Our Top Picks for Cross-Platform App Development in 2020 — DigiFutura
Tags: Mobile App Development, Web App Development, React Native Development, Mobile Apps, React Js Development

There’s no doubt that with so many mobile devices, cross-platform mobile development is necessary. For the past several years there has been a growing demand for cross-platform app development, and all the top mobile app development companies are purchasing relevant mobile app development tools and hiring cross-platform developers.

That’s why the market is growing mobile development tools that can create apps capable of running across different mobile OS and platforms, and it is certain that the demand for these tools in the coming years will continue to grow with a mobile app development company of any size. According to Forrester over 60% of enterprises are already heavily invested in cross-platform development, while IDC says that the market for cross-platform development tools will increase at an unprecedented rate. With the exponential increase in the cost of per platform development and the need to launch market-ready apps rapidly, cross-platform development has become essential. There are a lot of differences between even the basic iOS and Android platforms, and that’s why cross-platform tools are a boon for a mobile app development company.

Looking at these statistics we need to consider all the available cross-platform development tools and understand which of these will be excellent for 2020 keeping in mind changing customer demands and emerging technologies. All brands want to develop a mobile app that is easy to use with an attractive UI and excellent functionalities. Obviously, the type of framework to select depends on the kind of app you want to make.

Here are the top cross-platform development tools, in no particular order that we can expect to be most in use in 2020.

React Native

Developed and promoted by Facebook, React Native is a favorite with JavaScript developers for building mobile apps by using JavaScript. React Native development is fast and is not complicated, allowing developers to create apps that are native in functioning, by using a rich mobile UI from declarative components. React Native uses the same basic UI components as regular iOS and Android apps, making it the most popular cross-platform app development framework.

Xamarin

Xamarin is owned by Microsoft and was first introduced in 2011. Since then it has become one of the most popular frameworks for cross-platform app development. Xamarin offers the mobile app development company code reusability, tools, and functions for native apps and interfaces. This framework is full of features that will assist app developers in hybrid app development through code reusability, thus saving time and effort in app development.

Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a hybrid mobile framework that gives top mobile app development companies the best of both Bootstrap and Angular frameworks for creating high performing HTML5-based mobile apps. Angular UI can be seen as an extension to Bootstrap 3, and has no dependencies on Bootstrap js libs or JQuery. Developers can use AngularJS directives for creating apps that deliver sensational user experiences through UI components like overlays, switches, scrollable areas, sidebars etc. Like React Native development, Angular UI development is low cost because the platform is open source under the MIT license.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is an open-source app development platform that has been developed by Adobe and is distributed by Apache Cordova. Though a comparatively new entrant, it ranks among the most popular choices for cross-platform app development. PhoneGap offers a single codebase that can be run on all iOS and Android devices, and also allows developers to reuse components. Interestingly, PhoneGap developers can also use components in older languages like HTML, CSS, etc

Flutter

Flutter, developed and maintained by Google, has taken the cross-platform app development world by storm because of its attractive features and ease of use. Flutter development primarily uses a language called Dart, also by Google, but it also supports many other languages in the backend. With Flutter development you get additional benefits like widgets, foundation libraries, and much more. Flutter has a very easy UI, and is giving a tough competition to both React Native and Ionic, especially because even with so many exciting features the Flutter app development cost is low.

Ionic

Ionic is an open-source framework developed by MIT. It uses the same app development technique as Angular.JS and Apache Cordova and employs tools that are based on various technologies such as CSS, SASS, HTML5, etc. In the Flutter vs Ionic contest, a big point in Ionic’s favor is a huge developer community which lends support to mobile app developers, especially newbies. Ionic has over 120 native features of various devices including Bluetooth, HealthKit among many others. Apps built with Ionic have their own CLI to develop, test and deploy the app on any major OS.

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch may not be as talked about as other cross-platform app development languages, but it actually is a favored framework for commercial apps, especially for enterprise apps. Sencha Touch developers are fewer in number as compared to Ionic, which is also open-sourced. Sencha Touch uses ExtJS which is a very popular JavaScript framework for building performance-driven apps with near-native experience. Sencha comes with ready to use widgets for multiple OS, and a drag and drop HTML5 visual app builder that includes a high number of reusable templates.

Final words…

As is obvious, there is a huge variety of cross-platform frameworks available today. The final selection of the framework will depend on your app requirements, business objectives and of course the budget. For small and medium-sized businesses it’s better to select an open-source framework with easy to use functionality and an excellent developer community. But if you’ve already launched an app and are still waiting to reap the benefits, then you might want to switch to a better framework like React Native development that will meet all your business requirements.

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A leading mobile app development company like Digifutura has a wide range of skills on various development frameworks. Our developers have excellent expertise in cross-platform app development frameworks like React Native, Flutter, and Ionic. Talk to us today about your app requirements.

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