Mobile app development is an ever-expanding business with fresh applications and uses cases coming all day. But it is not only the utilize cases that are growing but also, the tools existing for developers to design these applications. There was a moment in time when we had no choice but to code an application from scratch for each raised area. Now we can employ cross-platform mobile app development tools that can offer native-like performances to our apps. In this article, we will talk about some of the trendy tools that provide this functionality along with the pros and cons of each.
PhoneGap (Apache Cordova):
Discovered and developed by Apache Cordova team, this tool provides FOSS surroundings that grant for cross-platform mobile app development. It considers a few testing tools, debugger, and a compiler. The key web technologies concerned are JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. PhoneGap offers a wide range of plugins like Media Recorder Plugin, Push plugin, Image Capture plugin, etc.
It acquires a plugin-able structural design permits developers to activate smartphone functions like accelerometer, GPS, sound, camera, and much more. Thus, it performs as a flexible tool to produce greatly functional apps. It also guides in-app purchases for the Google Play Store and iOS app store. On the whole, it is the finest tool for developers with skill in front-end technologies. You might have to apply 3rd party graphics acceleration and caching as the apps developed on this platform are generally a little slow.
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Appcelerator:
Appcelerator is also work as an apparatus for apps development that can be utilized to test, deploy, build and test the performance of the mobile app. Appcelerator also employs JavaScript programming as a worldwide code system. The universal code here involves that the same code can be utilized to develop applications for different raised areas like Blackberry, iOS, Android etc. It is a brilliant option for rapid application development if the developer is an expert in JS.
Appcelerator gives a schema-less database, ArrowDB to grants you to organize data models with zero setup attempts. It also provides pre-built integrations with Salesforce, MS Azure, MS SQL, Box, MongoDB, etc. The tool has a character for being a little laggy and buggy along withhold from its developer community. These inventories are improved in the latest versions.
React Native:
It is a cross-platform app development structure working as an open-source from Facebook. It pursues the “learn once, write everywhere” initiative. It employs JavaScript as its base language and provides scope for native performance. After coding, you can port your application to both Android and iOS using the same base code. The best business point of React Native is that even while it is a cross-platform framework, it generates apps with the feel and look of a native application. Hence, it provides a great customer experience.
Sencha Ext JS:
It is a bit alike to React Native in terms of pros, cons, and performance. Its distinguishing feature is the employ of the Ext JS framework for development. Sencha Ext JS is available in both paid and free versions. It provides a visual app designer for HTML5, along with the reusability of custom works. Its native app packager controls the distribution to stores like Google Play Store and Apple Store.
As it utilizes HTML5 for development you can check and operate your apps on browsers as well as mobile apps. It also matches well with other cross-platform tools similar to Adobe PhoneGap for development of highly useful applications.
RhoMobile Suite:
RhoMobile offers Rhodes, a Ruby-based open-source structure that can work with Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android phone, RIM, and Symbian- basically all you’ll want. It is available with RhoHub, present development surroundings for developers for application coding and RhoSync, a separate server that facilitates you to save all the app data and maintain it up to date on the users’ devices.
You can make native-like apps, spanning across different platforms utilizing a single code. Native apps work abnormally well in dealing with accessible hardware hence, the job gets done with relatively more accuracy, ease, and speed.