Top 10 Popular Cross Platform App Development Frameworks

Last updated on February 23rd, 2023

Popular Cross platform app development framework comes with merits of its own, which play an important part in its current popularity. With the growth of its coverage, many cross platform app development frameworks and development tools began to make waves in the market slowly, and then in a flash together with all other application development business testing their hand at this unique and innovative technology.

As a result, we have a myriad of these tools and frameworks that developers could be overwhelmed with. To assist you in your search for the best and finest cross-platform frameworks, here’s an overview of the top cross-platform frameworks for app development that are guaranteed to consider their use for developing products like node.js, react, Flutter, PhoneGap, and others.

But, before you jump on to the next item we need to start by clearing the essentials down.

What are the Popular Cross Platform App Development Frameworks?

To put it simply it is a kind of software with the capability to run across multiple platforms, i.e., Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and so on. Apps built with this framework do not need separate programming for each platform, but writing once creates the base for the application to function efficiently across any platform. This is among the most popular strategies for developing apps currently and is the one that nearly all leading application development firms rely on.

What Are The Best Frameworks For Developing Cross-Platform Mobile Apps?

1. Ionic

Ionic is among the most impressive and well-known cross-platform frameworks for apps, built on AngularJS. It lets developers use an array of the top technology languages, i.e., HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, and Cordova wrapper for accessing native controllers for platforms.

Ionic allows developers to design an incredibly innovative user interface, as well as include user-friendly features in the application. Applications developed using this framework are extremely engaging and natural-looking, making Ionic an ideal choice in PWA development and PWA development.

 Features  

• It is an open-source front-end framework, meaning it permits modifications to the structure of the code that is suited for every developer and can save lots of time. This makes it a tough competitor to its main rival Ionic in the war of Ionic against React Native.  
• Ionic is built upon a SAAS UI framework specifically designed for smartphone operating systems. It comes with a variety of UI components to build robust applications.  
• Another of its most appreciated advantages is the fact that it’s built on AngularJS which makes it possible to add an extension to HTML’s syntax and basic functions that allow you to integrate functional and attractive elements and components within the application.  
• This framework makes use of Cordova plugins that allow access to the device’s built-in capabilities, including Camera, GPS, and Audio Recorder which is one of the primary advantages that cross-platform developers have.  
• The feature that Ionic provides a native-like experience to applications is the reason it’s the preferred choice of developers. It assists in the development of cross-platform applications and allows them to run flawlessly on a variety of platforms.  

2. React Native  

When it comes to cross-platform app frameworks, it’s difficult to not be sure to include React Native. This framework is built on JavaScript and can be used to write actual code that gives a native experience to mobile apps which run on Android as well as iOS. Because of its amazing capabilities, it’s not just the preferred choice for developers, but companies too trust React Native as the best platform for their applications.

React Native integrates the benefits of JavaScript and React.JS in addition to providing advantages to developers who write modules using Objective-C, Swift, or Java languages. Furthermore, with the help of the native libraries and modules included in React Native cross-platform apps, developers can also carry out heavy operations like video editing, image editing, or other functions that aren’t part of Framework APIs.

Features  

• It’s good to know that React Native is an open-source cross-platform application framework, similar to Ionic. This is why there is a huge group of people who are willing to enhance the framework by fixing flaws, improving, and adding new features.  
• One of the benefits of cross-platform application development is that it needs one-time code (WORA) to create applications for different platforms such as Android or iOS. This resolves one of the most difficult issues of other frameworks, which is that they require developers to code twice for the same application on various platforms.  
• One-time code instantly decreases the time to develop the app while keeping costs for React Native cost for app development at the lowest.  
• It’s impressive, React Native is highly compatible with third-party plugins, like Google Maps.  
• React Native largely focuses on UI, rendering an extremely responsive interface. It means it is that React Native environment eliminates the delay in loading and offers a fluid interface to applications.

3. Flutter  

Google released an impressive cross-platform application framework called Flutter in the year 2017. It’s a software development tool that is designed to help with the speedy Android as well as iOS creation of apps. It’s also a crucial and primary way to develop Google Fuschia apps.

Flutter provides apps that can effortlessly and efficiently operate on multiple platforms and with a uniform and dynamic experience.

Here are a few impressive characteristics that make Flutter a popular framework for cross-platform use for developers.

Features  

• Flutter is a portable GPU that renders UI power that allows it to function with the latest interfaces.
• Flutter doesn’t require you to update the UI content manually since it is a framework that reacts. Flutter app developers must only change the variables, and the UI changes will become visible immediately after.
• Flutter’s cross-platform app framework is positioned as an ideal choice for the development of Minimum Viable Products ( MVP) because it facilitates rapid development and is also economical.
• The developers can easily create the widget tree in a way that is automated and able to comprehend any code modifications.
• Flutter comes with an integrated graphics engine. This means that the developers will not have to deal with the burden of creating different interfaces specifically for Android or iOS.

4. Xamarin  

Xamarin frameworks for developing cross-platform apps are quite different from other frameworks we have reviewed in the past. It is a simple framework for creating applications that run on Android, Windows, and iOS using C# and .Net, instead of JS libraries and HTML. It lets developers make use of 90 percent of the code when developing apps for three different platforms.

Xamarin provides applications that look similar to native apps using its incredible APIs, which makes the decision much more difficult between Xamarin and React Native. These are the features of Xamarin that explain the reasons why it is among the top cross-platform development tools to use for Mobile Development.

Features  

• Apps built on the Xamarin framework are developed with C# – a modern cross-platform app development language with a lot of leverage over Objective-C along with Java.
• Developers can benefit from native app capabilities with Xamarin. It helps solve compatibility issues for hardware in a large way with the help of plugins as well as specifically designed APIs that integrate with standard device functionality. It is also a great way to link with native libraries, permitting the customization of native functionality and native features. The ability to integrate native functionality is what can make it the best Android framework for app development.
• Xamarin is a direct implementation of the Objective-C Java as well as C++ library. This lets developers reuse codebases from third-party developers that are encrypted using Java, Objective-C, or C++ and make it among the most cross-platform frameworks.
• Xamarin can cut down its time-to-market and cost of mobile application development since it is compatible with WoRA ( Write Once and Run Anywhere) and also has an extensive library of class libraries.
• Xamarin has a comprehensive compile-time checking. Thanks to this feature, developers experience fewer errors in runtime and have fully functional applications.
• The Xamarin platform has an amazing native user interface as well as controls that assist developers to create an app that has the look of a native.

5. NativeScript  

NativeScript is a fantastic free cross-platform platform that’s based on JavaScript. It’s not a stretch to conclude the following: NativeScript could be an ideal choice for developers seeking WORA features.

NativeScript also provides all native APIs, providing developers with the possibility to incorporate existing plugins from NPM into their projects.

Features  

• NativeScript renders stunning, user-friendly, and platform-native UI and does so without WebViews. Developers only need to create a single definition and let NativeScript adapt to run on any device. You can also modify the user interface to fit particular devices and screens.
• In contrast in contrast to React Native, NativeScript provides developers with a full website resource, which is equipped with plugins for all sorts of solutions. This means that there is no necessity for third-party solutions.
• NativeScript allows users to connect to APIs native to Android as well as iOS APIs. This means that developers don’t require any additional experience with native development languages.  
• It makes use of Angular and TypeScript to program.
• NativeScript supports segments such as Cocoapods along with Android Arsenal and can call local strategies using libraries.

6. Node.js

Node.js is an amazing framework to create applications that run on multiple platforms. It is essentially, Node.Js is a JavaScript runtime framework that is built upon the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine. It is an open-source environment that allows the creation of server-side and scalable network applications. Node.js applications that run across platforms are high-performing and responsive.

The framework can be capable of handling multiple simultaneous connections. It also includes an extensive library of JavaScript modules that assist in facilitating the development of web-based apps.

Features  

• The majority of Node.js APIs work asynchronously, which means they do not block in nature. That means servers built on Node.JS don’t wait for API data to be received. It immediately switches to another API following the call. A notification mechanism built into Node.js lets the server receive a response to an earlier API call.
• Node.js library is extremely fast in the code execution process since it’s built on the Chrome V8 engine.
• Node.js applications that run on multiple platforms do not buffer data, instead, they output information in chunks.
• To provide smooth and flawlessly working apps, Node.js uses a single-threaded model that has event-looping capabilities. This mechanism allows the server to respond without blocking and makes them scalable.
• Node.JS applications speed up the response time for slow requests. Every developer can handle all data queries simultaneously.

7. Appcelerator Titanium  

Appcelerator is one of various cross-platform app development tools created to facilitate more efficient and simpler development of mobile apps. It’s a fantastic way to build cross-platform apps using only a single base of code. Its main goal is to simplify the process of developing apps by using native components within JavaScript code.

Features  

• Appcelerator has a range of tools that can be used for the quick development of apps. It means that a prototype could be developed in a shorter time and effort to test user interactions with UI.
• It is equipped with ArrowDBwhich is a schema-free data store that lets developers create data models without extra effort for setting up.
• It allows the integration of the existing systems for continuous delivery, such as SCM solutions, and many more.
• Appcelerator has pre-built connectors in MS Azure, MS SQL, Salesforce, and Box- the list is lengthy.

8. PhoneGap  

The Phone Gap (Cordova) can be described as one of the most reliable cross-platform mobile development frameworks which makes use of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML5. It also provides developers with a cloud platform giving them the option to make their app available in the development process to receive comments from developers.

It creates amazing apps through the use of web technologies that are already in place. Another benefit that comes with PhoneGap is its ability to fully incorporate device-specific features like GPS camera, Phonebook, Storage, and many more.

Features  

• PhoneGap is regarded as an excellent cross-platform framework because it allows developers to develop cross-platform applications by using web technologies that are already in use like HTML 5 CSS3 as well as JavaScript.
• As a cross-platform framework, PhoneGap allows the use of one base of code to build applications that work on different platforms like iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, etc.
• It is based on an architecture that can be used to create plugins which means that access to the native APIs of devices may be expanded in a modular manner.

9. Sencha Touch

It was first introduced nearly a decade ago, Sencha Touch aids in the creation of cross-platform web-based applications and is commonly employed to develop efficient applications which utilize hardware acceleration methods. With Sencha Touch developers can create secure, well-tested UI elements and libraries.

In reality, it’s possible to create large-scale applications for businesses and keep them up to date efficiently and quickly.

Features  

• It is renowned for its native-looking themes built into all major platforms, including Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, etc.  
• It includes an efficient non-agnostic data backend package to work using data sources.  
• A major and praised aspect that is part of Sencha Touch is the fact that it can support Cordova integration for native API access, in addition to the package.  
• It provides code compatibility between the new and older versions.  
• It is loaded with customizable and more than 50 integrated UI widgets. It also comes with a variety of advanced UI such as carousels, lists menus, forms, toolbars, and more. The UI was specifically designed for mobile devices.  

10. Corona SDK  

The Corona SDK enables developers to create 2D mobile applications that work on all major platforms comprising Kindle as well as Windows.

It provides 10x faster development of the game and mobile apps. The framework produces amazing results because of the backend framework’s reliance and dependability on Lua which is a light with a multi-paradigm syntax. It focuses on the most important aspects of development, which include the speed of development, portability, extensibility scaling as well as last but not least user-friendliness.

Additionally, It is a cost-free framework that runs with Mac OS X and Windows with real-time testing.

 Features  

• It comes with more than 1000 APIs that provide designers the possibility to create sprite animations, audio, and music. Box2D physical physics, object tweaking, texture management native elements and details – it could continue for pages.  
• It responds to changes in the code almost immediately, while providing a live preview of how the application performs, just like it would be on a real device.  
• It can support more than 200 plugins that include in-app advertising media, analytics, and hardware functions.  
• As previously mentioned, Corona SDK depends on Lua programming language, which allows the framework to be quick and efficient.  

Develop your cross-platform app in the best way possible

After having considered all of the choices that a professional cross-platform app development company seeking in this field there’s nothing more other than to examine how these popular cross-platform app development frameworks perform against one another to remain in the competitive market, and how they compare against the newest frameworks coming into the market right now.

iTechnolabs is one of the top sought-after and trusted mobile application development firms in the USA, South Asia, Canada, and Europe. We have experience in creating high-quality applications and have produced a range of apps that have set new benchmarks.