Cross Platform Mobile App Development Guide
Digital technologies have taken the world by storm. There are a wide number of digital devices running on different operating systems. In order to reach more people, you have to publish your app on different platforms.
However, the majority of people think first of native app development when they want to develop an app for their business. Native apps are mainly built for specific platforms such as iOS or Android.
We, by any means, not say that there are not any benefits of releasing your app for a specific platform. But, native apps will cost you a lot of money.
On the contrary, the cross platform app development framework is cost-effective and is gaining a lot of popularity all over the world.
Indeed, the cross-platform development market has crossed $7.5 billion at the end of 2018.
This cross platform app development method enables you to build an app for Android, iOS, and Windows at the same time. But can these apps work just like native apps?
Actually, if you go with the right tools and resources, then users won’t be able to find any difference.
Selecting the correct technology is the most critical decision that will decide the overall success of your effort. When opting for a cross platform framework, you have to ensure that it delivers static performance and excellent user experience. Moreover, it should allow you to build an attractive user interface.
It is certain that you have to choose a framework before you begin developing anything and this will have a high impact on the overall mobile app development process. By chance, taking the wrong choice may cost you a lot of time, money, and effort.
In order to make your task easy, we have made the list of best cross platform mobile app development framework for 2020 and beyond.Cross Platform Mobile App Development Guide
1. Flutter
Flutter is a cross platform development platform officially released by Google in 2018. It is based on the specifically built Dart programming language, which is later compiled to native code to resolve the issue of developing an app for Android and iOS separately.
The framework is quick and highly effective as it communicates with the platform instantly. Flutter apps are developed with the help of widgets, which provide high compatibility with the older system versions.
One of the most essential benefits of Flutter is it allows to add native code with your cross-platform mobile app.
2. React Native
React Native is a JavaScript framework released by the social media giant Facebook in 2015. In short, it allows you to build multiplatform UI components with JSX, which are later bridged with the native code and transformed to Android and iOS views.
It is quite easy-to-learn as compared to native languages such as Android or iOS. Moreover, writing code is quite fast and effective as it contains a lot of third-party libraries, which can be useful while developing an app.
3. Ionic
Ionic was originally introduced in the year 2013. It is a hybrid open-source app development tool that uses AngularJS and the Ionic infrastructure.
It consists of a highly customizable UI. Also, it has various built-in JavaScript and CSS components a developer might need to develop an app.
Ionic offers different kinds of services and tools. Ionic can be utilized for developing mobile, desktop, and progressive web apps. You can develop an app in Ionic and release it on respective platforms.
4. Xamarin
Xamarin is a well-known cross-platform app development framework and it is suitable to develop apps for the leading mobile platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile.
It allows you to write a shared code between platforms such as iOS and Android. This helps to enhance the development process.
Xamarin code is written in C#; therefore, developers must have sufficient knowledge of the language. It is more stable and difficult to learn as compared to React Native.
5. Sencha
Sencha wide category of tools for the cross platform app development framework such as Sencha Architect, Sencha Framework, etc. The applications build in Sencha depends on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The main purpose of the Sencha is to build an HTML5 application that runs on multiple platforms. Various platforms on which the app runs perfectly include Android, iOS, Windows, etc.
Sencha follows MVC architecture that is suitable for developing large scale applications.
6. Appcelerator
Appcelerator is one of the most popular open-source cross platform frameworks. It uses a single JavaScript codebase for its apps and offers real-time mobile analytics.
It is highly expandable and allows you to create apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, HTML5, and hybrid apps. The main component of the framework has a Titanium SDK. This SDK has support for 5,000 devices and OS APIs, Eclipse-based IDE Studio, and MVC Framework alloy.
The code written in Appcelerator is 60-90% reusable. Lastly, the framework provides a feasible way to replace Native SDKs.
7. Corona
Corona is a 2D software development kit that is used for developing gaming apps for both mobile devices and desktop systems. It was firstly released in the year 2009
Corona uses Lua, that is an open-source programming language. It is light-in-weight and cost-effective. It is suitable for developing high graphic gaming applications such as Angry Birds.
It provides a lot of plugins to increase functionality in the app. Also, it is able to call any native library from C/C++/Obj-C/Java.
8. Apache Cordova/PhoneGap
PhoneGap was initially released in 2009 and later acquired by Adobe in 2011. It is a well-known cross-development framework among the developer community.
PhoneGap or Apache Cordova allows developing apps for multiple platforms simultaneously. PhoneGap, code is mainly written in HTML5, CSS, & JavaScript.
Phonegap consists of third-party tools, a massive community for developers, and a lot of plugins, which sets this apart from other frameworks. It is the most robust framework if a developer wants to build a quick and simple application with very little effort.
Conclusion
These are some of the most popular cross platform frameworks that you can use while developing your next application. If you are not able to decide one, then take help from a mobile app development company, they will provide you with the best hybrid application as per your requirement.
