The stats of the number of applications on Google play store or Apple Appstore are increasing at a rapid rate. The reason is an increase in the demand for mobile app development. If you look at the stats of these app stores, you will find an enormous number of applications being published each day. In this age of competition, developers often find it hard to choose the best technology for mobile app development. It can be confusing sometimes, as every app has its own requirements. The massive popularity of smartphones has made it easier to work on the go, whether it is shopping, banking, etc.
Mobile app development in 2021 is taking the industry to the next level with innovative apps that interacts and predicts the outcomes and delivers a smooth experience. These apps are in every sector, whether it is the food industry, healthcare, banking, travel, and much more. Apart from these industries, these apps are now an integral part of our life. For instance, there is a huge probability that you are reading this article on your smartphone with a browser app. You use the taxi app to commute, fitness app to measure the calories burnt in a day, Maps to find your way anywhere, grocery app to get them delivered at your doorstep, and more. These apps are only possible due to the app development frameworks and technology. Here are the top frameworks that completely transformed mobile app development in 2021.
Top Mobile App Development Frameworks
Ionic
Ionic is known as one of the best mobile development frameworks. It is available for free to use and has an image of a diligent application development framework. With the assistance of HTML, CSS3, and Javascript, it helps in building alluring applications. It delivers optimum performance on every mobile platform and delivers a diligent approach to fulfill the gist of the application. It offers a website named Ion Market which offers other developer’s templates and projects that are available to download. This app development framework fits perfectly with various SDKs; one of them is Angular. Ionic is the best mobile app framework for creating basic functions in an application that can be implemented on numerous devices and operating systems. The main advantage of the Ionic framework, you can build the application once instead of developing it repeatedly for individual devices, and you can deploy it anywhere.
Ionic Features:
- Cross-platform
- Web Standards-based
- Beautiful Design
- Simplicity
- Cordova Plugin
React Native
React Native is a JavaScript-based app development framework used to develop a true, native mobile application for iOS and Android. It only uses JavaScript to create a mobile application. It’s like React, which uses the native component, not the web components, like building blocks. It is worth noticing that React Native is a JavaScript framework. On the other hand, ReactJs (React.js) is a JavaScript library. React Native is based on React, Facebook’s JavaScript library, and XML-Esque markup (JSX) for user interface development. The mobile applications based on React Native run on a mobile device and are not loaded through a browser. In React Native application user interface and everything is compiled into source code.
React Native Features:
- NPM libraries support
- UI focused
- Write once and use everywhere
- Modular and intuitive
- Cross-Platform usage
Flutter
Flutter is referred to as one of the best frameworks for mobile app development as it consists of user interface tools used for creating alluring, pre-compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop with a single programming language and a single code base. Just like Ionic, it’s free and open source. Flutter applications use the Dart programming language to create the application. Darts programming has many of the same features as other programming languages, such as Kotlin and Swift, and can be recompiled into JavaScript code. Flutter is a diligent mobile app framework and is optimized primarily for 2D mobile applications that can be used on both Android and iOS platforms. You can also use it to create full-featured applications, including camera, storage, geolocation, networking, third-party SDKs, and more. Flutter differs from other mobile app development frameworks as it does not use WebView or the OEM gadgets that come with the device. Instead, it uses its high-performance rendering engine to draw widgets.
Flutter Features:
- Minimal code
- Widgets
- Open-Source
- Native Features and SDKs
- Cross-platform
Xamarin
Xamarin is one of the popular mobile app development frameworks used mainly for developing a cross-platform mobile application using C #. Various frameworks in the market offer cross-platform application development and use HTML and JavaScript. With this diligent mobile app development framework, you can use JS libraries to develop applications such as a website for a mobile application. The website is packaged in a container and delivers an experience of a native app. Xamarin is different because it offers a single language, C #, runtime and runs on three mobile platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows). With the help of Xamarin, you can easily develop a mobile application with a completely unique look and feel. There is always a single C # code base in Xamarin which has access to all the features of the native SDK.
Xamarin Features:
- Portable class libraries (PCL)
- Diagnostic tools
- Application loader
- Google emulator manager
- Android SDK manager
Adobe PhoneGap
PhoneGap is widely used for the development of cross-platform mobile applications around the world. Just like most of the mobile app development frameworks, PhoneGap is also available for free as it’s an open-source mobile application framework. With Adobe PhoneGap, developers have the feasibility to develop applications using standard web-APIs. In order to develop cross-platform applications, knowledge of web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is the prerequisite for the developers. Apart from this, everything is maintained by the rest of the work, such as the feel, portability, and appearance of the app is retained by PhoneGap. It is one of the most preferred mobile app frameworks that permits to development of applications for the most popular operating systems, such as Android iOS, Windows, BlackBerry, etc. While using PhoneGap, the data uploaded on the website gets converted into various app files automatically.
Adobe PhoneGap Features:
- Strong and Robust
- Open Source
- Flexibility
- Compatible on all the platforms
- Ease of Development
Node.JS
Node.JS is a cross-platform mobile app framework that is based on V8. The reason for the popularity of Node.JS is its ability to transform JavaScript into a general-purpose language from a highly specialized language. An open-source environment is known to help the development of server-side network applications; that’s exactly what Node.JS delivers. It is a known fact that a V8 engine compiles JavaScript to machine code that makes Node.JS extremely fast. Node.JS framework has a rich library that consists of various JavaScript modules. The mobile apps developed on this framework are extremely responsive.
Node.JS Features
- Non-blocking thread execution
- Multi-threaded
- Cross-platform
- Faster development environment
- Object-oriented
Corona SDK
Corona is also a cross-platform mobile app framework and the most popular choice of app developers. The reason for its popularity is its availability online as it is open-source, which is considered most suitable for developing games and applications. Its massive use in game development has earned it the name of the 2D game engine. You can easily develop an application for both mobile and desktop with Corona. Corona SDK is known to deliver a much faster speed of development than any other mobile app development framework. The reason behind this lightning-fast speed is Lua. It is a lightweight programming language with a major focus on ease of usage, flexibility, and speed.
C0rona SDK Features:
- Platform compatible
- Fast development
- Native Library support
- Ease of usage
- Free of cost for core functionalities
jQuery
jQuery is one of the most preferred mobile app development frameworks based on HTML5. Most of the developers around the world use jQuery because of the fact that only one version can be used across all the devices, which makes it extremely feasible for the developers. You will find jQuery the most beneficial mobile app framework as mobile apps developed on this framework easily work on across all devices and operating systems like Android, iOS, Blackberry, and more.
jQuery Features:
- Ajax
- Extensibility
- DOM element selections functions
- Events
- CSS manipulation
Wrapping Up
The search for the best technology for mobile app development will never end, as the requirements of each app differ from one another. The rising number of published apps on various app stores indicates a bright future for the app development sector. The list of best frameworks for app development has been curated by taking factors like development time, operating system, and enterprise mobility services into account. The developers have plenty of options to choose from to develop the most efficient apps based on the client’s requirements. The technological environment is changing, and the world is shifting towards AI, ML, and IoT. These advanced technologies need efficient frameworks to deliver perfection.
Matellio has developed several top-ranking mobile apps for our clients that have received tremendous feedback and ratings. Our diligent team is highly skilled and consists of engineers and experts from various domains that deliver us a diverse environment. We have worked on every technology and framework and are ready to develop your dream app on the technology of your preference. Let’s discuss your business needs on a 30-min free consultation call!
