The mobile application is mainly of two types-Native mobile apps and Cross-platform mobile apps. Native apps are developed according to specific native platforms like android and iOS. But, cross-platform app development achieves both compatibility with native platforms and functionality over different platforms.

The demand for mobile applications has increased exceptionally around the world. With the introduction of multiple platforms, Mobile Application Development Companies’ aim is not only to build an app, but the concern is to build the app for each platform. WORA – Write Once Run Anywhere, allows the developer to write a piece of code at once, which can run on multiple platforms. Furthermore, the design and application created once works wonderfully on various platforms such as Windows, Android, iOS and BlackBerry OS.

With the diverse mobile platforms, the Cross-Platform App Development became a viable commercial option. Now, instead of the native app development, the Cross-Platform Development Framework with a single code composition started ruling the Mobile App Development world. It helps you not only with your development investments but also with all the hassle you were facing while updating and managing services or processes.

The cross-platform mobile app development became popular with the rise of the mobile app market. The mobile app market is set to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 18.40% and will reach revenues of the amount of $407.31 billion by 2026.

The native platform provides mobile app development tools in-built for developers to capitalize on them. While for cross-platform mobile development there are several open-source app development tools for developers to rely on. Some of them are Xamarin, Framework7, ionic, and several others. According to Stack Overflow, Flutter is the most popular app development tool for cross-platform mobile app development.

There are many such platforms available as below to help you with Cross Platform Mobile App Development. Before ranking them, one needs to analyse the speed, features, support and development cost.

Top 10 Cross-Platform App Development Tools

Xamarin

Xamarin is a quite popular cross-platform development tool that lets you build native Android, iOS and Windows app, with the help of a single shared C# codebase. It allows you to implement similar APIs, IDE, and language everywhere. Cross-Platform App Development with Xamarin can be tested on a number of devices. Moreover, Xamarin offers easy integration with backends such as Foursquare, Microsoft Azure, Parse, SAP, and IBM. No platform can beat Xamarin when it comes to applying Ruby or C#. Also, the git integration is built directly into the Xamarin studio.

Xamarin supports MVC (Model View Controller) and MVVM (Model View ViewModel) structure. This allows Cross-Platform App Developers to keep application logic and presentation separate. Also, enables them to modify, update, test and maintain the application code easily. Xamarin allows developers to achieve up to 96% code reusability, helps them save time and put more efficiency on other important features.

2. PhoneGap

The platform is now owned by Adobe, which goes the same way to explain its increasing popularity. Adobe is also developing an enterprise version of PhoneGap. It is based on open-source Apache Cordova. Cordova is a set of device APIs that enable applications to access particular, native device functions over various device platforms. Utilizing the cross-platform plugins, and Apache Cordova APIs, Mobile App Developers can build applications utilizing HTML5, CSS3, and Java Web languages. This will help to develop a singleton application that will run on multiple mobile platforms. “The thought behind the Cordova is straightforward.” You are able to compose an application once and you will be able to run it on an entire suite of various devices.

3. Kony

Kony is an integrated, Cross-Platform Mobile Development tool that is being widely used to develop universal mobile apps. The platform using JavaScript and reusable widgets, with the ability to import existing or third-party libraries. It provides automatic code completion features, app preview features, API connectivity, and many other exciting features. As it comes with various pre-developed apps it acts as a great starter for beginners as well as developers. It also offers unified mobile infrastructure services that support the backend systems.

Recently, Kony launched the mobile fabric platform and claims that it is the first Enterprise Mobile App Development Solution that brings multiple cloud service and middleware tools together.

4. React Native

React Native is the next generation of React – a JavaScript code library. Which is developed by engineers of Facebook and Instagram, and was released on Github in 2013? Today, React Native is the most versatile platform, and by using it you are able to develop a ‘Mobile Web App’ , ‘an HTML5 app’ and a ‘Hybrid App’ as well. Rudimentary, the mobile app that is indistinguishable from a mobile app developed using Objective-C or Java, React Native uses the same fundamental UI blocks to build regular iOS and Android Apps.

As it is backed by Facebook, you can expect regular updates on this framework. Now, If you want your apps to perform best overall the available mobile platforms, React Native is the best hybrid solution.

5. Ionic

Ionic is an open-source cross-platform framework used to develop a hybrid cross-platform solution. Ionic is using web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS. It is a powerful HTML5 SDK that helps to build native-feeling Mobile Apps using most popular web techniques. It is mainly focused on the UI interaction of the app. Also, Iconic uses AngularJS for a number of core functionalities for the framework. While it is possible to Iconic with just the CSS part. As a matter of fact, an experienced Mobile App Developer will definitely suggest investing in AngularJS as it is one of the best options to build Browser-based applications. Iconic not only looks great but also powerful enough to build the amazing apps of each vertical.

6. Apache Cordova

PhoneGap is an original and popular distribution of Apache Cordova. At present, Cross-platform Mobile App Developers are able to use Cordova Framework as an open-source framework for cross-platform mobile app development. Apache Cordova allows developers to build hybrid mobile apps with JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. Ionic is a set of CSS classes and JavaScript library, which is built on top of Apache Cordova with AngularJS. By using Cordova, hybrid app developers are able to build an app with a single codebase and once the code is created it can run on all devices.

7. Sencha

If your requirement is developing a data-intensive Cross-Platform App that can support hardware acceleration techniques, then Sencha is the ideal framework to choose from. It offers a number of tools for cross-platform app development: Sencha Animator, Sencha Architect, and many more. To develop an enterprise mobile app, developers can use Ext JS 5. The Sencha Ext JS 5 unleashes the ability of HTML5 on modern browsers. It allows developers to build HTML5 apps, and can then be converted into the native mobile apps with the help of PhoneGap. This finest approach was adopted by clients such as Google, Samsung, and CNN.

Sencha Ext JS powering the developers to build apps that have great business intelligence for data analytics and visualization. Moreover, it offers inbuilt native looking themes for all mobile platforms.

8. Appcelerator

Appcelerator, the Cross-Platform App Development tool allows using a single JavaScript codebase to build, connect, and test. It also offers some value-added features: Real-time mobile analytics and MbaaS – Mobile backend as a Service. The high-quality drag and drop allow 60% to 90% code reusability while publishing on various platforms. It is the most suitable platform for rapid Mobile App Development. It is equipped with integrations such as Microsoft Azure, SQL, Salesforce, MongoDB and many others. It offers a private cloud for enterprise customers, so if you’re working with sensitive company data, Appcelerator is the best option.

9. Framework7

Framework7 is an HTML framework to build Android and iOS apps. It is one of the free cross-platform mobile app development tools powered by Apache Cordova. It provides an application framework that is built on Vue.js. This framework recreates standard iOS Designs and Google’s Material Design patterns to replicate the “native look” mobile users expect. Also, it can be used with other frameworks such as Angular or React if you want.

10. Flutter

Flutter is Google’s answer to their own problem: ‘We keep building iOS and Android applications for each mobile product; that’s getting annoying.’ It requires Dart, which replaces JavaScript. Not only Flutter bolster Google’s own programming language, but it also remains intimately tied to another Google product: Material Design. You can use a rich set of fully-customizable widgets to develop native interfaces quickly. Organizations around the world such as Alibaba.com, Tencent and Google AdWords choose building apps with Flutter. As it is backed by Google, It is not going to settle for any less. With the help of Google tools, you can build an app that is just like Gmail, Google Maps, and other applications.

Wrapping up :

The capabilities of each of the cross-platform mobile app development tools are quite beneficial for your business. But, if you are looking for advanced app development options that can enhance the user experience, then look for the best cross-platform mobile app development company which offers a wide range of Cross-Platform Mobile Solutions across the globe using the latest technologies according to your diverse business needs.

