Developers always feel stuck in a mind-wrenching question that – whether they should choose iOS or Android as the platform for the development. Even after so much of discussion and research, there’s no justified answer to this question because both the platforms are a great choice for different reasons. Just remember one thing that it is important to choose a platform first so to build an app that can offer mind-blowing native experience to the users (to be precise, consumers).
There are millions of users on each platform and none of them wants to keep their phone memory occupied with an app that lacks functionality or responds way too slow to pace up with their on-the-go lifestyle. As a solution to this confusion, the idea of building cross-platform apps has been introduced. There are certain limitations in this concept in terms of key deliverable, but the advantages it offers overtake the limitations, making a compelling argument.
If you are sailing on the same boat, we have sorted a list of the 5 top cross-platform mobile app development tools available for easing the entire process of building business apps.
You can easily find different cross-platform mobile development tools serving different areas: some of them are focussed on gaming, some on data security and some on health etc. To put simple, it is agreeable fact that the selection of the development tools majorly depends on the requirements and goals for your business app.
Let’s have some insights into the tools that are most commonly referred for building exceptional apps to create a lasting impression on the users:
Sencha
It is the tool that helps you develop the app using HTML5. The key product they offer for app developers is Ext Js 5 from the bucket of products they have. This product is developer’s choice as it is compatible to work upon through handful of devices integrated with different platforms. Moreover, it helps to boost the overall productivity with pre-defined components that helps teams saving time that they used to spend on writing codes. It is often referred as a time-saver tool. Once you are done with development using HTML5 code, you will be left with the translation to either of the platforms you want – be it Android or iOS.
PhoneGap
Possessed by Adobe, PhoneGap is a freely available resource that newbie app developers can use for the translation purposes for converting CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript codes. They keep Software Development Kits, i.e. SDKs, on their end for every individual platform for which you can develop your app. So, you don’t need to worry about the backup of the code. Once you are done with the development, you can share your app with your team members for review in order get suggestions for improvements.
In addition to the Android and iOS, you can also create apps for the Windows and Blackberry platforms. PhoneGap is a cross-platform mobile development tool in true sense!
Appcelerator Titanium
It is an open-source tool, which is progressively growing due to the contribution that thousands of fellow developers making for its betterment and for better functionality. Everyone who finds any bug in the system or notice scope of improvement is free to share the new and better codes. With the use of JavaScript, Titanium SDKs helps to create native Android and iOS apps by reusing the 60-90% of the code that’s get used in every app you develop, hence saving you a potential amount of time.
Unity 3D
It is a cross-platform mobile development tool that goes beyond the simple translation. It focuses on developing great games with simply incredible graphics. Once you have been through code development in UnityScript, Boo or C++, you can export the game on any platform you want including Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Android, Web, iOS and Linux.
And after getting your game on the selected platforms, you will face no hassles in distributing the app to the appropriate stores, grabbing social attention, and tracking user analytics with Unity.
Corona
The SDK of this tool comes with a promise that you can start with the coding of the new app in as little as 5 minutes from the time it gets downloaded. It is optimised for 2D gaming graphics to help you make games much faster than it would take to start coding from the scratch. The programming language this tool uses is Lua, written in C because it is robust and have a comparatively smaller footprint for mobile apps.
Using these tools can make development easier, but make sure you have updated UI for making a match with every system.