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Top Mobile App Development Tools for Android & iOS

Top Mobile App Development Tools

According to Thomas Husson (VP of Forrester Research), mobile is not just the new digital hub but also a bridge between the virtual and physical world. It is right there to transform your entire business.

In 2021 alone, the global mobile app downloads were 230 billion. The mobile app consumer spending is predicted to reach $185 billion for Apple Store and $85 billion for Android (Statista).

These numbers, combined with Husson’s statement, prove mobile app is the indeed the future. Businesses must innovate to transpire business transformation by combining mobile with current technology trends such as AR, AI, and ML. A good idea is incomplete if you don’t have the perfect mobile app development India partner.

However, these aren’t the only two things that can help enhance the app development process. In recent times, owing to cutthroat competition and the need to go live as soon as possible, businesses need to think of cutting-edge development tools and processes.

What is a Mobile App Development Tool?

Your customer isn’t going to wait till you finish developing the app. If your competition, has it, they will move to them immediately. If you and your competition share the same application but update it frequently and release the features faster, you know where the loyalty lies.

Let’s just put it this way- your customer needs an app for everything (small or big) they do in their life, and fast. If you slow down the development process, you lose a potential conversion and the money.

The Top Native App Development Tools

When you plan to develop for either iOS or Android, you need to invest in efficient native app development tools. They can trigger the development processes using the right processes, codes, and build interfaces.

Android Tools for Native App Development

You can use the tools mentioned here if you want to develop an Android-only application before moving it to other operating systems.

Android Studio

This Android-only development allows you to build apps for Android devices such as mobile, TV, and even the tablet. The tool base offers complete access to the native codes, functions, and components.

It has an intelligent code editor that offers suggestions as you start working on the code. The Gradle environment of this app development environment helps improve coding experiences.

Pricing: Free

G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (494 reviews)

IntelliJ IDEA

This is an integrated development environment that has been specifically created to help Android developers with the right tools and development infrastructure. It is an intelligent system that enables you to deliver apps with Java and JVM-specific languages such as Scala, Kotlin, and others.

The recent fully-developed IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate is a full-stack development infrastructure that allows you to deliver capable solutions by leveraging the power of the Spring framework.

With this framework, you get features like code completion, refactoring, and managed testing that helps build and test the apps successfully.

Pricing: Ultimate- $499 per user per year for the first year;

All Products Pack- $649 per user per year

G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (1927)

Android SDK

The software development kit has been devised for the Android platform. It comprises the debugger, development, and other essential resources that help build an application with fewer efforts. Note: The SDK is not available individually; you can use it with one of the integrated development environments or the tools

iOS Tools for Native App Development

Whether you are planning a desktop or an iPhone app, the iOS native tools have you covered. Let’s take a quick look at how they fare regarding features and offerings.

XCode

This is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that Apple has developed to offer a build environment for fast application development. It is complete with a code editor, compiler, and build infrastructure.

The tool extends support to various programming languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Swift, Python, and Ruby. Features like source code checker, autocomplete feature, and pre-built templates help diving into coding easier and effectively. It helps automate the workflow and enhance application development.

Pricing: Basic- Free, Premium- $99

G2 Rating: 4.2/5 (886 reviews)

App code

This is an intelligent IDE developed for iOS and macOS applications. It can be integrated with XCode and Cocoapods if you miss some of the features. This tool helps automate routine tasks, so you can code easily and minimize extra efforts.

You can quickly jump between two projects while managing the different tasks and functions. It offers thorough code testing, monitoring, and quality check to ensure you release a bug-free code into your app store.

Features like reliable refactoring and intelligent completion allow developers to be more productive. It extends support to multiple programming languages, including Objective-C, Swift C, and C++.

Pricing: Basic: $199 per user per year; All Products Pack: $649 per user per year

G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (17 reviews)

Cocoapods

It is not a development environment but more of a dependency manager that caters to your iOS projects. It comes with third-party libraries that you can easily integrate into your system. The framework has been used in over 3 million applications to date. You can choose your functions from the 90k libraries loaded into this tool.

There are pods available for specific codes; if they are not available, you can create pods after installing this tool.

The code for a particular project is saved in a single place known as the podfile. You can link the different pods using the XCode workspace, which you can then use to create an iOS app.

Pricing: Free

G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (21 reviews)

Cross-platform Development Frameworks

React Native

Developed by Facebook to create lightweight, high-performance, and native-like applications, this cross-platform framework offers a range of features that can improve app outcomes. With functionality like a single codebase, refactoring, hot reload, and ease of maintenance, this app development framework makes it easier for the developers to be productive and efficient.

As this has been developed using JavaScript, developers can effortlessly migrate a React Native application to another development tool or framework with minimum effort.

Pricing: Free

G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 (68)

Flutter

Flutter is a developer’s favorite framework and has been reigning at number one for a while. One cannot deny the stiff competition between Flutter and React Native.

It is more of a UI toolkit that allows you to design interfaces for multiple operating systems, keeping the unified experience requirements in mind. With this framework, you can create applications using Dart programming language and share them across the app platforms to ensure native-like app performance.

Pricing: Free

G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (45 reviews)

Ionic

This is one of the finest platform-agnostic hybrid app development frameworks often used to deliver cross-platform app solutions. It is developed using technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which reduce the learning curve and enable a better learning environment.

It comes with features like DOM, which enhance the app’s performance and overall efficiency. As it is developed using Angular JS, the app development framework offers extensive UI capabilities that help build usability.

With the Cordova plugins, you can access the various device functions and features to improve the app.

Pricing: Free

G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5 (126 reviews)

Unity

This powerful and rich cross-platform app development tool helps build gaming applications. It offers a range of tools such as Bolt Visual Studio that can improve logic development and overall development.
You are not limited to one or two operating systems; with this framework, you can deliver gaming app solutions across OS, consoles, and equipment.

Owing to its ease of use, it has become an essential framework for game developers.

Pricing: Free

Popular Tools for Android and iOS App Development

For businesses that want to create an essential iOS and Android app or even an MVP, these no-code tools are excellent to get started. They offer the resources, SDK, and even the interface you can operate with minimal knowledge.

Appsheet

This intelligent app development tool does not require coding knowledge or understanding. It is one of the top no-coding platforms available in the market. To build this application, you can use data from multiple sources such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and Smartsheet. The tool has a basic and advanced editor that incorporates features such as view controls, security, and registration.

Pricing: Free; Premium: $5 per month; Pro: $10 per month

G2 Rating:4.8/5 (338)

Build Fire

This is another no-code app development tool that allows you to build apps for both iOS and Android. The tool comes with a simple and user-friendly app builder interface. The tool offers a click-n-edit technology that simplifies building a long-lasting app solution.

Multiple plugins make app debugging and functionality addition easy. The tool has its SDK that allows you to implement robust and custom features. Pricing:Spark: $5000 per month; Ignite: Ask for a quote

G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (160)

Outsystems

This tool offers help with coding, deployment, and design. It is an all-in-one platform that works towards helping product developers create the MVP or the prototype as soon as possible.

The coding platform offers complete visibility and control of the development processes. It allows developers to create code using the latest technologies such as ML, AI, and others to develop immersive apps.

The continuous development and automated workflow management allow quicker app development with greater agility.

Conclusion

Businesses can develop highly productive development infrastructure and deliver brilliant app solutions with these app development tools. The right solutions also need a suitable partner. Expert App Devs offer the expertise and experience of using these tools to enhance business solutions.

Connect with us to discuss possibilities, validate your app idea, and brainstorm the process for quick deployments and better launches.

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