Best Enterprise Mobile Application Development Platforms

Mobile app development is a rapidly evolving field. All sectors, from telecommunications, e-commerce, retail, healthcare, insurance, government & more, must meet user expectations for real-time and convenient ways to communicate, access information & conduct transactions. Mobile applications on mobile devices provide the most popular and convenient way for organizations to meet these needs to stay relevant and responsive.

With this blog, I'll try to look at some of the most popular mobile application development platforms, their benefits & usage costs.

What Is A Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP)?

A MADP enables building, testing & deploying mobile applications for mobiles and other smart devices. The term MADP is credited to the research firm Gartner and seems to have replaced the terms Mobile Enterprise Application Platform and Mobile Consumer Application Platform.

It provides developers with tools, libraries & services for streamlining the app development process. It provides an Application Programming Interface (API) for interactive communication between software packages. MADP offers other functionalities such as testing applications, measuring mobile analytics & creating interfaces for application performance profiling. Adopting a platform approach enables leveraging comprehensive tool suites available to developers for a streamlined and efficient mobile application development process.

Leading enterprise mobile application development platforms

Fliplet

Fliplet is a low-code, cloud-based application development platform that combines open-source customization with visual editing to create unique applications. Its low code, trouble-free app management enables users to focus on app building as per their needs. Its features include a drag-and-drop interface, open-source prefab components, templates, automated workflows, developer options, a built-in data source manager & security options.

Benefits of Fliplet

• It's flexible - It offers ease of use with its no-code and the flexibility to use low-code if needed.
• User experience - Its template offers an exceptional user experience, from design, and easy access, to push notifications and more.
• Enterprise-grade security - It's secure, reliable, offers feature requests, allows for fast data transfer, integration needs, and a full suite of admin tools with proactive customer service and support.

Cost

• Basic use - Free
• Team plan - US$ 65/month.
• Enterprise plan - US$ 1300/month.
• Unlimited plan - US$ 2916/month.

Xamarin

Xamarin is one of the top mobile application development platforms available. It's a tool used for cross-platform mobile app development; almost 90% of its code can be shared across major platforms. It's based on the Microsoft technology stack and uses a single language, C# & native libraries using the .Net layer for cross-platform app development. These applications can be compared to native iOS and Android mobile development platforms in user experience and performance.

Benefits of Xamarin

• Single stack use - One of the biggest advantages of Xamarin is that a single language, C#, is used to create everything without switching environments. Everything is done in Visual Studio.
• Native user experience - Xamarin can access all native APIs and toolkits for Android, iOS and Windows platforms. This helps it provide a native design and performance feel for all applications.
• Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS gives developers of .NET access to all Android and iOS SDKs.
• Xamarin.Essentials library gives access to core overlapping native APIs.
• Xamarin.Forms opens up a user interface (UI) toolkit for all mobile platforms.
• Shareable code - Xamarin's code can be rescued almost 60-95 % and is often referred to as write once, use everywhere.
• Time and cost saving - Since it offers a shareable codebase and a single technological stack, the time and costs spent on development are reduced to quite an extent. This can be very useful for companies with limited hardware and human resources.

Cost

• Xamarin INDIE model for individual use - US$ 25/month, can be paid monthly or annually.
• Xamarin Enterprise model - US$ 1899/year
• Xamarin Business model - US$ 999/year

React Native

React Native can be used to develop natively rendered Android and iOS mobile applications. It's based on React, Meta's JavaScript library for building user interfaces that target mobile platforms.

Benefits of React Native

• Reduces development time - One of the advantages of React Native is that it saves development time, as the same code can be used for different platforms and web applications.
• Hot reload - 'Hot reload' feature is another benefit of React Native, by which any change or tweak in the code is instantly reflected in apps even if the apps are running.
• Flexible architecture - React Native uses a modular architecture, meaning developers can gather different functions and create modules. This makes it very relevant to businesses, as the same modules can be used for future releases of mobile APIs.
• Plugin support - Business apps and websites can have many features. React Native supports third-party libraries enabling the use of these libraries with smooth integration and flexibility.

Cost

• Simple React Native app - Estimated cost US$ 15,000-35000
• Mid-complex app - Estimated cost US$ 35,000-80,000
• Complex app - US$ 80,000-300,000

Flutter

Google developed Flutter in 2017 as a free, open-source mobile user interface (UI) framework. It allows users to create native mobile applications using a single codebase and is considered the most effective cross-platform framework.

Flutter's integration with Material Design and Cupertino widgets creates typical UIs that look and feel native. Flutter can easily merge with other applications like Linux, Windows, Android, iOS and Google Fuchsia.

Benefits of Flutter

• Open source Flutter is an open-source code software development toolkit and provides easy access to documentation and posting of issues on the open developers' forum. The open-source forum also helps programmers to learn from the developer community who actively contribute to the platform. It helps increase efficiency and productivity and reduces the project's time and cost.
• Single codebase Because it's a cross-platform framework, programmers need to write code only once, which can be used on multiple platforms. This means that a single version runs on both iOS and Android platforms, helping save time, effort and money in development versus app development using native frameworks.
• Custom widgets Flutter is all about widgets, which can be classified into two categories, stateless and stateful.

Cost

• Basic Flutter app - US$15,000-60,000
• Mid complex app - US$ 60,000-120,000
• Highly complex app - US$ 120,000-200,000

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova is an open-source platform that uses web applications like HTML, CSS, JavaScript to develop mobile applications. It is used to create cross platform applications. It provides a wide range of plugins like Cordova Core Plugin that increases the app functionality and provides capabilities like file transfer, battery, camera etc.

Benefits of Cordova

• Cross platform - Applications written in CSS, HTML and JavaScript can be easily converted into apps for any platform. Cordova is platform-independent and enables faster development. It generates an APK file (Android Application Package) for Android deployment and it complies to IPA for deployment to iOS and APPX for windows.
• Easy to understand - It has a low learning curve and makes it easy to create apps using web development processes.

Cost - Free since its open source

Alpha Anywhere

Alpha Anywhere is a mobile application development platform that enables the creation and deployment of web, mobile and hybrid apps with easy offline access and stronger mobile-optimized forms. It's a low-code web and mobile enterprise application and developers can also use their Alpha Transform, a no-code mobile app builder. Alpha Anywhere can be used to create data-driven applications that allow users to manage compliance, mitigate risks and respond to sales-service queries.

Benefits of Alpha Anywhere

• Built-in offline capability
• Data integration and security framework
• Programming language for power users
• Front and back-end development
• Coding optional
• No-code app development

Cost

• Community edition - Free
• Developer edition - US$ 995/year
• Application server - US$ 4995/year
• Advanced application server - Price on request

Conclusion

Mobile enterprise application development platforms are essential to drive customer engagement and stay competitive; for businesses wanting to launch their custom applications quickly and easily, turning to a software company that understands mobile app development can help them choose the right platform for their app project.