Towards Evidence-Based Mobile Technology Migration: Evaluating Native and Cross-Platform Solutions in a Case Study

• Mateus Henrique dos Anjos Oliveira UFV
• Lucas Vegi UFV

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/se4fp.2026.32634

Resumo

Cross-platform frameworks such as React Native reduce development effort by enabling a single codebase for Android and iOS, but the runtime costs of this abstraction are rarely quantified in industrial applications. This paper presents an evidence-based technology migration study of a production home healthcare application originally implemented in React Native and fully reimplemented natively for Android (Kotlin) and iOS (Swift), while preserving all original functionality. Because all implementations follow the same functional-declarative programming model, the comparison primarily isolates differences in their execution models. An automated benchmarking campaign was conducted on two physical devices per platform, evaluating CPU and memory consumption, startup time, UI smoothness, build time, and application size. The native implementations consistently consumed fewer computational resources (up to half the memory usage and one-fifth of the CPU time on iOS), required up to 2.7× shorter build times, and produced application packages up to seven times smaller. In contrast, React Native consistently achieved faster application startup while maintaining UI smoothness comparable to the native implementations. These results provide quantitative support for evidence-based mobile technology migration decisions in the context of the analyzed industrial application.

Palavras-chave: Mobile Development, Software Migration, Kotlin, Swift, React Native, Benchmarking

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