Enterprises are now focusing on developing mobile apps for their customers alongside having a website due to the tremendous rise in the number of Smartphone users. Businesses are expanding themselves by getting themselves on Mobile App Development Platforms. Various factors come into picture when you finally think to develop your mobile application. One of the very first important factors is choosing the right operating system.
The 98% of the world’s mobile applications are now developed over iOS and Android Operating systems. It is expensive for a Startup or SME to build app on both the OS simultaneously. That’s when Cross-platform mobile development services come on board. This alternate way of cross platforms was invented when businesses found it difficult to manage budgets for creating native-like apps.
The best option is to hire an expert Mobile App Developer for creating a custom cross-platform mobile application. We will discuss the best 5 tools that are used by the top mobile app development companies for creating apps that can run on multiple mobile operating systems.
According to the studies by Statista, the top five cross-platform mobile app tools on 2020 are React Native, Flutter, Cordova, Ionic and Xamarin. Below is their chart based on the cross-platform mobile frameworks usage in 2019-2020. (Image source: Statista)
The technology of cross-platform mobile app development services has boosted up the requirement of expert mobile app developers to compete in the market of mobile app developments. Thus outsourcing of expert cross-platform app developers is increasing for using these tools to create rich-featured and high performing mobile apps. A hike of 72.97% is seen in 2020 and it is estimated to gain more heights in 2021.
The main advantages of Cross-platform mobile development services are its single codebase, faster and cheaper deployment, reduced workload, wide market reach and platform consistency. The only cons of this platform felt by Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Company are possible UX and UI discrepancies or slower performance.
The below Google trend chart compares the present status of these tools from last year to till date.
(Image source: Google trends)
Let us move onto the list of the top cross-platform mobile app development tools to go for in 2020.
1. Flutter
Flutter is an open-source UI SDK (software development kit) is created by Google that allows cross-platform programmers to build high-performance applications on various platforms such as iOS, Android, Web, and desktop from a single codebase. It was initially released in May 2017 and its seen that Flutter apps fully compile to native code unlike hybrid or React Native apps.
The Flutter developers utilize Dart programming language that helps most of the object-oriented notions and it is also easy for JavaScript or Java developers to understand it. Flutter can be the best cross-platform service tool if you want to develop a custom mobile application on both iOS and Android OS.
The best feature of Flutter is that it supports a widget which helps in enhancing the look of the mobile application. This widget provides an application with multiple features such as scrolling, navigation, fonts, icons, etc and complete native-like performances.
Big names using Flutter: Google Ads, Alibaba and Groupon
2. React Native
React Native is also considered the best by cross-platform mob developers since it allows them to create native applications using JavaScript as a programming language. The strong side of React Native is that modules can be written in languages like C, Swift, Java Objective and Python. It also allows the expert mobile programmers to work on image editing and video processing that aren’t possible with the other API frameworks. React Native developers can interpret the source code and convert it to the native elements in less time. It was launched in 2015 by Facebook.
Big names using React Native: Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest
3. Xamarin
Microsoft Visual Studio backed Xamarin in 2016 and made it open-source platform. It uses a single C# .net code to build apps for multiple mobile app platforms such as Windows, iOS, and Android.
The Xamarin cross-platform services tool build applications which look and feel like the native apps and it is because of the native interfaces that Xamarin uses.
Expert Xamarin developers make the app works on all mac, mob and desktop system apps and offers you tools such as debugging, UI design tools, and code editing and accelerates the process for creating efficient cross-platform mobile app development solutions.
Big names using Xamarin: Alaska Airlines, Oro, MRW and APX
4. Ionic
Ionic is one of the powerful HTML5 SDK that develops native like mobile apps by utilizing advanced technologies such as HTML, CSS, Angular and JavaScript. This SDK primarily focuses on the UI interaction and look of the mobile applications.
This prominent cross-platform tool provides pre-designed components, interactive paradigms, superb themes and typography.
The Ionic developers use API, such as TypeScript, Virtual DOM, JSX, and async, which are best suitable for Progressive Web App (PWA).
Big names using Ionic: Pacifica, Market Watch, Nationwide, McDonald’s
5. Cordova
The Apache Cordova is the former PhoneGap mobile application development framework. Adobe purchased the PhoneGap software in 2011 and released an open-source version of it as Apache Cordova.
The Apache Cordova developers build hybrid mobile applications using CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, as an alternative of relying on platform-specific APIs like those in Android, iOS, or Windows Phone.
The expert Cordova developers can create powerful applications using the properties of Native resources like mobile’s compass, contacts, camera, messages, geo location, networks, accelerometer, notifications and many more. The Cordova programmers find it time and cost-effective to use it for developing high quality and features-rich multi-platform mobile apps in real time.
Big names using Cordova: Hogangnono, Teleport and Walmart
You can hire expert cross-platform mobile developers based on the locations where they are prominently used. There are many offshore mobile development companies that outsource iOS, Android and Cross-platform Mobile App Services.
If you have a complex mobile app development project that demands expert mobile app developers for executing the latest technical features, feel free to hire mobile programmers from Digital Mesh. We have been providing efficient quality mobile app services in our leading Offshore Mobile App Development Company in India for over 10 successful years.
Contact our professional app developers for any query, assistance or mobile application projects.