At Artoon Solutions, we believe in building an advanced mobile application using the latest technologies & mobile app development software. Our business analysts lookout for the industry’s latest talent to put technological advancements to use for the greater good.
We encourage our teams to learn and apply the newest technologies and development platforms to build mobile and web applications. Our mobile app development teams have listed some of the best mobile app development platforms in this article we are looking forward to working with in 2021.
As the first step of the mobile app development process, you have to plan a mobile app development strategy, and in that, you have to decide which mobile app development platform is perfect for your app. And that decides the entire flow of development from there onward.
To help you, here we have broken down the MADPs into various categories to give you a holistic view.
App Development Software
A mobile app development platform is like a paint application for an artist. It is loaded with all the features that a developer might need for developing their app based on the technology they select. Many platforms depend on the type of application, Native app, Hybrid app, Cross-Platform app, or PWAs.
Features of App Development Software
You might be aware of mobile app development platforms’ importance and their place in the mobile app development process by now. Now, to decide on one MADP, you should be aware of what all should be in a MADP to make it perfect for your requirements.
Multi-Multi Feature
There should be a need for just minimal customization to configure the application over multiple devices. If the same platform can provide apps for different operating systems, it can benefit the developers as they don’t have to rewrite much code.
Code-centric Developer Tooling
Another thing that should be considered is whether the mobile app development platform provides a code-centric development approach.
Integration Adaptors
Mobile apps have to be constantly interfaced with various backend systems. In the absence of the pre-built integration adaptors, the system takes a lot of load as it has to put in more integration efforts, which in turn increases both the development time and cost.
Low-code Development
The mobile app development platform must support various non-coding practices to make tasks easier for the developers to develop various applications.
It can be better if the mobile app’s development is supported by the platform with model-driven, drag-and-drop, declarative, meta-driven, and other approaches.
Security
The most important feature that a mobile app should provide is security as all the important information is stored in the mobile phone, which is vulnerable to leaks.
MASA-Mesh App and Service Architecture
Before finalizing any mobile app development platform, you need to check whether the platform supports various additional services or not.
The mobile app development platform architecture should support various API mediation, microservices, and event-driven, serverless requirements to build a robust mobile application.
Core Back-end Services
A crucial thing to consider is the support and integration of reusable app services by the mobile app development platform.
AI Services
Due to the increasing demand and rise of Artificial Intelligence, it is becoming important for all mobile app development platforms to support built-in or integrated cloud services.
Some of the services that must have support for use within any application are image recognition, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, natural language processing, etc.
Monitoring and Analytics
Without any metrics or analytics report, how will you know how the app developed using a mobile application development platform is performing?
Process and Workflow Orchestration
The mobile application development platform must support orchestration and designing workflows and numerous processes from the existing systems and the new ones.
DevOps Support
You have to ensure that the mobile application development supports DevOps or not. It should offer integrated and embedded tooling to back up agile development.
AR/VR Support
With the increasing popularity of augmented reality and virtual reality, it is becoming mandatory to check whether the platform is supporting immersive interfaces or not.
How to Choose the Best App Development Software?
Here are some of the things that can help you decide which is the best app development software that can do complete justice to your business needs.
- Purpose of the app
- Storage needs: local or online cloud
- Encryption for the data stored in the device
- The communication mode between the device and cloud API
- Authentication mechanisms
- Native device features
- OS capability and performance
- Total cost
- Time to market
- Code reusability
- Device-level feature integrations
Native App Development Platforms
Native application development is specifically for any single operating system such as Android, iOS, or Windows. They are developed specifically to develop apps that function close to the native OS by using a language that gets complete support from the OS itself.
Let’s have a look at the mobile app development software for native development,
iOS App Development Software
Swift
Swift is a programming language used for iOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and Linux applications. Apple created it in 2014 and is an open-source language and is becoming dominant among the iOS app development platforms.
Key Features of Swift:
- Open-source
- Safety
- Cross-device support
- Fast and concise iterations
- Expressive and easier to code
- Interoperability with Objective-C
Pros and Cons of Swift Programming Language:
Pros of Swift:
- Rapid Development Process
- Easy scaling of the product and the team
- Increased safety and improved performance
- Decreased memory footprint
- Full-stack potential
- Automatic memory management
- Vibrant open-source community
Cons of Swift:
- Limited community
- Interoperability with third-party tools and IDE is poor
- Earlier OS versions observe a lack of support
Android App Development Platforms
Android Studio
The official IDE for Google’s Android mobile app development is Android Studio, and it is free. This software is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It is launched as a replacement for Eclipse ADT. It is written in Java, Kotlin, and C++.
Key Features of Android Studio:
- Faster coding and iteration
- Coding with confidence
- Layout editor for customization
- Built-in templates
- Integration with Firebase
- Emulators similar to Android phones
Pros and Cons of Android Studio:
Pros of Android Studio:
- Gradle support instead of Maven
- Open-source with excellent debug mode
- A huge community of Android app developers
- Auto translation from Java to Kotlin
- Fast and easy to learn
Cons of Android Studio:
- Android Studio and Emulator take time to start
- Consumes more memory
- The first build takes time as compared to the second one
- Multitasking is difficult
Mobile App Development Platforms for Cross-Platform Apps
Apache Cordova/PhoneGap
PhoneGap was formerly a product of adobe, but to keep it open source and follow the standards, PhoneGap’s codebase was handed over to Apache. Later, it was named Apache Cordova.
Key Features of PhoneGap:
- Robust backend system to speed up the mobile app development process
- Open-source license to provide free codes and modules
- Flexibility in coding and developing new features and modules
- Better access to native APIs
Pros and Cons of PhoneGap:
Pros of PhoneGap:
- Easier to get started with a gentle learning curve
- Easy installation similar to native apps
- App distribution is through the app stores
- Great platform coverage
Cons of PhoneGap:
- Performance is slower as compared to native apps
- Graphic acceleration needs caching or third-party solutions
- Documentation lacks improvement
- Mostly all the plugins need improvement
Xamarin
Xamarin is a cross-platform app development platform based on the Microsoft technology stack. With Xamarin, the native feel can be achieved with high performance as it is natively compiled.
Key Features of Xamarin:
- The compilation is customized for iOS and Android
- Xamarin.Forms and Xamarin.Mac as separate products
- Access to platform SDKs with C# syntax
- Support wearables in Android and iOS
Pros and Cons of Xamarin:
Pros of Xamarin:
- Native user experience and performance
- Native-level hardware support
- Easy maintenance and updates
- Easily available learning sources
Cons of Xamarin:
- Access to open-source libraries is limited
- For Professional and enterprise use it is costly
- The developed app size is larger
Flutter
Flutter is Google’s SDK for mobile app development with a complete framework to develop iOS and Android apps. It is an open-source framework that enables a smooth and high-performance mobile application with a single codebase for multiple platforms.
Key Features of Flutter:
- Based on the Dart programming language
- Hot reload for seeing immediate results of changes in the code
- Rich look and feel with its widgets
- Reactive programming architecture
Pros and Cons of Flutter:
Pros of Flutter:
- Apps provide smooth functioning and require less testing
- Complete customization provides desired designs and faster rendering
- UI and native controls are kept separate
Cons of Flutter:
- Flutter and its programming language Dart are considered immature
- Look and feel are not 100% close to the native feel
- No standard Flutter app development guidelines
Ionic
Ionic is an open-source SDK for cross-platform app development and is quite well-known for offering UI specific to each platform.
Key Features of Ionic:
- Framework compatibility with Angular, React.js, Vue.js, and more
- Ionic Command Line Interface(CLI)
- JavaScript components and Cordova Plugin
- Web standards-based technology
Pros and Cons of Ionic:
Pros of Ionic:
- Easy to learn and popular technology
- Wide range of plugins and integration capabilities
- Fast prototyping and choice of UI elements are extensive
- Easy testing as the browser can be used for testing with in-built debugging and testing tools
Cons of Ionic:
- Completely plug-in dependent system
- A few security loopholes
- No hot reloading and a heavy application
Corona
Corona is a fast and simple mobile app development framework for iOS, Android, and iPad apps and games. It is known for the creation of high-performance graphically rich applications that offer an amazing experience.
Key Features of Corona:
- Native application development for iOS apps
- OpenGL-ES Integration is automatic
- No Objective-C/C++/Cocoa is required for iOS app development
Pros and Cons of Corona
Pros of Corona:
- A huge amount of reusable code
- Access to all native device controls and hardware
- Built-in composer commands for easy navigation between scenes
- Easy to deploy changes using the stimulator
Cons of Corona:
- Weak documentation
- Facebook integration, testing, etc. is complex
- The free version puts your build in the queue
- Keyboard, phone, etc. have to be used in native versions as customization is payable
Sencha Touch
Sencha Touch is a web framework for building mobile web apps. It offers mobile app interfaces that give native look and feel supported on mobile devices. It allows developers to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to develop apps for iOS and Android.
Key Features of Sencha Touch:
- Flexible layout manager compatible with different operating systems
- Robust data package
- Code compatibility between new and older versions
Pros and Cons of Sencha Touch:
Pros of Sencha Touch:
- Easy navigation feature with responsive touch
- Latest OS compatibility
- Provides speed to a mobile application
- Easier for any developer to learn, interpret, and develop
Cons of Sencha Touch:
- No access to native device features
- Push notifications are not supported
- Paid for commercial application development
- Not recommended for gaming applications
React Native
React Native is a JavaScript framework for developing mobile applications that are rendered natively. It is mostly based on Facebook’s JavaScript library, and many big names are using it, such as Facebook, Skype, Pinterest, etc.
Key Features of React Native:
- It is purely UI focused
- Less development cost and time
- Hot reload feature
- Reusable platform components
Pros and Cons of React Native
Pros of React Native:
- Interactive cross-device user experience
- Easy third-party integrations
- Easy maintenance
- Huge community to help 24/7
Cons of React Native:
- Uncertainty of its existence as it is developed by Facebook
- Lack of custom modules
- Debugging and compatibility issues
Cocos2D
Cocos2D is an open-source development engine written in C++ that allows apps, games, and other cross-platform programs. It is mostly used for the development of cross-platform gaming applications with a rich user interface.
Key Features of Cocos2D:
- Lightweight and runs fast
- Animation, GUI, physics engine, and scripting support
- RenderQueue design for faster rendering
- Support auto-batching, auto-culling, and caching transform
Pros and Cons of Cocos2D
Pros of Cocos2D:
- Simple and easy to learn
- Reduced Objective-C patterns
Cons of Cocos2D:
- Knowledge of C and C++ required
- Complex to learn Cocos2D
- More quantity of manual coding
- the less proficient design environment
Unity
With a robust cross-platform development, powerful visual interface, and a highly supportive community, Unity is the first choice for anyone looking to develop a gaming app.
Key Features of Unity:
- Creation, deletion, and event creation for GameObjects
- Easy access to all the components
- Coroutine and return types
- Vector variables, timing variables, and physics-related events
Pros and Cons of Unity:
Pros of Unity:
- Support to 27 platforms
- IDE supports JavaScript, C#, and other game development features
- High-quality audio and video effects
- Easy debugging
Cons of Unity:
- Lacks from a graphical point of view
- Performance issues with the PhysX engine
- Expensive license
- Memory hogging issue
Mobile App Development Platforms with No Coding
BuildFire
BuildFire is a JavaScript framework that allows quick and easy mobile app development for Android and iOS platforms.
Key Features of BuildFire:
- Drag and drop
- Efficient reporting and analysis
- Features library and design templates
- Deployment management
Pros and Cons of BuildFire:
Pros of BuildFire:
- Easy app-building platform without coding
- Advanced social networking features
- Highly useful development options
- Compatibility testing
Cons of BuildFire:
- No support from big companies
- As its newly launched, not too much feedback
- No option for live chat
The Bottom Line
These were just a few mobile app development software out of the huge pool in the current market. Each of these app development frameworks has features that can allow you to build a mobile application that can suit your business and provide your users with all the features interactively.
If you are confused about the best mobile app development software for you, your ambiguity ends with us. Just share all your requirements, doubts, or queries, and experts at Artoon Solutions will respond with a satisfactory solution.
