Android and iOS will most likely continue to dominate the world of mobile apps for the foreseeable future. App developers and businesses must, therefore, include both in their app strategy. In other words, we cannot afford to ignore any of the two platforms. And that’s perhaps the reason cross-platform apps continue to be prominent in conversations among developers and business owners alike.
Native app development for both Android and iOS requires two different teams. Both teams are tasked with the same project. They use different frameworks and tools to build the same app. Such practices lead to a substantial rise in development cost — for the client and the vendor alike.
Enter cross-platform app development. You don’t need two different teams for building Android and iOS versions of the same app. As more and more businesses adopt mobile apps, cross-platform apps have emerged as an economical alternative to costly native app development. Cross-platform app development has seen rapid evolution over the past few years. Thanks to an array of development frameworks. Read on to know more about the frameworks that define the success of cross-platform app development.
Top 5 Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
Flutter
Flutter is Google’s software development kit that enables you to build apps that run seamlessly on Android, iOS, and the web. The open-source framework uses a single code base written in the Dart language. Flutter is similar to React Native, another popular cross-platform app development framework.
Flutter is easy to understand for Java developers. With this framework, you can build highly customized cross-platform apps for iOS and Android. The expressive and flexible UI of Flutter makes it a popular framework among developers. Besides, Flutter provides a widget that seamlessly incorporates all the crucial platform differences such as scrolling, navigation, and fonts.
React Native
The app development framework React Native combines the best elements of native development with React, a JavaScript library for building UIs. You can use React Native to write modules in C, Swift, or Java. One of the striking features of React Native is that it allows you to edit images and videos. React Native has long dominated cross-platform app development due to its unique capabilities. For instance, it interprets your source code and quickly converts it to native elements.
With the React Native framework, you can easily create platform-specific versions of components using a single code. The framework also allows you to native apps by providing a set of platform-independent native components such as view, text, and image. Components of the framework wrap existing native code and interact with native APIs. This transforms the native app development process.
Xamarin
Xamarin is Microsoft’s open-source platform for developing cross-platform apps. It enables you to write apps for iOS and Android using .NET and C# languages. Apps built n Xamarin has the look and feels of native apps. It uses a native interface that works according to the user. Xamarin is integrated with modern backend services, native APIs, and useful components.
The framework also allows you to give your app a platform-specific hardware boost to achieve native-like performance. Xamarin identifies a single code and accelerates cross-platform mobile app development. Besides, it extends the .NET developer platform with tools and libraries for platforms including Android, iOS, watchOS, and Windows.
Kotlin
The Kotlin programming language is increasingly becoming popular among app developers. With shorter code and better readability, Kotlin provides the perfect framework for both Android and cross-platform app development. Kotlin also offers 100% interoperability with Java. This is another striking advantage of Kotlin for Android app developers. You can seamlessly migrate code between Java and Kotlin.
While the Kotlin framework works on the server-side, the language team works on a cross-platform app that runs on iOS and Android. Features like this have prompted a surge in demand for Kotlin app development across industries. The concept of cross-platform app development using Kotlin doesn’t rely on UI development. You can use your native app development framework to build the desired UI and use Kotlin for the business logic.
Ionic
Ionic is an open-source cross-platform development framework for cross-platform, native, and web apps. Ionic enables you to develop native capabilities by using the latest technologies like HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript, among others. The Ionic software development kit focuses on the look and UI interaction of your app. It lets you build faster with a single codebase.
The app development kit also offers a library of mobile-optimized UI components, development tools, and gestures, among other elements. The reusable UI components display beautifully on all mobile platforms. Ionic also enables web developers to move apps to the app store as a PWA. The framework has efficient cross-platform deployment and integrations.
Wrapping up
More and more companies are being bullish about cross-platform app development. Be it cost-effectiveness or access to the larger target audience, the benefits of multiplatform mobile apps are many. Experts in the mobile app development industry believe the trend of cross-platform will only grow stronger in the coming times. At Android Developer, an Android app development company, we continuously upgrade our app development methods and tools with changing trends and market dynamics. Our cross-platform app development services are designed to help clients achieve their business goals.
FAQs
Q. Is Flutter better than native?
Mobile apps built on the Flutter toolkit are cross-platform. It means they work seamlessly across operating systems and devices. Whereas native apps perform optimally on a specific OS.
Q. Is Kotlin better than Java?
Kotlin adds many advanced features to mobile app development. It is being increasingly used by the Android app developers’ community. Kotlin can compile the code to JavaScript or native. It enables developers to build code that can run both on Android and iOS. It’s a statically-typed language. Kotlin’s key features like built-in null safety support make apps flawless and user friendly.
Q. What is Flutter for mobile app development?
Flutter is an open-source software development kit created by Google. Flutter is used to develop apps for operating systems including Android, iOS, and Mac. Flutter is user friendly and easy-to-learn.
Q. How much does it cost to build a Kotlin-based Android app?
The costs of developing a Kotlin-based Android app depend on several factors. Design complexity, development time, type of features, etc. play an important role in calculating the costs. We build impeccable Kotlin apps at a competitive price.
