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Software Engineering

Mobile App Development

iOS and Android apps built by senior engineers — with an honest call on native versus cross-platform, and the back-end and release process that actually get you to the store.

Overview

A mobile app is not a website in a smaller frame. It runs on a device you do not control, on a network that comes and goes, under an operating system that updates itself twice a year and can break your app while you sleep. It has to feel native to the platform, respect a battery, survive a review process run by Apple and Google, and keep working offline in a lift or on a train. Most of the difficulty in mobile is in those constraints, not in the screens themselves — and it is exactly where thin, template-driven builds fall apart.

We build apps for iOS and Android, and the first real decision on any project is how: native — Swift and SwiftUI on iOS, Kotlin and Jetpack Compose on Android — or cross-platform with React Native or Flutter from a single codebase. That choice sets your cost, your team, your performance ceiling and your maintenance burden for years, so we make it deliberately against your product rather than defaulting to whichever framework we happen to like. We are equally willing to tell you that a well-built progressive web app, or no app at all, is the pragmatic answer — because sometimes it is.

Behind almost every app is a back-end: the API it talks to, the data it syncs, the notifications it receives, the accounts it authenticates. We build that too, so the app and the service behind it are designed together rather than bolted to whatever endpoint happened to exist. And because we operate what we build, we treat the parts nobody demos — offline sync, crash reporting, the OS-update treadmill, the store submission that gets rejected on a Friday — as first-class work, not an afterthought.

Who it’s for — Businesses that need a real iOS or Android product — not a wrapped website — and want the platform choice, the back-end and the store release handled by people who have shipped and operated apps before.

What you get

  • A reasoned native-versus-cross-platform decision, written down with the trade-offs, before any framework is chosen
  • A working iOS and/or Android app built to the platform’s own conventions, not a lowest-common-denominator shell
  • The back-end and API behind the app — authentication, data sync and the endpoints it depends on — designed alongside it
  • Offline support, push notifications and the device integrations your product actually needs, built and tested on real hardware
  • App Store and Play Store submission handled end to end: store listings, review compliance, signing, and a repeatable release process
  • Crash reporting, analytics and performance monitoring wired in from the first build, so you see problems before your reviews do
  • A maintenance path for the OS-update treadmill, and a codebase your own engineers can read and extend after handover

What Mobile App Development does for you

  • A presence where your users actually are

    A place on the home screen, reliable notifications and offline access change how often and how deeply people use a product. For the right use case an app earns engagement the mobile web cannot — but only if it is fast and stable enough to keep.

  • Cost controlled by an honest framework choice

    Cross-platform from one codebase can roughly halve the cost of building and maintaining two apps, and for most business apps it is the right call. We make that saving where it is safe and spend on native only where the product genuinely needs it, so budget follows need.

  • A product that keeps working after launch

    Apps are not finished when they ship; they rot when ignored. iOS and Android push breaking changes on their own schedule. We build so that keeping the app alive is routine maintenance, not a rewrite every eighteen months.

Why teams choose us for Mobile App Development

  • Senior engineers who have shipped and operated apps through real store reviews, rejections and OS migrations — not juniors learning on your budget
  • An honest native-versus-cross-platform call, including the willingness to say a PWA or no app is the better spend
  • The back-end and API built alongside the app by the same team, so the product is designed as a whole
  • We operate what we build, so crash reporting, offline behaviour and the maintenance treadmill are planned in, not discovered in your reviews

What Mobile App Development includes

The concrete pieces of work this covers — scoped to what your problem actually needs.

  • Native iOS and Android

    Swift and SwiftUI on iOS, Kotlin and Jetpack Compose on Android, built to each platform’s own conventions. The right choice when performance, deep device integration or a truly platform-native feel is the point of the product.

  • Cross-platform with React Native and Flutter

    One codebase serving both stores, with native modules dropped in where a screen or feature needs to go lower. For most business apps this is the pragmatic default: most of the saving, little of the compromise.

  • The back-end and API behind the app

    Authentication, data sync, and the endpoints the app depends on — designed with the app rather than bolted to an existing service, so the contract between client and server is deliberate and versioned for apps you cannot force-update.

  • Offline support and data sync

    Local storage, conflict resolution and background sync so the app works on a flaky train connection and reconciles cleanly when the network returns. The hardest correctness problem in mobile, treated as such.

  • Push notifications and device integration

    APNs and FCM notifications that arrive reliably, plus camera, location, biometrics, Bluetooth and sensor access wired up and tested on real hardware — with the permission prompts and privacy handling the stores now scrutinise.

  • Store submission and release

    App Store Connect and Google Play Console set up properly: signing, provisioning, store listings, review compliance and a repeatable, staged release process — including the phased rollouts and rollback thinking that a bad build makes you grateful for.

Where it fits

  • A field or operations app that must work offline

    Engineers, drivers or inspectors capturing data where there is no signal. The work is in local storage and sync, not the forms — building so nothing is lost off-network and everything reconciles correctly when it returns.

  • A consumer app where feel and performance sell it

    A product whose interface has to be fast, fluid and unmistakably native. Here the native-versus-cross-platform decision earns its keep, and we make it against how demanding the interactions and animations really are.

  • A companion app to an existing platform

    You have a web product and a back-end; you need iOS and Android without rebuilding the discipline from nothing. We add the mobile clients and shape the API for app-shaped constraints like versioning and offline behaviour.

  • Rescuing an app that has fallen behind

    An existing app that crashes, no longer builds against the current OS, or was left by a team that has moved on. We make it legible, stop the bleeding, and decide honestly whether to repair or rebuild.

How we approach Mobile App Development

We start by pinning down what the app has to do well before we decide how to build it. An app that scans documents with the camera, processes video on-device or renders a fast-moving interface has different needs from one that is mostly forms, lists and a login — and those needs, not fashion, decide native versus cross-platform. We write that reasoning down so the decision is one you can inspect and challenge, not one you inherit.

From there we build in short, reviewable cycles against real devices, because the simulator lies about performance, battery and the awkward edges of real networks. We plan the store submission from day one rather than treating it as a launch-week surprise, and we build the maintenance reality — new OS versions, deprecated APIs, expiring certificates — into the plan instead of pretending the app is done when it ships.

How we deliver a mobile app

We open with a short discovery that fixes the things that decide everything else: what the app must do exceptionally well, which devices and OS versions you have to support, how it behaves without a network, and what it needs from the back-end. That is where the native-versus-cross-platform decision is made and written down, alongside an honest check on whether a PWA would serve you better and cheaper.

Then we build in short cycles you can see and steer, testing on real hardware throughout because the simulator hides the problems that matter — jank, battery drain, memory pressure and the specific misery of a poor connection. Store submission is prepared in parallel, not left to the end, so review compliance, signing and listings are ready when the app is rather than becoming a launch-week scramble.

Before release we do a staged rollout where the platform allows it, watching crash rates and performance on real users before opening the gate wider. After launch the work continues on a maintenance cadence — OS updates, deprecated APIs, expiring certificates — because an unattended app is one that quietly stops working.

How we architect mobile apps

A mobile app is a client at the end of an unreliable network, so we architect it around that fact rather than assuming connectivity. State, caching and a clear separation between what lives on the device and what lives on the server are decided early, because retrofitting offline support into an app that assumed it was always online is one of the most expensive mistakes in mobile.

The boundary between the app and its back-end is a versioned contract, treated with care because you cannot force everyone to update on your timetable — an old version of your app will be talking to your API for months after you ship a new one. We design the API to tolerate that, and we keep platform-specific code isolated so that, cross-platform or native, the parts that must go native can without unpicking the whole app.

We keep the app itself lean. Every dependency is a liability that can break on the next OS release, every background task is a claim on the battery, and every megabyte is friction at install. Those costs are weighed deliberately rather than accumulated by habit.

Security and privacy on mobile

A mobile app ships to devices you do not control, so we assume the client can be inspected and act accordingly: no secrets baked into the binary, sensitive data held in the platform keychain or keystore rather than plain storage, and anything that truly matters enforced on the server where it cannot be tampered with.

Authentication uses platform-native mechanisms — biometrics and secure token storage — with sessions that behave sensibly when a device is lost or a token expires. Traffic is protected in transit, and for higher-risk apps we add certificate pinning so a compromised network cannot quietly read what the app sends.

Privacy is now a compliance surface the stores actively police. Permission prompts, data-collection disclosures and Apple’s privacy nutrition labels have to be accurate or the app is rejected — and beyond passing review, we default to asking for the least access the product needs rather than the most it might one day use.

Signs it’s time

  • You need features the mobile web cannot reach — reliable push notifications, deep camera or sensor access, background processing or genuine offline use
  • Your current app crashes, drains battery, feels sluggish, or has fallen behind an OS update and no longer builds cleanly
  • You are deciding between native and cross-platform and want an honest answer tied to your product rather than an agency’s comfort zone
  • You have a back-end and a web product but no credible route onto iPhone and Android without starting the mobile discipline from scratch

How we decide native, cross-platform or PWA

The decision turns on a handful of honest questions. How performance-critical is the app — is it heavy on animation, real-time rendering or on-device processing, or is it mostly screens, forms and a data connection? How deep is the device integration — occasional camera and notifications, or constant use of sensors, Bluetooth or background location? How large is the team maintaining it, and would one codebase or two suit how you work? And what is the budget across the whole life of the app, not just to launch?

For most business apps the answer is cross-platform. React Native or Flutter gives you both stores from one codebase, roughly halving build and maintenance cost, and the performance gap is invisible to users for the vast majority of products. We reach for native when the app is performance-critical or deeply device-integrated enough that the compromise would show — and we say so plainly rather than steering you toward whichever we would rather build.

Sometimes the right answer is no native app at all. A well-built progressive web app installs to the home screen, works offline and sends push notifications on Android, with none of the store overhead or two-codebase maintenance — and for a product that does not need deep device access, it is often the pragmatic choice. We would rather tell you that up front than sell you an app you did not need.

Technologies we build it with

Chosen per problem, not per fashion — this is the stack we most often reach for on this work.

How we deliver

  1. 01

    Discover

    We map the system, the constraints and the business it serves — including the parts nobody documented.

    Architecture brief

  2. 02

    Architect

    Decisions get made, written down and defended before a line of production code exists.

    Decision records

  3. 03

    Build

    Short cycles against working software. You see progress in the product, not in a status deck.

    Shipping increments

  4. 04

    Operate

    Monitoring, incident response and iteration. The system is alive, so the engagement is too.

    Runbooks & SLOs

What changes

  • The right build, chosen deliberately

    A native, cross-platform or PWA decision made against your product’s real needs and budget, with the trade-offs written down rather than assumed.

  • An app that survives the store and the OS treadmill

    Through App Store and Play Store review, and maintainable across the OS updates that routinely break apps left unattended.

  • App and back-end that fit together

    The API, sync and notifications behind the app designed with it, so the whole product holds together instead of straining against a mismatched endpoint.

Industries we serve

Domain knowledge changes what gets built. A few of the sectors we know before the first meeting.

How pricing works

  • The framework decision is the biggest single cost driver. Two native codebases cost meaningfully more to build and maintain than one cross-platform codebase, so where cross-platform is a safe fit it is usually the more economical route across the app’s whole life, not only at launch.
  • Scope of device integration and offline behaviour drives effort hard. A straightforward app of screens and a data connection is a different undertaking from one with robust offline sync, background processing and heavy sensor use — the latter is where the genuinely difficult, and therefore costlier, engineering sits.
  • Whether the back-end already exists matters. Building the API and the app together is more work than adding a client to a well-designed existing service, so an app that needs its whole back-end stood up costs more than one plugging into infrastructure that is ready for it.
  • Ongoing maintenance is a running cost, not a one-off. Because OS updates break apps on their own schedule, we scope a maintenance cadence rather than pretending launch is the finish line — and being clear about that up front is cheaper than the emergency when an app quietly stops building.

Typical timeline

  1. 01

    Discovery and decision

    We fix the requirements that decide everything else and make the native-versus-cross-platform-versus-PWA call, written down with its trade-offs and an early view of the back-end and store needs.

  2. 02

    Core build

    The app and its back-end built in short cycles on real devices, starting with the flows that carry the most risk — offline, sync and device integration first, not last.

  3. 03

    Store preparation

    Signing, provisioning, store listings and review compliance readied in parallel with development, so submission is a prepared step rather than a launch-week emergency.

  4. 04

    Release and maintenance

    A staged rollout watched on real users, then an ongoing cadence for OS updates, deprecated APIs and the certificates and dependencies that expire on their own schedule.

Why teams choose us for Mobile App Development

  • We have been through store review, not just around it

    App Store and Play Store rejections have specific, unglamorous causes — privacy labels, permission justifications, metadata, guideline edge cases. We have handled them before, so a rejection is a known step to clear rather than a launch-derailing surprise.

  • We give you the decision, not a default

    The native-versus-cross-platform choice is the one most agencies make for their own convenience. We make it for your product and show our reasoning — including telling you when a PWA or no app is the better use of your money.

  • App and back-end from one senior team

    The people building the app also build the API behind it, so the client and server are designed together. No throwing requirements over a wall between a mobile team and a back-end team that never speak.

  • We plan for after launch, because we operate what we build

    The OS-update treadmill, crash monitoring and the slow rot of an unattended app are part of the plan from the start — not problems you discover months later when the app stops building against a new iOS.

How to engage us

Three ways to work with us on this — chosen to fit the problem, not our margin.

Related services

Part of Custom Software Development. Other work we do alongside this.

Common questions

Should we build native or cross-platform?

It depends on your product, not on fashion. For most business apps — screens, forms, a data connection, ordinary notifications — cross-platform with React Native or Flutter is the right call: one codebase, both stores, roughly half the maintenance, and a performance difference users never notice. We choose native when the app is performance-critical or deeply device-integrated enough that the compromise would actually show, and we write the reasoning down so you can challenge it rather than inherit it.

Do we even need an app, or would a PWA do?

Often a well-built progressive web app is the pragmatic answer. It installs to the home screen, works offline and, on Android, sends push notifications — without the store overhead or the cost of maintaining a separate app. If your product does not need deep device access or the highest tier of performance, a PWA can deliver most of the value for much less. We will tell you when that is the case rather than sell you an app you did not need.

Will you handle getting the app into the App Store and Play Store?

Yes, end to end. We set up App Store Connect and Google Play Console, handle signing and provisioning, prepare the store listings, and make the build compliant with the guidelines both companies enforce — privacy labels, permission justifications, metadata and the rest. We prepare submission in parallel with the build so review is a step we have planned for, not a scramble the week you hoped to launch.

What happens when iOS or Android release a new version?

They will, twice a year, on their own schedule — and an unmaintained app can break when they do, through a deprecated API, a changed permission model or a tighter privacy rule. This is why we treat maintenance as a running cost rather than pretending launch is the finish line. We scope an ongoing cadence to keep the app building, compliant and stable across OS updates, so it does not quietly stop working while nobody is looking.

Can the app work offline?

Yes, and for many apps it must — but it is the hardest correctness problem in mobile, so we design for it early rather than bolting it on. That means local storage, background sync and sensible conflict resolution so the app keeps working with no signal and reconciles cleanly when the network returns. Retrofitting offline support into an app that assumed it was always online is one of the most expensive mistakes in mobile, which is exactly why we decide it up front.

Let’s talk about Mobile App Development.

Tell us what you’re building or fixing. A senior engineer reads every enquiry and replies within a business day.

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