single codebase and provides a smooth user experience on both Android and iOS platforms. Google just released Flutter 3, an improved version of the popular app that is gaining popularity in the IT sector. The benefits of cross-platform and native techniques are combined in Flutter, which has been embraced by many major brands like Alibaba, Hamilton, Phillips, Hue, Dixie Group, and other well-known companies.

Read this article for more insight on how to choose between Flutter and Ionic frameworks

2. React Native: React Native is one of the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks for startup owners. It enables developers to use JavaScript to create native apps for multiple operating systems. Facebook has introduced React Native, which is compatible with platforms like iOS, macOS, Apple tvOS, Android tvOS, Android, Android TV, Web Windows, Web, and UWP. You are able to provide similarly fantastic experiences with this cross-platform framework.

Additionally, you may use this technology to integrate with the React library outside of the browser to create native applications that have full access to system API platforms.

3. Xamarin: Microsoft’s Xamarin, another cross-platform mobile application development tool, uses C# to help startup owners produce amazing apps quickly and efficiently on all major mobile platforms like Android, Windows as well as iOS.

At least 90% of the application code can be used with this framework, and that too without requiring platform-specific modifications. With Xamarin, you can create business logic in a single language without sacrificing the required operating system’s interface, behaviour, or performance (OS).

• Kotlin: Kotlin, Google’s official language for Android development, is an open-source mobile application development tool. It provides startup owners with effective coding and high productivity.
• Ionic: Ionic is another open-source mobile app development tool used to create high-performance apps for startup owners. It helps startup owners to quickly and easily build hybrid mobile applications while also providing a smooth user experience on both Android and iOS devices. This framework produces highly interactive, native-like applications, making Ionic an ideal technology for progressive web app development as well.

6. PhoneGap: This open-source mobile app development framework helps startup owners to quickly and efficiently build high-performance applications for all major platforms. It is capable of leveraging existing web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create cross-platform apps.

Read this article for more insight on how to choose between Xamarin and PhoneGap frameworks

How much does it cost to develop a cross-platform app in 2023?

The cost to develop a cross-platform app in 2023 is dependent on the type of application and its complexity. Generally, startup owners need to budget from $15,000-$40,000 for basic or smaller applications, and up to $200,000 or more for complex apps. The cost may vary depending on features such as social integration, database support, payment gateway integration, backend development, etc.

The main thing is you can save up to 30-50 % in total costs by going with cross-platform compared to native development. 

Cross-Platform app development and Appomate

At Appomate, we are enthusiastic about working on cutting-edge technologies. We have a dedicated team of cross-platform app developers with expertise in top frameworks such as React Native, Flutter and Xamarin to provide our clients with the app they need.

We provide a comprehensive range of cross-platform app development services, including:

• Custom cross-platform app creation
• Reengineering cross-platform applications
• Application management and ongoing maintenance

Our development process begins with preliminary discussions and brainstorming sessions, after which we proceed to finalize the technology you require and create a roadmap forward. Contact our team to learn which technology will best meet your app’s needs and how much it will cost to develop it.

Appomate Cross-platform app development portfolio:

My Combat App:

My Combat App was created using Flutter app development to help athletes train smarter and achieve their goals. The app takes the data you input from your sessions and creates important data that can be used to better plan your training. The training workload graph and goal-setting features also let you track your progress each week as you prepare for an upcoming competition or fight.

Our client review:

After an unfortunately bad experience with another app company, I was lucky to have been referred to Appomate who agreed to take on my project despite my difficult predicament. It was refreshing to work with a company that was so experienced and dedicated. In a short time, they had redesigned my app to something very impressive.
Their team communicates well and guides you through the design and build process which on my project conserved both time and money.
Strongly recommend using their team.

Alex Carioti- Founder, My Combat App

Hospool app

Hospool app; Australia’s Hospitality Staff Pool, developed by combining react native and .NET is a platform that enables employers to communicate directly with available hospitality workers in immediate timing

Our client review:

I came to Appomate with a very ambitious goal of getting my startup APP to market within two months. It was critical that the APP be released within two months, or the startup opportunity would have been lost. The team, which was very well led by Barath and Sabi, was calm and confident from the outset and to my amazement delivered the completed APP to market in six weeks. What was even more pleasing was the correctness and quality of the APP’s functionality and presentation. I highly recommend Appomate and if speed and quality are important to you I wouldn’t look anywhere else.

Peter Schofield-Founder, Hospool App.

Overall, cross-platform tools have matured to a stage in 2023 where you can now save significant time and money in the development of your app, without losing any quality or features compared to native development. Feel free to get in touch with our team to discuss more on your cross-platform app development needs.