Mobile platforms like iOS and Android use different languages and frameworks to interact with device hardware and to access a number of cloud features. For iOS, there’s Swift or Objective-C and for Android, there’s Java or Kotlin. Therefore, you have to develop applications twice if you want them to run on each platform.

Enter cross-platform mobile development tools. They’re designed to provide a single language framework that can target all mobile platforms from the same code base.

What Are the Benefits?

The benefits, at least on paper, are immediately clear: you can deliver applications faster and reduce maintenance costs. However, in the real world, it’s not that simple. The available cross-platform tools for mobile development address this benefit in various degrees. As the providers of a cross-platform mobile development platform that is highly regarded by customers and users, we want to help you pick the right one for you.

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What Are the Main Risks?

The “write once, run anywhere” promise has been touted too often by the creators and users of all kinds of languages and tools. As a result, we’ve all come to be wary of the claims. And rightly so. Any language or tool, no matter how excellent, will come with costs and tradeoffs.

So, as you consider which you might use, carefully weigh the risks involved and whether the tool can be justified over native frameworks. The most important factors to consider are:

  • Performance: Will the tool hold up under the stress of delivering capabilities such as scrolling, screen switches, data syncing, and remote service access?
  • Cost: Can the price of the tool be justified based on the time it saves?
  • Support: How reliable are the vendors or open-source libraries? Do they have the resources and history to indicate they can support the technology a few years from now?

What Are the Options?

Cross-platform development tools can be divided into four major categories:

  • Web-only: The pure web platform accessed from any modern browser is becoming increasingly more capable. As a result, it’s now possible to create Progressive Web Apps, which are fully functional, offline-mode-supporting, almost-native apps. They are being championed by Google and are supported by most browsers and platforms.
  • Hybrid shell: These tools create a simple native container that then displays a web-based app within.
  • Hybrid mix: This category of tools takes the previous one a step further. Native components provide a speedier, more natural experience in certain critical parts of the app, such as navigation. Then, for most of the content pieces of the app, these tools resort to web views.
  • Compile-to-native: These tools provide a single development environment, which then gets transpiled into native code and frameworks. This gets you near-native performance but usually requires some customization.

Ready to Learn More?

If you want to dig deeper, we’ve compiled extensive overviews of current cross-platform development tools and created handy posts that are categorized to address different budgets and team sizes or talent. Check them out:

Build a mobile app in two hours with OutSystems

Learn the basics of our platform in this course and see for yourself why thousands of developers around the world rely on it to massively speed up their IT projects.

Use this link to sign up for free access to OutSystems and get special access to enterprise features.