Do I Need Both an Android and iOS App? (Honest Advice)

One of the first decisions when building a mobile app is: Android, iOS, or both?

The Market Reality

Globally, Android has about 72% market share. iOS has about 28%. But in the US and UK, iPhone users are closer to 50-55% of the market. In India, Android dominates at over 95%.

iPhone users on average spend more money on apps and in-app purchases. If you are building a paid app or a premium service, iOS users may be more valuable per user even if there are fewer of them.

Who Are Your Users?

Target audience in India? Start with Android. Almost everyone uses Android.

Target audience in the US or UK? You need both, but you could start with iOS if your service is premium.

Consumer app for young people? In Western markets, a significant portion use iPhones.

The Cost Question

If you build natively (separate code for iOS and Android), you are building two apps — roughly double the what it costs and time.

If you build with Flutter makes this simple (which we use at Rooted Tech), you write one codebase that works on both. The cost difference between one platform and two is relatively small — maybe 20-30% more.

Our Recommendation

Start with Android if your primary market is India. Start with iOS if your primary market is US, UK, or Australia. Start with both using Flutter if budget allows and your audience is global.

For NestSpace, we launched on Android first, validated the concept, then added iOS. That sequence worked well for us.

Questions about your specific situation? Reach out at rootedtech.in/contact — we will give you an honest recommendation.