Top Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks

Cross-platform app development is becoming more popular as businesses grow to understand the importance of having an online presence. In this article, we’ll break down the key benefits of top cross-platform app development frameworks.

This massive growth in the mobile app industry has also led to a surge in demand for skilled developers who can build engaging apps that offer exceptional user experiences.

While this is excellent news for many developers, it also presents a challenge: which platform should I develop for?

The abundance of options makes it hard to choose just one framework, but thanks to cross-platform development frameworks, developers no longer have to choose. These frameworks make it easier to create apps that work on multiple platforms, allowing you to reach more users with less effort.

What are Top Cross Platform App Development Frameworks?

A cross-platform app development framework is a tool or software for building mobile apps using a single codebase for multiple platforms. You can create an application for one platform and reuse the same code to develop an application for other platforms.

Top cross-platform app development frameworks help develop business applications, especially for SMEs, enterprises, and startups. Cross-platform apps are cost-effective, time-saving, and save the efforts of developers too.

There are a lot of benefits to using a cross-platform development framework. Let’s have a look at some of them:

1. Code Reusability

A significant advantage of cross-platform app development is the ability to reuse code. When you use a framework that builds in HTML5, you can use JavaScript and CSS to create a single app instead of separate versions for each platform. With this method, you can reuse much of your code between iOS, Android, and other apps. This allows you to focus on more critical issues like the UX instead of spending all your time writing new code.

2. Easy hosting

Some frameworks, such as Xamarin, allow developers to host code on a cloud-based service. This simplifies the deployment of apps and makes it easy for developers to collaborate.

3. Cost-effectiveness

Cross-platform app development frameworks eliminate the need for separate coding for different platforms, which can help reduce costs at the development stage of a project.

4. Cloud integration

Cloud integration is an essential feature of cross-platform app development frameworks. It allows you to integrate cloud services into your app so that users can access it from anywhere, on any device. With this feature enabled, your apps will become truly mobile and can be accessed from anywhere.

5. Consistency in UI Elements

Too many developers have been forced to compromise the user experience by changing the interface to accommodate changes in display size and other requirements of new devices. Cross-platform app development frameworks enable developers to create one interface that will work across multiple platforms rather than creating a new interface for each device that uses the app.

6. Less technical barriers

Cross-platform apps are built with standard web technologies, so the only technical barrier for most people is learning the framework of choice. This makes it much easier for new programmers to get into mobile development.

7. Shorter time to market

You have one code base which can be used across multiple platforms. Once you are done building the app, it can be published on all platforms in a concise amount of time.

5 Top Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks

Cross-platform app development is a cost-effective and time-saving technology. This is because a single version of the code works across different platforms. Let’s look at some of the top cross-platform app development frameworks:

1. Ionic – Open source framework for developing hybrid mobile apps

Ionic is an open-source framework for developing hybrid mobile apps. It is built on top of AngularJS and Apache Cordova. The main aim of Ionic is to build mobile apps that are indistinguishable from native apps. Ionic is a front-end SDK for building cross-platform mobile apps.

The idea behind Ionic is to make app development as simple as possible but not more straightforward. The focus is on an app’s front-end user experience or UI interaction (controls, interactions, gestures, animations). Ionic provides tools and services for developing hybrid mobile apps using Web technologies like CSS, HTML5, and Sass.

Apps can be built with these Web technologies and then distributed through native app stores to be installed on devices by leveraging Cordova.

Pros:

• Faster development

When building an app from scratch, it’s likely to take around two or three weeks to get the basic functionality up and running. You can have the same functionality in a week with Ionic, or even less! The software comes with a library full of valuable components like buttons, tabs, and menus; you don’t have to start from scratch every time you want to add something new to your app.

• High performance

Hybrid apps are generally slower than native apps because they run in a web view rather than directly on the device’s hardware. However, Ionic solves this problem using hardware acceleration techniques such as GPU rendering and native scrolling. This means that your app will be able to perform at near-native speed without compromising on quality or performance!

• A library full of components 

Ionic includes more than 30 components that are easy to drop into your app to create a native look and feel on all platforms. You can also customize these components with just CSS.

2. Xamarin – one of the most used cross-platform app development frameworks

Xamarin is a tool used by .NET developers to build cross-platform mobile apps. It currently supports building Android, iOS, and Windows apps using a single, shared codebase. This allows developers to leverage their existing skills, teams, and code to build applications for all the major mobile platforms.

Pros:

• Native API Access

Mobile developers can access the full spectrum of functionality exposed by the underlying platform and device, including platform-specific capabilities like ARKit and Android Multi-Window mode.

• One Technology Stack

Using one technology stack across all platforms is a massive advantage for Xamarin. It allows you to use the same IDE, language, APIs, and data structures on every platform. This way, you don’t have to set up separate development environments for each forum and can reuse most of your code between platforms.

• Platform-Specific Functionality

The developer can access everything that the native SDKs offer, including libraries and frameworks. This allows for a more personalized experience for the user and better performance because the native SDKs will run faster than third-party libraries. On top of that, with Xamarin’s Portable Class Libraries (PCL), developers can share code across all mobile platforms without needing an intermediate layer like HTML5 or JavaScript.

3. React Native – open-source framework for building cross-platform apps developed by Facebook.

React Native is an open-source framework for building cross-platform apps developed by Facebook. Unlike other cross-platform frameworks, React Native doesn’t use web views and allows you to utilize the device’s native capabilities fully.

It also has a single codebase, which results in fewer bugs and fewer development hours. Thanks to all of these features and the fact that it supports both Android and iOS platforms, React Native has quickly become one of the most popular ways to build mobile applications.

If you have an idea for an app and are thinking about giving React Native a try, we recommend reading the following article first. In it, we discuss some of the pros and cons of using this framework and how to choose the right mobile app development partner.

Pros:

• Cost-efficient

For example, you’ve already invested in native iOS and Android developers. If you have one team that can build apps for both platforms while sharing most code between them, you can get more work done without hiring additional staff.

• Reduced development time

React Native is a JavaScript framework that you code once and deploy across all platforms. You do not have to write separate code for Android and iOS because your JavaScript code is compiled into native code on each platform. This reduces your time spent on coding, testing, and deployment significantly while giving you access to native features like camera and geolocation.

• Code reusability 

The most significant advantage of React Native is that it allows for code reusability between iOS and Android, making it an excellent choice for those looking to save time building cross-platform apps. This makes it an ideal option for startups who may want to build out their MVP on the cheap and get in front of users as quickly as possible.

4. Flutter – an open-source SDK by Google to build cross-platform mobile applications with a single codebase.

Flutter is an open-source SDK created by Google to develop cross-platform applications. It uses Dart language, compiles native code, and works on the JIT (Just In Time) development model. It allows developers to build native mobile apps for both Android and iOS.

The applications developed with Flutter are very fast because of their high rendering power and excellent performance. Flutter is a free and open-source project which comes with widgets and tools that enable developers to build beautiful custom designs in a short period quickly.

Dart has many features, including a rich set of functionalities, fast compilation, easy testing, good tooling support, and native performance.

Pros:

• Faster development

Flutter’s Hot Reload feature helps you quickly and easily experiment, build UIs, add features, and fix bugs faster. Experience sub-second reload times without losing state on emulators, simulators, or hardware for iOS and Android.

• Flexible UI

Widgets available in Flutter incorporate all critical platform differences, such as scrolling, navigation, icons, and fonts, to provide full native performance on both iOS and Android.

• Strong tooling support 

It has delightful tools that make development fast and enjoyable. With hot reload enabled, you can make changes in your app and see the effect within a few seconds without losing the state of your app. Its robust stateful hot reload helps you quickly iterate on your app’s stateful Hot Reload works by injecting updated source code files into the running Dart Virtual Machine (VM).

5. Adobe PhoneGap – Adobe’s open-source framework used to build cross-platform apps with JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3

Adobe PhoneGap is an open-source framework that lets you build cross-platform mobile applications using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. It is based on the open-source Apache Cordova project. It provides tools for developers to create apps using web technologies and then package them for different platforms.

PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platform’s native development language.

Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device’s sensors, data, and network status.

Pros:

• Rapid app development

It enables developers to test the application on the device instead of using emulators or simulators. The applications can also be tested across multiple platforms without additional costs because there is no need to purchase other SDKs.

• Integration with existing code

PhoneGap integrates seamlessly with your existing code, making it easy to use whatever technology you’re most comfortable with.

• Extensive community 

PhoneGap has been an open-source platform around since 2010, so it has a broad user base. Because there are so many seasoned developers working with it, you can easily find answers to your questions about the platform. It’s also easy to find templates and plugins for your projects.

Takeaway

The cross-platform mobile application development platform is top-rated in today’s time. The primary reason behind the popularity of this platform is the ease of using this tool. The demand for such platforms is increasing rapidly, and the process of developing a cross-platform application is not as complicated as it seems to be. These days, most developers are using HTML5 to develop these applications. This has also made the process easier than before. There are many tools available in the market that can be used to create a cross-platform application. 

If you’re looking to develop a cross-platform app with experts at Idea Usher, we can help.

Our team of developers is highly skilled in developing apps for iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. We’ll take your unique idea and bring it to life.

FAQs

Q: What are cross-platform app development frameworks?

A: Cross-platform app development frameworks are software tools that enable developers to create mobile applications that can run on multiple operating systems, such as iOS and Android, using a single codebase.

Q: What are the advantages of using cross-platform app development frameworks?

A: The advantages of using cross-platform app development frameworks include faster development time, lower development costs, easier maintenance, and the ability to reach a wider audience by supporting multiple platforms.

Q: How do I choose the best cross-platform app development framework for my project?

A: When choosing a cross-platform app development framework, you should consider factors such as your project requirements, your team’s experience and skillset, the framework’s performance and features, and the community support and resources available.