Top 5 Cross-Platform Frameworks

Mobile applications run the world. In 2019, the number of mobile app downloads worldwide exceeded 204 billion. A mobile app is a powerful marketing tool that makes it possible to boost sales, improve communication channels, enhance user experience, and build loyalty.

App development is commonly considered a long-term investment of both money and effort. The advent of cross-platform and hybrid app development has become the greatest innovation. Unlike native apps presupposing the use of Swift or Object-C for iOS app development and Java or Kotlin for Android app development and having separate development teams, cross-platform and hybrid app development allows building apps for multiple platforms using one codebase, thus reducing development time and cost.

Here’s a list of 5 popular cross-platform app development frameworks.

Xamarin

Owned by Microsoft, Xamarin is a handy free open-source tool for cross-platform mobile app development with C# and .NET. Xamarin grants access to high-quality IDE’s features including APIs, web services, controls, third-party integrations, security solutions, etc. It also offers cloud service for app testing.

Xamarin is the one closest to a native app, as every Xamarin app uses its platform’s native API. The knowledge of iOS and Android APIs is required.

Pros

• close-to-native app performance and UX,
• good tools for testing,
• suitable for complex solutions requiring high performance.

Cons

• limited to its library components,
• native coding is still needed for a native UI,
• larger apps meaning slower build and download time.

Ionic

Ionic is another popular open-source mobile framework for developing highly interactive cross-platform mobile apps and desktop apps using such web technologies as HTML, CSS, and JS. With a single codebase for all supported platforms, it also ensures the integration with React, Angular, and VueJS.

Thanks to Ionic’s rich ecosystem, there are such tools as Ionic Cloud, Ionic Creator, and Ionic View. Those help developers to manage, scale, prototype, and share an app.

Ionic is developed to perform excellently on the current mobile devices and platforms offering touch-optimized gestures and hardware sped up transitions.

Pros

• simple, declarative, functional UI component design,
• developer friendly tooling,
• good availability of native plugins.

Cons

• less performance once there’s a high-load app,
• may not provide as high security as a native app,
• unsuitable for complex mobile apps.

React Native

Combining the best of native development with React, React Native is one of the best JS libraries for building cross-platform apps. Once there’s an app built with React Native, it’s hard to distinguish it from the native Android and iOS apps.

With the power of JS, there’s no need to wait for the native builds to finish. React Native allows iterations at incredible speed.

With a bunch of UI components such as sliders, buttons, modals, and more, React Native makes it quicker for developers to build and deploy their apps.

Pros

• native-close performance,
• seamless cross-platform,
• extensive UI component library.

Cons

• knowing of React is required,
• limited third-party solutions,
• lack of documentation and expertise.

Cordova / PhoneGap

PhoneGap, just like Ionic, allows us to quickly build cross-platform apps with HTML, JS, and CSS. Supporting multiple platforms with one codebase, Adobe PhoneGap is built on top of Cordova and adds additional features there.

Technically, most of PhoneGap’s capabilities are spotted in non-visual components (file system, geolocation, network availability, etc.). That means it doesn’t render much help with user interface building — here you have to rely on a framework or CSS and HTML foundation.

Pros

• the existence of PhoneGap Build,
• third-party tools,
• plugin library.

Cons

• no standard UI library,
• performance challenges,
• better used for simple light-load projects or app prototypes.

Flutter

First released in 2017, Flutter helps to create ‘beautiful, natively compiled’ apps for web, desktop, and mobile platforms. Originally designed for Google Fuchsia, Flutter is considered to be a good framework, promising an excellent level of cross-platform capabilities. Flutter is based on Dart, which is an object-oriented programming language developed by Google. Being easy to learn, Dart simplifies programming tasks, and improves app quality.

Although it’s a relatively young framework, it’s declared to be a proven tool for cross-platform app development as not only Google but also eBay and Alibaba use it.

Pros

• impressive app speed,
• seamless UI design,
• fast development.

Cons

• best match for MVP development,
• limited community and library,
• Flutter apps are bigger than average apps.

Summing Up

There’s a wide variety of cross-platform app frameworks available in the market. These frameworks ensure that your app is fully functioning and can be run efficiently on all platforms, just like a native app.

Before you make a choice, you should think carefully, compare the different frameworks and see which one best meets your requirements.

If you don’t have a technical background, the easiest way out of this would be to choose a mobile app development company with the expertise and proper tech stack needed for effective app development.