The growing popularity of cross-platform mobile development tech has necessitated the need for new apps. An efficient cross-platform allows developers to build similar applications on many mobile platforms.
With multiple options, it is challenging for developers to select a framework that best suits the needs of businesses.
What is cross-platform app development?
It focuses on developing mobile apps for platforms like Android and iOS and desktop apps for macOS and Windows from a single shared codebase and User Interface (UI).
List of a few prime cross-platform frameworks developers can choose
1. Flutter:
Google’s Flutter is a framework that uses Dart programming language. It builds apps from a unified codebase. It has a “hot reload” feature that allows developers to see how the app changes once the code is modified without recompilation.
It supports Google’s material design system. This helps build powerful digital experiences by using visual and behavioral widgets for the apps.
Interestingly, Flutter does not rely on browser tech. Instead, it uses its rendering engine for drawing widgets. It is an ideal framework for developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This makes the Flutter mobile app look native.
However, there is minimal TV support with apps built on the Flutter framework. This means it does not provide adequate support for Android and Apple TV. Although it consists of ready-to-implement features, it still lacks compared to native development.
According to Statista’s Cross-platform mobile frameworks used by developers worldwide 2019-2022 report – Flutter is the most popular cross-platform mobile framework used by global developers, according to a 2022 developer survey. Based on the survey, 46% of software developers used Flutter. On the whole, roughly one-third of mobile developers use cross-platform technologies or frameworks; the rest use native tools.
Furthermore, Flutter-embedded apps use built-in widgets rather than platform widgets. This maximizes the application’s size. Presently, the minor applications made with Flutter weigh no less than 4MB.
2. React Native
Developed by Meta Platforms, React Native is an open-source UI software framework based on Facebook’s JavaScript library, React. It allows developers to build cross-platform mobile apps which are natively rendered. The “Fast refresh feature” lets developers quickly spot React components’ changes.
React primitives adhere to native platform UI components to develop customized and responsive UI. Integration of React native and the mobile app debugger, Flipper, is set by default in versions 0.62 and higher.
Since React Native was developed much earlier, it has a vast and robust community of developers.
In addition, depending on the application’s complexity, up to 80% of a codebase can be shared across platforms. This makes the code reusability significantly speed up the development process.
Simultaneously, React Native allows result preview and offers ready-to-apply elements. This reduces the developing time. It also provides developers access to useful native features like an accelerometer and camera, rendering a high-quality, native-like user interface.
On the contrary, React Native is not entirely a cross-platform app framework. It requires native components to use some functions, such as a camera or accelerometer.
It lags behind the native platforms, as the framework is not built in combination with iOS or Android. There are inconsistencies while releasing updates, which increases the debugging process’s duration.
According to Statista’s Cross-platform mobile frameworks used by software developers worldwide from 2019 to 2022, – 32% of developers use React Native.
3. Xamarin
Acquired by Microsoft in 2016, Xamarin is an open-source framework. It helps to resolve the issues of disjointed, native tech stacks, which make mobile app development challenging and costly. It uses C# programming language, making it work seamlessly on platforms like Android and iOS.
In addition, it includes a single tech stack for faster development. It enables the sharing of a fourth of the code across platforms for “write once, run anywhere” ease. Interestingly, it has a community of 60,000 contributors from over 3,700 companies.
However, Xamarin is expensive for enterprises requiring a license for Microsoft’s Visual Studio, while it retails free for start-ups. A UX/UI-rich app should be implemented natively because Xamarin cannot work with heavy graphic apps due to different methods for visually laying out screens.
Unfortunately, it offers minimal access to specific important libraries that the developers require. Building the UI is time-consuming, as the core of its UI creation is not mobile. Also, since the core of its user interface creation is not mobile, creating the UI is time-consuming.
4. Ionic
Ionic is an open-source framework that is scalable and easy to read and maintain. It offers a library of HTML, CSS, and JS components optimized for mobile development. This helps them to build interactive apps.
Ionic includes features and tools, like:
- Out-of-the-box support for material design
- Native-style mobile UI elements and Layouts
At the same time, it also provides the customers with regular updates. Ionic-based apps consist of native features, specific gestures, and customizable tools. These tools help in improving user-friendliness. However, they depend on wrappers to run as native.
Furthermore, native plugins are unstable and cannot compete with each other. They need to be integrated by default to solve the lack of features. Due to unclear error messages, debugging an app built on Ionic can be difficult and time-consuming.
5. Node.js
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime framework created on the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine. It uses an open-source environment that supports building server-side and scalable networking apps.
These platforms are highly efficient and responsive. They can handle multiple concurrent connections.
It offers a library of many JavaScript modules that help simplify the development of web apps. Node.js APIs are asynchronous and non-blocking and do not wait for data from Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to immediately move to another API after calling.
A notification system for Node.js allows the server to procure a response from the previous API call.
At the same time, the Node.js library is fast in its code execution; its applications do not buffer. It delivers a seamless functioning of the apps using the single-threaded model with an event looping feature.
However, its performance is reduced with heavy computational tasks and lacks library support. It has a vast number of callbacks with an unstable API.
Also Read: CUDA vs. OpenCL: A Comparative Analysis of GPU Programming Frameworks
Also, the demand for Node.js is high, and there are only a few experienced developers with a small community.
Cross-platform apps reduce the effort to develop different apps for different platforms. Hence, an efficient cross-platform framework is crucial to create a compatible app.
Developers must carefully assess a wide array of cross-platform application frameworks available.
They need to ensure that these frameworks deliver seamless functioning. They can run efficiently on all platforms as native apps. At the same time, developers can choose a cross-platform app development company with a good tech stack needed for effective app development.
