Cross-Platform vs Native — The Honest Version
You can build a mobile app three ways: fully native (separate Swift and Kotlin apps), cross-platform (one codebase for both), or a web wrapper (a website in an app shell — usually a mistake). For the vast majority of products — content, commerce, social, SaaS companions — cross-platform with React Native delivers a genuinely native-feeling app at around half the cost and time of building natively twice. Fully native earns its premium only for games, heavy AR, or apps built around cutting-edge platform hardware.
What We Build In
iOS & Android from one codebase.
Around 90% of the code is shared. Every feature is built once, tested once, and shipped to both stores — not implemented twice by two drifting teams.
Native performance & feel.
React Native renders real native components — scrolling, gestures, and animations feel like the platform because they are the platform, not a webview in a wrapper.
Push, offline & over-the-air.
Push notifications, offline-first data, deep linking, and over-the-air updates that ship fixes to users in hours, not app-review cycles.
Shares DNA with your web app.
Same language and patterns as React on the web — business logic, API clients, and developers move freely between web and mobile.
What's Included in an App Build
A typical mobile app engagement covers:
Need mobile as an ongoing product line? You can hire a dedicated React Native developer from our team.
Expo & React Native — Production-Grade Mobile
Modern React Native isn't the rough toolchain of five years ago. Built on Expo's production tooling, it's a mature pipeline from first build to store release — and when a feature genuinely needs platform code, native modules keep every door open.
“Cross-platform feels janky” was true of the webview hybrids of the 2010s — Cordova, Ionic — not React Native, which renders real native UI. Instagram, Discord, and Shopify run it in production at massive scale.
Ideal For
How We Deliver — From First Call to Launch (and After)
No black box. Here's exactly what happens once you bring us in:
Discovery & scoping
A real conversation about the problem, the users, and the constraints — not a sales call. We leave it knowing exactly what needs building and why.
Fixed proposal & quote
You get a plain-English scope document, a timeline, and a fixed price. What's included, what's excluded, and what happens if scope changes — all in writing before any money moves.
Design & architecture
Wireframes, UI, and the technical architecture — database schema, API design, hosting — agreed up front so there are no expensive surprises mid-build.
Build in sprints
Development happens in short, reviewable cycles with a shared board. You see working software early and often, not a single black-box handoff at the end.
QA & testing
Every feature is tested — automated tests plus manual QA on real devices — before it's marked done. Nothing ships on a “works on my machine”.
Launch & handoff
Deployment, performance checks, and a walkthrough. You get the source code, the hosting, and the documentation — full ownership, zero lock-in.
Support & iteration
We stay on for bug fixes, monitoring, and new features on a retainer or ad-hoc basis — whichever fits how your product will actually grow.
How Much Does Mobile App Development Cost?
Mobile app development cost in the UK varies by feature set. For reference:
| Option | Typical range |
|---|---|
| UK agency — cross-platform app | £30,000 – £80,000 |
| UK agency — native (×2 platforms) | £60,000 – £150,000+ |
| Freelance team (variable quality) | £15,000 – £50,000 |
| Mobile app via Codified Studio | from $3,500 (fixed scope) |
The cheapest quote on paper isn't always the cheapest in practice — a low day rate that needs heavy management, or a build that needs redoing, costs more than a fixed scope delivered right the first time. With Codified Studio, pricing is transparent from the first quote: no hidden onboarding fees, no surprise scope creep, and full code ownership at the end.
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Ready to start your mobile app development project?
Tell us what you're building and we'll come back with a scoped recommendation and a fixed quote — not a generic sales call.