Comparison between Native and Cross-Platform Apps

Abstract: The primary purpose of this study is to determine in which technology we have to develop an application depending on the features that we would like to include, in order to deliver the best value for a good price to the customers. Consequently, in this research we have described the capabilities, performance and limitations that we have found while using the different technologies. The empirical part of this study was conducted in the first semester of 2014/2015 at the Linnaeus University in Växjö (Sweden), supported by Softwerk Company. In conclusion, the thesis shows that the user experience with native apps is always better than using the web-based technologies, especially using maps, although the time and effort spent to develop them is higher. Cross-platform solutions can be very useful for simple apps, and also if the developer does not have a lot of time to develop them. The problem with this last kind of applications is that the performance is less than the native ones.