Engineering Custom & Native Mobile Apps
Cross-platform mobile apps with native performance — iOS and Android from a single Flutter codebase.
- Phase
- 4-step engagement
- Hypercare
- 30 days included
- Cadence
- Weekly demos
Trusted by teams shipping at scale
What we deliver
Every Custom & Native Mobile Apps engagement bundles these capabilities by default. We tune the depth of each to fit your scope.
Flutter development (iOS & Android)
Push notifications & deep linking
Offline-first architecture
Native device integrations
App Store submission
Commerce-connected mobile apps
How we build Custom & Native Mobile Apps
A repeatable four-phase engagement. Same rigor every time, scoped to the work in front of us.
Discover
We map the current state, surface constraints, and lock the scope before any code is written. You leave the phase with a written success definition.
- Audit document
- Success criteria
- Risk register
Architect
We pick the stack, design the data model, and prove the riskiest path first. Architecture decisions are reviewed with your team before build starts.
- Architecture doc
- Stack decision record
- Spike on riskiest path
Build
Iterative delivery in weekly increments. You see working software every Friday, can redirect priorities each Monday, and never wait six weeks for a demo.
- Weekly demo cadence
- Production-ready code
- CI/CD + tests
Operate
We ship with observability, hand off runbooks, and stay accountable post-launch. 30-day hypercare is included on every engagement.
- Monitoring dashboards
- Operational runbooks
- 30-day hypercare
The full breakdown
Architecture, decisions, and the operational details behind every Custom & Native Mobile Apps engagement. Skim with the table of contents, or read straight through.
Mobile Apps That Perform Like Native
The era of "we'll build a mobile app eventually" is over. Customers expect mobile-first experiences, and brands that deliver them see higher retention, more frequent purchases, and deeper brand engagement.
We build Flutter applications that deliver native iOS and Android performance from a single codebase — without the compromises that have historically plagued cross-platform development.
Why Flutter
Flutter is Contra Collective's default choice for cross-platform mobile development. The reasons:
Performance: Flutter compiles to native ARM code and uses its own high-performance rendering engine (Impeller). UI feels indistinguishable from native because it IS running native code — not JavaScript interpreted through a bridge.
Single codebase: One codebase runs on iOS, Android, and (optionally) web and desktop. Feature development, bug fixes, and updates happen once and ship to all platforms simultaneously.
Dart language: Dart is a modern, strongly-typed language with excellent tooling. Developers familiar with JavaScript or TypeScript pick it up quickly.
Ecosystem maturity: Flutter has a rich package ecosystem for common needs — payments, analytics, push notifications, authentication, and device APIs are all well-supported.
Commerce Mobile Apps
We specialize in mobile applications for e-commerce brands. A native commerce app delivers capabilities no mobile web experience can match:
- Push notifications for order status, promotions, and back-in-stock alerts — with 3-5x higher open rates than email
- Biometric authentication for seamless one-tap checkout
- Offline browsing so customers can browse your catalog without a connection
- Deep linking from email, social, and paid campaigns directly to product pages
- App Clips (iOS) and Instant Apps (Android) for frictionless trial experiences
We connect Flutter apps to Shopify via the Storefront API for product, cart, and checkout data — maintaining Shopify's secure checkout while delivering a fully native experience.
The App Launch Process
We manage the full lifecycle:
- Architecture and design: Wireframes, user flows, and component design
- Development: Incremental builds with weekly demos
- QA: Automated tests, device compatibility testing, performance benchmarking
- App Store submission: Apple and Google review management
- Launch monitoring: Crash reporting, performance metrics, user feedback
Post-launch, we provide a maintenance plan covering OS updates, API changes, and feature iterations.
Included in every engagement
- 01
Mobile app architecture document
- 02
Deployed iOS and Android applications
- 03
App Store and Play Store submission
- 04
Push notification infrastructure
- 05
Analytics and crash reporting integration
- 06
Maintenance and update plan
Technology
The tools and platforms we deploy on every Custom & Native Mobile Apps engagement.
Common questions
Everything you need to know before starting a project with us.
Flutter compiles to native ARM code and uses its own rendering engine — consistently higher performance than React Native's JavaScript bridge. It's also a single language (Dart) across all platforms.
Apple review typically takes 1-3 days for initial submissions, up to 7 days for new apps. We submit early in the process to avoid launch delays.
A custom ecommerce mobile app built with Flutter typically ranges from $80K–$200K depending on feature complexity, number of integrations, and design requirements. The investment covers iOS and Android from a single codebase — roughly 40% less than building two separate native apps — plus App Store submission, push notification infrastructure, and analytics.
A specialized Flutter app development agency brings production-tested architecture patterns, platform-specific knowledge for App Store and Play Store submission, and experience integrating commerce APIs like Shopify's Storefront API. Most in-house teams spend months learning these patterns through trial and error — an agency ships your first production release in that same timeframe.
Yes. We build native mobile apps for Shopify using Flutter connected to the Storefront API for product browsing, cart management, and checkout. Shopify's secure checkout is maintained while the rest of the experience — push notifications, offline browsing, biometric login — is fully native and performs at 60fps.
DTC brands with dedicated mobile commerce apps consistently see 2–3x higher lifetime value per customer compared to mobile web, driven by push notification engagement, faster repeat purchases, and higher average order values. Mobile commerce app development pays off when your brand has an engaged customer base that purchases more than twice per year.
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