Working with the best hybrid app framework makes developers’ lives smoother as they can write code once and build mobile applications that run on the main platforms without any extra hard work.
To beat the competition, first, you have to be in the competition. This goes out true for the businesses in the world. Likewise, in the digital landscape, businesses can’t afford to miss their presence on both Google’s Play Store & Apple’s App Store. Forget the year 2021 or 2022, as they both get worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2019 alone the global market share of mobile was pegged at $ 154.05 in 2019, and from 2020 to 2027, it was forecasted to grow at 11.5 annually from 2020 to 2027.
Businesses, irrespective of their domain, want to harness market growth through engaging mobile apps. As they have found it is the most engaging tool to engage users through portable devices 24×7.
But now with the widespread adoption of variable devices and increasing customer base for the multiple domains, the mobile app market has witnessed a great overhaul. So businesses were desperately looking for more workable and pocket-friendly solutions. And they have found their solution in the cross-platform apps.
Every hybrid framework relies on a code base and speeds up the product development cycle and launch.
Let’s check out the best hybrid app development frameworks in 2021.
1. PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open-source and the best hybrid app framework. It is highly recommended for mobile app developers who like to code swiftly in an efficient manner.
It offers a great deal of flexibility for developers to use different languages without any hardware dependency. It was introduced by Adobe and it offers cloud-based solutions that empower mobile app developers to develop apps for both the platforms, iOS and Android.
Let’s know PhoneGap more through its background:
- It is an open-source hybrid app framework with Apache License 2.0.
- Its latest version 10.0.0 was released on 4th August 2020.
- It is widely available for multiple platforms, Android, iOS, and Electron platforms
- Programming languages like HTML 5, CSS, JavaScript, Java, C++, Objective-C, and C#
- It empowers developers to access Native APIs so that your apps can use all the native features such as Camera, Geolocation, Accelerometer, and more.
- It is optimal to build a simple app with the native features
Here are some attributes of PhoneGap:
- Robust backend: It paves the way for a faster development process and allows reduced development efforts.
- Flexibility: It allows developers to use multiple languages like JavaScript, HTML5, Objective-C, and more with equal efficiency
- Multi-platform: Offers app development for multiple platforms with the native look and feel
- UI libraries: It offers a great UI and overall a great experience for the users.
- It has large community support
- Faster development: Its flexibility makes it a viable option for the quick development process
- It offers an option to use native components
2. Ionic
Hybrid app development has become much easier with the Ionic framework. If you are looking to develop your business app, Ionic is the best hybrid app framework. It boasts a library of multiple tools and the latest components. It comes with design elements of iOS and Android that empowers developers to build native-like hybrid apps and progressive web apps. If you are looking to develop apps that work efficiently on multiple devices, Ionic is one of the top android ui frameworks.
Let’s know PhoneGap more through its background:
- It is an open-source cross-platform framework for hybrid app development
- It was launched on 4th Feb 2021 by the trio Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley
- The latest version was launched on 4th February 2021
- It is built on AngularJS and Apache Cordova
- It has an MIT license
- For application development, it uses front-end technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript
- It is preferred for developing PWA’s and native apps. It targets both web and mobile with equal efficiency
Here are some attributes of the Ionic Framework
- It paves the way for faster development and shorter time-to-market. So basically it saves you from the hassle of developing apps for each platform separately and saves a lot of capital in the development process.
- Browser support: it comes with browser support and offers app development with Angular using web-views in the browser. It saves you from a hassle to use any complex IDEs to build an application layout
- Programming languages: It relies on front-end technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Angular
- It comes with a long-range of UI components so offers multiple plugins and UI components to enhance productivity and decrease production time.
- It has Native Plug-ins that empower developers to get access to native device APIs. it delivers an equally engaging experience on iOS and Android.
3. React Native
React Native is considered the most popular hybrid app framework for both iOS and Android platforms. It comes with a promise of various updates to fix bugs and is supported by a large community.
React Native is based on React Native and doesn’t use WebView and HTML technologies. It comes with no DOM API and has some platform components in JSX and CSS-like polyfills. To make app development processes more efficient, it can combine the best features of JavaScript and React.JS, thus, considered as the top hybrid app framework.
Furthermore, if you require a good custom design for both Android and iOS, React Native is the best option to achieve this. It also reduces time-to-market and reduces production costs.
Here are some attributes of Native React:
- It is an open-source hybrid app development framework
- It was introduced by Facebook in 2015 for hybrid app development
- It was originally developed in 2013 as a web-interface
- Its latest version is 0.63
- It comes with great stability with native experience
- It is widely used for developing applications for Android, Android TV, iOS, macOS, tvOS, and Web
- It uses JavaScript, Java, C++, and Python as programming languages
- It supports multiple platforms Android, Android TV, iOS, and Microsoft platforms
Some attributes of React Native:
- Shorter time to market: It paves the way for a faster development cycle as it can develop apps for multiple platforms with a single codebase. It has the same codebase for platforms iOS, Android, and Web (with React Native)
- Cost-effective platform: As we have mentioned that a single codebase is used to develop apps for multiple platforms, it saves a lot of capital
- Single development team: An app development company can have one development team with familiarity with JavaScript. The need for multiple teams for every platform isn’t necessary
- Rich Ecosystem: Offers an accelerated mobile app framework to many libraries and tools that increase developers productivity
- Recommend for stable growth: It offers a set of dedicated components to display the app for a particular platform. It also allows developers to focus on the development solely and offers stable development.
Read More: Difference between Flutter and React Native
4. Flutter
Flutter is an open-source cross-platform for hybrid mobile app development. It was introduced by Google as an object-oriented language and widely used for platforms like Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia from a single codebase.
Some attributes of Flutter
- It was introduced By Google in 2017 as a revolution in cross-platform app development
- Its latest version is 1.22.6 and released on 26th January 2021
- It is written in C, C++, and Dart
- It has a BSD license
- It is used to develop applications in Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Google Fuchsia, and more
- Dart platform, Flutter engine, foundation library, and design-specific widgets are some prime components of Flutter are Dart platform
- Flutter is considered best for the MVP development
Pros of Flutter
- Speed: It enables faster development and saves a lot of time and effort for developers
- Hot reload: It helps in making immediate changes to the code and enables developers to view the result without recompiling the code. This technique is optimal for the bug fixing process
- Customization and fast rendering: It has a multi-layered architecture and gives complete authority over the pixels on the screen
- Reduced testing time: It has the same code for multiple platforms so it requires less testing
- Same UI: It allows smooth sharing of UI code on all the platforms
- Delivers Native performance: It doesn’t rely on any intermediate code interpretation so it increases the performance of the interpretation process
5. Android Native
Android Native is another hybrid app framework, a platform similar to others we’ve been discussing till now. This provides developers with API frameworks and tools to developers that are important to build, test, debug apps on the android platform.
Developers who implement parts of the apps in native code with the use of C and C++. The developers will be able to access the native libraries with their native code. The Native Android Game SDK gives game developers an unbelievable reach, more than 2.5 billion monthly active devices Android Platform.
Some attributes of Android Native:
- It was released in October 2009
- It’s an open-source hybrid app development framework
- The UI elements consist of beautiful and intuitive native UIs
- Android Native is considered best for the Android development MVC
- It has a user base of 5.9M developers
- It uses Java as the main programming language
Pros of Android Native:
- The Native Android framework is one of the popular android UI frameworks for application development.
- It provides the genius tools to develop creative applications and games for Android Devices.
- Google, Slack, and Instacart are a few of the famous enterprises that use native Android SDK.
- It is the best framework for mobile apps
6. JQuery Mobile Android Framework
What is jQuery Mobile?
If you want users to be attracted to your application, then jQuery Mobile is a hybrid app framework you need. It is an HTML5-based cross-platform development framework, jQuery Mobile gives developers the simplest ways to develop mobile and web applications.
Some attributes of JQuery Framework:
- It was released in October 2010 with a dual license (MIT & GPL)
- It uses javascript, HTML, and CSS as the programming languages
- It is used to develop applications in mobile and web
- It provides touch-friendly inputs and UI widgets
Pros of JQuery:
- The jQuery builder comes with various plugins like Content-Slider, Pop-Up Boxes, Image Slider, etc that make the web pages easier, user-friendly, and interactive.
- JQuery Mobile is also accordant with platforms and mobile apps like PhoneGap, Work light, etc
- jQuery Mobile allows “write once, run anywhere”
- jQuery Mobile allows “write once, run anywhere”
7. Framework7 Android Framework
This is the very new framework in the town. Framework7, a new android framework completely featured an android development platform. It is designed for developers to build iOS, Android, and Desktop Apps.
Some attributes of Framework7:
- This android framework is a free open-source HTML framework associated with CSS and JS files.
- It was released in August 2019
- It uses javascript, Vue, and js as programming languages
- It is used to develop applications in mobile, web, desktop, and PWA
- It contains ready-made stunning UI elements and widgets
- It has 1500 stars on Github with over 3000 apps developed
Pros of Framework7:
- A few businesses that use Framework7 include Ultracode Systems, Ristoranti. it, etc.
- Framework7 is designed in such a way that is completely free to use
- It provides a lot of predeveloped UIs.
- It can be used as a prototyping tool also.
A Road to the Conclusion
Well, after so many choices, it is tough to pick hybrid mobile app development. So as a subject matter expert, it is better to go with two choices: Flutter and React Native. Flutter is a new addition in the app development domain. It is powerful, compatible with Fuchsia, and it empowers the developers to learn Dart. As per the developers, it has the potential to be the framework of the future, as it has got the backing of one of the biggest tech giants, Google.
On the other hand, we also have the super-efficient React Native mobile app framework, Android Native, JQuery, or Framework7. These make coding an easy job for developers and allow them to make interactive engaging apps.
Furthermore, it saves a lot of time and capital. Now it is on you and your business requirements to choose the best mobile development frameworks for your business app.
