Years of iOS in production mean we've already hit the walls most teams discover in year two — SwiftUI screens that fight UIKit navigation, async/await that races under load, App Store rejections from a privacy manifest nobody added. This page is about what's inside a modern iOS app, and how a UIKit codebase moves to SwiftUI without freezing the roadmap.
Why Entalogics for iOS
The iOS codebases we take over tend to look alike: view controllers running to 5,000 lines, three networking patterns in one project, Core Data migrations that crash on the first update, and no tests. We fix the architecture before it becomes the reason users leave.
Everything that doesn't need to touch the UI gets moved off the main thread before we write the first feature — image decoding, heavy JSON parsing, database reads. We profile with Instruments from the start rather than after a one-star review mentions the scrolling on a three-year-old iPhone.
When a ViewModel can be unit-tested without launching a simulator, the architecture is working correctly. We build each feature as a Swift Package with explicit imports, put navigation in a coordinator that can be tested in isolation, and keep Views to layout only. The next developer finds any feature in thirty seconds instead of thirty minutes of searching.
Credentials belong in the Keychain. Simple preferences belong in UserDefaults. Complex domain objects that need migrations belong in SwiftData. The iOS apps that end up with one massive SQLite database holding everything are the ones where nobody made these choices upfront — and it shows when the first migration fails in production.
A `guard let` that silently returns isn't error handling. We model every expected failure path with Result types, every API contract with Codable, every state transition with an enum that makes illegal states impossible to represent. When the backend team changes a response field, the Swift compiler catches every broken iOS callsite before QA even runs.
When native iOS, when not
Native Swift gives you the deepest access to Apple's platform. It also costs the most, in build time, in hiring, and in maintenance. On the first call we'll tell you whether native is the right choice or whether cross-platform gets you to market faster with the same result.
GO NATIVE IOS WHEN
CONSIDER CROSS-PLATFORM WHEN
WE SAY NO WHEN
What we build with iOS
The kinds of iOS work we do most often, each built to pass App Store review on the first submission.
The full consumer iPhone app development stack: smooth onboarding flows, StoreKit 2 subscriptions with server-side receipt validation, push notifications that arrive in under a second, App Clips for first-touch experiences, and WidgetKit for the home screen your users see every day.
HealthKit integration requires more than reading step counts — background delivery, HealthKit query anchors, and data handling that passes Apple's privacy guidelines on the first review. watchOS companion apps that share a Swift Package with the iPhone app, built with Apple's health privacy rules in mind from the start.
ARKit experiences that handle real-world tracking loss gracefully, RealityKit rendering that stays above 60fps on the oldest supported device, and visionOS UI built on the same SwiftUI skills that transfer directly from iPhone development. Your Vision Pro app doesn't start from a different codebase.
MDM-compatible builds that deploy through Apple Business Manager without touching the App Store. Certificate pinning, SSO through ASWebAuthenticationSession, Keychain-backed token storage, and offline-first sync for the warehouse or field team whose phone may not have signal. Built for regulated environments where security is a requirement rather than a feature.
The spreadsheet your field team photographs and emails to a coordinator every Friday gets replaced with a real iPad and iPhone app — barcode scanning with AVFoundation, offline form submissions synced when connectivity returns, GPS tracks logged and uploaded in the background. Built for real field conditions and tested on real devices.
The UIKit codebase with five years of business logic doesn't get thrown away. UIHostingController wraps new SwiftUI screens inside existing UIKit navigation, the app ships to the App Store throughout the migration, and each screen moves independently without a flag-day that freezes your product roadmap for a quarter.
The playbook
These come up on almost every iOS engagement. Nothing experimental, just patterns that hold up as the team grows and the codebase ages.
P01
New screens go in SwiftUI. UIKit stays for the components Apple hasn't finished porting yet — complex text editing, drag-and-drop with precise hit testing, custom collection layouts. We don't mix them for no reason, and we don't avoid UIKit when SwiftUI would fight us.
P02
async/await replaces completion handlers. Actors guard shared mutable state instead of serial DispatchQueues. TaskGroups parallelise independent async work. The concurrency model is simpler to read, easier to test, and harder to race than the GCD patterns it replaces.
P03
Each major feature lives in a Swift Package with explicit imports. Build times drop because Xcode only rebuilds what changed. Test targets run in isolation. The dependency graph is visible — if a feature imports something it shouldn't, the compiler says so before the PR lands.
P04
Colour, spacing, and typography are typed extensions on Color, Font, and CGFloat rather than string literals pulled from an asset catalog by name. Light mode, dark mode, Dynamic Type, and accessibility contrast fall out of one token definition. Wrong usage fails at compile time.
P05
Point-Free's snapshot testing catches visual regressions without a human comparing screenshots. XCUITest covers the flows where a regression costs money — sign-in, purchase, deep link. CI runs both on every pull request, so nobody has to remember to plug in a device.
P06
UIHostingController wraps a new SwiftUI screen inside existing UIKit navigation in a few lines. The App Store version keeps shipping throughout. Features move one at a time, each behind a flag, each with its own rollback path — so the migration never needs a feature freeze.
Signature case
An iOS app that had to render five social platforms' web interfaces natively, block their ads at the browser level, and still pass Apple's review. The build embedded Chromium beneath a React Native UI — an unusual iOS architecture that needed the same things any iOS app does at review time: a clear privacy story, native-feeling navigation, and accessibility that holds across the whole app. It shipped in seven months.
Before
Five apps, five feeds · ads everywhere · nothing accessible across platforms
After
One App Store listing · feeds ad-free · accessibility standards met app-wide · 4.6★ at launch
Engagement shape
A typical iOS engagement, end to end. Screen by screen, with the current app on the App Store the whole time.
Two senior iOS developers go through the codebase — Instruments profiling to find the real hot paths, a ViewController complexity inventory, a test coverage audit, and a check of every third-party dependency against Apple's current review guidelines. The output is a ranked RFC with effort estimates.
Swift Package structure gets established, the SwiftUI baseline goes in, MVVM boundaries get defined, one real production screen gets built from scratch and ships on TestFlight. Performance numbers come from a real iPhone under load, not a simulator on a fast Mac.
Every remaining screen moves under a feature flag, UIKit and SwiftUI running side-by-side throughout. Each cutover has a rollback path. Your product team keeps shipping new features in parallel — the migration never becomes an excuse to freeze the roadmap.
Store listing assets, App Privacy Nutrition Labels, review guideline compliance check, first submission. App Store review typically runs 1–2 business days for a clean submission. Runbook handed to your team — or we stay on retainer for the next phase.
Stack
The default stack for production iOS work.
Verified feedback from Upwork, Clutch, and reference calls we're happy to set up before you sign anything.
CEO, Modestly
Entalogics has successfully delivered extension prototypes on time, and we are impressed with their project management and the finished product. The client communicates with Entalogics via virtual meetings, email, and messaging apps.
Founder, Flourish Schools
Collaborating with Entalogics was a great experience. Communication was clear, we aligned quickly, and their team delivered high-quality code on time with thoughtful technical decisions.
CTO, SentryBay
Their Chromium expertise helped us ship a hardened browser with live threat controls and enterprise rollout support. Security operations became significantly faster.
Founder, G3 Ventures LLC
Entalogics delivered our custom Electron browser in six months with isolated profile workflows and stable policy sync. Agent onboarding improved by 55% after rollout.
Project Manager, Sociall
Entalogics built our iOS Chromium-based mobile app with a smooth native feel, stable media rendering, and reliable sync. We shipped faster and improved engagement after launch.
RozmeriGPT
The web dashboard and Chrome extension now share prompts, billing, and analytics in one platform. Our content turnaround improved 4x after launch.
Project Manager, Omni Browser
Entalogics built our Omni Browser on top of Chromium with deep product-level execution. They implemented an integrated VPN and Omni Crypto Wallet directly in the browser, made strong architectural decisions, and delivered quality code on schedule with clear communication.
Project Manager, Digital Office: Aura
Entalogics built Digital Office: Aura as a custom Chromium-based authentication platform. Their team modified Chromium internals and integrated our manual custom authentication flow with reliable implementation, fast delivery, and consistent communication.
Engagement
Nothing here is billed by the hour. Each option is a fixed quote or a rate you see up front.
One product, one fixed price, built entirely by senior iOS developers with no junior rotation. RFC to App Store submission in 8–14 weeks.
FIXED SCOPE
Different buyer, different page: senior Swift engineers in your Xcode project and your standups, priced per engineer per month rather than per project.
PER ENGINEER
For product teams shipping across Apple's ecosystem: iPhone, iPad, Watch, Vision Pro. A long-term partner for architecture, performance work, and hiring.
PROCUREMENT-FRIENDLY
Want the full breakdown? Mobile app development — the delivered-product page
Want iOS engineers on your own team instead? Hire iOS app developers
Shipping to enterprises through the App Store? Read what Apple's enterprise app rule changes mean
Senior engineers
Thirty minutes with a senior engineer and a senior iOS developer, and a straight answer on whether native Swift is the right call or cross-platform gets you there faster for less.
