Have you got a mobile app idea already? That sounds cool! But what now? Have you determined how you will plan and execute the rest of the process? No doubt, you have an experienced mobile app development company by your side, but it’s your business in the end; you know your target audience better than anyone else. So for starters, have you given a thought to the platform you want to launch your mobile app? iOS or Android?
Would your app do great on both platforms? If yes, then definitely go for it. And if you are thinking about the time and cost, don’t bother! Cross-platform mobile app development is the answer. This way, you will reach a higher audience base and gain more revenue. Moreover, you save time and money because a cross-platform framework only requires a single user base to develop an app on both platforms.
This competitive world has compelled tech companies to embrace cutting-edge technologies for businesses to grow in an affordable and less time-consuming manner. Cross-platform app development tools also increase mobile app efficiency and performance. Moreover, it should be noted that this technique can even ease the burden for app developers and other team members.
The demand for cross-platform apps has a broader reach than native apps, especially nowadays, where businesses want to reach a vast audience investing less time and money.
Let’s share with you the statistics as of May 2021.
iOS accounts for 26.34 percent of the market share, whereas Android makes up 72.84% of the market share. Although the difference is huge, you obviously want to cater to both platform users.
Top 6 Cross-Platform Tools in 2021
A cross-platform framework provides the flexibility of building an app from scratch using a single codebase such as JavaScript for both platforms, such as iOS and Android. It eradicates the need of coding the same app individually for two platforms. Let’s take a look at the best cross-platform app development tools that will blow your mind!
- Flutter
Upcoming leader in 2021, Flutter holds a 42% market share in the app development industry. This SDK allows mobile app developers to write only one codebase for developing cross-platform mobile apps. Flutter significantly works on the Dart programming language, easily understood by JavaScript developers.
Moreover, it can build mobile apps with a native look and feel for Android and iOS platforms. It has rich motion APIs and an unparalleled user interface that fastens the app development process.
Launched by Google in 2017, this open-source tool enables developers to do coding modifications in real-time. Flutter includes testing, implementing APIs, widgets, engines, and tools to help app development companies design appealing mobile apps.
- React Native
Another leading framework with a market share of 42% is React Native. This open-source framework gives a native look and feel to the mobile apps, and engages smoothly with the native components, and renders an interactive UX.
Moreover, this framework supports several programming languages like Java, Objective, Swift, C++, and Python. React Native leverages nearly 80% of a single codebase; hence you need not code twice for different platforms.
Created by Facebook in 2015, React Native has a vast developer community, so it becomes easier for app developers to get support from each other and build rich user interfaces. A few popular apps developed by React Native include Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
- Xamarin
Developed by Microsoft in 2011, Xamarin is one of the most all-inclusive tools to build mobile apps. This free open-source framework enables you to build apps for iOS, macOS, Android, watchOS, tvOS, and Windows with a single codebase, without compromising on the UI performance and consistency.
Xamarin has a Large community of More Then 60k contributors from more than 3700 companies. Xamarin is your buddy if you wish to build apps for cloud, server, and mobile using the same tools, code, and programming language.
Moreover, this tool also renders quality testing and monitoring for your mobile app. It contains an Android emulator enabling developers to test the app in an Android-like environment.
- Cordova
As per sources, Cordova accounted for 18 percent of the market share in 2020. This is a user-friendly framework admired by developers to develop cross-platform apps using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.
This open-source tool runs on Node.js, and it has access to several native device APIs like a compass, camera, messages, geolocation, accelerometer, and more.
This framework has the top platform-specific workflow and supports app developers coping with several platforms like Windows, Android, iOS, and PWAs.
Moreover, Apache Cordova has several in-built plugins, ready-made templates, and app development tools that make developer life easy.
- Ionic
Ionic is created with Cordova and Angular, and it allows developers to build Android and iOS apps for smooth app performance. Ionic develops feature-rich and robust native apps. The mobile app design enables using several user-interface elements such as filters, action sheets, forms, navigation menus, and views.
This open-source framework has an all-inclusive library of mobile-optimized UI components, and it can provide you with an enriched UI than other native apps. Also, this tool uses JavaScript language for building mobile apps. And it helps develop a design-centric user interface allowing app developers to add components easily.
- Unity
This is one of the best frameworks, especially if you decide to build a gaming app. Unity provides you premium quality graphics to give your mobile app an immersive effect.
This framework has 11 percent of the market share and is a robust cross-platform app developing a tool for building dynamic mobile apps.
Unity supports 17 different platforms, including Linux, Windows, iOS, Android, and more. Moreover, this tool renders user-tracking analytics for several functions.
This framework has a broad developer community that renders technical support on various errors and problems.
These 7 cross-platform apps mentioned have their advantages, we have made sure to cover the best features of each of them here.
Build your Cross-Platform Mobile App Today!
Cross-platform mobile app development has become a breakthrough for the app developing industries.
Moreover, developing mobile applications has gone a notch higher as these advancements have reduced costs and time for businesses while reaching a broader audience level. This is the right time for you to build your cross-platform app and cater to the majority of your target audiences.
Ray Parker
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