81% of developers say the use of cross-platform tools brings good "value for money"

A lot of mobile project managers face the question: is the switch from native development to cross-platform development worth its costs? For the actual tool users the answer is clear.

The argument that Cross-Platform Tools are too expensive to use does not withstand the reality check. The vast majority of tool users are satisfied with the use of a Cross-Platform Tool for app development and rate their tool’s cost-performance  as “good value” or “ok value” (81%). Only 5% of the Cross-Platform Tool users claim that native app development brings more “value for money”.

Despite this, 23% of actual users state monetary costs might act as a barrier to the growth of the Cross-Platform Tool market.  However, direct monetary outlays do not need to be substantial. In some cases, vendors offer their Cross-Platform Tool for free. (To check out our comparison of costs from 26 Cross-Platform Tool vendors, download the free report “Cross-Platform Tool Benchmarking 2014”.)

Anyhow, costs are just one decision factor for or against the adoption of a Cross-Platform Tool. Some other decision criteria are: familiarization time with a tool, quality of output, support, etc. Today, 32% of the actual users say that concerns about the resulting app’s quality, is what constitutes the major barrier to the growth of the Cross-Platform Tool market.

These concerns are often groundless. Firstly, Cross-Platform Tools are on average easy to use, 28% of CPT users needed only days and 40% weeks to reach an expert user level. Secondly, the resulting app’s quality is, surprisingly to some, well rated: 40% of users state the quality is as good as of natively-developed apps, whereas 41% say it is even better.

cost performance ratio cross platform tools

The table above shows the Top 10, out of a list of 150 Cross-Platform Tools, which excel in cost-performance. QT, Titanium and Unity rank highest in the cost-performance comparison. Most noticeably, as much as 81% of users are happy with the cost-performance of their tool and 14% state is it satisfactory. The deployment of Cross-Platform Tools clearly pays off.

 

These are some of the findings of “CPT Benchmarking 2014: Find the right tool for your app project“- a  global market research  on the current state of Cross-Platform Tool market. This year,  40 CPT vendors  have provided their  detailed product  information  and  2,188 developers  have shared their experience and rated CP Tools  in our online survey.  The report explores CPT market landscape, including pros and cons of different CP Tools. Some  of the top tools  include:  Adobe Air, Corona SDK, Cocos 2D, jQuery  Mobile, KonyOne, Marmalade, PhoneGap, Unity, Qt, Sencha Touch, Titanium, V-Play, Windows Visual Studio and Xamarin.

2014-cross-platform-tool-benchmarking-donwload-free-report2

 

Many companies as well as developers have not realized yet how cost-effective the deployment of cross-platform development tools is. What is your opinion?