React Native and Flutter Development for One App, Two Platforms
One codebase that produces both your Android and iOS applications, instead of building and maintaining two separate native apps. GullySystem chooses React Native or Flutter based on your team, your app and where it needs to run.
Overview
React Native and Flutter are frameworks that let one codebase run as a genuine Android app and a genuine iOS app, rather than a wrapped website. For most business applications — dealer apps, field tools, customer apps — the performance difference against fully native development is not something a user notices, while the cost and maintenance saving is significant.
React Native or Flutter
Both produce genuinely native-feeling apps from one codebase, and the choice is usually a practical one rather than a technical trade-off users would notice.
React Native
A natural fit when your team already works in React or JavaScript on the web side, sharing patterns and sometimes logic between your web and mobile applications.
Flutter
Often preferred for apps with detailed custom visual design or animation, since it renders its own interface consistently across both platforms.
What Stays the Same Across Both Apps
- Screens, navigation and business logic, written once
- Bug fixes and feature updates, released to both platforms together
- Design and interaction consistency between the Android and iOS versions
- One team maintaining one codebase instead of two
Where a Shared Codebase Reaches Its Limit
A small number of screens that need very deep hardware access, top-end animation performance or a brand-new platform feature can still be built as a native module inside the same app, so you are not forced to choose entirely one way or the other. Where the whole app is expected to push that far, native Android and iOS development, covered separately, is the better starting point.
Frequently asked questions
Will users notice the app is not fully native?
For the vast majority of business applications, no. React Native and Flutter render real native components and animations, and the difference only becomes noticeable in graphics-heavy or hardware-intensive apps, which is a small minority of business use cases.
Should we choose React Native or Flutter?
Both are solid choices; the decision usually comes down to your existing team's skills, whether you want shared code with a React-based website, and the specific visual style of the app. We recommend one after understanding your app and your team, rather than by default.
What drives the cost of a React Native or Flutter build?
The number of screens, how much business logic and offline handling is needed, and how many native modules are required for specific hardware features. Cost is typically lower than building the same feature set twice in native Android and iOS.
What decides how long a React Native or Flutter build takes?
Because one codebase produces both apps, development is generally faster than native, but store review time for both Google Play and Apple still applies once builds are submitted, and that step sits outside our control.
Can this app share code or logic with our website?
With React Native specifically, some business logic and API-handling code can be shared with a React-based web application, reducing duplicate work. Flutter does not share code with a typical web stack in the same way.
Who owns the codebase?
You do. The full React Native or Flutter source code, along with the resulting Android and iOS builds, is handed over and can be maintained by any team familiar with the framework, not only by us.
What do you need from us before this build starts?
The core workflows the app must support, whether a companion web application already exists that logic could be shared with, and access to your Google Play and Apple developer accounts, or authorisation to set them up.
Tell us what you need.
Send a short brief and one of our engineers will come back to you — usually the same day.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private