Sketch published this blog post a few days ago. Why we’re proud to build a truly native Mac app.
I went through Twitter that day and there was a lot of discussion about the post, with people on one side of the camp stating that Sketch was “Feel’n the squeeze from Figma.”
Is having a platform-native app a competing factor? For me, the answer has always been “it depends”. Based on the type of software you are building, native vs cross-platform could be a significant advantage. I would want my coding editor to be a native app. I have tried cross-platform solutions, and they have not been a joy to use. Same with a graphic software program or my web browser. Native has the advantage of not having to go through another layer of abstraction before getting to the action I want to perform.
If your software has a collaborative feature though, then you need to be cross-platform. Not everyone uses a Mac. I hope more software companies considered building native apps for each platform they want people to use them on. I have tried a few electron based apps and they are not what I would call “enjoyable software”.
