Cross-platform apps have dug deep into the world of app development. The interface provided by the cross-platform app development frameworks is accessible and easy to use and developing an app is no longer considered an arduous task by the developers as compared to the scenario in the past. The advancement in technology has given us a platform that is hustle free and does not make us tech-phobic anymore.
Here are the few leading cross-platform app development frameworks that stood apart in 2021.
Launched in 2011, Xamarin has been favoured by the designers greatly. It is a cross-platform app development framework developed by Miguel de-Icaza, Joseph Hill, and Nat Friedman. It is an open-source framework that is designed to solve the problem of disjointed native technology stacks which have made the advancement of mobile apps difficult. It uses C# code which makes it easy to use in both android and IOS. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2016. The top applications which have been developed in Xamarin are HCl, American Cancer Society, Fox Airports, Alaska Airlines, and BBC Good Food.
Adobe PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open-source, cross-platform development framework developed by Adobe. It was previously known as Apache Cordova. PhoneGap uses HTML,CSS and JavaScript. It provides us with a number of features that make it easy to use, like providing cloud solutions so we can create our apps directly. It also allows us to share the application with the team to garner their feedback. It also provides a FOSS environment that allows cross-platform app development. The feature which is highlighted is that it uses an intuitive desktop for mobile app development and then serves the app created on the desktop to mobile devices connected to it. It also has access to third party pools and has a lot of plug-ins. The apps developed on the Adobe PhoneGap cross-platform framework are Wikipedia, TripCase, and FanReact
Considered the most famous open-source cross-platform app development framework, React Native is developed by Facebook and was launched in 2015. It has a maxim that reads " learn once, write everywhere". The script it functions on is Java which provides it with native functionality. It allows up to 80% sharing on the platform depending upon its complexity. It allows the user to have a free hand and add advanced features easily. It is deeply focused on the UI design which gives it an engaging interface. React Native offers speedy prototyping, and a high initial velocity. It also provides us with a feature called hot reloading which allows us to see changes made in codes within seconds. It also gives us access to certain native functionalities like accelerometer and camera. The apps developed on React Native are Instagram, Tesla, Bloomberg, Pinterest, and Skype.
Ionic
Ionic is an open-source cross-platform web development framework that utilizes HTML5 to develop hybrid apps. It was licensed under MIT and was launched by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley. It resembles Angular JS in design and structure as it also takes a feature of iOS and Android. It is based on a SAAS UI framework designed for mobile operating systems exclusively and provides us with a plethora of UI features for application advancement. It allows shipping in a continuation. It is used extensively by a community of 5M developers across the world. The apps built using this framework are IBM, ING NASA, and SAP.
Flutter is well renowned for its dynamic set of features. In recent years as well, it has topped the charts. It is a rich open-source cross-platform for creating interfaces for iOS as well as android. It is Google's mobile app SDK. A survey was conducted amongst the developers which had the results that favoured Flutter in both the old and the new developers as it gives a close competition to react native which is developed by Facebook. It functions as a react framework and also comes with a set of widgets and tools. Designers can also create designs using OEM widgets. It also has the feature of hot reloading which allows making changes within seconds. It is the most suited framework for MVP development. Flutter is based on an object-oriented programming language called "dart". The apps built by using the flutter cross-platform app framework are Google, Google Ads, Tencent, and Alibaba.
NativeScript
NativeScript is an open-source framework to develop mobile apps on both iOS and Android. It was first released in March 2015 by Progress. It is said that developing apps in NativeScript is like developing native apps with cross-platform app development capability in JavaScript and Angular. It is most favoured for developing Micro apps which are designed to perform single features. NativeScript allows the user to access a complete stack of cross-platform APIs. It also provides "zero days" support for the new native framework. It also cleared the path for the rapid development of apps. Mobile applications which are based on NativeScript use the same APIs which makes sense as if they were developed in Xcode or Android Studio. The apps using NativeScript open source development framework are Strudel, Bitpoints Wallet, and Daily Nanny.
There are various cross-platform open-source web development frameworks that have proven their mettle in the industry of frameworks. Each of them provides us with an array of different features to choose from. All of these are so dynamic in nature that they do not just cater to one type of project in hand but to everything a user can think of. The interfaces are now all the more friendly and easy to use and are suited to every need in the tech industry. So developing apps that are not limited to just one type of interface is now an easy task.
