Comparative analysis of mobile application development platforms for cross-platform banking solutions

Posted: May 11, 2023

• Logan Johnson
• Logan Lee
• Logan Scott

Abstract

The proliferation of mobile banking applications has created an urgent need for financial institutions to deploy secure, performant applications across multiple platforms while managing development costs. This research presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of five major cross-platform development frameworks—React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Ionic, and NativeScript—specifically evaluated for banking application requirements. Unlike previous studies that focused primarily on general performance metrics, our investigation introduces a novel multi-dimensional evaluation framework that assesses security implementation capabilities, regulatory compliance features, financial transaction handling, biometric authentication integration, and offline functionality. We developed identical banking application prototypes using each framework and conducted rigorous testing across security vulnerability assessment, performance benchmarking under simulated peak loads, developer productivity measurement, and user experience evaluation. Our findings reveal that while Flutter demonstrates superior performance in rendering financial data visualizations, React Native offers more mature security libraries for banking compliance. Xamarin provides exceptional integration with existing enterprise banking infrastructure, while Ionic facilitates rapid prototyping for customer-facing features. The research contributes a decision matrix that enables financial institutions to select appropriate development platforms based on their specific requirements, security thresholds, and resource constraints. This study addresses a critical gap in financial technology literature by providing empirical evidence and structured evaluation criteria for cross-platform development in the highly regulated banking sector.