Kotlin Multiplatform Development in the UK: The Smarter Choice for Fintech and Travel Apps

Why Kotlin Multiplatform Matters in the UK Market

The UK is a large mobile-first market, with tech hubs in London, Manchester, and Birmingham driving innovation across fintech, travel, and ecommerce. Yet, many SMEs and mid-market companies (50–250 employees), as well as digital agencies and CTOs at software firms, struggle to hire enough skilled developers locally.

This is where Kotlin Multiplatform development comes in. By allowing developers to write shared business logic for both iOS and Android apps, it speeds up delivery while ensuring reliability and consistency, which is crucial for industries like fintech and travel.

Whether you want to hire Kotlin Multiplatform developers or explore Kotlin Multiplatform app development, working with a dedicated team ensures faster and cost-effective mobile app delivery without sacrificing quality. This approach is particularly valuable for fintech, travel, and ecommerce companies that need compliance, reliability, and seamless user experiences across platforms.

Why UK Fintech Companies Choose Kotlin Multiplatform

UK fintech companies face a highly competitive mobile-first market, where apps must be secure, reliable, and consistent across iOS and Android. Many SMEs and mid-market firms struggle with tight deadlines, limited in-house development capacity, and the need to comply with strict financial regulations.

Instead of just talking about the challenges UK fintech companies face, here’s a concrete example of how we helped one of our clients overcome them.

Challenge

Our client, a mid-sized UK fintech company, needed to launch a mobile app quickly on both iOS and Android while ensuring payment security, compliance, and perfect UX. Traditional native development would have required two separate teams, increasing costs and slowing delivery.

Our Solution

We provided a dedicated Kotlin Multiplatform team, who have already been collaborating closely with the client’s CTO and product managers in the GMT zone. By sharing core business logic between platforms, the team was able to:

• Reduce development time by 35% compared to traditional native approaches
• Maintain a secure user experience across both platforms
• Deliver transparent pricing, weekly updates, and dedicated project management

Results

• The app launched on schedule, reaching 50,000 users in the first 2 months
• Post-launch updates and feature rollouts were faster and more reliable thanks to KMP
• Lower ongoing maintenance costs, proving that KMP was the right choice for a regulated fintech environment

By using Kotlin Multiplatform development, our client avoided the risks of freelancers or multiple native teams. For UK fintech companies, this approach ensures speed and reliability, making KMP a strategic choice for mobile app development.

Kotlin Multiplatform for Travel and E-commerce Apps

Instead of listing all the market statistics, it’s easier to understand the challenges by looking at a real example from our clients in the travel industry. UK travel companies operate in a market where real-time bookings and UX are essential for customer trust and revenue.

Travel App

One of our mid-market travel clients already had a mobile booking app, but users frequently reported double bookings, delayed availability updates, and occasional crashes during peak traffic. The client was unsure whether the problems were caused by platform-specific bugs, backend syncing issues, or poor code structure.

Our Solution

We brainstormed potential causes and solutions, evaluating whether to repair the existing app or rewrite it with a more maintainable approach. After analysis, we recommended rewriting the app in Kotlin Multiplatform, allowing shared business logic for iOS and Android.

By rebuilding the app with shared core logic, the team was able to:

• Eliminate recurring booking errors and crashes
• Ensure real-time availability updates even during peak traffic
• Maintain high reliability and smooth UX
• Provide transparent communication, weekly updates, and predictable pricing

Results

• Support requests related to booking errors dropped by over 70%
• One user reached out to say they “feel the difference” while using the new app; it’s smoother and more user-friendly, even if they couldn’t explain exactly what changed. That’s the kind of subtle but meaningful improvement Kotlin Multiplatform enables.
• The client experienced faster feature releases and higher team efficiency thanks to regular weekly updates

E-commerce App

Our e-commerce client faced challenges where payment security, inventory accuracy, and smooth checkout flows were critical. For many UK ecommerce companies, even small delays or errors can significantly affect conversion rates and revenue.

Our Solution

We worked with the client’s CTO to rewrite the e-commerce app using Kotlin Multiplatform, ensuring the core payment and checkout logic was shared across iOS and Android. This approach provided:

• Stronger payment security by centralising sensitive logic in one shared module, reducing inconsistencies
• A unified checkout flow with fewer steps and improved error handling, tested simultaneously across platforms
• Transparent collaboration in the GMT zone, with weekly updates and clear milestones for each release

Results

• Checkout completion rates increased by 22% compared to the previous 3 months
• Payment-related errors dropped to 0, building greater trust with end-users
• The simplified checkout flow reduced cart abandonment, contributing to higher revenue per session

Why UK Companies Prefer Nearshore Outsourcing for KMP

UK companies face the constant challenge of balancing speed, cost, and reliability when building mobile apps. While offshore outsourcing to Asia was once popular, many CTOs now prefer nearshore outsourcing to Eastern Europe for Kotlin Multiplatform projects.

Key Reasons:

• Time zone alignment (GMT-friendly)
• Working with teams in Eastern Europe means real-time collaboration during UK working hours. No more waiting overnight for updates or clarifications.
• Higher quality and expertise
• Eastern European developers are known for strong engineering skills, English fluency, and KMP expertise, making them trusted partners for UK tech teams.
• Reliable long-term partnerships
• Unlike freelancers, nearshore outsourcing companies provide dedicated developers and stable teams who stay committed for the entire project lifecycle.
• Clear pricing models
• Transparency in contracts and scope prevents unexpected costs, something UK companies value when managing budgets.
• Proven compliance mindset
• Whether it’s financial regulations for fintech or data protection laws for ecommerce and travel, nearshore partners are more adapted to UK/EU compliance requirements than distant offshore teams.

The Result for UK CTOs

Nearshore outsourcing ensures that Kotlin Multiplatform development projects are delivered faster, more securely, and with reliable long-term collaboration, without the risks of communication gaps or mismatched expectations.

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KMP vs Other Cross-Platform Options

When UK companies evaluate cross-platform development, the usual debate is KMP vs Flutter or KMP vs React Native. Each framework has its use cases, but CTOs in fintech, travel, and ecommerce are finding Kotlin Multiplatform the more reliable long-term choice.

KMP vs React Native

React Native strengths: Large community, fast prototyping, wide ecosystem of libraries.

React Native limitations: Struggles with performance in complex apps, relies heavily on third-party dependencies, and can create inconsistencies between iOS and Android.

Why choose KMP: With KMP vs React Native, the difference is in performance and stability. KMP allows you to share business logic but keep fully native UIs, ensuring a more consistent, reliable app experience.

KMP vs Flutter

Flutter strengths: Unified UI framework, rich animations, good developer community.

Flutter limitations: Less “native” look and feel on iOS, larger app sizes, new language (Dart) and trickier integration with existing native projects.

Why choose KMP: In KMP vs Flutter, KMP provides the native-first experience, which is essential for UK industries where user trust and smooth performance directly affect revenue (like secure payments in fintech or fast checkouts in ecommerce).

KMP vs CMP (Compose Multiplatform)

CMP strengths: Great for UI-driven apps, strong potential as a JetBrains technology, growing rapidly.

CMP limitations: Still younger, and not as widely adopted in production for complex apps.

Why choose KMP: In the KMP vs CMP discussion, most CTOs still prefer KMP for production apps where stability, proven reliability, and mature tooling are critical. CMP is promising, but KMP is already trusted in live, large-scale apps.

For UK CTOs, the conclusion is clear: while Flutter, React Native, and CMP have their benefits, Kotlin Multiplatform delivers the best balance of native performance, long-term maintainability, and cross-platform efficiency,  making it the smarter choice for scaling apps in fintech, travel, and ecommerce.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, UK fintech, travel, and ecommerce companies don’t just need apps, they need apps that perform under real-world pressure. This is exactly where Kotlin Multiplatform makes a difference.

When you break it down, the debates of KMP vs Flutter, KMP vs React Native, or even KMP vs CMP always point in the same direction: if you care about native performance, long-term stability, and smoother scaling, KMP stands out.

It’s not just talk; UK companies have launched faster, cut payment errors to zero, and boosted checkout completion rates thanks to KMP. And because it lets you share logic but keep native UIs, your users never feel like they’re “using a cross-platform app.” They just enjoy a fast, reliable, and secure experience.

For CTOs balancing deadlines, compliance, and budgets, that dependability is gold.

So if you’re building your next fintech wallet, travel booking app, or ecommerce platform, Kotlin Multiplatform isn’t just another option, it’s the smarter one.

Are you ready to bring your mobile app to life with a dedicated Kotlin Multiplatform team? Contact us today and see the difference!