Mobile app development starts here with the requirement rather than the platform, because the three routes differ by roughly an order of magnitude in cost.
Getting that choice right in week one is the single largest saving available on this kind of project.
Three Routes, and When Each Is Right
A progressive web app. No store, no review process, no separate release cycle. Installs to the home screen, works offline, and sends push notifications on both platforms. Where you do not need the camera at depth, background location or hardware the browser cannot reach, this is frequently the honest answer.
Cross-platform, with React Native. One codebase, both stores, native components underneath. Right when you genuinely need store presence and the interface is conventional.
Fully native. Swift and Kotlin, two codebases, two release cycles. Right when the app is the product, when performance or hardware access is the point, or when platform conventions matter enough that users would notice.
We will tell you which of the three your requirement calls for, and that first conversation costs nothing.
How the Route Gets Chosen
Four questions settle it: what hardware the app touches, whether it must work with no signal, whether store presence is part of the sales story, and how often you plan to release.
Answer those and the route is usually obvious. Where two routes remain plausible, we build the riskiest screen twice and measure, which costs a couple of days and removes the argument.
What Mobile App Development Costs After Launch
Both platforms release annually and both deprecate things, so an app needs attention to stay installable, keep passing review, and keep running.
We budget maintenance from the start and say what the annual figure looks like, which is the line most quotes leave out.
Store review is a real dependency too, which is why feature flags and remote configuration are part of the build. An urgent fix should not wait two days in a queue.
What We Build
The application, the API behind it, and the account and sync layer between them, which is usually where the actual difficulty lives.
Offline behaviour, and conflict resolution when the same record was edited on two devices, are the parts that separate an app that works from a demo that worked.
Push notification infrastructure, store submission and the release pipeline are included rather than handed back to you at the end.
What You Own at the End
The repository from the first commit, the release pipeline, the store listings and the runbook for shipping a new version.
Good mobile app development leaves your team able to release without us. Tell us what somebody is meant to do with it and how often they will do it.
Related Services
The API and account system behind the app is web and API development. Where the product is multi-tenant, that is SaaS development.
Where the app talks to systems that were never designed for it, that is API integration.