Beck (A startup owner): Hey Joe, with a plethora of powerful programming languages already available in the market, I am a little anxious to pick up a programming language for my startup?

Joe (A CTO of a well-known organization): Hi Beck, I understand your concern! However, for selecting the programming language, you need to consider the scalability and the integration of the language you pick up.

Beck: Thanks Joe, Can you help me more with this selection process?

Joe: Sure Beck, please read this blog!

The series of conversations mentioned above are quite common in today’s scenario when every other programming language is surpassing the limitations of the prior. Startup owners are running more curious about selecting a programming language for the development, rather they should be!

Because it is challenging to rush into a full-fledged application development using a programming language that might not succeed. Which may further end up risking the business.

However, they should pick up an approach of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and validate their idea of the startup. After discussing with our expert developers and CTO, we have come up with the list of best programming languages for your startup.

But before we jump into the list, we have listed down certain criteria for selecting the programming language. Especially if you are a non-techie person, you need to know these basic considerations that will help you further with the selection:

So let’s begin. There are two major types of programming languages,

1. Compiled

It is the language in which the developers write the code and machines interpret it before the runtime. Since they are manually typed, you need to provide a variable type before the execution.

2. Interpreted:

In this, developers write the code and interpreters run the program line by line to execute each command. Also, interpreted languages are dynamic and have better performance over compiled.

Now comes the considerations:

Domain:

Every programming language gives a solution to a variety of problems. Some increase scalability, some performance, and a few others provide flexibility. Hence, you need to define your business purpose before selecting the language. A wrong selection may affect the further development process.

Delivery time:

Clients prefer hiring companies that have a quick project turnaround time. Hence, you need to consider the development time of the programming language in order to stay at the top of the game and deliver projects in the promised timeframe.

Developers availability:

You can not run alone in the development race, you need your team. Hence, while you pick up the programming language, ensure that you have sufficient developers available in the market as well as in your team. You need to hire mobile app developers to develop a classy application.

Thus to create a magic application, you are required to think critically about the selection of programming language for your startups.

In the next section, we have provided the list of top programming languages based on the platform you target. Keep reading…

Programming languages for android development:

Python:

Python tops the charts when it comes to the top 5 popular programming languages for android app development. Due to the easy learning curve and a wide range of scientific libraries, it has won the hearts of developers.

Python is interpreted, an open-source language that supports dynamic typing. The coding style of python is intuitive, readable and easy to understand. The language is empowered more with the Django framework. Python needs some tools to convert the Python packages into Android packages and thereby run on the native Android devices.

If you do not believe, then we have a list of startups who have become some really big names now. Pinterest, Instagram, BitBucket, EventBrite are some of the names on the list.

However, both the language and the framework are independent. But if you wish to run the application on Windows and Linux, both, it is advisable to use them in combination. Python definitely is your language for starting up the business. So go ahead and start developing your “Hello World” program.

Kotlin:

Kotlin is pretty similar to Java in terms of language structure but has many advanced features as compared to Java. It is a cross-platform programming language that is declared as the “secondary official” language of Java but with clean coding. Additionally, Kotlin extends its support to every IDE, even Android Studio and SDK toolkit.

Although being similar to Java, Kotlin doesn’t support the superfluous feature of Java-like null pointer exceptions. The statically typed code of Kotlin runs on multiple platforms and supports Java Virtual Machine. The language can be compiled into java source code and it has a very easy learning curve.

So if you wish to enter the Android app market, Kotlin is your entry point for sure.

Java:

Another widely used language for android app development is Java. Java has been in use since 1995 and is majorly employed for creating enterprise applications.

Ever since its inception (in the 90s), Java has been the most demanding language amongst developers.

The structure of the language is best suitable for developing mobile and game applications that work across multiple platforms. The programming language has an abundance of open-source libraries and supports a stack allocation system. It has automatic memory allocation and garbage collection. Java supports multithreading and is best suited for distributed computing.

However, beginners might find it difficult to start and run a program using Java.

Programming languages for iOS development:

iPhone and iPad user numbers are no less. The popularity is rising in leaps and bounds. And it is high time that if you are targeting this market, then you better know about the programming languages for development.

Swift:

A popular language giving a good competition to the Android market is Swift. It wouldn’t be wrong to call Swift, the language of the future. Why because, it is easily crafting its way into the market and is highly popular because of the clean code of Apple’s latest API, Cocoa, Cocoa Touch.

The learning curve of the language is easy to moderate and is considered to be the primary language for iOS and OS X app development.

However, the language is currently used only for iOS development but it is expected that it can be used by anyone (as it is open source).

Swift language is backed by Apple and possesses automatic memory management that ensures no leakage. Swift has better scalability and it is quite easy to add new features in it. The code syntax is similar to English and thus developers feel free to write clean and readable code.

An interesting thing is you can integrate server-side Swift with any technology. But, the only drawback is that it has limited community support and lacks resources. As it is newly launched it is slightly unstable.

C#:

C# is a Microsoft developed programming language used for general purposes. It is a beginner-friendly language that is supported by some handy tools like Unity and Xamarin. C# is being majorly used for backend programming and a lot many apps have been developed by using the language.

The structure is similar to Java and just like Java, C# also supports garbage collection that ensures less memory usage. It is the strongest language to develop some perfect applications.

Additionally, this programming language can be utilized to develop some server applications, web services, mobile games and more. C# is versatile and can be used across different verticals of the industries.

The popularity of the language is mainly because of the following reasons:

It can work with a shared codebase;

It has automatic scalability and updates itself;

It supports full integration of .NET library;

The language syntax is similar to that of C language;

It has a quick compilation and execution times;

It is an object-oriented programming language;

These are some of the prominent programming languages that can be used for developing a mobile application for your startup. However, we would like to share some bonus information here. If you wish to develop a web application for your startup, we have covered you! Keep reading.

Programming languages for web development:

The application market is flooded with web applications and as a startup company, you need to make sure that you stand out from the crowd. So for developing an outstanding web application, you can use the following programming languages.

Ruby:

Amidst all the discussion about the best programming language for web applications, Ruby wins the race. It was developed in 1993 with an intention to create mobile and web applications. The programming language has the potential to balance imperative programming and functional programming.

Ruby’s platform is an open-source platform by using which you can easily learn and understand the language. The language creates magic by collaborating with the Ruby On Rails framework. It has web-based libraries and tools in abundance which means you can rapidly develop applications using it.

Ruby is highly suitable for the ones who want to start their business and make a name by creative designs. Ruby can handle web traffic well and therefore it is mostly used to develop web servers.

Some successful examples that use this language are Hulu, Twitter, Scribd and more.

PHP:

Since the early days of the application development, PHP has been the talk of the town. PHP is a house of developers, frameworks and libraries. If we chart out the names of the PHP alumni, we have some big names included which are Facebook, WordPress, Twitpic, and Flicker.

PHP holds the potential to build an MVP and can be easily embedded in HTML. It was initiated by Rasmus Lerdorf for general-purpose programming. However, since it was not developed with a specific intention, you can find multiple inconsistencies in the syntax.

It has captured millions of websites on the internet, to include, even the power-pact CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla are built using it. PHP is the perfect choice of developers when it comes to building versatile web applications.

If PHP is combined with the Laravel framework, it can build some really out-of-the-box applications. The reason being, Laravel is a treasure house of microservices, tools, packages, and APIs. It can speed up the development like never before.

PHP supports server-side programming and is compatible with UNIX as well as Windows OS. Since the language is in the picture for long years now, it has developed a vast community that helps in resolving any challenge.

To Conclude:

We understand that you had a lot to digest, but we hope we have helped you in narrowing down the list of popular programming languages for mobile app development.

Key Takeaway: You can always observe your competitors’ websites to find out how they have been successful using the programming language. Do your research before concluding one for your startup?

Do not get into the tap, if you have any queries, come to us and get the problem resolved. You can also hire our developers to complete your on-going project or get suggestions for the same.

Have a project idea in mind? Let's Talk!