Top Mobile App Development Framework Stack In 2021
The advent of smartphones and their increasing usage across the globe has made many business owners and entrepreneurs to center around mobile app development for their business. The mobile application development market has made its presence felt in the digital world by achieving an unparalleled CAGR of around 14.3% and is on the verge of reaching $100 Billion by the end of 2022.
However, if you take a look at the current market drifts and comprehend the situation, the ruler is a Mobile Application. Mobile applications have a lot of benefits of being quicker and productive with the force of working disconnected and without any problem. The features and qualities of mobile applications have compelled numerous organizations to change from Web App to Mobile App. By using the best mobile app development services you can take your business to new heights of success. However, every feature-rich and successful mobile application has scalable mobile app development frameworks that play a vital role in the entire process. These frameworks helped the app functionality and features to win the hearts and minds of the users.
In this serious world, to make your mobile application a genuine achievement, it's fundamental to pick the right and appropriate mobile system, technologies, platform, and data sets for your task. However, choosing a Technology Stack for your mobile app with a suitable development technique is vital. This will definitely lead you to overall business achievement.
Indeed, there are a lot of systems and development tools accessible in the market which have stood apart as the best one because of its features and abilities. In this article, we will examine the top mobile technology stack of 2021. Without further ado, let’s get started.
What is a mobile app technology stack?
Basically, a mobile development technology stack is a mix of programming items, programming dialects, systems, libraries, platforms, tools, and UI/UX arrangements utilized by your mobile application development team.
Actually, the whole mobile application technology stack can be partitioned into 3 areas. These territories also establish the life structures of an application. Here are those three parts:
Frontend Development — The interface on which the client collaborates with the mobile application.
Backend Development — This the part that takes the client input, measures it, and converts it into a positive yield.
Development Platform — This is where interfaces and libraries come into the image as a mix to plan and build up the mobile application.
Since you understand what the mobile application technology stack truly is, let us study the reasons why it is significant for organizations or even people to sit with their partnered mobile app development company and have a look at the tech stack that would be placed into their mobile applications.
Why is it Important to choose the best technology stack for mobile app development?
There are a lot of components that are subject to the choice of the correct tech stack for your mobile application. The probability of whether your application is powerful or can it scale to various working framework variants, depends intensely on the technology blend that you decide for its turn of events.
Any off-base or uncalculated choice in the selection of only the best technology stack for mobile applications will influence its present performance and future development prospects negatively.
While all these are the sort of issues you may confront when you are somewhere inside the interaction of mobile app development, there is plenty of initial issues that may bring about because of poor technology selection.
Technology Stack for Mobile App Development in 2021
Native App Development
Native app development means using platform-specific programming languages, software development kits, development environments, and other tools provided by operating system vendors. As a result, building native apps for mobile platforms requires you to employ separate mobile app development technologies for each. Popular apps like Lyft and Pokemon GO take the native approach.
Technology Stack For iOS
For iOS app development, you can pick either Objective-C or Swift. Objective-C is a superset of the C programming language and gives object-oriented capacities and a dynamic runtime environment however it’s becoming obsolete and hence, most developers have shifted to Swift to develop apps. You can pick up the following mobile app technology stack, for creating a native application for iOS:
Swift
Swift is a moderately mobile development programming language. There are no string identifiers, prompting fewer mistakes. The measure of code needed here is considerably less and it's more clear to edit and troubleshoot. Swift is the best language to use in 2021 on account of its speed, readability, and less complex nature. The Syntax of Swift urges engineers to compose perfect and reliable code. This can even feel severe at times.
Swift is a popular design stack was built with a substantial accentuation on performance. As per Apple, Swift is 8.4x quicker than Python and 2.6x quicker than Objective-C. The Simple Syntax of Swift and the helping-hand approach given by it helps in creating applications quicker.
Advantages:
- Improved Performance and Safety
- Easy to Integrate with Objective-C
- ability to outperform the predecessor languages
- Scalability of the Application
- Support from Apple
- Rapid Development Process
- Strong typing and error handling functions
Disadvantages:
- Talent Pool is Limited
- Swift is considered as a “Moving Target”
- Lack of support for earlier IOS Versions
- The language is still young
- Problems in updating swift code
Mobile apps built using Swift:
- Khan Academy
- Truecaller
- Pandora
- Dubsmash
- Bitmoji
- CNN
- Fitbit
- Lyft
- PokemonGo
Objective C
Objective-C is the primary programming language you use when writing software for OS X and iOS. It's a superset of the C programming language and gives object-situated abilities and a dynamic runtime. Objective-C acquires the language structure, primitive types, and stream control statements of C and adds punctuation for characterizing classes and techniques. It additionally adds language-level help for object charting of the board and article literals while giving powerful composing and restricting, conceding numerous duties until runtime. It was the fundamental programming language supported by Apple for macOS, iOS, and their separate application programming interfaces (APIs), Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, until the release of Swift in 2014.
Advantages:
- well tested language
- has well-documented, third-party frameworks
- compatible with C and C++ programming languages.
- Objective C is stable
- Old programming language
- Precise documentation
Disadvantages:
- difficult to learn
- Complicated syntax
- Lower number of developers interested
- Is not as secure as Swift.
- more prone to get hacked
- Limited features
Technology Stack For Android
To build a native app for the Android OS you can use the following Android app stack for android app development.
Kotlin
Kotlin is a universally useful, free, open-source, statically composed and one of the best programming language initially intended for the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) and Android that consolidates object-oriented and useful programming features. It is centered around interoperability, security, lucidity, and tooling support. Adaptations of Kotlin focusing on JavaScript ES5.1 and local code (utilizing LLVM) for various processors are in production too.
Since its inception in 2011, Kotlin has become a top choice among application designers and, all the more, is proclaimed the second official Android development language by Google. You'll get a cleaner code with Kotlin, and it saves generally 30% off code space contrasted with Java. In addition, Kotlin is 100% viable with JVM, which implies you can in any case utilize Java systems for building up the application.
Advantages:
- Can be easily maintained
- Less Buggy
- Works with existing Java Code
- Maximize the productivity
- Easy to learn
- Reliable
- Merges functional and procedural programming
Disadvantages:
- Less Kotlin professionals
- Compilation Speed
- Limited sources to learn
- Different from Java
Mobile apps built with Kotlin:
- Trello
- Slack
- Corda
- Tinder
- Zomato
Java
Java is seemingly the most well-known and the best programming language for android app development. Because of its use by significant organizations, the language is all-around supported and has incredible versatility. You'll have a wide choice of tools and libraries to browse, in addition to they're generally open-source. Java is a trustworthy programming language with immense open-source tools and libraries to help engineers.
Java applications are commonly accumulated to bytecode that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of the hidden PC engineering. The syntax of Java is like C and C++, yet has fewer low-level facilities than both of them. The Java runtime gives dynamic abilities (like reflection and runtime code alteration) that are commonly not accessible in traditional compiled languages. Starting in 2019, Java was perhaps the most popular programming language being used by GitHub, especially for client-server web applications, with a reported 9 million developers.
Advantages:
- Multi-Threaded
- Platform independent
- Robust
- Object-Oriented
- Simple
- Secured
Disadvantages:
- Garbage collection
- Expensive
- Memory consumption
- Performance
- Less machine interactive
Mobile apps built with Java:
- Spotify
- Cash App
- Signal
- Netflix
- Minecraft
Read More: Top Web Development Stack In 2021: Front-end, Backend & Database
Cross-Platform Tech Stack
Where Native applications are the ones that are made particularly for one platform either Android or iOS then there are Cross-platform Apps that are created to run on both the platform in one go. Cross-platform application development implies utilizing one code to create/fabricate the application that would run on various stages — Android, iOS, Web.
Most organizations go for cross-platform application development for the way that they can work around more prominent demographics. Some of the best cross platform app framework 2021 are: React Native, flutter and Xamarin.
React Native
React Native is an exceptionally famous framework that works for both Android or iOS applications. React Native permits mobile application developers to construct elite applications in more limited build cycles with quicker deployment times, hence it is a budget-friendly alternative. One of the significant benefits of React Native system is that it allows you to grow native applications yet doesn't settle on client experience (UX)
React Native is one of the best app design stack that gives a core set of platform-agnostic native segments like Views, Text, Images all planned to a framework's local UI building block. It supports JavaScript which is an absolute necessity for the full stack. Facebook possesses React and that implies an enormous pool of designers in functioning on the online community that optimizes constantly and is investigating.
Programming Language: Javascript
Advantages:
- Native look and feel of your apps
- Awesome performance
- Time and cost efficient
- Sharing the codebase for iOS, Android, and the Web
- ensures speed and agility for the mobile apps
- Access to Libraries and Ready-made Solutions
- Modular Architecture
- Simplified UI
- Third-Party Plugin Support
- Benefits of Live and Hot Reloading
Disadvantages:
- It’s not fully cross-platform
- Inclear patent rights of the platform
- no support for decimals
- Difficult to Learn
- Longer Initialization Time
Mobile apps built with React native:
- Soundcloud
- UberEats
- Airbnb
Flutter
Flutter is supported by Google so it acquires its UI tool compartment for building applications for mobile from a single codebase. It gives a wide exhibit of adaptable gadgets to assemble native interfaces in practically no time. Flutter’s mobile app technology gives a native experience to both the architect and end-client with excellent platform highlights, for example, scrolling, routing, symbols, in addition to text styles. It has an inherent material design widget so you can without a doubt make amazing, expressive UI for your applications. Flutter's UI tool compartment is included with fully customized widgets, which support making applications in a brief period. Also, Flutter's layered design guarantees a quicker delivery of components.
Programming Language: Dart
Advantages:
- Relatively fast development
- High performance
- Full customization & fast rendering
- separates UI from native controls
- hot reload feature
- offers proper documentation
- Custom Widgets for Quick UI Coding
- Immediate Updates
- Mild Learning Curve
Disadvantages:
- Large File Sizes
- Issues with iOS
- Lack of Third-party Libraries
- look & feel is not 100% as native solutions
- Still an Immature framework
- Dart is also pretty immature
- No single guidelines
Mobile apps built with Flutter:
- Cryptograph
- Google Ads
- Alibaba
- Reflectly
Xamarin
Xamarin is a Microsoft claimed open-source framework for building hybrid mobile applications using .NET and C#. Xamarin broadens the .NET dev stage with devices + libraries for building applications for Android, watchOS, macOS, iOS, tvOS, and Windows. As it is a Microsoft product, it has in excess of 60000 designers and contributors alongside great client service and broad documentation. With a phenomenal native UI, you can construct natively while giving a stunning client experience.
Xamarin is one of the top mobile application development frameworks and it is .Net based. Being a cross-stage and open-source application building platform, Xamarin offers a development environment with backend, API, parts, and so forth. It is a .Net designer platform that support different tools, libraries, and programming dialects. With Xamarin developers, you can develop native applications with the help of a active community for Android, watchOS, macOS, iOS, tvOS, and Windows.
Programming Language: C#
Advantages:
- An incredible component store
- User Interface
- Framework equipped with Visual Studio
- Shared app logic
- Framework equipped with Visual Studio
- Easy subscription plans
- An incredible component store
- Go live within weeks
Disadvantages:
- Some manual coding required
- Lack of community support
- App overhead
Mobile apps built with Xamarin:
- Alaska Airlines
- Outback Steakhouse
- Azure mobile app
- Microsoft News App
- UPS mobile app
Hybrid Tech Stack
Hybrid applications are normally evolved with the assistance of the standard web strategies like CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript. Hybrid applications ordinarily comprise of two segments — Backend and Native shell. These applications run on all stages while giving admittance to API and acquiring device stockpiling and camera. Two of the most important tech stack for hybrid app development are: Ionic, Cordova etc.
Ionic
Ionic is a totally free and open-source system worked with Angular and Apache Cordova which permits engineers to build up an application for three distinct stages - iOS, Android, and Windows. It's utilized to create cross-stage mobile applications for consistent portable execution. Each mobile application developer utilizes this system to build up a powerful and feature-rich application.
The significant benefit of the Ionic system is that mobile application developers can utilize a few UI components in their application plan. These UI components are such as list views, channels, structures, activity sheets, route menus, and tab bars. It permits designers to grow high-performing and intuitive Hybrid, Progressive web applications, and cross-platfprm mobile applications. The ionic framework can end up being the best one if a developer is knowledgeable with HTML, JavaScript, or CSS.
Programming Language: Typescript
Advantages:
- Intuitive UI components
- Cordova Plugin
- Framework compatibility
- Complete control over app building
- JavaScript components
- Strong community support
- Easy and quick to development
Disadvantages:
- Native plugins aren't stable
- Debugging of an application can be challenging
- Possible security issues
- Builds can randomly crash
- Performance is lacking with native applications
- Plugin-dependent system
Mobile apps built with Ionic:
- MarketWatch
- Instant Pot
- GE Transportation
- Sworkit
- Amtrak
PhoneGap/Cordova
PhoneGap is an open-source tech stack for mobile apps that runs HTML and JS-based applications, that can work with hardware features including accelerometer, area, GPS (area), speakers, and different gadgets. It gives its clients a module framework that precludes the constraints of the program and can get to all cell phone abilities.PhoneGap has a powerful backend framework that immensely accelerates the development cycle and lessens engineer's efforts. The beginner's guide additionally helps in speeding the interaction further.
PhoneGap is the best android development software that permits you to build up an application for various stages like Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and Ubuntu. Utilizing HTML5 and CSS3, we can make mobile applications that access hidden equipment like accelerometers, GPS, and Cameras. The PhoneGap framework was controlled by Adobe System yet was allocated to Apache to keep it as open-source. It will permit developers to compose an single code application which is introduced as native applications on various devices.
Advantages:
- Quality support from Adobe
- It is highly customizable.
- Hybrid application development made easy.
- Runs on the command line in Node.
- easy to develop apps for multiple platforms.
- Cordova is free to use!
- Very easy to add packages to it
- Provides a simple solution through native plugins.
- Command line syntax is easy to learn and implement.
Disadvantages:
- Cordova app code runs inside a webview component.
- tricky to measure graphics and animation performance
- Emulators are slow performing.
- version conflicts with the newer codebase.
- hard to configure VS Code applications
- Needs better backwards compatibility
Mobile apps built with PhoneGap:
- TripCase
- Buildr
- Health Tap
- Wikipedia
- Paylution
Conclusion:
The usage of or pretty much every errand (online shopping, requesting food, booking flights/inns, tuning in to music, watching recordings or films, and so on), has been increasing at an alarming rate. That is one of the primary reasons why organizations are going mobile. To build up an effective application, the main thought is picking the correct stack language used to develop android apps. Either hire mobile app developers or pick a reliable mobile app development company to help you build a mobile app for your next project.
Read More: Comparison Between Flutter Vs React Native For Mobile App Development
