Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/gUIJ0YszPig
Description: Are there any ideal mobile app development tools available for programming both iOS and Android? This article covers the best proved and time-tested cross-platform development tools which will still be relevant even in the year 2022.
One can hardly imagine modern daily life free from the use of any mobile app. The morning starts with an alarm clock, during the day we use activity trackers, advisers, calendars, work applications, and simply play games. This is a rapidly growing niche in which we have two major contributors – the following 2 smartphone operating platforms: IOS and Android.
It is selecting between these two platforms that become a real headache for developers. You have to brainstorm to decide which of these two platforms is right for launching an application, where it will be more profitable, what tools to pick up, etc. Today 90% of customer requests for development come with a requirement to create applications for IOS and Android at once. This is due to the fact that the target audience is almost evenly distributed, using gadgets of both systems. Creating native apps takes longer to launch. But the hot competition in the market doesn’t allow most companies to procrastinate. That’s when they turn their eyes to those tools that allow them to run on two platforms almost simultaneously.
Sometimes utilizing software engineering means that are suitable for either platform might make an ideal solution, whichever specific application is used. And today we will discuss their pros and cons, and which cross-platform tools will be top development helpers in 2022.
Cross-platform Tools Benefits
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5fNmWej4tAA
- Cross-platform programming’s obvious major advantage is the availability of reusable sources on different operating systems.
- A single team can handle the full implementation of the project on all platforms. There is no need to learn several technology stacks at once, which means the deployment is much faster.
- Extensive audience reach on both platforms.
- The same UI and UX.
Cross-Platform Tools Disadvantages
- Lower flexibility of customization and optimization.
- Lower performance.
Generally speaking, as far as application productivity is concerned, this can always be checked with special tools. Thanks to APM, you can keep productivity at the top of the scale. Users are not willing to tolerate unstable applications, so regardless of how they are built, productivity must be optimized at all times.
In case you’re still thinking about mobile app development services or tools tailored specifically for cross-platform programming, check out these top 10 aides to get you there:
The Top 10 Mobile App Development Tools
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/m_HRfLhgABo
The following is an overview of the trending IOS and Android app development tools, in free-form order.
Flutter, as Google’s framework, enables compiling the generated draft for 3 OSs: Android, iOS, Fuchsia. The tool is actively promoted and has great potential. It has its own graphics engine, so it is not necessarily creating a different front-end for every platform.
Xamarin in particular leverages a single C++ language and libraries wrapped in a .NET layer to build apps on all mobile platforms, this is what makes it special. From the perspective of productivity and User Experience, you can classify these applications as native. Xamarin’s trans platform apps look 100% native on any device, providing a better UX than standard hybrid apps. Thus, you can reuse up to 30% of your source code, optimizing your development workflow. Xamarin also requires no switching between IDEs.
React Native fits most applications where you need to receive a list from the server, show the list, show a detailed view of the list item, send changes to the server, etc. React is very handy for creating small things like a mobile client of a website, besides with a minimum amount of native code you can implement a nice functionality. Applications created with React Native are Facebook, Instagram, Uber Eats.
You May Also Read
- Native Union Dock Wireless Charger review: A fashionable option
- Top 10 Facebook Video Downloader 2021
- Top 10 Twitter Video Downloader 2021
- Top 10 Instagram Video Downloader 2021
- Top 10 Youtube Video Downloader 2021
NativeScript Multiplatform software that adheres to the “write it once, use it everywhere” concept. Supports all components from AndroidArsenal and Cocoapods. Supports native method calls from native libraries. NativeScript relies on its own mechanism for rendering the platform, implying a truly “native” engagement with the user.
Adobe PhoneGap with conventional web technologies (HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3), it’s easy to build mobile apps. Developers can simultaneously build for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone without installing any SDK tools. This service allows iOS to be written in the cloud, without the need for a Mac. Despite this, Abode has discontinued the package and no longer publishes updates.
Appcelerator is an SDK for developing full-fledged mobile applications. In addition to the fact that its API is more extensive and does not only cover web technologies, it also provides platform-specific APIs. For example, on Android, you can run Ongoing notifications, create background services, and standard Android menus. In general, Appcelerator allows you to make comprehensive sophisticated applications with a “native” interface that takes into account the features and capabilities of the platform. It is open-source and provides up to 90% code compatibility.
Ionic To start developing with this tool, you need to be familiar with Angular. The tool contains an extensive library. A huge plus is the ability to run the project in a browser and see how the application will look during development, which saves a lot of time on UI changes. On Android, you can install applications directly from the command line, and on iOS, the build must be opened in Xcode.
Sencha has the richest library for UI creation. It consists of many products, but the main one for developers is Ext Js 5. This family of tools is focused on application development. It includes design, testing, debugging, and various utilities, all from the same company with the same concept and good documentation and support. Accordingly, such a great set costs money. A single platform really saves time creating and testing applications. The toolkit improves application maintenance cycles by reducing dependencies, and allows end-to-end testing of Angular and React applications.
MobiLoud software provides a toolset for converting your WordPress website into a mobile app for iOS and Android, including even if you have no prior engineering experience. You can use a variety of preinstalled app options depending on the functionality and user interface you need.
Onsen UI offers the programmer an opportunity to create progressive mobile applications with or without JavaScript support. Onsen UI is an open-source platform, distributed for free and easy to use. It is helpful when creating the first mobile applications.
Conclusions
The worldwide consumer market for mobile application creation is steadily growing and continues to exceed supply, resulting in an ever-increasing cost of development. One of the solutions to reduce the cost of this process is the development of a multi-platform environment. Of course, cross-platform development will never compare to native in terms of performance, but today it is ideal for enterprises that want to grow faster and at an affordable price. Cross-platform is useful when writing a simple application with few screens and many common elements for different platforms. The ideal task for cross-platform is to develop a mobile game.
About the author:
Louis Sawyer is a professional writer, editor, and web design expert. She loves writing about technology trends, web development, mobile games, and business issues. Also, Louis works as a proofreader at Computools. Follow her on Twitter.
