Top Mobile App Development Frameworks

Nowadays, people’s lives are highly dependent on mobile applications. From ordering food to booking a taxi to keep tracking their health, they use an app to do everything. But do you know how these mobile apps are built? Software developers leverage top mobile app development frameworks to create efficient solutions to help people by making their daily chores easier and faster. 

In the below graph, we can see the top cross-platform mobile frameworks used by software developers worldwide from 2019 to 2022.

By seeing this, we can have an idea about the importance of these mobile app development frameworks. Earlier, only evolving technologies and methodologies were used to build an app but with the rapid evolution in mobile app development, these frameworks came into the light and became undeniable. Whether you are a mobile application developer or a business trying to enter this lucrative market, you must have knowledge about these latest mobile app development frameworks. Hence, here we are with this curated guide to make you understand about these top frameworks-

What are Mobile App Development Frameworks?

Mobile app development frameworks facilitate developers with an extensive library offering the required basic structure to craft proficient mobile apps that can run in a specific environment. These popular frameworks such as React Native, Flutter, Ionic, Xamarin, Adobe PhoneGap, etc. act more like a layout to aid mobile app development. 

Using these frameworks streamlines the overall mobile app development process ensuring faster speed and efficacy. The unified and single codebase helps app developers to function across several platforms swiftly. Top mobile app development frameworks are comprised of significant elements including the app’s core structure and essential SDKs (software development kits). They also encompass tools like APIs, debugging utilities, code libraries, compilers, and so on.        

Alongside, there are three different types of mobile app frameworks namely Native, Web, and cross-platform. Businesses prefer to use these frameworks to stay competitive and enhance overall productivity. Let’s dive into the details-

Native Frameworks

These frameworks help developers create high-performing apps for a specific platform, be it Android, iOS, or Windows. It requires writing separate code to create platform-specific applications. 

Web Frameworks

These frameworks are fully focused on supporting web app development only that can be accessed via mobile browsers as well. These apps have hybrid compatibility as they include elements of native apps but with limited device features.   

Cross-platform Frameworks

These frameworks create applications compatible with diverse platforms using a single codebase. These built apps perform similarly to native applications.      

Top Frameworks Used in Mobile App Development

Below, we have penned down top mobile app development frameworks used to build high-performing mobile apps that can run across multiple devices and operating systems. Have a look at them-

• React Native 

Founded in: 2015 by Facebook 

Apps built by React Native: Facebook, Instagram, Myntra, Walmart, Airbnb 

React Native is the best framework when it comes to building cross-platform apps. It is created on JavaScript and supports cross-platform mobile app development with a native-like experience. It provides amazing benefits of JavaScript and React.JS while letting developers write modules in Swift, Java, or Objective-C. And It provides a single codebase to create cross-platform apps leading to a faster and cost-efficient development process. 

It emphasizes including appealing and highly interactive UI to provide users with a great responsive interface. React Native helps to reduce the loading time and delivers the ultimate user experience. 

• Flutter 

Founded in: 2017 by Google

Apps built by Flutter: Alibaba, Reflectly, Cryptograph, Google Ads App 

Flutter has secured its place as a top hybrid mobile app development framework using a 2D rendering engine namely Skia for interactive visuals. This open-source, free platform comes with a development kit to create high-performing apps. It uses compiled Dart language providing benefits of object-oriented concepts to developers. 

It also uses a single codebase for cross-platform mobile app development and leverages the hot reload feature for faster testing and debugging. Flutter facilities with a wide range of widgets giving users a customizable experience. 

• Apache Cordova 

Founded in: 2011 by Adobe Systems

Apps built by Apache Cordova: Wikipedia, HealthTap, TripCase 

The Apache Cordova framework was formerly popular as Adobe PhoneGap. This framework leverages languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5 while enabling developers to share the app in the cloud with other developers to get their feedback. The most impeccable benefit of Cordova is its in-built device features including a Camera, GPS, Storage, and others. 

It follows an architecture that allows extended access to native devices’ APIs in a modular way and uses a single code base for cross-platform development. Alongside, Cordova provides different plugins to access file systems, cameras, GPS, etc.   

• Xamarin

Founded in: May 16, 2011 

Apps built by Xamarin: HCL, The World Bank, BBC Good Food, Alaska Airlines

Suppose you write code once and that built app is compatible with different platforms such as Android, iOS, Web, and macOS. It can be true with the help of Xamarin facilitating native-like performance and experience. It is backed by Microsoft and enables developers to use language C# for developing apps for iOS, Android, and Windows. 

This framework also facilitates Native API access, .NET libraries, the ability to use, and support from a strong community. Xamarin offers a friendly environment to create hybrid apps with a shared codebase.    

• NativeScript 

Founded in: March 2015

Apps built by NativeScript: Strudel, Dwitch, Daily Nanny, Regelneef 

Hire mobile app developers to leverage this free and open-source framework in creating native applications for Android and iOS with the help of TypeScript, JavaScript, or Angular. NativeScript is a preferred framework for a vast range of developers seeking WORA functionality. This framework comes with all native APIs enabling developers to reuse the available plugins from NPM for projects. 

It uses TypeScript & Angular for programming purposes and gives developers the freedom to access iOS and Android APIs, hence; they don’t need to have any advanced knowledge about native programming languages.    

• Node.JS

Founded in: 2009 by Ryan Dahl

Apps built by Node.JS: Paypal, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Uber, Netflix, GoDaddy 

Node.JS is the most preferable framework for developing cross-platform mobile apps. It is known as an open-source JavaScript runtime framework created on the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine. It also supports the creation of server-side and flexible networking applications. Apps built with Node.JS tend to be highly responsive and efficient.

Node.JS can also manage different concurrent connections simultaneously and provides a rich library of filled JavaScript modules streamlining web app development. 

In Essence,

In the above article, we looked at the most popular mobile app development frameworks helpful for developing cross-platform applications. These innovative and modern frameworks are beneficial to evolve the entire digital landscape due to provided benefits such as faster & cost-efficient development, extensive libraries, a single code base, responsive widgets, plugin support, and others. All you have to do is hire dedicated app developers to harness these frameworks while creating a wide range of apps, from native apps to cross-platform to hybrid apps. Assess these widely available frameworks and choose the one that suits your requirements best.