For a mobile app to be successful, you need to establish its presence on both Play Store and App Store. Cross-platform app development aims at creating mobile apps that would be compatible across different operating systems.
Cross-platform app frameworks provide the tools required to develop such mobile apps, keeping in line with budgetary constraints, generating reusable code, and getting the app to market in a short time.
React Native by Facebook is one of the most popular cross-platform mobile frameworks with a market share of 42%. Flutter by Google is the second most cross-platform mobile framework used for applications developed.
What Is A Cross-Platform Mobile App Framework?
Cross-platform development works on the principle of write once and run anywhere. It allows software developers the flexibility to develop a single application that would be compatible with different mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.
Native app developments are designed to work for specific operating systems. They are expensive to develop and require considerable cost and skills. Cross-platform app development, on the other hand, is budget-friendly and does not require OS-specific skills.
Native apps comparatively offer higher performance as they leverage the underlying system. Cross-platform apps are also high on performance, but they might run into OS and hardware- specific issues from time to time.
Benefits Of Cross-Platform Frameworks
● With cross-platform app frameworks, you have a common codebase to deal with. If you find a bug, it needs to be fixed once in the common codebase.
● Running maintenance activities and deploying changes is easier.
● As a single app is created for multiple platforms, the development costs involved reduces considerably.
● The time to get a mobile app to the market is also reduced.
● You can connect with your audience base irrespective of the mobile OS they use.
● With consistent UI, you offer the same customer experience to all users.
4 Top Cross-Platform Mobile Frameworks
1. React Native
It is an open-source mobile app framework by Facebook, launched in about a decade ago. React Native offers code reusability, with 80% of the codebase being common across platforms. It is a favorite among software developers, with its preview feature lets developers see the result of the changes they made in the code within seconds. It focuses on providing UI capabilities similar to native apps.
2. Google Flutter
Flutter is another open-source, cross-platform mobile app framework. It was launched by Google over five years ago. The programming language behind this framework is Dart, which is comparatively an easier language to master. It supports the hot-reload feature that allows a developer to view changes within seconds of deploying code. Flutter is best suited for MVP app developments.
3. Xamarin
This framework is based on .Net and C#, which ensure apps developed using Xamarin work seamlessly with various operating systems like Android, iOS, Mac OS, and Windows. Nearly 75% of the codebase can be reused across multiple platforms. It is backed by a strong community of developers and businesses.
4. NativeScript
Using NativeScript, developers can create mobile apps with Angular, Vue.js, TypeScript, or JavaScript. Like the other frameworks mentioned in this list, it is an open-source mobile framework. It is comparatively easy to learn, supports code reusability and the hot-reloading feature. The framework offers a range of plug-ins and templates that you can leverage to reduce the mobile application development time further.
Finding The Right Framework
The decision to opt for native app development or cross-platform app frameworks depends on your project requirements.
What are your priorities for your mobile application? If you need highly customized features and have the time and budget to invest, then proceed with native apps. If you need to get a mobile app to the market in a short time, compatible with different OS and on a budget, then cross-platform app development would be an ideal choice.
