The future of digital business is cross-platform app development. Every firm, without a doubt, requires an app in a post-Covid world. And, unless you have a lot of money, you’ll need an app development solution that offers high-quality results on a tight budget. Say hello to cross platform apps: handy small apps that can operate on Android, iOS, Windows, and other platforms, with only one line of code.
Cross-platform apps are quite effective. Cross platform apps provide direct benefits to business owners in terms of cost savings and speed to market. But the good news doesn’t stop their Cross-platform apps have a considerably higher market penetration because they can be readily downloaded and used by anybody, anywhere, on any smartphone.
Building for a certain platform would limit you to a set number of consumers (either iOS or Android), which is a bad deal. As of January 2022, there are approximately 2.5 billion Android users worldwide and over 1 billion iOS users. Your company would not want to lose one of those sections.
Cross platform app development allows you to create mobile app development services in Ohio that are ready for all major platforms, providing you access to all 6.64 billion smartphone consumers worldwide. Isn’t it lovely?
The benefits do not stop there. The cost reductions of cross platform app development are astounding. Native app development would necessitate two development teams, two codebases, and twice as much update and maintenance effort. You’d need to have both teams on retainer to ensure that updates are delivered on time and that maintenance is top-notch. The additional cost of having two development teams can be too expensive.
Cross platform app development has become the favored choice of entrepreneurs, startups, small to medium organizations, and anyone searching for high quality apps at competitive pricing for all of these reasons.
The benefits do not stop there. The cost reductions of cross platform app development are astounding. Native app development would necessitate two development teams, two codebases, and twice as much update and maintenance effort. You’d need to have both teams on retainer to ensure that updates are delivered on time and that maintenance is top-notch. The additional cost of having two development teams can be too expensive.
Cross platform app development has become the favored choice of entrepreneurs, startups, small to medium organizations, and anyone searching for high quality apps at competitive pricing for all of these reasons.
What are cross platform app development frameworks?
Now that you’ve decided you want to grow your business with cross-platform app development, it’s time to start researching the correct technology. One of the first decisions you must make is the appropriate app development framework.
An application framework is a type of software framework that developers use to create mobile applications. It is a library that contains all of the tools needed to create an app.
Cross platform development frameworks are designed specifically to produce programs that can reuse the same codebase and be deployed on any platform. In 2022, let’s look at some of the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks.
Flutter
There are approximately 90,000 Flutter apps on Google Play as of December 2021, up from 50,000 in 2020. That’s a huge increase, and it shows how popular Flutter will be in 2022. According to Statista, 42% of developers worldwide utilize Flutter for app development. Google stated in April 2020 that Flutter is used by 500,000 developers per month. The figure has undoubtedly risen in 2022, with a 10% month-on-month increase in March.
Flutter began as an open-source mobile app development Los Angeles UI framework that allows developers build cross-platform apps with a single codebase, providing native UI for each device, as a direct competitor to Facebook’s React Native. As a result, the app looks and feels just like a native software, providing users with a high-performance app for half the price of a native app.
Flutter encourages developers to start designing their app with the concept ‘what I want to produce for the user’ instead of fussing with ‘what platform should I build for’. Google refers to this as Ambient Computing, and it allows developers to create programs for smartphones, desktops, smart watches, tablets, smart TVs, and other devices.
Google even disaggregated the distribution of Flutter developers, demonstrating that it is a popular framework for everyone from startups and companies to freelancers and self-employed engineers.
Less coding
Dart, a strongly typed, object-oriented programming language, is used by Flutter. Flutter does not require a JavaScript Bridge due to its declarative and reactive type approach, allowing developers to write code in less time. Flutter provides up to 80% code reuse, making it ideal for releasing apps on several platforms with a single code base.
Outstanding performance
Flutter apps have high-quality performance comparable to native apps. Because the user interface is platform-specific, Flutter apps appear and feel just like native apps, providing users with the immersive experience they desired.
Hot-reload
Hot reload is one of Flutter’s most appealing characteristics. The hot reload feature allows developers to observe any changes to the code in real time. So, if you want to alter the size of the icon or the color of the button, you don’t have to reload the entire program to view the changes. With hot reload, you can witness every modification you make take shape in real time right in front of your eyes.
Savings in both time and money
Flutter’s high code reusability allows developers to launch their apps on numerous platforms in record time, allowing business owners to get to market faster and save up to 50% on costs.
React native
Facebook’s react native is the second most popular cross-platform app development framework. React Native was created by Facebook as an internal hackathon project to be utilized in the development of Facebook products. When Facebook engineers realized what an intriguing framework they had created, they decided to open source it. Today, 38% of developers globally use React Native. React Native has been used in development projects by some of the world’s largest companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, and Uber.
React Native is a JavaScript-based mobile app framework that enables for the creation of natively rendered cross-platform mobile applications that can be delivered to iOS, Android, and other platforms with a single line of code.
Because React Native is based on React, which is essentially a JavaScript library, it has a low learning curve and is simple to understand and use for anyone with a JavaScript background.
Because React Native is a cross-platform app development framework, it enables for code reuse. While the majority of the code is shared, React Native allows developers to create platform-specific code, allowing them to tailor the app to a certain platform. This implies that aid produced using React Native will look native and run as well as apps built expressly for iOS or Android.
React Native makes use of Native UI/UX Design components, which allow developers to create a user experience that is tailored to the user’s demands and platform preferences. These UI components are similar to Lego blocks, allowing for easy customization and Native performance.
Ionic
Ionic is used by developers ranging from startups to major corporations to create cross-platform mobile business applications. Ionic is used in up to 10% of all apps on the Apple App Store and 16% of apps on the Google Play Store. Despite the introduction of other frameworks such as Flutter and React Native after its inception in 2011, ionic remains popular.
Ionic is an open-source UI toolkit that allows developers to create hybrid apps that look and behave similarly to native apps. It is based on Angular JS and employs well-known web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create a wide range of mobile apps such as corporate apps, Progressive Web apps, mobile and desktop apps, and much more.
Xamarin
Xamarin, which was launched in 2011, is a simplified, independent, open-source multi-platform framework that can build apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and other platforms. With Xamarin, developers can reuse up to 90% of code, significantly reducing development costs and time to market and offering your company a significant time advantage.
Xamarin is quite simple to understand and use, as anyone familiar with.net and C# can quickly come up to speed. Its simple integration with native libraries allows developers to do smooth app customization and impart native functionality to the app.
Wrapping up
So, when it comes to choosing a cross-platform app development framework in 2022, the two most popular options are Flutter and React Native, followed by Ionic and Xamarin. Without a question, cross platform app development is here to stay due to the numerous benefits it provides in terms of time, money, and convenience. Cross platform apps can be written in half the time of native apps and distributed across all platforms at the same time.
At Linkitsoft, The framework you use for multi-platform app development has a big impact on how your finished app looks and how your customers interact with it.
