Being a founder of a new startup will always keep you thinking on your feet. As you sail into unchartered waters, you will dot your i’s and cross your t’s before your groundbreaking idea can change the world. Analyzing the final shape of your product, you go through various assumptions and hypotheses. And before you launch it in the market, you would want to quickly create a functional prototype or an MVP of the app and show it to your investors. You do this because you do not wish to invest in any uncertain project.
Once the community embraces your app, you now need to take it to the next level. You are in the driver’s seat and will be mindful of your limited treasure chest. While validating the viability of your app, you are not willing to sink those available funds. Staying around all these challenges, what is one thing that assures you are moving in the right direction and that your innovative idea will surely cut through the competition?
The best solution on the horizon is adopting cross-platform technology emerging as a beacon of hope to cope with your minimum available resources. Keep reading ahead as we unveil the reasons why as a startup, cross-platform technology can become your best choice to develop innovative products and applications.
What is Cross Platform Development?
Cross-platform app development involves developing an application that can function on multiple platforms like Android, Linux, iOS, etc. The beauty of this technology is that developers have to write code just once and the same code can be used multiple times in the future to create the same application on other platforms. However, with cross-platform app development, developers need sharp skills and the best technical knowledge regarding the most demanding technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS that can develop mobile applications for multiple devices at cost-effective budgets.
A survey conducted in 2022 shows a sharp rise in the usage of cross-platform app development frameworks. Statista reported that 46% of software developers use Flutter as their preferred framework to develop cross-platform applications. Hence, popular cross-platforms like Flutter and React Native are taking the app development world by storm. You will find innovative startups using them to test their ideas and two of the most popular players are Instagram and Facebook.
How Startups Fuel Innovation by Choosing Cross-platform App Development Framework?
Reduced Time to Market
All you need is one development team that can frame a solid game plan to complete the app development process quickly and with higher efficiency. You may miss out on going behind the scenes, however, you would expect to get the best product, website, and online presence faster than usual for your startup. In this case, your tech team can create wonders by making one single code base and can release your app when it gets ready on multiple platforms. In this manner, you can reap invaluable benefits in creating innovative solutions for your users within your limited resources and stringent budgets.
Reusable codes
Your code becomes the building block to determine the application design and programming style. Building a feature-rich app usually needs an ample amount of coding and multiple development teams for each platform. And if you opt for a cross-platform application development framework, developers can use the reusable codes for multiple applications. On average, 80% of codes get utilized and strike off repetitions saving enough time for startups to focus on other parts of the project. The real talent lies in the ability of the developers to save these reusable code snippets in the library and reuse them again as long as the relevance of the codes matches.
Cost-Effective
Opting for cross-platform app development means you are working with a smaller team and the costs are at a lower base. Hence, it remains an ideal choice for startups and SMEs. Using one application and running it on various operating systems promotes low spending on resources on the development front and redirects it to improving the quality of services provided to your users.
Lesser money, reach out to a bigger audience
By creating a single app version, you get access to the App Store and Google Play Community. Hence, although developing your product on a lower budget, you need not go into a dilemma to choose between the two. Moreover, startups need a larger audience that gets covered by showing your presence on various hardware platforms. And further, you cannot miss out on the ongoing benefit that cross-platform technology provides behind the doors to your brand. Your brand visibility will gradually amplify your brand visibility.
Ideal Choice for Launching MVP
Startups need a lot of attention to knowing user expectations, which is crucial. Before launching the full-fledged application, you must collect data and develop an understanding of the market situation. Launching an MVP or Minimum viable product can save your costs and will address several unanswered questions. With a cross-platform app development framework, you can build an MVP at a very quick pace and can get the right feedback about the user expectations, desired features, and frequency of app usage as compared to other apps on their mobile device.
Improved business flow
With the strong backing of a development team, you can pay attention to those unaddressed issues as the team will keep up with the ongoing needs and requirements to fulfill the user’s demands and queries at the initial stage. You can focus on those pending marketing campaigns and promotional events, and brainstorm on your innovative project idea as your development team is working to address the bottom-line issues.
Huge community support
There is a massive crowd of supporters for cross-platform systems. For frameworks like Flutter and React Native, there is a broad community for help in case developers face any tech problems.
Seamless Integration
With cross-platform app development technology, you get a seamless integration with other apps. Customers get a complete and fruitful experience as cross-platform apps can seamlessly associate with other frameworks and online applications.
Supporting Third-Party Plugins
React Native, Flutter, and similar cross-platform app development frameworks are highly supportive of third-party plugins. You may not need any specific web view function after JavaScript and native modules get integrated. Being a cross-platform framework, React Native is a flexible platform enabling developers to connect the plugins with third-party modules.
Easier Maintenance
Maintaining multiple codebases can be a nightmare for startups with limited resources. Cross-platform technologies simplify maintenance by allowing developers to make changes and updates in one place, which are then applied across all supported platforms. This streamlines the development process, reduces the risk of introducing bugs, and frees up valuable developer time for more important tasks.
Case Studies in Startup Innovation who are using cross platform technologies successfully:
In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and entrepreneurship, the adoption of cross-platform technologies has emerged as a game-changer for startups seeking to innovate and disrupt industries. In this series of case studies, we delve into the journeys of several pioneering startups that have harnessed the power of cross-platform technologies to drive innovation, streamline development, and redefine user experiences.
From the world of e-commerce and finance to language learning and gaming, these startups showcase how versatile tools and frameworks like React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have enabled them to thrive in highly competitive markets. Their stories serve as inspirational beacons, illuminating the path for other startups looking to embrace cross-platform technologies and rewrite the rules of success in the digital age.
Airbnb: The renowned vacation rental platform used React Native to rebuild its mobile app, resulting in faster development cycles and a more consistent user experience across platforms.
Tinder: This popular dating app used React Native to develop a new version of its app, resulting in significant performance improvements and a smoother user experience.
Instacart: Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery and pickup service, turned to React Native to streamline its app development. By using a single codebase for both iOS and Android, Instacart was able to iterate quickly and maintain a consistent user experience across platforms. This allowed them to rapidly expand their service and adapt to changing market demands.
Discord: Discord, the popular communication platform for gamers, adopted React Native for their mobile app development. This decision enabled Discord to provide a unified and feature-rich experience to its users on both iOS and Android. They could roll out new features and updates more efficiently, contributing to their exponential growth.
SoundCloud: SoundCloud, the music streaming and sharing platform, implemented cross-platform technologies like React Native and PWA for its mobile app. This approach helped them reduce development time and ensure a consistent user experience. SoundCloud’s ability to deliver a seamless music streaming experience across different platforms contributed to its continued relevance in the industry.
Duolingo: Duolingo, a language-learning platform, harnessed cross-platform technologies to expand its reach. By utilizing Xamarin, Duolingo developed a consistent and engaging language-learning experience for users on different devices. This strategy enabled them to quickly scale their user base and remain a dominant player in the edtech industry.
Top 5 Cross-platform App Development Frameworks
React Native
Launched by Facebook, React Native is a dynamic cross-platform app development framework that supports all types of operating systems such as iOS, Apple tvOS, macOS, Android, Android tvOS, Android TV, Web, Web Windows, and UWP. And the icing on the cake, you are allowed to work with the React library outside the browser for developing even native applications with complete access to API system platforms! How cool is that!
Flutter
A marvelous creation of Google, Flutter has been a game-changer in the world of cross-platform app development and paves the way for a bright future. Moreover, Flutter 3 has already won several hearts of developers and is relished by giants such as Hamilton, Philips, Alibaba, Hue, and renowned businesses.
Xamarin
For building highly scalable applications for Android, iOS, and Windows with .NET, Xamarin is the best cross-platform application development framework. 90% of its code is reusable and you can easily avoid modifying it across multiple platforms. In addition, with the ability to create business logic in a single language, you get your desired interface, performance characteristics, and behavior of the mandated operating system.
Ionic
Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile
With a single source code usage for the subject area of the logic of Android and iOS apps, Kotlin Multiplatform mobile is unique in its way. You need a specific platform code only when you are working with any platform-specific API for user interface development.
Conclusion
Cross-platform app development is consistently gaining popularity in the startup ecosystem as it is fueling innovation and growth at a propelling speed. Attracted with its perks such as cost-effectiveness and reusable codes make it a perfect option for building robust and interactive mobile applications. As leading technologies like React Native and Flutter take center stage, we firmly recommend a cross-platform app development framework for your startup project. Check your business ideas quickly, and that too at a lower cost. Find a dedicated team of cross-platform app development experts who can convert your brainstorming idea into a marvelous reality by using high-quality codes and an array of cross-platform app development services.
