Want to Develop Cross-Platform or Native Mobile Apps? Use These Mobile App Development Frameworks

Mobile apps are one of the widely used digital platforms to reach & engage your target audience in this era. According to Statista, “In 2019, there are 3.2 billion smartphone users in the world” and “In 2021, it is expected to reach the 3.8 billion mark.” Though many businesses have a fully functional and responsive website, they are still focussing on developing mobile apps. Therefore, mobile app development frameworks are crucial in building successful mobile apps.

Smartphones are no longer used only for the basic functionalities such as making a phone call or texting. People want to explore and do more with their smartphones, and apps empower them to do exactly that. So, people are on the lookout for apps that can solve their growing wants.

You may have also witnessed a steady rise in the number of programming languages for iOS and Android Operating Systems. With a growing user base for both iOS and Android platforms, you have no choice but to cover both the platforms. It paves the way for cross-platform app development or Hybrid app developmentHybrid app developmentA hybrid app is created as a single app for use on multiple platforms like Android, iPhone, and Windows. It is a single product that works on many operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows, etc. They look and feel like a native application but are actually run by a company website..

Cross-platform app development is a method in which the developed mobile app can be published on multiple platforms using a single codebase. Thus, it eradicates the need to develop native apps for each platform. So, what is the best framework for mobile apps? Let’s answer this question below.

1. Xamarin – Free & Open-source Mobile App Development Platform for .NET

Xamarin is a popular free and open-source mobile app development framework with more than 1.5 million users. It is one of the best mobile app development frameworks widely used. Thus, it empowers Dot Net developers to develop mobile apps without the help of Java. You can also use C# to build apps on the Xamarin framework. 

Features:

• Build Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#
• Share more than 75% of your code across platforms
• Excellent native user experience
• Active community
• Scalable, efficient, and versatile back-end with Azure

2. Flutter – Free & Open-source UI Software Development Kit Created by Google

Flutter is a UI software development kit for app developers. A unique thing about Flutter is that you can deploy apps using Dart (programming language of Google); whereas, other frameworks need a WebView and UI component to design the interface. Moreover, Flutter enables you to leverage 2D engineering machines to create visual elements on the device screen, Skia, induces Cupertino styled widgets and Material Design.

Features:

• Expressive and Flexible UI
• 2D rendering machine to draw visual components on the screen
• Native Performance
• Build beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop

3. Adobe PhoneGap – A Standards-based, Open-source Development Framework for Building Cross-platform Mobile Apps

Even if you don’t have any professional app development experience, but have developed websites, you can use Adobe PhoneGap and build cognitive apps of high performance. Nitobi labs developed Apache Cordova and Adobe acquired Nitobi in 2011. Adobe rebranded it as PhoneGap and release the open-source version of the same. You can use Adobe PhoneGap to build rich applications in a shorter period of time.

Features:

• Share prototypes for review with colleagues and clients
• Quick deployment cycles
• Package app within the cloud
• Target iOS & Android™ with a single codebase.
• Get app-store ready apps without maintaining native SDKs

4. Ionic – Free & Open-source Mobile UI Toolkit for Developing High-quality Cross-platform Apps

Ionic is an ideal framework to develop native apps for iOS and Android. It helps to develop apps for different platforms with a single codebase. As it is open-source, it makes it easy for you to create efficient mobile apps with intuitive UI components. Also, Ionic allows you to integrate various components and test the functionality on distinct platforms. Its architecture helps you to develop Progress Web Apps as well.

Features:

• Locally-installed, visual development environment
• 100+ mobile-optimized React UI components
• Lighting fast speed to build apps
• Standard React tooling with react-dom

5. React Native – A Free & Open-source Mobile Application Framework Created by Facebook.

Many feature-rich apps with state-of-the-art UI is built using React Native. It is based on JavaScript and you can build native apps using React Native. Some of the tech giants leveraging this technology are Instagram, Walmart, and Tesla. You can’t find any major difference between apps built using React Native and Java as the individual components of React Native are similar to other native apps. Since it is open-source you can change the React Native codes and add desirable codes in Java, Swift or C. The best part about React Native is that you can develop apps for both web and mobile.

Features:

• Written in JavaScript—rendered with native code
• Seamless Cross-platform capabilities
• Customizable codes improve app functionality
• Preview changes as soon as you save the code

Depending on the requirement, timeframe, and other requirements, you can choose the right framework for your project. If you are going to develop games or device-specific features, developing native apps are recommended. If you want to develop relatively simple apps, you can leverage cross-platform mobile app development. With the latter, you can save a lot of time and money.

With a firm establishment in the area of mobile app development, we can develop fully functional cross-platform and native apps that are on par with your requirements. Feel free to line up your queries and email them at media@techaffinity.com. You can also schedule a meeting with our experts to discuss your requirements in detail.