Best Mobile App Development Frameworks -Prologue
What you get from this article?
- 1. Guidelines to opt for the best mobile app development frameworks.
- 2. Essential mobile app features
Mobile App Features-Prime things considered
Closed or an Open Ecosystem
There are different frameworks to use in mobile app development. Everyone needs a platform that is flexible and convenient in terms of speed and control. Based on that it has to be decided between closed or an open ecosystem.
Design & UI of the Mobile App
Design and UI are the most important factors to consider before choosing the right platform. As the UI parameters differ for each type of business process, examine your business first, which helps you to pick the right framework that suits your business.
Mobile App Development Partner
When it comes to choosing the mobile app development platform, types of partners play a major role. Since many vendors in the market offer different services and support your framework, it’s important to analyze the market before selecting the framework, which will help you to build an excellent app for your business.
Evolution of Ecosystem
Make sure, the Framework that you select is flexible for choosing different platforms and tools overtime during the process of mobile app development.
Skilled Team
The right sets of skilled technical persons are necessary for mobile app development. Before selecting the mobile app development framework, analyze your team and their skillset to avoid the difficulties that your team faces during the development process.
Mobile App Development Frameworks Can Be Categorized Into Two Types
1.Native Mobile Development Frameworks
The native framework developed for a particular platform or device that can provide enhanced performance overall. Native apps can directly access the hardware of the device such as a camera, GPS, microphone, etc., The users can get these apps from online stores or market places such as app store or Google play, example for Native apps are Google Maps, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, etc.
2.Cross-platform Development Frameworks
Unlike Native Framework, a Cross-platform framework used to develop applications that can run on any devices and operating systems like Android and iOS. It lets the developers to develop apps with one-time coding and runs on all the platforms.
Some of the highly recommended mobile app development frameworks for creating excellent apps of 2020-2021
1.Flutter
Flutter is an open-source software development toolkit to build high quality and high-performance apps for different platforms such as android, iOS, Linux, max, windows, etc., As it’s cross-platform, you can use the same code base for different platforms. Flutter uses programming languages like C, C++, Dart, and Skia Graphics Engine.
The major components of Flutter include:
- 1. Dart platform
- 2. Flutter engine
- 3. Foundation library
- 4. Design-specific widgets
Advantages of Flutter
- 1. High Productivity
- 2. Highly customized user experience
- 3. Fast debugging process
- 4. Saves time and money because of the single code base
Disadvantages of Flutter
- 1. Flutter is only for mobile applications and not supported by website browsers
- 2. Not applicable for Games and apps that required specified device functions
2.React Native
React Native is an open-source platform developed by Facebook that allows the developers to build robust mobile applications with its existing JavaScript knowledge across various platforms such as iOS, Android, and the web.
Advantages of React Native
- 1. React Native is cost-effective
- 2. Offers simple User Interface
- 3. Supports third-party plugins
- 4. It provides optimal performance
Disadvantages of React Native
- 1. Difficult to manage the memory
- 2. Takes more time for Initializing
- 3. Less security Robustness
3.Ionic
Ionic is another famous open-source software development kit built with Apache Cordova and Angular for hybrid mobile applications. This app development framework is based on the HTML5 programming language that uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to develop mobile applications. It mainly focuses on the look & feel and the UI interaction of your app.
Advantages of Ionic
- 1. Takes less time to build
- 2. Single code base for all the platforms
- 3. Plenty of UI component available
- 4. Easy to adopt if you are familiar with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript
Disadvantages of Ionic
- 1. Less performance compared to native apps
- 2. Takes more time for debugging
- 3. Ionic doesn’t suit for creating video games
4.Xamarin
Xamarin is another open-source App development framework for creating cross-platform apps that easily run on multiple platforms such as android, iOS, and windows from a single shared C# codebase. It’s one of the popular toolkits in the world for multiple platforms.
Advantages of Xamarin
- 1. High Stability and performance
- 2. Shared codebase
- 3. Strong Technical Backing
- 4. Great Flexibility of C# and .NET
- 5. Less Number of Bugs
Disadvantages of Xamarin
- 1. Limited access to open-source libraries
- 2. High cost for enterprises
- 3. Consumes more time
- 4. Unjustifiable app file size
5.jQuery Mobile
jQuery Mobile is an HTML Based UI framework built upon the jQuery core to develop responsive mobile apps and websites accessible on all mobile desktop and tablets. jQuery Mobile integrates HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and AJAX into a single platform to help developers build mobile web apps with less code.
Advantages of jQuery
- 1. Simplifies user actions
- 2. Simplifies app store approvals
- 3. Good compatibility
- 4. Developers can create dynamic effects
Disadvantages of jQuery
- 1. Huge library to import
- 2. Limited capabilities as compared to native applications
6.Mobile Angular UI
Mobile Angular UI is a structural mobile app development framework that builds HTML5 mobile apps with Bootstrap and Angular JS and simplifies the overall process. To enable a great mobile experience, the framework uses rich libraries like fastclick.js and overthrow.js.
Advantages of Mobile Angular UI
- 1. Offers mobile components not available in Bootstrap 3
- 2. Solid server-side support
- 3. Lightweight
- 4. Stable
- 5. Allows for desktop-to-mobile app conversion
Disadvantages of Mobile Angular UI
- 1. Poor documentation
- 2. Hard to customize
7.Corona SDK
Corona SDK is a cross-platform framework for developing apps and games for various platforms. One of the best platforms to build 2D applications and games that are ten times faster than other tools. It is supported by Lua, a high-level programming language that offers speed, flexibility, and a flawless environment to develop highly efficient apps.
Advantages of Corona SDK
- 1. Free of charge
- 2. Single codebase
- 3. speed up the development process
- 4. Native UI support
- 5. Excellent documentation
Disadvantages of Corona SDK
- 1. Not easy device testing
- 2. Developers need to learn Lua
Native Vs. cross-platform
Performance
Native applications utilize the resources and the platform’s abilities up to its maximum capacity. This implies that native applications are high performing apps that are quick, responsive, and fewer chances to crash. Whereas Cross-platform apps are frequently facing performance issues. As it fits-all methodologies, it is not strange for these apps to act out on certain devices.
Features
Another advantage of Native apps is that it utilizes the device’s native features, and allowed offline feature, which is something not effectively conceivable with cross-stage applications. On the other hand, Cross-platform apps cannot make use of the native features of the device since they have restricted access to the API.
Feasibility
Native app development takes more time to build apps, and the cost is also higher because it usually requires building more than one app. Similarly, the Maintenance is equally time-consuming and costly. The developers have to identify bugs and issues for each platform and create different changes accordingly. While Cross-platform apps are comparatively cheaper in terms of development and maintenance. The only thing from your side needs to invest in a single app and maintains that app.
User Experience
User Experience is the most necessary thing to ensure in the mobile app. On that note, Native apps offer a great experience with better performance, higher speed, and better device utilization, and also it’s not just responsive but also intuitive. Here the developers have the freedom to create good-looking apps. While in Cross-platform, the developers can create equally intuitive apps but end up with a high cost. It’s quite hard for the developers and designers to satisfy the UX requirements for multiple platforms at the same time.
Final Thoughts
This article aims to provide the required information on various mobile app development frameworks to fulfill your business requirements, which helps to create a winning edge app for your business.
Many factors need to consider in choosing the right mobile app development frameworks before getting started. The choice completely depends on your app. So, analyze your business requirements, functions, and team skillset. Make sure the platform you choose meets your needs and reach your target audience.
