Most Popular Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Tools Compared for 2018
The main benefit of these most popular cross platform mobile app development tools is that using these you can build engaging hybrid apps for both Android as well as iOS platforms. Everyone wants their coding for app idea to get success but there are only a few who reach to success. Although there are many factors which are responsible for the success of an app strategy, a significant share goes to the type of app development tool you use. These app development tools have diverse and high quality plugin libraries and APIs which alongwith other compatibility and integration issues, play a big role in determining the success of the app. As there are so many platforms and mobile devices available in the market hence Cross Platform App Development has become a very popular option. In native app development, a single code can be used on one platform only while the code generated with a cross-platform tool can be used to target multiple platforms or devices. Hence it helps you in not just bringing down the development cost but also reduces the hassles involved with updating and managing different set of codes of same app in your business setup. In this article, we are presenting before you the exhaustive list of mainly open source and free cross-platform mobile app development tools which any developer can use immediately.
Apache Cordova was earlier known as PhoneGap. It is one of the main cross platform app development tool as it powers the build process of most of the free cross platform mobile app development tools. Some of these are even not free. Adobe launched Cordova as an open source project which has received contributions from many big companies like Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. Most of the Cross Platform Mobile Development tools which we are discussing here, whether free or paid, use Cordova to package a single codebase into a native executable. Cordova first groups HTML, CSS and JavaScript code into a client-side package. After that this software executes and provides the custom code within a native WebView. This process is called as hybrid application technique. This hybrid approach provides a Write-Once-Run-Anywhere solution. By wrapping web code in a native Cordova package, Cordova can provide access to native APIs and by using community-built plugins, apps can connect to any number of those APIs by just using the JavaScript.
This is the actual PhoneGap tool which is separate from the Apache Cordova. As told above, PhoneGap was actually the basis of Cordova. But now it is a standalone product powered by Cordova. The main benefits which Adobe provides with PhoneGap is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) build system which abstracts the command line interface of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap provides an interface to build Cordova applications and simplifies the process therefore helping developers taking less time to develop apps. PhoneGap also offers an application server you can run from your machine to host your apps over the network. This server speeds up the build->run->revise loop hence developers can spend more time in coding the app than in running, compiling and deploying manual updates. Good thing is that PhoneGap has continued support from Adobe and from a large open source developers’ community.
Xamarin is a popular tool used by that app developer who want to build cross platform mobile app using Microsoft technology. In Xamarin tool, a C# codebase can be universally applied to multiple platforms. Xamarin lets developers work with native IDEs, languages and API which is not possible in other frameworks. Good thing is that Git integration is built directly into the Xamarin Studio. Xamarin has some sample apps to help the developers gets started quickly and easily. About ¾ th of the code can be shared across major mobile platforms. Hence Xamarin can help you in reducing not just the development cost but also the development time before releasing the app in the market although there are some compatibility issues with libraries for Android and iOS which are hindrance for building a full-fledged app. Hence the Xamarin community should resolve these issue to encourage development on Xamarin.
React Native inherits its core application framework from React itself. If you have some experience of building web applications in React then learning React Native for your mobile development will be a lot more easier. React Native interprets your source code and converts it into native elements on the go. If there is a choice between React Native and other JavaScript-to-native frameworks then give importance to React Native as it is more popular. In fact, React Native is the most popular JavaScript-to-native platform. It is also more popular due to the backing of its famous Founder: Facebook which is used by billions of users worldwide. Both Facebook’s and Instagram’s native applications have been built with React Native. As two of the world’s most popular applications rely on this framework hence you can too. Good thing about React Native is that it is heavily tested and trusted as Facebook and Instagram have millions of daily active users and these users demand high performance. Facebook developers also continuously update this framework.
NativeScript is the direct competitor of React Native. It is supported by a large organization, Progress and used by industry leaders like SAP. It offers a similar cross-platform development experience to React Native which is backed by Facebook. Similar to React Native, NativeScript compiles your JavaScript application to a native mobile experience. Inside the core, it promotes Angular 2 as its application development framework although developers can use the standard JavaScript with NativeScript APIs some of which are quite useful and easy to do. NativeScript also allows developers to get a feel for the end product by providing GUI applications for Android and iOS. Both applications can be generated from a single codebase hence proving that NativeScript is a Write once run anywhere solution and delivers high performance on both the platforms. NativeScript offers the same high performance over hybrid solutions by building native applications from JavaScript. Many large enterprises support NativeScript and use it in their own applications. NativeScript also integrates directly with Gradle and allows developers to include native Swift, Objective-C and Java libraries into their NativeScript projects directly.
Flutter is Google’s solution to Google’s own problems. Google must have thought, “we have to create separate iOS and Android applications for each app idea and that’s not a good solution.” Hence Google unveiled Flutter. Flutter compiles to native code but requires something other than JavaScript i.e. Dart. Dart is a new language invented by Google over JavaScript to replace it in future. Flutter boosts Google’s efforts for their own programming language and it is also tied to another Google product: Material Design which has also become quite popular recently. If you want to do things in the Google ways then you will have benefits. Flutter is the only open source multi-platform solution supported by a company which also runs the most popular mobile platform i.e. Android. As you know, Apple don’t have any such product and Microsoft’s Xamarin is not so liberal. Many Google’s mobile applications have been built on Flutter and if it is good enough for such a giant like Google then it can be good for you too. Dart language and its mobile run time is similar to native performance speeds and Google will look for more. By using this Google tool, you can build an app which feels similar to Gmail, Google Maps and other applications which also use Material design.
Apache Weex is another one of the Apache supported and sponsored free cross-platform mobile application development tool. The developers of Weex combined the idea behind Cordova with a runtime JavaScript interpreter. This tool generates native experiences from a single source code while Cordova executes JavaScript and provides HTML in a WebView. Good thing is that Weex interprets HTML and provides it dynamically using native new elements. Weex provides UI components out of the box but these elements translate to their corresponding native elements during interpretation thereby boosting performance a lot. Also like Cordova, Weex too has a support from strong community of developers which constantly update its design and interface plugins to keep this platform latest and uptodate. Weex executes JavaScript application at near native speeds. Mostly users find it difficult to differentiate a Weex application from a native one as both employ native UI elements whereas the hybrid apps with WebView render HTML and CSS directly.
Conclusion:
Most of the cross-platform mobile app development tools or frameworks which we have discussed above are open source and free to use. Some of these tools are still in the alpha or beta stage and not final but good thing is that they all are supported by some large company or enterprise hence they have a bright future. If you also want to build cross-platform mobile app then you can master any of these tools and join the bandwagon of this high profile cross platform mobile app development industry. Each of these tools has its own strengths and limitations hence the selection of a framework should be done as per the requirements of the project.
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