Mobile App Development

Mobile apps have become an inseparable portion of our lives. Nowadays, we have a mobile application for nearly everything: shopping, tour booking, socializing, and learning to watch our favorite movies and TV shows. But do you know how these applications are made?

Well, a mobile application is made by some high-level programming languages such as Java. Also, many Mobile App Development frameworks help developers create professional applications easily.

The app development framework is a software framework that lets mobile app developers build an app by using several sub-components and features. The component involves a debugger, libraries, toolsets, and several such things.

This blog post will address some of the traditional mobile app development frameworks and help ease the stress of making that decision so that you can make the right decision for your startup!

Here are the 8 Best Mobile App Development frameworks for Startups:

1. React Native

React Native, an open-source framework developed by Facebook in 2015, is widely known as a cross-platform mobile app development framework built for Android or iOS apps. React Native lets mobile app developers build high-performance apps in shorter build cycles with faster deployment times and a budget-friendly option.

One of the React Native framework’s notable advantages is that it lets you develop genuinely native apps but doesn’t compromise user experience (UX).

React Native gives a core set of platform-neutral native components like Text, Images, Views, all drafted to a platform’s native UI building block. Also, it is compatible with JavaScript, which is a must for the full stack.

Related read: Top 5 Cross Platform App Development frameworks for Mobile Developers

The framework builds elegant and rich apps on JavaScript and ReactJS. Many leading apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Bloomberg, were built on the React Native framework.

2. Flutter

Flutter is an elite mobile application development framework developed by Google in 2017, helping developers to build cross-platform startup apps that run smoothly on iOS and Android smartphones. It has an user-friendly interface, top-notch responsiveness and enhanced performance.

Developers admire working with Flutter because of the faster coding capabilities it provides. One of the highlighting benefits flutters provides is changing the old widgets and creating new gadgets very effectively. It helps to build responsive apps that can engage more users in a short period.

Flutter gives a native exposure to both the engineer & end-user with commendable platform features such as scrolling, navigation, icons, plus fonts. Its a built-in material design widget so you can effortlessly create powerful, expressive UI for your applications.

Flutter uses Dart programming language (a client-optimized language for fast apps on any platform) to build native interfaces, relieving developers of writing the entire code from scratch to develop a single app for two platforms. Some of the better-known apps built with Flutter are Google Ads and Alibaba.

3. Ionic

Ionic is an open-source, cross-platform app UI toolkit that works as an open-source with programming languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML to build native-like mobile apps.

Mobile app developers love using the ionic framework because it allows developers to use a specific set of UI elements such as tab bars, filters, action sheets, forms, list views, navigation menus, etc. It makes their job a bit easier. They can divert their concentration on the app development and not on the UI.

Ionic operates in an optimized manner on the most advanced mobile devices and provides the best possible environment for applications to hit the market as desired.

It supports Android version 4.1 and iOS 7 to the latest versions respectively. If the developer uses HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, then working with the ionic framework would be much more comfortable. 

If the developers use ionic with the native app in PhoneGap, the performance is much better than that of hybrid apps. It also uses Cordova plugins to access certain features like Flashlight, Camera, GPS, and some others.

4. PhoneGap

PhoneGap, also called Apache Cordova, is a cross-platform and one of the best mobile app development frameworks. It enables developers to develop an app installed as a native one across multiple devices. It is one of the most used frameworks that need to code just once and creates various mobile apps versions.

It helps developers to conserve time, effort, and resources. One of the underlining parts of using PhoneGap is its support for inbuilt features like camera, Storage, GPS, phonebook, accelerometer, and many more.

PhoneGap uses JavaScript to render the backend logic for applications, which gives it a competitive edge as JavaScript, which is used in programming very widely.

5. Xamarin

Xamarin is one of the most reliable, intuitive, and flexible tools developed by Microsoft. Using this framework, developers can use C# for creating iOS, Android, and Windows apps. It sets a perfect example as the most secure and amenable tools for developers to work with to get native-like performance.

Xamarin extends the .NET dev platform with tools + libraries for developing apps for Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows. It empowers the developers to establish the app and give native actions and UI with ease.

As a Microsoft product, it has more than 60,000 developers & contributors, extensive documentation, and  good customer support.

6. Appcelerator Titanium

Appcelerator Titanium is one of the most dominant hybrid mobile app development frameworks used with a single code for cross-platform development. It allows developers to create dedicated native apps for Android, iOS, and Windows from a single JavaScript codebase.

It is a JavaScript-based SDK that is a mix of both PhoneGap and Xamarin. It operates as an open-source app development framework that comprises 5000 APIs for the development of cross-platform apps.

Appcelerator Titanium comes with inbuilt UI components that empower you to create seamless experiences for the end-user. It also enables developers to develop a multiplatform app, with 90% of the code reused.

7. jQuery Mobile

jQuery is a mobile app development framework which empowers developers to code less and build more in a shorter time. It has a built-in JavaScript library with multiple plugins like Image Slider, Content Slider, Pop-Up Boxes, and many more.

It is more convenient than JavaScript libraries as it needs minor coding to get similar features compared with other components. This framework makes web pages simple, interactive and user-friendly. The best part is it is perfectly readable by all search engines and optimized as per SEO.

8. Corona SDK

Corona SDK is a cross-platform framework used for creating compatible cross-platform apps in a limited time. This framework can build 2D games with fast OpenGL graphics,  allowing the apps to perform better.

Related read: What are the best frameworks for Web Development?

It is perfect for quickly developing apps and games for mobile devices and also for desktop. It empowers developers to create one application and publish it to multiple platforms.

Corona SDK helps the developers create a solitary codebase that works well with Android, iOS, and Nook platforms. Using advanced features of Corona SDK, like interactivity and engaging graphics, you can integrate cool content into the apps.

Conclusion

This blog lists the top mobile application development frameworks that startups need. Each framework has its unique features, pros, and cons. Compare the frameworks with your startup requirements and select the one that fits best.

Author Bio:

James Grills is currently associated with Cumulations Technologies, a ReactJs Development company. He is a technical writer with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in mobile application development and IoT technology.

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.