This question generates more heat than it deserves. Here is how we actually decide.
Cross-platform is the right default
For the majority of business apps — bookings, accounts, dashboards, content, notifications — a single cross-platform codebase gets you onto both iOS and Android for meaningfully less than building twice. The result is genuinely good. Most people using these apps could not tell you how they were built.
If your budget is under about £30,000 and you want both platforms, this is very likely your answer.
Go native when the app is the product
Choose native when one of these is true:
- The interface is the differentiator and must feel exactly right on the platform
- You depend on hardware that moves fast: camera pipelines, sensors, background location, health data
- You need same-day support for new OS features, not a wait for a framework to catch up
- Performance is a feature — heavy graphics, real-time audio or video
The question nobody asks first
Before either: do you need both platforms at launch?
Look at your own analytics. If four in five of your customers are on iOS, shipping one excellent iOS app beats shipping two mediocre ones. You can add Android once the product has proved itself, with everything you learned from the first launch.
Launching on one platform is not a compromise. It is a smaller bet on an unproven idea, which is usually the right size of bet.
What actually decides it
Honestly? Who is going to maintain it. A brilliant native app nobody on your team can update is worse than a good cross-platform one they can. Pick the thing that still works in two years, with the people you will actually have.