Top tools that can help you get started with building your own mobile app
1. PhoneGap
PhoneGap, also known as Apache Cordova, is an open-source mobile app development framework that uses CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, to create native applications for Android, Windows, and iOS. This framework allows mixing native and hybrid code snippets which results in apps that are neither truly native mobile nor web-based applications.
2. Appcelerator
This open-source framework is the best choice to develop hardware-based apps. The framework uses HTML, PHP, and JavaScript to create native apps for iOS, Android, and Windows UWP.
3. RhoMobile
RhoMobile Suite is based on the powerful Rhodes open-source framework that supports native app development for multiple platforms. It’s highly used to build cross-platform and native consumer and enterprise mobile applications. RhoMobile uses web technologies like CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, and Ruby to build apps for most of the operating systems including iOS, Android, and Windows.
4. WidgetPad
WidgetPad is one of the best open-source frameworks for cross-platform mobile application development. It uses web technologies like JavaScript and HTML5 to offer a multitude of options like source code editing, versioning, and distribution. This open-source framework enables developing applications for platforms like Android, iOS, and web
5. MoSync
MoSync is an open-source multi-platform mobile app development kit that utilizes programming languages such as JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and Python. It is integrated with Eclipse-based IDE and enables native mobile app development for multiple platforms using C/ C++ programming.
Leading mobile application development frameworks that developers need to explore in 2021
1. Flutter
Flutter is the new trending cross-platform mobile application development technology in town. It uses “Dart” as a programming language instead of JavaScript which facilitates rapid and effective analysis, fabricates UIs, includes highlights, and fixes bugs in milliseconds. The open-source cross-platform SDK by Google extends a wide range of plugins backed by Google and allows mobile apps to be built for both Android and Apple iOS platforms.
2. React Native
This JavaScript open-source framework has become the most preferred native mobile app development technology. It offers ample support to IDEs and other mobile app development tools and enables the development of native apps for iOS and Android platforms. ReactNative framework allows building native mobile apps with JavaScript, using the same design as React. Apps built using React Native are real mobile apps, that cannot be distinguished from an app built using Objective-C or Java, or Swift.
3. Ionic
Ionic uses the HTML5 programming language and is widely preferred for mobile app development today. It combines HTML, CSS3, and JavaScript to build native apps and create their UI functionalities with ease. This mobile app development technology works on iOS’s UIWebView or Android’s WebView. Ionic is built on top of Angular JS and Apache Cordova. Ionic is the easiest way for web developers to build, grow, and scale cross-platform mobile apps.
4. Xamarin
This cross-platform framework with coding advantages of C# uses single code across iOS, Android, Windows, and other platforms. With the benefits of code sharing, Xamarin builds applications that render exact native app experience. It is the most time and cost-saving framework for mobile app development. Xamarin allows you to deliver native Android, iOS, and Windows apps with a single shared .NET codebase. The framework offers access to the full spectrum of functionality exposed by the underlying platform and device, including platform-specific capabilities.
5. NativeScript
Originally developed by Progress (Telerik by Progress), NativeScript is one of the most desired open source frameworks to develop Apple iOS and Android apps today. NativeScript allows developers to build mobile apps using JavaScript or by any other language that trans-compiles to JavaScript (eg: TypeScript). Native API reflection, Angular integration, and Vue.js integration are some of the notable features of NativeScript. The framework also allows developers to re-purpose third-party libraries from Maven, npm.js, and CocoaPods into their apps without using any wrappers
6. Felgo
Felgo, previously known as V-Play Engine is a popular cross-platform development framework used to create mobile games and apps. Felgo uses Qt as its core framework which simplifies the development of games and apps. With Felgo, you can create flexible and modern apps compiled natively from a single code-base for Android, iOS, Desktop, Web, and Embedded platforms.
7. Mobile Angular UI
Mobile Angular UI is an open-source mobile framework that combines the best features of Angular js and Bootstrap 3 syntax, including the missing components of Bootstrap. It provides fresh UI components such as navbar, sidebars, modals and overlays, switches, etc. Since it makes use of Angular js and Bootstrap, it’s easy for developers to learn the framework and get started. Mobile Angular UI allows businesses to build HTML5 hybrid mobile and desktop apps with less effort.