The mobile app technology decision feels technical, but it's fundamentally a business decision. Your choice of native vs. cross-platform will determine how much you spend, how fast you move, and what your users experience.
Native Development: iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin)
Native development means building separate apps for each platform using tools designed specifically for each. Maximum performance, full platform feature access, best-in-class UX — but 40–70% higher cost than cross-platform and the burden of maintaining two codebases.
Right for: Games, AR/VR, real-time processing, and apps relying heavily on platform-specific features.
React Native: JavaScript Across Platforms
Write most of your app once in JavaScript and deploy to both iOS and Android. 80–90% shared code, significantly lower cost, large talent pool. Powers Facebook, Instagram, Shopify, and thousands of production apps.
Right for: Business applications, social apps, marketplaces, and any app where feature velocity matters more than peak performance.
Flutter: Google's Cross-Platform Framework
Uses Dart and compiles to native code — giving performance closer to native than React Native. Extends to web and desktop. Growing rapidly in enterprise adoption, but smaller talent pool than React Native.
Right for: Teams prioritizing performance AND cross-platform reach, apps targeting iOS, Android, AND web from a single codebase.
The Simple Decision Framework
If you have $500K+ budget and performance is everything: Native. If you need fast development, broad talent availability, and proven scale: React Native. If you need near-native performance across platforms including web: Flutter. When in doubt, React Native is the lowest-risk starting point for most business applications.
Planning a mobile app?
Block Logic has built production mobile applications across all three approaches. We'll recommend the right one for your specific situation.
Get a Free Mobile Consultation →