9_Cross-platform_mobile_app_development_tools

The mobile application market is growing very rapidly. The introduction of newer technologies, platforms and programming languages have provide a huge boost to the mobile development field. Moreover, with the advent of HTML5 and hybrid mobile app development solutions, a large number of web developers are prepared to take advantage of this opportunity. Today, there are plenty of mobile application development platforms which allow developing enterprise-level business apps and cross-platform hybrid apps and delivering on native platforms. There are numerous other user interface and web application development frameworks which allow mobile app developers to create HTML5 mobile apps and mobile websites. These frameworks leverage Apache Cordova/PhoneGap integration to develop cross-platform HTML5 mobile apps for various native platforms, such as Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows. But, before we move ahead, let us first understand in detail about Apache Cordova, which facilitates cross-platform mobile development.

Apache Cordova is one of the most popular and widely used mobile development technologies in the market. Cordova offers a set of device APIs and plugins which allow mobile apps to access native device functionalities, such as accelerometer and camera. It enables developers to develop cross-platform mobile applications using web technologies like JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5. The Apache Cordova ecosystem consists of a range of frameworks and tools, including Adobe PhoneGap, Ionic, Onsen UI, Telerik platform, App Builder IDE and more.

As mentioned earlier, there are a range of frameworks which leverage Apache Cordova to package HTML5 mobile apps in a native wrapper and publish on native platforms like iOS and Android. Besides, there are few others which facilitate hybrid mobile app development using Microsoft ecosystem or through a common JavaScript codebase. So, let us check out the list of 9 Cross-Platform, Mobile Application Development Tools.

1. Xamarin

Xamarin
Xamarin is one of the most widely used mobile application development platforms in the market by software developers as well as big and small enterprises. Xamarin apps are built using native user interface controls and have access to platform-specific functionalities like Android Fragments and iBeacons. Xamarin provides a single platform to allow building a variety of native mobile applications in C#. Moreover, the platform provides modern IDEs (integrated development environments) for iOS and Windows as well as robust bindings for native platform SDKs (software development kits) in iOS and Android. It also offers support for invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries and provides a unified API for mobile cross-platform development.

2. Kony

Kony
Kony is one of the key players in the mobile infrastructure services industry. The company provides a robust app development toolkit called as Kony Visualizer 7 which allows developing and publishing enterprise business apps as well as native mobile applications. It is a robust platform for developing native mobile applications for iOS, iWatch, Windows and Android as well as web applications for smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and desktops. Kony integrates with native SDKs as well as supports JavaScript for mobile web and native app development. It also offers robust mobile backend solutions, a powerful template engine, widgets library, design tools and more.

3. Alpha Anywhere

Apha Anywhere
Another prominent name in the list of cross-platform mobile application development tools is Alpha Anywhere. This robust app designing and deployment environment from Alpha Software Corporation provides both client-side and server-side development solutions. Alpha Anywhere allows creating HTML5 apps as well as hybrid mobile apps using Phonegap Build for various native platforms like iOS, Android and Windows. One can build enterprise-level custom apps as well as cross-platform, mobile applications which offer modern features, such as offline capability, Google maps integration, user analytics, secure authentication and video/image galleries.

4. Appcelerator

Appcelerator
Appcelerator is an advanced mobile application development platform which allows developers to build applications using JavaScript. The platform allows building mobile applications for multiple native platforms and a range of mobile devices. Developers can build apps from a single JavaScript codebase thus ensuring maximum code reuse across multiple devices and platforms. The Appcelerator platform also provides real-time mobile analytics solutions, mobile test automation, a powerful MVC framework, a modern integrated development environment (IDE), mobile APIs (application programming interfaces) and more.

5. PhoneGap

PhoneGap
Adobe PhoneGap is an open-source, mobile app development tool based on Apache Cordova open-source project. The platform allows mobile developers to build mobile web applications using open-web technologies, namely HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. PhoneGap mobile applications run smoothly on various mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets and on native platforms, such as Android and iOS. The Adobe PhoneGap framework allows developers to benefit from the features of PhoneGap Build cloud service, which includes packaging mobile apps in the cloud, rapid prototyping features, online collaboration support and more.

6. Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch
Sencha Touch is a powerful MVC-based (Model-View-Controller) JavaScript framework for building cross-platform mobile web applications. Sencha Touch enables developers to create native-like mobile applications using HTML5 and JavaScript for various platforms like Black Berry, Windows, Android and iOS. The framework provides 50+ pre-built UI components, native-looking themes, UI widgets, charting library and more. Sencha Touch integrates with PhoneGap/Cordova and supports PhoneGap Build native packaging.

7. Ionic Framework

Ionic Framework
Ionic Framework is a UI (user interface) development framework which sits on top of AngularJS, a web application JavaScript framework. Ionic Angular provides a robust software development kit for building HTML5 web applications for various mobile devices. Ionic apps leverage the power of Apache Cordova which enables distributing HTML5 mobile applications across various native platforms, including Android, BlackBerry and iOS.

8. Corona

Corona
Corona is a powerful 2D game and application development platform. It is a widely used game development framework for designing 2D graphic games for mobile devices, television sets and desktops. Corona SDK features elegant APIs written in Lua programming language, which is based on C. Corona is also a cross-platform mobile development tool which allows building and publishing apps for popular mobile platforms, such as iOS, Windows and Android. It also supports game and app development for OS X, Windows, Apple TV and Android TV.

9. Qt

Qt
Qt is a full-fledged, unified ecosystem for developing innovative user interfaces and cross-platform web and native applications. The company’s application development offering features a complete suite of tools, including Qt Creator IDE, Qt Quick UI design tool, native widgets, APIs and C++ library classes. The platform allows mobile app developers to target multiple native platforms, such as iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry. Qt offers solutions for back-end application logic designing using C++, HTML5 hybrid development, multi-screen UI designing and more.

Conclusion: –
Today, developers have a range of open-source mobile development technologies at their disposal. Besides, there are several other enterprise-level, mobile development platforms which provide premium services, such as technical support and app development solutions. In other words, there are plenty of options for mobile developers to choose from, which increase the scope of cross-platform, mobile application development to a great extent. If you want to share any feedback with us, then kindly write your thoughts in the comments section below. Thank you.