Top 10 Cross Platform App Development Frameworks: Which One to Choose and Why?

There are 3.48 million apps on the Play Store and 2.22 million apps on the app store available for download. Missing your presence on either platform will hamper your reach to the audience.

So, what is the problem with developing a mobile application for both operating systems? The issue is that small businesses with limited budgets can’t afford to hire two dedicated teams for Android and iOS app development.

These problems can be solved by cross platform app development frameworks that allow the creation of native-looking mobile apps for both Android and iOS using the same codebase.

Does the concept seem interesting? Want to read more on cross-platform frameworks? Here we have shared the 10 best cross-platform app development frameworks for Android and iOS. Before talking about them let’s first make you familiar with the benefit of such frameworks.

What are the Benefits of Using a Cross-Platform Framework?

Why should your business choose a cross-platform app development framework? Here are a few reasons:

1. Code Reusability

The hybrid development framework follows an approach:  “Write once, run on different platforms”. 

With the use of shared codebases, hybrid frameworks eliminate repetitive tasks and speed up development.

2. Quick Development Time

This is another win-to-win situation with the hybrid mobile app development frameworks. Since single source code can be used to develop applications for Android and iOS, development efforts are reduced to 40 to 60%.

3. Easy Integration With Cloud

Plugins and extensions are a great way to improve the app’s functionality with minimal developer efforts. Hybrid mobile apps are compatible with the various plugins and they can be easily integrated with the help of the cloud thanks to the single source code.

4. Uniform Design

Many users own more than one device i.e Android and iOS. With native mobile app development, it is hard for developers to sync design across multiple devices with similar experiences.

Cross-platform app development tools allow developers and designers to build a uniform designing experience across multiple operating systems.

5. Easier Modification

Due to the ever-changing business environment, it is essential for businesses to update their mobile apps regularly or frequently adopting the latest market trends to stay competitive.

Due to the complex coding of native mobile apps, the modification becomes quite difficult and time-consuming. With hybrid mobile app development tools, the developers need to make changes in single-source code which makes the modification process easier.

Start Your Cross Platform App Development Today with One of These Awesome Frameworks

1. Flutter: Build Apps for Any Screen

Flutter is an open-source app development supported by Google. It enables the developers to build, test and deploy feature-rich apps for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.

Flutter is powered by the Dart programming language which is client optimized and prompts fast application development.

Irrespective of the development platform, Dart is fast on all platforms. When mobile and desktop are concerned Dart compiles to the ARM & 64 machine code. In the case of web development, Dart compiles JavaScript.

With automated testing and developer tooling, the development of a production-quality app becomes a lot easier for mobile app developers.

Features

• Hot reload: Developers can preview the changes made to the coding instantly with immediate effect.
• Optimized for UI: Enables the mobile app designers to control every pixel of the design to create an adaptive design that looks and feels great on any screen.
• Full set of widgets: It offers the full set of widgets in Google’s material design and in Apple’s Style.
• Skia: An internal graphic engine to promote fast and well-optimized development.
• Simplified initial setup: With clear documentation and large community support, the Flutter installation process becomes a lot easier.

Apps Powered by Flutter

• GooglePay
• ByteDance
• Dream11
• eBay
• CrowdSource

2. React Native: Learn Once, Write Anywhere

React Native is a best-in-class open-source Javascript library created by the Meta platform for building beautiful user interfaces.

React Native follows an approach “learn once, write everywhere”. It allows developers to create native-like cross-platform applications with little effort.

Being powered by the lightning-fast programming language React Native, developers can preview the changes instantly.

Features

• Community driven: React Native has the second-highest number of contributors on Github followed by VScode.
• Code reusability: Approx 90% of the code can be used to develop apps for Android and iOS.
• NPM libraries support: Thanks to the Node Package Manager, the installation of React Native is fairly easy.
• Upgrade helper support: This tool makes the process of transforming older written scripts to React Native much easier.
• Compatibility with third-party libraries: React Native rewards the developers with the freedom to improve the functionality of apps with the integration of third-party libraries.

Apps powered by React Native

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Coinbase
• Shopify
• Flipkart
• Skype

3. Xamarin: Cross-Platform App Development With .NET and C#

Xamarin is a free and open-source cross-platform app development framework supported by Microsoft that allows the building of Android and iOS apps using programming languages like .NET and C#.

Being integrated with the modern backend services, and native APIs, Xamarin allows the development of native, cross-platform, and shared native user interfaces.

Features

• Powerful libraries: Extensive collection of libraries to build feature-rich cross-platform apps.
• Free & open-source: Xamarin is free for all. There is no fee or licensing cost.
• Large and active community: Great community support to get answers to all your questions.
• Compatibility with Azure: With Azure support, developers can satisfy their needs for storage and intelligent services.

Apps Powered by Xamarin:

• Just Giving
• Storyo
• The World Bank
• Alaska Airlines
• APX

4. Ionic: One Codebase Any Platform

Ionic is an open-source software development kit created by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley for hybrid mobile app development.

Ionic provides the mobile app developers with a great level of freedom by allowing them to develop the app using any frontend framework including Angular, React, and Vue.

Features

• Pre-designed UI components: A vast collection of pre-build components, typography, and base theme that can be adopted on all mobile devices.
• Developer-friendly tooling: Live reload, deployments, and integrations tools make the developer’s process fairly simple.
• Blazing fast app development: Ionic offers up to 60 FPS scrolling on mobile devices.
• Simple and declarative UI components: All the components of Ionic are produced using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to enable developers to develop modern and high-quality UIs.
• Over 120 native device plugins: Rich libraries for native device plugins for making access to camera, geolocation, Bluetooth, and more a lot easier.

Apps Powered by Ionic

• 86400
• Sworkit
• Instant Pot
• Shipt
• Untappd

5. NodeJS: Asynchronous Event-Driven JavaScript Runtime

NodeJS is an open-source cross-platform back-end JavaScript runtime environment created by the OpenJS foundation to support the development of server-side and scalable network apps.

NodeJS enables the JavaScript developers to write server-side coding alongside the client-side coding. By following the minimalist approach, NodeJS provides simple yet powerful ways of hybrid mobile app development.

Features:

• Best developer experience is assured with NodeJS thanks to the least overhead and powerful plugin architecture.
• Enables developers to write reusable application logic.
• NodsJS can be easily integrated with several front-end frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular.
• Impressively speedy in the code execution process.

Apps Powered by NodeJS

• Paypal
• Linkedin
• Yahoo
• Mozilla
• Netflix
• Uber
• Groupon
• GoDaddy

6. Apache Cordova: Mobile Apps With HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Apache Cordova is an open-source hybrid mobile application development platform. It makes use of standard web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS3 to develop cross-platform applications for Android, iOS, and Windows.

Apache Cordova offers two basic app development workflows: cross-platform (CLI) workflow and platform-centered workflow to enable developers to build platforms for multiple platforms by sharing a similar codebase.

Features

• Command-line interface (CLI): Responsible for making the development process simpler by building processes and installing plugins.
• Extensive range of Cordova plugins: Enrich the capabilities of the mobile app by integrating Cordova Plugins.

Apps Powered by Apache Cordova

• Spark Chess
• Wikipedia
• HealthTap
• Localeur

7. Sencha: Fastest JavaScript Grid

With Sencha Touch, developers can build and test data-intensive web applications across multiple platforms including Android, and iOS.

Relying on MVC architecture, Sencha makes use of programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build mobile applications.

Features

• Customizable UI widgets: It has a collection of more than 50 prebuilt customizable UI widgets.
• Code compatibility: The new version of Sencha offers smooth compatibility with the previous version of the framework.
• A robust data package enables the application to consume data from any back-end data source.
• Adaptive layout and animations ensure a superior experience across multiple platforms.

Companies Using Sencha

• Data Inc.
• Lorven technologies
• Confidential Records

8. Appcelerator Titanium: JavaScript Based SDK

Appcelerator Titanium is an open-source cross platform app development framework. It allows mobile app developers to develop apps in JavaScript, then compiled them into native apps for Android and iOS.

Besides the hybrid app development, Appcelerator Titanium can also be used to develop apps for one platform only.

Features

• Over 5,000 APIs for iOS, Android, and Windows to build amazing apps with incredible credibilities.
• 60-90% code reusability to power the development of native-like app development with less coding for multiple platforms.
• Easy availability of marketplace modules to ensure the extended capabilities of your application.
• XML and CSS-like syntaxes to help developers make the layout syntax different from the business logic.

Apps Powered by Appcelerator Titanium

• Spike Email
• UBEAT
• FastJobs
• Inox
• Energy

9. NativeScript: Empower JavaScript With Native APIs

NativeScript is an open-source app development tool that allows the creation of web and mobile apps with similar codebase for multiple operating systems.

Being supported by the WebIDE called PlayGround, which offers benefits such as hot reload, debugging, and an easy working interface to assist developers to create hybrid apps efficiently.

Features

• Rich animations, graphics, charts, and lists to deliver a magnificent user experience to the users.
• Touch manager to allow developers to deliver a polishing user experience to the users.
• Hot module replacement
• Easy authentication options with different sign-in methods
• Platform-specific APIs

Apps Powered by NativeScript

• ActiveLook
• Aura CO2
• Badabee
• Breathe
• Checkpoint Curly
• Dresden App

10. Corona SDK

Corona SDK is a free and cross platform app development tool that allows the rapid creation of games and mobile apps for multiple platforms.

The framework is powered by the lightweight scripting language called Lua. By automatically compiling apps at the build time, Corona enhances the performance and stability.

Corona SDK’s development expertise does not limit itself to mobile devices; it allows developers to create solutions with a similar codebase that will work on desktops and even connected TV devices.

Features

• Completely free: No hidden fees, charges, and royalties are applicable on the usages of the framework.
• Extensive marketplace: Full project templates, graphical assets, music, and plugins are available for developers.
• Priority support: Offers support using the slack channels and directly through email.
• Call any native API: Be it C/C++/Objective C or Java, developers can call any native APIs with Corona.

Apps Powered by CoronaSDK

• Tiny Boxes
• Ava Airborne
• Grow Beets
• Scale
• Rider
• Zip Zap

What’s Next

So, which framework have you chosen for your cross platform app development after reading their description and features?

Regardless of the framework you choose, you won’t be able to unlock the full potential of these frameworks without the help of an experienced mobile app development company.

Konstant Infosolutions is a highly experienced cross platform app development company. The company has developed a number of world-class apps using these frameworks. Let’s connect with us to unlock the full potential of your app development project.

FAQ

1. Which framework is best for a cross platform app development framework?

The selection of the best framework is subject to your development requirements. According to a survey conducted by Statista in 2021, React Native is the most used cross-platform mobile framework followed by Flutter.

2. What are the most commonly used cross-platform programming languages?

Java, C++, and JavaScript are the most commonly used programming languages for cross platform app development.

3. How to pick the best cross-platform app development company?

• Develop a clear understanding of budget
• Review the companies portfolio
• Understand the company pricing structure
• Pay utmost attention to client testimonial
• Talk about the post maintenance and support services