The digital sphere today has become more than just competitive. Enterprises take their best foot forward to adopt the latest technologies for the development of their working process. Similarly, companies are drawing their attention towards cross-platform app development to save development time and save cost by creating one app for all.
Although traditional means of creating native app separately using a particular technology is still available for people. However, to stay ahead of the competition, a cross-platform app is the thing best to go for to save big on cost and to provide a better user experience to customers with a single app itself.
So, here in this post, we will be reflecting some light on cross-platform app development benefits, best frameworks to go for.
Without any further adieu, let’s get started on this.
What is Cross-Platform App Development?
The term cross-platform or Hybrid app development speaks for itself. It is a process on the part of mobile app developers to create one single application for all the platforms. The application developed works simultaneously for all the platforms all at once and is compatible with Andriod, iOS, Windows, Linux, and more.
Know the Major Difference Between Native & Cross-Platform App Development
If you look at it, there are two approaches to developing a mobile app i.e., Native and Cross-Platform. Native development relies on the respective tools and designated languages for creating an app for a particular choice of the operating system. On the other side, cross-platform development tools are more or like the same for developing a Hybrid app for all the platforms at once. It covers all the areas of the different OS using a single codebase and develops the app in the shortest possible time.
Key Benefits of Cross-Platform App Development
Here, are some of the key benefits of choosing Hybrid or cross-platform app development criteria.
1. Code Reusability
The biggest possible benefit of using a cross-platform app development technique is code reusability. Developers have the benefit to write the code at once and deploy the same in the shortest possible time. The concept is better referred to as, “Write Once Run Anywhere”.
2. Reduced Cost of Development
Cross-platform development of mobile applications gives the biggest cost factor benefit. Being an enterprise, you can rely on minimal sources having proficiency in Hybrid app development. In simple terms, save maximum on the app development process.
3. Easy to Deploy
As already mentioned about using the single codebase for developing the app. This translates to developers rely on fast deployment, maintenance, and security of the app. It further benefits to see all the updates at once on the app itself which is best to run on multiple platforms.
4. Wide Market Reach
Believe it or not, cross-platform apps bring exposure to your brand towards different sets of operating systems like Android, iOS, Windows, and more at the same time. It ensures the fact that you have a wide market reach to experience higher profits and ROI.
5. Uniform Design
The overall UI/UX of the cross-platform app is more or less the same. The framework brings functionalities for all the mobile app platforms and offers a convenient user experience to users to an optimum level.
List of Top-Notch Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
To create a result-oriented cross-platform app for your enterprise, rely on the best possible framework. So, to let you make the right choice, we have enlisted a few of the best mobile app development frameworks used for the cross-platform technique.
React Native
The Facebook-based React Native is a popular cross-platform app development framework. It is one of the best choices that use JavaScript and React.js libraries to build different components of the mobile app.
React Native has a pretty good reputation to become the ideal app development framework that leads to creating iconic and user-friendly apps for businesses. Moreover, it uses more of a native-like experience in apps to bring more stability.
Top Features of React Native
* Open-source framework to develop multi-functional and feature-rich cross-platform apps. It is because of that React Native has an extensive set of developer’s community.
* It requires a single-time effort to write the code and use it anywhere you want.
* One-time coding advantage of React Native framework reduces the effort and the overall cost of development.
* Highly compatible with third-party plugins like Google Maps, and more.
* Major focus of the React Native framework is towards enhancing the overall UI of a highly responsive app.
Flutter
Google’s own, Flutter is one of the reliable cross-platform app development frameworks which is open-source and supports SDK. Hire mobile app developers using the Flutter framework to work on the preexisting code to develop the app in the shortest possible time. Moreover, it is the framework that utilizes the feature of the 2D rendering engine to develop the visuals like Skia and more.
Top features of Flutter
* Multi-platform app development
* Comparatively faster framework for developing cross-platform apps.
* Promotes GPU that helps to render the power of UI and allows the app to work on the latest interfaces.
* No need to update the UI contents manually. Developers just need to update the variables and the UI changes will be visible.
Xamarin
Xamarin is another leading and open-source cross-platform app development framework. Owned by Microsoft, Xamarin makes the best use of C# to work on server platforms, extract the efficiencies, and conduct frequent updates.
One of the reasons for the high popularity of the Xamarin framework is its ability to write code once and run on any platform. Moreover, Xamarin developers can access the Native APIs using several plugins and packages.
Top Features of Xamarin
* Reduces the hardware compatibility issues owing to its plugins and several APIs that work efficiently with common devices functionalities.
* Direct link with Native libraries and plugins to create a Native app user experience for users.
* The framework uses the amalgamation of Objective C, Java, and C++ libraries. It allows developers to reuse several third-party codebases in a hassle-free manner.
* Less compile-time functionality that allows developers to witness fewer run-time errors.
Node.js
Highly efficient, responsive, and open-source framework Node.js is an incredible choice for developers to build server-side and social networking apps. The framework has a JavaScript runtime framework that is built on the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine.
Top features of Node.js
* Because of building on Chrome’s V8 engine, Node.js experiences a speedy code execution process.
* There is no way Node.js app buffer, on the contrary, the applications output the data in chunks.
* Node.js framework uses the single-threaded model that allows the event looping functionality in an optimized manner. Moreover, this mechanism allows the server to reply in a non-blocking way and makes it scalable.
Ionic
Another popular cross-platform app development framework to go for is Ionic which was released way back in 2013. Hire mobile app developers to avail of this open-source framework which is free and MIT holds the license for the same.
The framework inherits the quality of developing a result-oriented mobile app for Android and iOS platforms with an enhanced UI. Moreover, it has a huge support of a wider community to manage development, security, and maintenance issues in a hassle-free manner.
Top features of Ionic
* Single codebase framework for hybrid app development
* Ideally combines with Angular to deliver incredible results
* Extensive library of tools and components
* Use AngularJS to develop the structure of the application
Endnote
After considering all the options mentioned above, you can conclude the best framework for developing the cross-platform app. Each framework has its own strengths and advantages to enhance the process of app development and makes it profitable for your enterprise.
No matter, which framework you choose from, rely on the expertise of Mobibiz, a leading mobile app development company in India. The organization has sound expertise in developing profit-oriented apps for different platforms all at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is the Use of Mobile App Development Framework?
The framework allows developers to build robust and feature-rich mobile applications to bring a Native experience. The features could be views, filters, navigation menus, and more.
Q. Which is the Best Cross-Platform App Development Framework?
There are numerous choices available for cross-platform app development frameworks like Xamarin, Flutter, Ionic, Node.js, Appcelerator, and more.
Q. What is the Cost of Cross-Platform Mobile App Development?
The cost of developing the app depends on the features, functionalities, complexities, resources, and other factors. At first, all the points need to be taken into consideration to decide the approximate cost.
