Cross-Platform App Development: Build Once, Run Across Devices

Popular Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks

Flutter and React Native are notably the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks in 2022, with 46% and 32% of adoption, respectively, according to Statista‘s survey.

Choosing the right framework is essential, considering project requirements, development speed, team expertise, community support, UI/UX, integration, scalability, and budget. Different frameworks suit different needs; here, we list popular options for cross-platform mobile development:

React Native

React Native, an open-source framework, is utilized to develop native iOS and Android applications by leveraging JavaScript and React, a well-known web development library. Facebook initiated its development and emerged as a leading cross-platform mobile development framework.

React Native offers access to numerous pre-designed components within third-party UI libraries, aiding mobile developers in conserving time throughout the development phase. Like Flutter, it enables instant visibility of alterations through the Fast Refresh feature.

Benefits Of React Native:

• Native-Like Experience and Ecosystem: React Native excels in providing a native look and feel, aligning with platform nuances with the help of its component-based architecture. Moreover, its extensive ecosystem and third-party modules through npm empower developers, facilitating smooth iterations and live updates.
• Performance Focus and Community Strength: React Native prioritizes performance optimization and modular architecture. Supported by a robust community, it balances cost-effectiveness, high performance, and superior user experience, making it a top choice for businesses with broad reach.
• Third-Party Plugins: React Native provides various third-party plugin options, both based on JavaScript and native modules. These plugins negate the necessity for particular web view functions, enhancing the app’s performance and functionality.

Flutter

Flutter, an open-source UI toolkit, can build applications for mobile, web, and desktop platforms using a unified codebase. Developed by Google, it has garnered developer favor due to its speed, efficiency, and user-friendly nature.

Like React Native, Flutter boasts a ‘hot reload‘ function, enabling real-time viewing of code alterations and their immediate impact. Furthermore, Flutter’s architecture is based on widgets, empowering developers to craft bespoke UI components for reuse throughout the application, enhancing development speed and productivity in mobile app creation. Google Ads, Alibaba, Reflectly, and the official “Hamilton” app all use Flutter for smooth user experiences.

Benefits Of Flutter:

• Optimized User Experience: Flutter has a robust rendering engine that guarantees high-performance development while rendering your app across several platforms. It uses Skia for rendering and has excellent cross-platform interoperability, delivering a consistent user experience regardless of platform.
• Widget-Based Architecture: In Flutter, everything is a widget. Flutter provides an extensive collection of customizable widgets that help create a rich and visually appealing user interface. Developers can craft intricate designs, making the app look and feel native, thereby enhancing the user experience. The availability of pre-built widgets also accelerates the development process.
• Live Reloading For Rapid Development: Like React Native, Flutter’s ‘Hot Reload‘ feature is a game-changer too. It enables developers to see real-time updates to the app as they make changes to the code. This facilitates faster development cycles, quicker debugging, and a more efficient development process.

For an in-depth comparison between Flutter and React Native, refer to this article: Flutter vs. React Native.

Xamarin

Xamarin, a cross-platform app development framework, is open-source and enables developers to craft native user interfaces while sharing code across iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. Situated within the .NET ecosystem, it utilizes the robust and well-known C# programming language, delivering a potent and familiar development environment. Popular examples of cross-platform apps built using Xamarin are Fox Sports, HCL, Alaska Airlines, etc.

Benefits Of Xamarin:

• Code Sharing: Xamarin uses C # for coding, ensuring seamless compatibility with both Android and iOS. It enables sharing over 75% of the code across platforms, promoting the ‘write once, run anywhere’ convenience.
• Access To Native APIs: Xamarin enables developers access to native APIs and device-specific functionality, allowing for complete integration with the device’s capabilities.
• Vast Plugin Ecosystem: Xamarin offers a vast ecosystem of libraries, components, and plugins that can be easily integrated into the app, enhancing its functionality and features.

Apache Cordova (PhoneGap)

Supported by Adobe, PhoneGap is a variant of the Cordova framework. It stands as an overall open-source framework for developing cross-platform mobile applications, primarily because Cordova allows the development of apps using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

This app development framework offers native plugins and specific containers for various mobile platforms. Moreover, it permits C++ developers to extend functionality, granting access to device features such as the camera, microphone, accelerometer, file system, etc. Once developed, Cordova apps operate within a WebView browser, enclosed in a native container on the respective platform.

It allows developers access to device-specific capabilities via JavaScript APIs, allowing them to construct apps using web technologies rather than the native programming languages of each operating system (Java or Objective C). Debugging is quite simple since it makes use of web technology.

Benefits Of Cordova:

• As Cordova operates with JavaScript, there’s no requirement to familiarize ourselves with platform-specific programming languages.
• Rapid Prototyping For Development: Cordova facilitates speedy prototyping, allowing for swift iterations and an expedited development process. The ‘live reload’ feature permits developers to view changes, enhancing overall productivity instantly.
• Cordova provides essential core components required for any mobile application. These components serve as the app’s groundwork, allowing developers to allocate more time toward implementing their unique logic.

Ionic

Ionic, a leading UI SDK, is also one of the most useful app development frameworks. It combines desirable features like open-source, ease of maintenance, scalability, and readability. Ionic comes with a collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components that may be used to create highly interactive and visually beautiful apps.

Ionic comes with many features and tools, including native-style mobile UI components and layouts, as well as support for material design. It also gives its consumers regular updates and resources from the development community.

Benefits Of Ionic:

• Ionic uses better hardware transitions and touch-optimized gestures to improve app performance and provide a consistent user experience.
• Ionic offers a vast library of pre-designed UI components for creating visually appealing and interactive apps.
• Ionic Enables Progressive Web App (PWA) development, improving app accessibility and user engagement on the web.