4 cross-platform mobile development languages ​​to consider for your next app

A cross-platform mobile framework reduces the gap between development and release. Developers can use the same technology to build applications that run on multiple platforms.

There are several mobile frameworks to choose from including Flutter, React Native, Xamarin and Ionic.

1. Flutter SDK

Flutter is an open source software development kit (SDK) released by Google in 2017. Used for developing cross-platform apps for Android and iOS. You can also run a single code base on Windows, macOS, Linux, web, and embedded devices.

Flutter allows you to build your application once and deploy it to Android and iOS with similar UI and experience. This is because Flutter comes with the Android and iOS design languages ​​Material Design and Cupertino.

Main features of Flutter

• Flutter has a growing number of packages and plugins that you can use to add additional functionality to your application.
• Flutter is easy to get started with. Use off-the-shelf widgets as building blocks for your UI. There are both Material Design and Cupertino widgets to help you easily implement both Android and iOS design guidelines.
• It has a hot-reload feature that helps you see changes in your app while you’re coding so you can quickly build new features or fix bugs.
• Flutter has well-structured documentation, video tutorials, codelabs, and other in-depth resources. These resources are useful for anyone learning Flutter.
• Flutter supports large fonts, screen readers, and good contrast, in addition to other accessibility features supported by the underlying operating system.

You can start writing Flutter apps by following this Google Codelab Flutter tutorial.

2. React natively

React Native is an open source UI software framework created by Meta and published in 2015. You can use it to develop mobile apps for Android and iOS.

React Native is built on top of the popular JavaScript library React, so any developer familiar with JavaScript should be able to pick it up quickly.

React Native apps take advantage of native platform APIs that give your app a native feel and look.

Key Features of React Native

• React Native provides fast refresh. As soon as you hit save, you can see your code changes reflected in your app. This speeds up the development and debugging process.
• React Native uses a component-based approach like React. This simplifies building complex UIs and speeds up the development process.
• As mentioned, React Native is built on top of an already popular language, so it has a large community to answer questions and help fix bugs related to the framework. Additionally, the community provides third-party libraries that you can install to add functionality to your app.
• React Native doesn’t use web views, but it does use native views to render applications that provide native-level performance.
• React Native has accessibility properties that allow you to create accessible apps. These properties are an extension of the accessibility APIs already provided by iOS and Android.

Get started with React Native Getting Started Guide to create your first React Native app.

3. Zamarin

Xamarin is an open source platform for building iOS and Android apps using .NET and C#. It was built by the developer who created Mono, the .NET framework, but Microsoft acquired it in his 2016.

Xamarin does not apply a one-size-fits-all solution to every platform. You can build apps using platform-specific APIs. Xamarin.iOS allows you to develop iOS mobile apps, but you can also use Xamarin.Android for Android apps. You can also use Xamarin.Forms to create apps that can be deployed across iOS and Android from a single code base.

Xamarin exposes all the underlying APIs and functionality of the operating system to your application. It also compiles all code to native binaries, giving your apps native-like performance.

Key Features of Xamarin

• Xamarin applications are natively compiled. This means your app has a near-native UI and performance.
• Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android give developers full access to iOS and Android APIs and elements.
• Xamarin applications use full Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation. This reduces boot time and optimizes performance, but results in larger file sizes.
• Xamarin.forms allows you to create a single code base that can be shared across multiple platforms.
• Xamarin allows you to compile applications written for iOS on Windows using the Visual Studio or XCODE IDEs.

Get started with Xamarin on the Microsoft Learn platform.

4. Ionic Mobile Framework

Ionic was created in 2013, initially helping build mobile apps using Angular. But as more frameworks emerged, Ionic was rebuilt to allow developers to create cross-platform mobile apps using their framework of choice, including React, Vue, and Angular.

Ionic also distributes its own library of native components for iOS and Android, so using a framework is not mandatory. Each of these components follows the Material Design and iOS design standards.

Ionic is essentially an NPM module and requires Node to run.

Key Features of Ionic

• Ionic uses Cordova plugins that allow you to integrate native device features such as Bluetooth, Maps, and GPS into your app. Along with web components, you can create apps that combine native and web elements.
• Building UIs is fast because you can start with pre-designed components and themes and customize them to your liking.
• Ionic works with some of the popular UI frameworks such as React and Vue, making it easy to learn. It can also be used as a standalone library.
• The Ionic mobile app uses web views to render. This means you can test your application directly in your browser.

Visit the Ionic framework documentation to start building mobile apps with Ionic.

How to choose a cross-platform framework for your mobile app

One thing to consider is your current skill set. A .NET developer might find him easier with Xamarin, and a JavaScript developer he’d be easier with Ionic or React Native. Dart developers may lean toward Flutter even though using widgets promises a shallow learning curve for developers.

You can also consider framework support. Flutter, Xamarin and React Native are backed by big companies. However, Xamarin is more established and a better choice for enterprise applications.