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Choose based on what you need to share—not on a goal of making every line of code identical. Build native apps when platform-specific experience, immediate access to operating-system features, or deep hardware integration is central. Choose Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) to share selected Kotlin modules or business logic while keeping native UI, with the option to share more later. Choose React Native when a shared React-based UI and application logic suit your product and your team already works effectively with JavaScript or TypeScript.
The deciding questions are practical: Which parts must feel distinctly iOS or Android? Which business rules should behave the same on both? Which platform APIs are critical, and can your team support the integrations each approach requires?
What each approach shares—and what it leaves platform-specific
| Decision axis | Native | Kotlin Multiplatform | React Native |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code-sharing boundary | Separate platform apps | Selected modules through much of the app; shared UI is optional | Business logic and UI components can be shared |
| UI approach | Native UI on each operating system | Native UI, shared UI with Compose Multiplatform, or a mix | React Native components, with platform-specific code available |
| OS and hardware integration | Direct platform API access | Native platform layers remain available; shared code can remain platform-agnostic | Platform-specific code or integrations may be needed |
| Team starting point | Separate iOS and Android expertise | Kotlin experience and willingness to define shared boundaries | React and JavaScript or TypeScript experience |
| Main architectural cost | Duplicated implementation and release processes | Boundary design, coordination, and dependency-maturity checks | Framework/native integration and platform-specific exceptions |
| Useful prototype target | The most OS-specific or performance-sensitive feature | A shared module plus its iOS integration and build workflow | The most complex native module or platform-specific screen |
This is a comparison of documented capabilities, not a controlled performance benchmark. JetBrains’ Kotlin Multiplatform comparison guide puts the principle plainly: “Neither approach is universally better; they optimize for different goals.”
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Native development means building separate applications for each target operating system with its platform-specific tools and languages. It gives the team direct access to platform APIs and lets it adopt new OS features without waiting for a cross-platform framework to expose them. That can matter when an app’s interaction patterns are a differentiator, it relies on new system capabilities, or its work demands deep hardware integration.
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The cost is not just duplicated screens. Teams maintain distinct implementations, build pipelines, and release processes. Native is a strong fit when that investment is justified by the product or when the organization already has mature iOS and Android teams.
Choose Kotlin Multiplatform when you want to share selectively
KMP is a code-sharing approach, not a requirement to replace both native UIs. A team can keep SwiftUI or UIKit on iOS and native Android UI while sharing domain models, networking, caching, business rules, or state management in Kotlin. It can start with a small module and expand the shared boundary only when that proves useful.
Compose Multiplatform is an option for sharing UI, not a prerequisite for KMP. A project can combine shared and native UI, or retain fully native interfaces while sharing non-UI code. Google’s official support for KMP covers sharing business logic between Android and iOS; that is not an endorsement of every KMP library or every shared-UI design.
The flexibility makes boundary decisions important: teams need to agree what belongs in shared code and coordinate changes to shared modules. Library and integration maturity also varies by use case. Check the exact dependencies, target platforms, and iOS integration path the app needs rather than treating KMP support as uniform.
Choose React Native when shared React UI fits the team
React Native lets developers use JavaScript or TypeScript and React components to share business logic and UI across platforms. That can suit a team already productive in React that values shared UI iteration. Shared does not mean every screen must behave identically: the official documentation supports platform-specific files using .ios. and .android. filename extensions, which the tooling selects for the corresponding platform.
Validate the app’s actual native-module requirements and platform behaviors. The existence of platform-specific source files does not establish that every native API has a maintained module or that integrating one will be cost-free.
React Native’s New Architecture documentation describes an active rollout and a shared C++ renderer implementation, while noting Android JNI work remains for some rendering operations. That architecture page is dated 2022, so it should not be treated as a current, app-wide performance benchmark. Measure the application and workloads that matter to your product instead.
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Make the decision against your product’s constraints
- Start with the experience: Identify screens and interactions that must feel distinctly iOS or Android. If that is a product advantage, preserve room for native UI.
- Map shared rules: Separate business logic that should produce consistent results from interface behavior that may appropriately differ.
- List critical integrations: Name the OS APIs, hardware, and libraries the app depends on, then verify support for the exact targets and versions you intend to ship.
- Account for the team: Existing React skills favor a React Native evaluation; Kotlin skills can make KMP’s shared modules more practical; mature native teams may find separate apps the clearest fit.
- Prototype the riskiest slice: Build the feature most likely to expose a mismatch—such as a complex native integration or shared module—and exercise its UI, build workflow, and key dependency on both platforms.
That prototype is a way to validate your project’s risks, not a substitute for a universal framework ranking. The useful outcome is knowing where sharing helps and where platform-specific code is worth maintaining.
How to interpret adoption and performance claims
JetBrains reports that KMP usage among respondents to its Developer Ecosystem surveys rose from 7% in 2024 to 18% in 2025. Those are respondent shares on its survey comparison page, not market share or evidence that adoption caused project success. The surfaced page does not establish enough methodological detail to treat those figures as representative of all developers.
Do not choose on the assumption that one option is categorically faster. The official guidance compared here does not provide a controlled, representative head-to-head benchmark. Performance depends on the app and the work it performs, so measure the relevant user journeys and workloads in a project-specific prototype.
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