Essential Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks for Seamless Integration
Updated June 13, 2024
As the number of mobile devices and operating systems continues to diversify, cross-platform mobile app development provides an ideal solution for creating applications operating smoothly across multiple platforms.
This rising adoption of mobile devices underlines the necessity of cross-platform development, as experts predict that the market will pass US$ 546.7 billion by 2033. Such forecasts necessitate that developers use a cross-platform approach to mobile app development.
Cross-platform application development allows seamless user experiences regardless of the type or brand of device being used, helping you reach larger audiences with your product or service.
In this guide, we will explain how to develop a cross-platform mobile app and ensure high-quality performance on all devices.
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Understanding Cross-Platform Mobile Development
Cross-platform mobile apps allow developers to create applications that run on multiple operating systems using a single codebase, resulting in cost efficiency and faster development time. This form of mobile app development provides an audience reach far more expansive than conventional approaches.
Cross-platform app frameworks provide consistency across all platforms by taking into account different hardware, software, and user experiences to create cross-platform apps that offer uniform experiences regardless of the device or OS utilized.
According to a 2022 developer survey, one-third of mobile developers used cross-platform technologies in 2022, with 46% using Flutter as the most popular platform. Stack Overflow provides additional insights into the popularity and usage of cross-platform frameworks in its 2023 developer survey, and MDN Web Docs write about building cross-platform web applications in detail.
Choosing the proper cross-platform app framework impacts not only the performance and look of the app but also dictates its scalability and maintenance ease in the long run. Cross-platform development frameworks support a diverse array of programming languages, offer extensive libraries, and allow easy integration with numerous APIs and plugins, broadening the scope and functionality of the developed apps.
Cross-platform app developers specialize in creating versatile applications that provide a seamless and consistent user experience across multiple mobile operating systems. They utilize advanced frameworks to ensure that a cross-platform mobile app functions flawlessly on devices. This development process maximizes reach and engagement and optimizes development time and costs.
Platform-specific application development is also possible where customizations are required according to requirements while leveraging benefits from utilizing prebuilt components offered by cross-platform toolsets, such as enhanced performance with lower costs associated with coding & maintenance efforts when compared against native mobile development services.
Defining cross-platform development
Cross-platform mobile app development involves writing code once and deploying it across multiple operating systems using technologies, frameworks, programming languages, and hybrid coding. This process is much more cost-effective than traditional native app development, which only allows an application to be applied to one device type or OS.
Cross-platform app creation is not a new approach, with Nitobi being the first company to pioneer this concept. Companies like Skype, Bloomberg, and Shopify have successfully employed platforms such as React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and Ionic in their projects, leading to today’s modern world, where developers can easily create apps that work simultaneously on numerous devices.
C#, Dart, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS are just some of the tools developers use to help us streamline mobile application production regardless of the system they target.
Advantages of cross-platform development
Cross-platform app development is increasingly becoming popular, with Statista reporting a significant adoption rate among developers. This approach can reduce development efforts by 50-80% compared to building individual apps for multiple platforms.
Quick time-to-market delivery becomes possible as one codebase serves all platforms, facilitating easy maintenance and unified updates over various devices, guaranteeing optimized experiences for each use.
Key Factors of Cross-Platform Mobile App Development
Developing cross-platform apps includes performance optimization across devices and platforms, access to device capabilities, and integration with third-party libraries and services. Factoring in these points ensures a product that matches user demand on multiple systems without sacrificing quality and functionality.
Performance and user experience of mobile app development
Enhancing the performance and user experience on different platforms and devices is the key to cross-platform mobile app development. Developers must tackle any possible compatibility issues that may arise to ensure a uniform experience for users regardless of which device they are using.
Application speed, responsiveness, UI design, and overall usability are essential performance elements. Developers optimize products’ functioning by integrating native modules or plugins, testing on separate gadgets, and implementing specialized APIs.
Access to device features
Cross-platform development is essential to maximize device feature usage across different platforms. Thanks to cross-platform applications, mobile app users enjoy access to cameras, GPS/location services, and other technologies. Knowing that these capabilities can differ depending on your chosen framework makes it essential to pick an appropriate one for your app.
Supporting native features ensures a consistent user experience across different operating systems and devices. Compatibility issues must also be considered, as these can limit feature availability and impact the performance users expect.
Finally, access guarantees should also extend beyond any single platform. Ensuring all functions will operate correctly across many OSes ensures high levels of consistency no matter how people use your product.
Integration with third-party libraries and services
Cross-platform app development requires integration with external codebases and services so that more extraordinary features improve the user experience. Compatibility, security, and scalability must be considered when implementing these third-party tools. React Native, as well as other frameworks like Xamarin, Flutter, or PhoneGap, provide a bundle of libraries to simplify this process. Developers can extend their applications across multiple platforms with just one set of APIs and tools. This makes efficient deployment on diverse mobile environments possible via cross-platform apps.
Top Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
Exploring commonly used cross-platform frameworks and comparing their flexibility, straightforwardness, and effectiveness will help you decide and prepare for the development process.
Choosing the right framework is key to creating a high-quality, native-like mobile app. To help you make the best choice, we’ve put together a list of the top five mobile app frameworks for cross-platform app development.
React Native
React Native is a free, open-source framework developed by Facebook for building native applications on iOS and Android platforms using JavaScript and React. It has quickly become one of the leading tools for cross-platform mobile development. React Native allows developers to use their existing JavaScript and React knowledge to create mobile apps, making it an easy transition for web developers.
One of React Native’s standout features is hot reload, which enables developers to see code changes instantly, speeding up the development process. Additionally, it supports numerous third-party libraries and plugins, providing the flexibility to add various features and functionalities to mobile applications effortlessly.
Flutter
Flutter, developed by Google, is an open-source framework designed for creating natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It uses the Dart programming language and provides a rich set of pre-designed widgets, allowing for a seamless and customizable user interface.
Flutter’s key advantage is its “hot reload” feature, similar to React Native, which lets developers see the effects of their code changes immediately. Additionally, Flutter’s single codebase approach simplifies maintenance and reduces development time, making it an efficient choice for building high-performance, cross-platform applications.
Examples of apps built utilizing the features offered by Flutter are plentiful – eBay, BMW app, and New York Times, among others, have been created thanks to its performance that rivals those achieved when coding in a platform’s native environment, all while reducing time developing across platforms alike considerably.
Hire Flutter developers to create cross-platform apps for your business.
.NET MAUI (Xamarin)
.NET MAUI, which evolved from Xamarin, is a Microsoft-developed framework for creating native and cross-platform applications using C# and the .NET ecosystem. It allows developers to share a significant portion of their code across iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows, leading to faster development cycles. Leading companies like Oro MRW, The World Bank, Storyo, and Captio have leveraged this powerful technology.
The framework provides access to native APIs and UI controls, ensuring that apps built with .NET MAUI deliver a truly native experience. It also integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio, offering robust tools for building, debugging, and testing applications, which enhances developer productivity and code quality.
At Glorium Technologies, we specialize in cross-platform development. We transformed CAE’s vision into an innovative AR educational platform for ultrasound training. Within six months, we developed a prototype showcased at IMSH 2020 in the USA. This iOS and Android-compatible software revolutionized healthcare training with features like automatic model recognition, collaborative training, a comprehensive admin panel, and a price durability calculator. Glorium Technologies’ solution enhanced learning efficiency and enabled remote monitoring, showcasing our expertise in creating impactful, cross-platform educational tools.
If you want to see the same results for your business, hire our Xamarin developers.
Ionic
Ionic is an open-source framework for high-quality cross-platform app development using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It relies on the Angular framework and Apache Cordova, enabling developers to create apps that run on multiple platforms from a single codebase (both on Android and iOS).
Ionic’s main strength lies in its extensive library of pre-built UI components and plugins, which simplify adding functionalities such as camera access, GPS, and more. The framework also supports modern front-end development practices and tools, making it a popular choice for developers familiar with web technologies.
Cordova
Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework that enables developers to create cross-platform apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It wraps web applications in a native container, allowing them to access device features like the camera, accelerometer, and GPS through a unified API.
Cordova is particularly useful for developers who want to leverage their existing web development skills to build mobile apps. It supports a wide range of plugins and has a large community, which provides ample resources and support. While it may not offer the same level of performance as native frameworks, Cordova remains a practical solution for simpler, content-focused mobile applications.
Tips for Successful Cross-Platform Mobile Development
Once we know the primary cross-platform mobile development frameworks, let’s look at a few tips for ensuring your platform app project will be successful. Performance optimization, consistent design and user experience, and accounting for scalability and maintenance are essential factors in creating a high-quality application that attracts customers from many platforms.
We’ll explore these points below.
Optimize performance
Cross-platform app development presents the challenge of addressing potential compatibility issues while leveraging the strengths of each platform to ensure optimal performance. Common issues that can arise include slower speed, difficulty in optimization, and ongoing usability problems. Developers need to take measures such as utilizing native modules or plugins, testing different devices thoroughly, making use of platform-specific APIs, and strictly sticking with design guidelines when working on cross-platform apps. Doing so allows them to guarantee high levels of effectiveness for their software across all platforms they intend to target users.
Ensure consistent design and user experience
Creating a unified design and user journey on different platforms is essential for a seamless experience. To meet this goal, developers should follow the relevant guidelines as well as create their own style guide and reuse components when possible. Testing the app across multiple devices is vital to guarantee consistency of functionality, performance, and aesthetics. In turn, allowing users to access an all-round high-quality product regardless of which device they are using.
Plan for scalability and maintenance
When developing a cross-platform app, planning for scalability and maintenance is essential to ensure long-term success. It is vital to have an architecture that can handle increased users and data without compromising speed. By designing their cross-platform apps with this thought process in mind, businesses will be able to reach larger audiences and ensure the compatibility of their features through regularly updating the framework and dependencies used by these platforms.
Takeaway
Cross-platform app development allows for the cost-effective and efficient creation of apps that appeal to various users from multiple platforms. With frameworks like React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Ionic & Cordova in mind, developers are able to create quality applications that run seamlessly across different systems. Performance optimization and consistent design/ user experience need consideration when making an app work well on every platform. Scalability & maintenance should also be taken into account so cross-platform customers can enjoy smooth performance regardless of the device used.
Discover the potential of your business with Glorium Technologies, where our expertise in cross-platform development ensures your app excels in performance and user experience across all devices. Contact us to transform your app idea into a scalable, maintainable reality that captivates users on every platform.
