Individuals struggle to imagine their lives without mobile phones. The increasing reliance on mobile from food and travel to entertainment and everything has made it part and parcel of daily routine. The case is no different with businesses. The intuitive mobile apps engineered to connect with the audience directly, engage them with services, and maximize growth.
The pocket-friendly solution looks good in driving efficiency and efficacy. The underlying reality behind innovative app development is a little different. Launching the full-fledged solution requires businesses to create the best strategies, choose the apt technologies and tools, and distribute in the market with a great buzz.
In the digital sphere, the selection of framework plays a critical role in developing world-class app that helps businesses to reach a wider audience. Cross-platform app development is preferred as compared to native app development to get the app developed with minimum efforts, dollars, and time investment.
What is Cross-Platform Framework?
Cross-platform app framework enables building a mobile app that works seamlessly on multiple platforms and operating systems such as Android, iOS, Windows, and others.
The cross-platform app development frameworks provide a range of tools that allow dedicated cross-platform app developers to code once and make the app that runs on multiple platforms with little changes required. These apps have a look and feel as if they are built specifically for the operating systems natively with no performance and resolution issues.
There are ample cross-platform mobile app development frameworks such as React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, PhoneGap, Sencha Touch, and others that are helping businesses to enter in the market in reduced time.
Why is Cross-Platform App Development Favored at Scale?
The demand for cross platform app development is increasing in the competitive mobile landscape. It’s preferred by businesses as it enables app development for multiple platforms at the cost and time of one app development.
In addition to faster development, shareable code, and cost-effectiveness, the native-like look and feel of the app helps engage the audience and deliver a great experience. The reduced time-to-market helps in reaching out to the right audience at the right time.
It’s an attractive option for dedicated developers as they don’t require advanced design, access to device-specific features, and processing data online. The benefits of cross-platform development make businesses consider cross-platform frameworks for better results.
However, with multiple cross-platform app development frameworks available, it’s difficult to select the right framework that helps in developing state-of-the-art applications.
To help businesses find the leading cross platform framework, a list of best cross-platform app development frameworks created that accelerate your business growth.
Top 5 Cross-Platform Frameworks That Are Mostly Used for App Development
1. React native – learn once and write everywhere
Not-so-old kid on the cross-platform framework block, the React native was developed by Facebook in 2015 to fix a couple of problems that the technical team is facing. Later, the doors of React native were opened to the public which allows them to build apps for two major platforms- iOS and Android using one framework.
The JS-based framework enables skilled mobile app developers to build an intuitive UI and functionalities that give a native-like look and feel to the app.
Combining the best features of JS and React.js with no usage of HTML, CSS, WebView, and DOM API, it facilitates writing modules in different languages such as Java, Swift, and Objective C. With the highly responsive UI and compatibility with the third-party plugins, the app coders need to code only once and the apps run on multiple platforms.
When the app programmers are stuck, the huge community of React Native helps developers to get the required assistance or help.
In addition to mobile app development for different platforms, React Native enables the creation of platforms for smart TV such as Android TV, macOS, tvOS, and others. With more than 9.1k contributors on Github and 58% stack overflow voices, the React native framework has become a top preference of businesses for cross-platform app development.
2. Flutter – build apps for any screen
Though youngest but revolutionary cross-platform app development framework has made its mark in the app development landscape since 2017, the day it launched. With Dart programming and hot reloading feature, Flutter has transformed the app development processes. Now, maintaining hierarchical structure in complex development becomes a breeze.
With an in-built graphic engine and the use of GPU, crafting modern interfaces that perform to the notch is feasible. The flexibility to control even pixel enable design engineers to create custom app designs that look amazing on every device screen. The cross-platform mobile apps built using Flutter guarantee performance as flutter code compiles to the ARM as well as JS.
The multi-platform ability allows businesses to reach users on all the devices they are using, be it mobile, desktop, web, or embedded devices with a single codebase. The automated testing and developer tooling provide complete control over the codebase that revolutionizes the workflow of building quality applications.
Google pay, a worldwide mobile payment app, is one of the top examples of apps developed using Flutter framework for their cross-platform app needs.
3. Ionic – cross-platform mobile app development framework
The Angular-based open-source SDK provides a complete toolkit to build quality mobile and web apps that renders the best experiences across all the platforms. The pre-designed UI components, developer-friendly tooling, and writing once and shipping to multiple platforms capability enable building of the mobile-optimized highly-interactive apps.
The built-in practices such as touch-optimized gestures, hardware-accelerated gestures, and AOT compiling enable high-performance app development that provides up to 60 FPS scrolling on mobile and interaction time reduced to 1.8 seconds.
The latest upgrade of Ionic facilitates seamless integration with any tech stack that they prefer, be it Angular, Vue, or React front-end framework so that cross-platform app developers can build the app with the technology they like.
The rich library of more than 120 native devices plugins enables accessing native device features to create core native functionality. The Ionic framework used by more than 5 million developers across 195 nations is proof of its popularity, usability, and experiences it offers.
4. Xamarin- the open-source mobile app platform for .NET
More than 15000 programmers are using Xamarin to build successful cross-platform apps globally. The ability to access native APIs and tools enables app developers to build performance-driven functionalities and native-like UI experiences. The code reusability accelerates the cross-platform development speed that enables getting the app build before the deadline. Visual studio act as an IDE that allows sharing of project across different OS.
The rookie app developers can learn to build the project faster using Xamarin due to the tutorials and guidelines already defined. When any changes are made to the source code, the updates are rendered to the apps on all platforms- iOS, Android, and Windows. Xamarin.native approach is leveraged to build high-load systems that easily integrate with other systems and where UI is all-important.
5. Corona SDK- cross-platform 2D game engine
The cross-platform development framework was launched in 2009 to build the best-in-class apps and 2D games for mobile devices and desktops. The project is created once is shipped to multiple platforms and devices.
The usage of Lua enables building lightweight and fast applications. The plugins allow developers to extend the core features and make the app compatible with the latest market trends and technology evolution.
OpenGL graphics is a high-performing multimedia development tool that facilitates unmatched graphics and animation engineering for game apps. Corona is not only a game engine. Instead, the community of more than 5 million developers provides necessary assistance or help when top cross-platform app development companies need it.
Takeaway
The cross-platform development approach has redefined the mobile app development process from conceptualization to final launch. The organizations are looking for a competent cross-platform app development framework that meets their business project needs.
The aforementioned list of the best 5 cross-platform app development frameworks along with their description dictates which framework works like a pro amidst cutting-edge competition.
Once, you are done with the cross-platform framework selection, get partnered with one of the cross-platform app development companies to build the app for multiple platforms and reach a wider user base.