Need to create a mobile app? Here is what to choose.

By 2025, the mobile industry will have 5.9 billion unique mobile users or 71% of the expected population of the Earth. This means that mobile development is more relevant than ever. Apple and Google will fight tooth and nail to keep their tools and SDK likeable by developers so they can avoid alternatives like React Native or Ionic. This is shown clearly by the latest tools they have released, Apple with Swift UI and Google with Android Compose. These tools are very similar to what React has been doing these years, which is declarative programming style.

The difference between imperative and declarative programming is a topic that I can write another time. Where I am focusing on this writing is why companies should use native to develop application rather than the other alternatives.

I will start with one down side of this approach, it requires to write the same app twice, this I think has been one of the main reasons why businesses choose the other alternatives rather than native.

But I promise you if the application takes off and you use a non native solution, you will have to write 3 times.
1. For iOS
2. For Android
3. For the specific language that the framework is build (javascript for React)

Once the project is released, the native version becomes much cheaper to maintain, for the following reasons:
- If new changes happen to the Android or iOS SDK, you will get them first as a native developer, the same thing cannot be said for the alternatives, where you have to wait for the SDK maintainer to update to the new changes. This will put you ahead of the competition especially if it is a big change.
- Breaking changes, the same as with new changes, you as native developer will be able to fix them as soon as the new SDK is made available to use, you can even do the changes while the SDK is on beta, not the same can be said for the alternatives where you have to wait for the changes to be reflect by the SDK, which can take months or even longer depending if the breaking change is something niche.
- Utilising services that mobile phones provide can often be difficult for non native apps.

So native development, if done right, should always be the first choice when making an application for your business.