When you want to reach out to massive groups of audiences through your business, a cross-platform app development framework is an ideal choice. The market has a sea of cross-platform app development tools and frameworks. Every business wants to create an impact on users by presenting the best mobile app solution. By collaborating with an experienced multi-platform app development company, you can explore innovative ways to attract users.
However, with so many choices available, it becomes overwhelming for developers to choose the right one. In the endeavor to create the best mobile app for your business, you need an exemplary cross-platform app development framework that can assure your mobile app has user-friendliness, appealing UI, and complete safety and security of information.
In this blog, we will help you learn about the benefits of various cross-platform app development frameworks for iOS and Android platforms. With this, we hope your business will expand exponentially by choosing the right cross-platform app development framework for 2024.
What are Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks?
Cross-platform is an innovative technique to create software applications that can seamlessly perform with multiple mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows, etc. Mobile apps built on any cross-platform development framework do not require a separate codebase to function on other platforms. You only need to develop a single codebase that will serve as a foundation for the app to run effectively on all platforms. There is a sharp rise in using cross-platform app development tools from 2019 to 2022. Have a look at the latest Statista report:
The spectacular feature of using a single codebase for multiple platforms has led to a huge explosion of numerous cross-platform app development frameworks. From the vast pool of tools and frameworks that promise effective results, we have curated the top ten best cross-platform app development frameworks that any mobile app development company will swear upon. This group of cross-platform app development companies has developed expertise in building robust and resilient mobile applications that work efficiently across various operating systems. With the power of these cross-platform technologies, they have helped businesses thrive and develop at reduced time and costs ensuring consistent user experiences.
So let us have a glance over each of the below frameworks that have contributed tremendously to building successful mobile applications for various businesses.
Top 10 Best Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
1. Flutter
One of the most impressive cross-platform app development frameworks is Flutter. In 2017, Google presented this marvelous software development kit that can assist in creating stunning mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms. Flutter’s popularity continues this year as well because it empowers apps to run on multiple platforms with great flexibility and perfection effectively through a single codebase. So far it has remained the topmost choice of developers because it is embedded with the below features. If you hire Flutter app developers they are well acquainted with the below features.
Features:
- Promotes portable GPU rendering UI power that can work on current interfaces
- UI changes automatically become visible by just updating the variables.
- Perfect choice for developing MVPs to initiate an innovative development process that is always cost-effective.
- Developers can easily comprehend the code adjustments and can recreate widget tree
- Inbuilt graphic engine saving time to make separate interfaces for iOS and Android
Top Apps in Flutter : Google Ads, Reflectly, Cryptograph, etc.
2. React Native
React Native is built on JavaScript and writes real code giving a native-like feel to mobile applications for both types of platforms. React Native also has exceptional features that drive developers to choose it for developing efficient mobile applications. With React Native you get dual benefits of JavaScript and React. JS. Developers can write modules in Swift, Java, or Objective-C. In addition, React Native has strong community support and has numerous code editors to help create innovative features for the app. The benefits of React Native are visible from the following features:
Features:
- It is an open-source cross-platform app development framework.
- Provides a native-like experience that is stable and responsive
- Needs one-time coding to develop apps for multiple platforms
- Reduces development cost and time of the app
- Most compatible with third-party plugins like Google Maps
- Highly focused on UI rendering responsive interface, thereby reducing load time and providing smooth user experiences.
- Has different types of ready-to-use plugins to improve the efficiency and functionality of various apps.
Top Apps Built with React Native: Facebook Ads, Skype, Walmart, Uber Eats, Instagram.
3. Ionic
It is also one of the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks. It takes the base of Angular JS and helps developers assimilate the benefits of top programming languages like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Cordova wrapper for using native platform controllers. Developers can build innovative UI and can include unique features giving an interactive and native-like user experience.
Features:
- Open-source front-end framework allowing iterations in the code structure as per developers' suitability
- Based on the SaaS UI framework especially for mobile operating systems to provide various UI components to develop robust applications.
- Based on Angular JS, it can offer extensions to HTML’s core functionalities and syntax for building attractive features and components for the app
- The Cordova plugins provide a native-like feel to the apps that will surely perform efficiently on various platforms.
Top Apps Built with Ionic: Diesel, Honefi, JustWatch, etc.
4. Node.js
Node.js is an astounding framework that can develop cross-platform apps with great versatility. It is a JavaScript runtime framework developed on the ChromeV8 JavaScript engine. Technically, it is an open-source framework supporting server-side development processes to scale networking apps to a great extent. Apps built with Node.js cross-platform are always efficient and responsive. Loaded with rich libraries and the capability to handle various concurrent connections simultaneously, Node.js is one such exceptional framework you can use with no worries.
Features:
- Asynchronous APIs indicate a non-blocking nature and move on to another API soon after calling it.
- Impressive libraries that perform speed code execution process.
- Does not buffer and instead apps do data output in large volumes
- It uses a single-threaded model with event-looping functionality, making it scalable and seamless.
- Slows down the reaction time, helping developers to address all information inquiries in real time.
Top Apps Built with Node.js: Netflix, Uber, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Mozilla.
5. Xamarin
Xamarin is different from other frameworks. It is a streamlined framework used for building Windows, Android, and iOS apps with .Net and C# languages. Developers can use a maximum of 90% of codes for building apps on multiple platforms. It neatly delivers applications similar to native apps by using the best APIs.
Features:
- Apps are built on C# with the leverage over Objective-C and Java
- It gives developers native-like app functionality
- Reduces hardware compatibility issues through plugins and special APIs that work with common devices
- Allows customization by linking with native libraries.
- Supports Objective-C, C++ libraries, or Java
- Reduces time and cost of mobile app development through a single codebase feature and a massive collection of libraries
- Provides resilient compile-time checking, reducing lesser run-time errors
- Exception native UI to control assistance and development of designs
Top Apps Build with Xamarin: Captio, Storyo, APX, Picturex, etc.
6. Sencha Touch
Sencha Touch is used to develop efficient web-based cross-platform apps by using hardware acceleration techniques. With this framework, developers can build battle-tested and secured UI components and libraries. Sencha Touch is a perfect fit for building large business apps as it can help maintain app efficiency.
Features:
- Can provide in-built native-looking themes for platforms like Android, iOS, Windows, etc.
- Efficient agnostic backend data package that enables using data sources
- Supports Cordova integration to access API cum packaging
- Provides code compatibility between old and new codes
- Has 50+ in-built widgets that can be customized and a vast collection of carousels, lists, menus, forms, toolbars, etc.
Apps Built With Sencha Touch: Telstra, Reliance Industries, One Hat, etc.
7. Adobe PhoneGap
Adobe PhoneGap is an open-source framework and was acquired by Adobe in 2011. This framework differs from other frameworks as it uses standard web technologies, and adapts Java for Android, C# for Windows, and Objective C for iOS mobile phone applications. The main function of PhoneGap is to wrap the HTML pages in a native app shell, giving applications access to native APIs. The framework can integrate various libraries with existing code and can simplify and accelerate the development process.
Features:
- Resilient backend system that enhances the speed of the app development process
- Helps developers to create any type of mobile application easily
- No hardware restrictions and helps developers to easily adapt to the framework.
Top Apps Built with Adobe PhoneGap: Wikipedia, HealthTap, TripCase, etc.
8. Firebase
Firebase was originally founded in 2011 and later acquired by Google in 2014. This framework is a robust Backend-as-a-Service platform that includes top features like authentication, real-time database, machine learning, cloud storage, hosting, etc. Its wide popularity is because it provides numerous services and tools to the developers to build, deploy, and manage applications. All the services are cloud-hosted and developers can skillfully scale the app without any problems.
Features:
- It can report 500 different types of events
- It can be easily integrated with other types of services like Google Tag Manager, Firebase CrashReporting, Firebase Notification, etc.
- It has flexible database management to store numerous files
- The app data can be stored and synced in real-time giving consistent user experiences.
Apps Built with Firebase: Alibaba, Halfbrick, Playbuzz, etc.
9. Corona SDK
With Corona SDK, developers can build 2D mobile applications for platforms like Windows and Kindle. It is well-known for developing mobile and gaming apps with a 10X fast speed. It can provide exceptional results through its backend framework on Lua which is a lightweight and multi-paradigm programming language. The main elements that it focuses on are portability, speed, scalability, extensibility, and ease of use. The framework is free of cost and can work on both Mac OS and Windows.
Features:
- Has more than 1000 APIs with animations, audio, music, texture management, object tweening, and more.
- Gives instant response to code changes and provides real-time preview
- Supports almost 200 plugins that include analytics, advertising, hardware, and media
- The support of Lua programming enables it to work faster and with great power.
Apps Built with Corona SDK: Zip Zap, Ava Airborne, Scale, etc.
10. NativeScript
NativeScript stands in the list of top 10 cross-platform app development frameworks because of its WORA functionality. It provides all native APIs and helps developers reuse existing plugins straight from NPM into projects.
Features:
- NativeScript can create highly accessible, appealing, and platform-native UI without WebViews.
- Developers need to define UI just once and can customize it according to devices and screens.
- Developers get full web resources with plugins that can be used for all types of solutions. Hence, there will be no requirement for third-party solutions
- With NativeScript, there is easy access to native Android and iOS APIs without providing any additional knowledge of other languages.
- Uses Angular and TypeScript for programming purposes
Apps Built with NativeScript: GeekyAnts, Beachy, Traverse LLC, etc.
Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Vs Native Mobile App Development
You must also understand the key differences between cross-platform and native technologies. The below table will clearly explain how a cross-platform app is better than a native app.
| Key Parameters | Native | Cross-Platform |
|---|---|---|
|
UI/UX |
Platform-specific UI/UX with consistency |
Similar UI/UX for all types of platforms giving limited consistency |
|
Code Usability |
Code works only on a single platform |
A single Codebase can be used for multiple platforms |
|
Device capability and its access |
Full |
Limited |
|
Performance |
Complete native performance with seamless experiences |
Native-like UX with high performance and efficiency |
|
Target Audience |
Platform-specific |
Reaches out to a massive number of users |
|
Time to Market |
Time time-consuming as you need different codes for different platforms |
Single code base for all types of platforms reducing time to market.
|
How to Choose the Best Cross-Platform Development Tool?
There are abundant options available in cross-platform frameworks apart from what is mentioned above. New tools and frameworks will emerge in the future and it will become more difficult for businesses to choose the best framework for cross-platform mobile app development. Here, what you need to focus on is the type of your project requirement and your business goal. This will help you get a better idea of what kind of app you want in the future. The below factors must be considered while choosing the best cross-platform development tool for your business:
- Skills and expertise your mobile engineers have in a particular framework
- Continuous support and reliability of your vendor till the long run
- Possibilities of customizing your mobile app in the future as per growing needs
- The frequency of public API and tools changed for a particular framework
- Capabilities and limitations of the framework
- Ability to provide consistency between multiple platforms
- Ability to provide the necessary level of security and privacy
- Availability of volume and quality of learning resources
Conclusion
We have curated the best cross-platform app development options that are highly used in the current times. Looking forward as the new frameworks come in, time will tell the acceptability and scalability of each of them. To stay in this tough competitive market, we must observe how well they can compete against new frameworks.
Whitelotus Corporation is the most reputed and Top mobile application development company in India, the USA, and South Asia. Our top app developers carry high expertise in creating vivid cross-platform mobile applications that have helped our clients improve their business profitability.
FAQs
Q1. What is a Cross Platform App Framework?
Developers use cross-platform app frameworks to build apps for more than one platform. With a single codebase, developers are allowed to create an app that can run on Android, iOS, Windows, etc. by just making minor changes in the development process.
Q2. What are the Advantages of Cross-Platform App Development?
The topmost advantages of building your mobile application with a cross-platform app development framework are:
- Your business gets maximum exposure to the target audience
- Due to a single code base feature and reusable codes, the development cost gets reduced
- Easy to maintain, and deploy, and updates can be made speedily
- Faster development process due to single source code
- Reusable code can be used over and over
- Seamless cloud integration with absolute compatibility
- A single codebase is composed of a variety of plugins and extensions that enhance app scalability
Q3. What is The Difference Between Cross-Platform vs Native Mobile Development Frameworks?
| Key Parameters | Cross-Platform | Native |
|---|---|---|
|
Time to market |
Rapid development and iteration |
Time-consuming |
|
Development cost |
Cost-efficient option |
Costlier than Cross-platform always |
|
Testing Feasibility |
Easy to test as it has a single codebase |
Testing becomes challenging |
|
App Performance |
High in performance |
Efficient and consistent |
|
Security |
Less secured |
Tight security guaranteed
|
