Cross-platform development

Cross-platform development builds one codebase that runs as an app on both iOS and Android. The established frameworks render real native interface components rather than a web page in a wrapper, so the result looks and behaves like an app rather than a website in disguise.

It typically saves a substantial share of the cost of building the same product twice, and — often more valuable — it keeps the two platforms in step, so a feature ships on both at once instead of on Android three weeks later.

The savings are smaller than the headline suggests, because platform-specific work does not disappear: permissions, notifications, in-app purchases, store submissions and the occasional native module still need attention on each side. It is one codebase, not one platform.