This debate has been running for years and still confuses most people hiring developers. The short version: it depends on what your app needs to do, not on which technology sounds more impressive.
Native development means building separately for iOS using Swift and for Android using Kotlin. Cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter let you write most of the code once and deploy to both. A product manager named Liesl Fourie chose Flutter for a field inspection app and saved roughly 35% on initial build costs. The app worked well for her use case.
Where native still wins
If your app relies heavily on device hardware, animations at 60fps, or platform-specific features like Apple Pay or Android widgets, native gives you more direct control. Gaming apps and augmented reality tools still tend to perform better with native builds.
Cross-platform has closed the gap significantly since 2020. Flutter in particular produces near-native performance for most standard app categories: e-commerce, booking, dashboards, and content apps.
The real cost difference shows up in maintenance, not the initial build. Two native codebases mean two sets of updates, two sets of bugs, and two developer skill sets to hire for.
For most startups and mid-sized businesses launching their first app, cross-platform is a reasonable starting point. Rebuild native later if performance becomes a genuine problem.