Best App Development Cross-Platform

A Framework that helps the developers to build mobile applications that are capable of working well on just more than a mobile platform and hence we call it – Cross-Platform Framework.

The platforms that we are talking about are iOS and Android. Cross-platform frameworks are in demand and the reason behind these is that the developers need to write the code once and can use the same code anywhere on the other platforms.

As we all know that the world is becoming smarter with the upgraded technologies and using smartphones so for developers it becomes a priority to create an app that supports several mobile platforms devices.

If we talk about the market than there are many tools available in the market and today we will discuss some of these amazing tools that make the Cross-platform app development easier.

Tools That Make The Cross-Platform App Development An Easy Task:

Nowadays, for businesses that are looking to establish their presence on iOS and Android platforms, the best choice is to establish with powerful Cross-Platform frameworks.

Xamarin:

• Earlier in 2011, an independent hybrid app development framework named ‘Xamarin’ was launched.
• In the year 2016, an independent framework is taken up by Microsoft and it becomes more believable and trustworthy in the market.
• Xamarin is an open-source framework that is aimed to build the gap between various native technologies.
• With these carry out the development faster by just making use of Xamarin plugins and NuGet package that offers access to native APIs.
• Recently, Xamarin got into partnership with IBM, Microsoft, and Xoriant and also offers interface development tools.
• It can be tested on some devices through cloud service. Easily shareable code with Windows platforms and Mac OS.
• To build native app-like interfaces considered as one of the topmost competitive options.

Phone Gap:

• A framework that is used for cross-platform app development earlier known as Apache PhoneGap and later named as Adobe PhoneGap as it is owned by Adobe.
• PhoneGap allows the developers to take a look at the changes made to the code on the devices. It also makes use of JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
• The main advantage of using PhoneGap is that it allows you to share the application with your team and you can collect the feedback from them.
• PhoneGap also offers some of the cloud solutions, these can be useful to build an application directly.
• PhoneGap is the first choice when it comes to building Hybrid apps.
• If developers are working with PhoneGap than they are not needed to worry about the hardware issues.
• PhoneGap can be used to build an app for all the major Operating System-OS out there and helps to add in more functionality by adding new plugins.

Flutter:

• Another free and open-source cross-platform framework that is used by developers to build native interfaces.
• Flutter development is based on Dart, Dart is an object-oriented programming language which is easy to learn and used by the developers.
• A Hot Reloading feature of Flutter speeds up the development time and also allows the developers to preview the changes that are made directly in the emulator, simulator and within the device.
• The main advantage of using Flutter is that it takes a few seconds to write the codes and also to add new features, bug fixing and carry out development all can be done in a quick time.
• Flutter brings unique UI and features of wrapping a web view, also offers quick and adjustable gadgets right inside the framework.
• The architecture of flutter is based on the most popular and extensive reactive programming which means if you want to develop a feasible product than Flutter is the best choice.
• For building hybrid applications Flutter is considered as a best-suited option among all the cross-platform mobile apps framework.

React Native:

• Announced by Facebook in 2015 and gained so much popularity in recent years. The reason behind this is that it took an entirely different approach when talking about cross-platform development.
• Instead of compiling to native code, it interprets JavaScript at runtime for display native UI elements, perform tasks and respond to UI – user interaction.
• This is helpful as due to these developers do not have to rely on web views to render their apps and also not needed to learn iOS development as well.
• Code once and deploy twice – the recurring theme in cross-platform development. Xamarin and ReactNative have particular principles of the shared codebase.

Let’s discuss the hidden benefits of React Native as a cross-platform app development:

Hot Reload:

A special feature of React Native that allows the developer to refresh app instant while developing. A hot reload feature helps to track the recent changes that are made by a developer.

Hot reload boost up development time by reloading application during the change in code. By refreshing the app automatically and fetching real-time data for the users on the application hot reload confirms changes on the developer side.

Reusability of Code:

Already mentioned above Code once and use everywhere – the statement clearly says that developers are not required to do iOS and Android code separately as 90% of the code can be reused on other platforms.

Preload feature of react-native allows developers to use common element without redeveloping them, this reduces the development time and focus on the main task.

Third-Party Plugins are allowed:

For several security issues, most of the framework doesn’t allow third-party plugins but when we talk about react-native it allows developers to add third-party plugins.

React native platform provides flexibility in customization. React native developed by Facebook for personal used but as the year passed FB makes it open source for public use and the purpose is to provide third party support via plugins or API.

Conclusion:

So, we have described the best cross-platforms to go with this year but we suggest to mainly go with react native as it is perfect for cross-platform app development as it offers more stability to the app.

It uses a native component from the API which means it looks like a native app for the individual platform like iOS, Android or UWP. It also supports declarative coding style which helps the developer to write clean code.

If you are thinking of building a cross-platform app get in touch with us. At Blueshark Labs we will help you to achieve your goals of building cross-platform apps that help to grow your business.

for more on this, check this hiring guide by Toptal.