The days to learn complex programming languages for mobile application development is over.
A working knowledge of web-based languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript is sufficient to develop high resolution, great performing native applications.
If you are performing within limited resources and time, there are some great frameworks available that can assist you build cross-platform apps using a single codebase. Let us take our discussion of the series further:
React Native
React Native is the mobile framework designed by Facebook for developing mobile apps. It is based on ReactJS and Javascript. React Native uses native components internally without making use of web views, in contrast to hybrid apps that also make use of web technologies.
It uses actual Android or iOS components when developing user interfaces. It has an XML-like language called JSX (Javascript-XML) used for developing the UI. React Native then invokes the native rendering APIs in the platform-specific language i.e Swift and Java to render the app on the screen.
Merits:
Developing apps with React Native saves you time. Apart from empowering you with the liberty of going cross-platform, React Native has a feature called “Hot Reloading” that allows you to immediately see the changes you make in your code on your phone.
Just like with Ionic, you do not have to hire a new team of developers. Your existing web developers can transition easily to develop mobile apps with React Native since they make use of similar technologies.
There are a lot of ready-made components that can be used for development without needing to create them from scratch.
Apps built with React Native are fast and can be compared with native app performance as it compiles down to native code.
Demerits:
As with most cross-platform apps, the performance isn’t as smooth as of native apps. Simple apps would have no problems. But apps requiring advanced functionalities are prone to face problems.
Because of its Javascript background, apps built with React Native might have memory management issues.
Apart from ready-made components made by the React Native team, there are third-party component providers. Components developed by them tend to be of poor quality most of the time. They sometimes contain a lot of bugs and glitches.
Flutter
Flutter is a mobile UI framework developed by Google to create beautiful and immersive UI that takes a completely different approach to cross-platform development from the others.
Unlike hybrid apps that make use of web views, or React Native apps that use native components, Flutter apps fully compile to native code.
This compilation to native ARM code means there’s no layer between the framework and the CPU which gives apps built with Flutter a completely native feel. Flutter is able to achieve this by making use of its own graphics engine called Skia — a popular 2D graphics engine also owned by Google. Flutter is built using Dart - an object-oriented programming language.
Merits:
Flutter apps are very fast at about 60 fps. There are even versions by some developers in Germany of 120 fps.
As usual, a single codebase means time and money is saved.
As with React Native above, Flutter also gives you the ability to see the changes you make in your code the instance you make them on your mobile hardware, emulator or simulator. This also makes debugging the app much easier.
Flutter is open source. So is Dart and its graphics engine — Skia.
Demerits:
Developers have to learn a new language as Flutter doesn’t make use of any previously known language. Although Dart is fairly easy to pick and this isn’t really an issue.
Flutter is avoidable for games and apps that require a lot of device-specific functions.
Adobe PhoneGap
Adobe PhoneGap is a standards-based, open-source development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript for iOS, Android™ and Windows® Phone 8. If there is any alteration or change in the mobile app development, you can view it instinctively with the PhoneGap.
For developing a hybrid app, it is the most recommended framework.
Apart from offering best-in-class performance, this amazing framework also offers the freedom to the developers to work without any hardware restrictions. This delivers the leverage to add more functionality with the addition of plugins.
Merits:
Single code base can be used to create apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and mobile web.
Even if you have developed the app using PhoneGap, the app can be distributed on App store and Google Play.
With PhoneGap, it is easy to conduct rapid testing and deployment of an app
With it you can create hybrid apps to save the development time and effort.
There is no requirement of additional development skills
It’s possible to connect to the hardware of device such as camera, geo-location, accelerometer and various others
Phonegap can be the best technology to support those apps which do not require heavy usage of native features of an OS.
Demerits:
Apps created using a framework like PhoneGap often falters for gaming applications. Native app technology is a better choice, instead.
PhoneGap still does not have sufficient amount of UI Widgets. Due to it, the development may need more than the usual time. PhoneGap using app developers are often seen polishing app to give it a touch of native look and feel. Even styling consumes substantial time when an app is developed with PhoneGap.
If you need a graphically rich application, PhoneGap is not the best choice for it.
It does not provide complete support to the features of an OS
It has extended support to a lot of hardware features of an OS yet many hardware cannot be interacted using the PhoneGap Framework.
PhoneGap based apps become inefficient while working with native apps frequently. To achieve the native look & feel out of your PhoneGap Framework, you need third party frameworks which may differ from each other in terms of quality.
In spite of the technology being supported by a huge community, there is a lack of professional support leaving many complex issues unsolved.
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