Last updated on July 21st, 2023
98% of smartphones around the globe run on either Android or iOS. obviously, it makes business sense to create apps for both OS’. While creating separate native apps for each OS has been the usual choice, the truth is it can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and also expensive companies also have to ensure that the app appears and performs consistently across OS’. These issues drove the emergence of cross-platform app development. Cross-platform app development allows developers to create a single code and use it across different OS’. It saves time and cost involved in developing separate apps and also ensures that the user experience is consistent without compromising on the native feel of the app. According to Statista, now one-third of mobile developers use cross-platform technologies to develop mobile apps.
Commonly Used Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks
There are various cross-platform app development frameworks available to developers. The most widely used frameworks are:
- React Native: Developed by Facebook, React Native is one of the leading cross-platform app development frameworks. By some estimates, 42% of developers use React Native. The advantage of React Native is that developers can reuse the codes, leverage the insights provided by a strong community of developers, and it offers a hot reload option that allows the app to run even as changes are being made in the backend. There is no impact on the user. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg use React Native.
- Ionic: Ionic is an open-source SDK used for hybrid platform development. It is developer-friendly, front-end agnostic, and enables developers to build hybrid apps and progressive web applications (PWA). Angular JS powers Ionic. It also has superior app integration that allows developers to share the information and processes among different business apps. Apart from that, it has access to an extensive library of native APIs and plugins that can give the app a native look and experience. Companies like McDonald’s and MarketWatch use Ionic to develop their apps.
- Flutter: Developed by Google, Flutter is an open-source framework that can be used to develop apps not just for mobile phones, but also for televisions, wearable, and smart displays. The good part about Flutter is that it does not require any platform-specific UI components to render its UI. It also reduces the code development time and improves time-to-market speed like no other frameworks. It’s because the developer doesn’t have to write any platform-specific code. Alibaba, Tencent, and Google ads app are some leading examples of companies using Flutter.
- PhoneGap: PhoneGap or Apache Cordova allows developers to build hybrid web apps for mobile devices using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript instead of relying on the native development language. The applications are executed within wrappers targeted to each platform. They also provide easy compatibility on various platforms, have a robust backend, and are cost-effective. Companies like TripCase and Wikipedia use it to develop their apps.
Comparing Key Features: React Native, Ionic, Flutter, and PhoneGap
- Performance:
- React Native: React Native offers good performance by leveraging native components, resulting in a native-like user experience. It achieves this through optimized UI rendering and efficient handling of user interactions.
- Flutter: Flutter provides excellent performance by using its own rendering engine and eliminating the need for JavaScript bridges. This enables fast app startup, smooth animations, and efficient handling of complex UIs.
- Ionic: The performance of Ionic apps can vary depending on the usage of plugins and third-party packages. While Ionic leverages web technologies, it uses plugins to bridge the app with native functionality, which may introduce some performance overhead.
- PhoneGap: PhoneGap uses Cordova to run JavaScript, which can have a moderate impact on performance. However, the performance can still be acceptable for many applications.
- User Interface:
- React Native: React Native offers a native-like user interface as it leverages the ReactJS library, which provides a wide variety of pre-built UI components. This allows developers to create visually appealing and intuitive interfaces.
- Flutter: Flutter provides a highly customizable and visually appealing user interface. It offers a rich set of ready-to-use widgets and allows developers to create beautiful UIs that closely resemble native designs.
- Ionic: Ionic uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build UIs, which can result in some inconsistencies in the look and feel across different platforms. However, Ionic provides an extensive library of pre-built UI components and theming options.
- PhoneGap: PhoneGap offers good UI capabilities, leveraging web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Developers can create user interfaces that resemble web pages with the flexibility of CSS styling.
- Community Support:
- React Native: React Native has a large and steadily growing community of developers. It benefits from a strong and active community, which provides continuous updates, bug fixes, and a wide range of third-party libraries and resources.
- Flutter: Flutter has gained a significant community following since its release, although it is relatively newer compared to React Native. The community is growing rapidly, and developers actively contribute to its ecosystem with packages, widgets, and tutorials.
- Ionic: Ionic has a strong and active community of developers who actively contribute to the framework. The community provides extensive documentation, support forums, and resources for developers to learn and collaborate.
- PhoneGap: PhoneGap benefits from a strong community support, especially since it was acquired and rebranded by Adobe. Developers can find resources, tutorials, and plugins from the community to enhance their app development process.
- Code Reusability:
- React Native: React Native promotes code reusability by allowing developers to write once and deploy on both iOS and Android platforms. The shared codebase reduces development time and effort, making it easier to maintain the app across multiple platforms.
- Flutter: Flutter offers a comprehensive toolkit that includes ready-to-use widgets and APIs. Developers can write a single codebase that runs on multiple platforms, allowing for efficient code reuse and minimizing duplication of efforts.
- Ionic: Ionic follows a “one codebase, any platform” approach, allowing developers to write code once and deploy it across different platforms. This promotes code reusability and accelerates the development process.
- PhoneGap: PhoneGap allows developers to reuse code from single-page web applications. By leveraging web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, developers can reuse existing web assets and code, reducing development time.
- Cost-efficiency:
React Native: React Native is considered cost-effective due to its code reusability and shorter development cycles. Developers can write a single codebase that runs on multiple platforms, reducing development costs and time-to-market.
Flutter: Flutter offers cost-efficiency by reducing development time and effort through its single
React Native Vs. Ionic Vs. Flutter Vs. PhoneGap – Which One To Choose?
Choosing the right framework depends on your specific project requirements, development team expertise, and desired outcomes. Here’s a comparison to help you make an informed decision:
React Native:
- Choose React Native if you want a framework with native-like performance, code reusability, and a vast ecosystem of third-party libraries and plugins.
- It is suitable for projects that prioritize app performance, need to target both iOS and Android platforms, and require access to native device features.
Ionic:
- Choose Ionic if you prefer web technologies and want to build cross-platform applications that run on iOS, Android, and the web.
- It is a great choice if you have expertise in Angular and want to leverage its capabilities for building robust applications.
- Ionic is suitable for projects that prioritize rapid development, code sharing, and want to deploy Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
Flutter:
- Choose Flutter if you prioritize high-performance apps with a visually appealing and customizable user interface.
- It is suitable for projects that require a single codebase for iOS, Android, web, and desktop platforms, and demand smooth animations and fast rendering.
- Flutter is ideal for building beautiful UIs and provides a hot-reload feature for faster development iterations.
PhoneGap:
Choose PhoneGap if you prefer web technologies and want to build cross-platform applications that run on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
It is suitable for projects that prioritize code reusability from existing web applications and prefer a simplified app distribution process to various app stores.
PhoneGap may be a good choice if you have experience with web technologies and want to leverage existing web development skills.
Conclusion
Most companies find it difficult to choose the right cross-platform framework to develop their app. After all, every framework has its advantages and disadvantages. To determine the right framework, the company must carefully evaluate the choices and check if they have the budget and skilled resources to use these frameworks. As is usually true, a trusted technology partner can help in the choice.
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