Best Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development Frameworks

Mobile applications are a crucial part of any successful business strategy. However, developing apps for multiple devices and OS platforms is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, cross-platform mobile application development frameworks can come to your rescue. In this article, I explore what cross-platform mobile application development is, the types of cross-platform mobile application frameworks, and the best ones available today.

What is Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development?

Cross-platform mobile application development refers to the process of building mobile apps that run on multiple platforms, such as iOS and Android. Cross-platform development is different from native development, where a mobile app is created for a specific mobile operating system. Using cross-platform mobile app frameworks, developers write code for deployment across various platforms, saving time and effort, because they don’t have to write separate code for each operating system or platform. It is one of the most popular methods in the app development domain today.

The Kind of Mobile Apps You Can Build with a Cross-Platform Framework

You can use a cross-platform development framework to build a wide range of mobile applications that access data from multiple sources, connect to multiple core-systems, and behave like native applications. Examples include:

• Business applications with data management, user authentication, real-time updates, and integration with existing systems
• Social networking apps with user profiles, friend connections, messaging, news feeds, photo and video sharing, and push notifications
• Ecommerce applications that integrate payment gateways, product catalogs, shopping carts, and personalized recommendations
• Travel and booking apps that provide real-time information, booking confirmations, location-based services, reviews, and ratings
• News and media applications that deliver up-to-date content, articles, videos, and live streaming with features such as personalized news feeds, social sharing, offline reading, and push notifications for breaking news
• Educational apps that incorporate multimedia content, interactive lessons, progress tracking, and social learning features
• Health and fitness apps that integrate with wearable devices and provide personalized recommendations and progress tracking.

Types of Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development Frameworks

Cross-platform mobile application development frameworks can be categorized based on the underlying technology they use or their approach to cross-platform development. Here are three common types.

1. Hybrid App Development Frameworks

Hybrid frameworks allow developers to build mobile applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These frameworks use a native container that renders web content to run the app on multiple platforms. They wrap the web app in a native shell to access device features, providing a native-like experience.

2. JavaScript-Based App Development Frameworks

JavaScript-based frameworks offer a balance between native performance and code reusability. Developers can build their apps in JavaScript to run across multiple platforms, and the framework uses a native rendering engine to achieve native performance.

3. Compiled App Development Frameworks

Compiled frameworks deliver high-performance apps with a native look and feel. They use a shared codebase, which is compiled into native code specific to each platform. This results in performance optimizations and native-like user experiences.

Although the type of cross-platform framework for mobile application development you use will depend on your budget, needs, and timeframe, insight into the ones that are most popular with developers can help you decide.

Top 5 Cross-Platform Mobile Application Frameworks

Now that I’ve covered the basic information about cross-platform mobile app frameworks, here is my list of the 5 best and their pros and cons. This list is not scientific; it’s based on reading and conversations with developers. Most tech bloggers agree on the top three, but each has a different one in the top spot, which tells me that those three are on par in popularity. So, I have ranked my top 5 based on what developers said they most admired and desired in the Stack Overflow 2023.

1. Flutter

Based on the past three Stack Overflow surveys and the trends noted in other blogs about cross-platform mobile app development frameworks, Flutter–a compiled app development framework from Google–is hot, hot, hot. Its popularity keeps growing, the industry views it as a benchmark for developing cross-platform mobile apps, and it is stealing developer votes from React Native and Ionic. Because of the type of platform it is, Flutter compiles to native code, but requires something other than JavaScript:--Dart, which was invented at Google to replace JavaScript.

Pros

Among the pros of Flutter is the fact that Google puts its money where its platform mouth is and uses the platform itself. Both Google Ads and Google Pay–are built on Flutter. And if Flutter is good enough for the corporate king of mobile, as well as BMW, Toyota, Alibaba, eBay, and Bytedance, it’s probably good enough for you. If you’re skeptical that Google’s using something it invented itself is really a pro, there are others. For one, the Dart language and its mobile run-time are close to native performance speeds.. Plus, the “Hot reloading” feature enables developers to see changes made in code within seconds as opposed to minutes. It also has a built-in graphics engine, so you do not have to create separate interfaces for Android and iOS.

Cons

Before jumping off your current platform just because all the cool kids are doing it, you should be aware of Flutter’s drawbacks. For one, there’s application size. Flutter apps are larger than those apps built natively and with other frameworks. It also has a limited ecosystem, largely the result of Dart. Other frameworks can use existing JavaScript libraries with little issue, but importing these frameworks into Flutter apps can be, well, complicated. But, given its meteoric rise to the top of the cross-platform charts in just a few short years, none of these cons appear to be enough to cause trouble if you decide to take the plunge.

2. React Native

One of my first writing assignments as a new hire at OutSystems was a white paper about React, and I fell in love. It was 2015, so how could I not be fascinated by components that could be live reloaded without the loss of state? That was also the year that Meta (then Facebook) announced React Native, an open-source JavaScript framework that interprets your source code and converts it to native elements on-the-fly. It quickly caught on as a cross-platform mobile app framework, due in large part to the fact that Facebook’s and Instagram’s native applications are built with it, as are Uber’s, Discord’s, Tableau’s, and the NFL’s, not to mention Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Office, and Skype.

Pros

React Native is battle-tested. Facebook and Instagram have millions of daily-active-users each, as do all the other apps I just mentioned, and their users demand performance. Because so many products rely on React Native, Meta engineers are regularly updating this framework, which means it adapts to change pretty easily. It offers quick iteration cycles, code reusability, pre-developed components, and offers a performance edge over hybrid solutions. It’s also compatible with third-party plug-ins. Also, you get great support and you can tap into a vast community of developers.

Cons

Unlike other cross-platform frameworks for mobile application development, with React Native, you still need the services of native developers to implement certain features of your application. Thus, if you need to add a unique functionality, you will need help creating both an Android and an iOS version. And despite relying on web technologies like JavaScript, the interface is a mix of custom markup language and native UI. Therefore, using CSS libraries or jQuery plugins requires additional setup. Also, if you need to create complex animations and integrations with native tools such as Bluetooth modules or geolocation, be prepared for a lot of extra effort.

3. Ionic

The Ionic Framework is a hybrid cross-platform mobile application framework. It improves the hybrid development experience without forcing an application paradigm or structure onto the developer, so developers are free to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It offers seamless integration with Angular, React, Vue.js, and web components, as well as the option to use Cordova. It also provides a vast range of pre-designed UI components.

How solid and impressive is Ionic? Solid and impressive enough for Aflac, Target, Cisco, NBC, and Caterpillar to use it for apps–and for OutSystems to acquire it in 2022. Therefore, you might be wondering why I didn’t rank it as #1. It was tempting because there are other bloggers in the industry that do say it’s the best, but I decided that it was important to share the point of view of developers and users rather than my own.

Pros

With Ionic, you can code once, and then run the code on all platforms. It has a quick learning curve because it is designed to be simple and easy to use. It combines the UI standards and device features of Native apps with the full flexibility of the web. With its ready-to-go components, you can create fully functional apps in what can seem like no time if you’ve been writing from scratch. Support for existing plugins, of which there is an abundance, means you can locate an appropriate library for incorporating necessary features pretty easily.

Thanks to its typography and built-in base theme, you can focus more on the app’s features rather than building UI components again and again. And, as I mentioned previously, it works with all of the frameworks that you’re likely already familiar with, like Angular and React. Finally, it’s backed by a community of developers that’s 6 million strong so there’s a huge ecosystem supporting Ionic.

Cons

Although Ionic speeds up dev, it slows app performance compared to native apps. Ionic also only uses CSS, so its graphics performance won’t stand up to things like 3D images and photos from mobile phone cameras. If you need a plug-in for an unusual function or access to hardware, you may be required to write it. because you can’t implement native plugins in Ionic without first transforming them into JavaScript. Therefore, web-based resources can be used, but incorporating any native code is out of the question. In addition, you can run into compatibility issues when using third-party plugins or integrating them with other frameworks.

4. Xamarin

Developed by Microsoft, Xamarin is a hybrid app development framework for building native apps for iOS, Android, and Windows using a shared C# codebase. As codebases go, C# is hard to beat. (What? Did you say the OutSystems codebase is C#? That’s just a coincidence). Used by Microsoft, UPS, Alaska Airlines, and the American Cancer Society, Xamarin offers choices for developers: Xamarin.Android for Android app UIs, Zamarin.iOS for Apple app UIs, and the open-source Xamarin.Forms (which is now called NET.MAUI) framework that works across all platforms. Xamarin provides access to platform-specific APIs and offers a rich set of UI controls, ensuring a native experience across platforms. So, if you’re familiar with C# and working with Microsoft tools, Xamarin is a good choice.

Pros

Xamarin gives developers the opportunity to create native UIs on each platform, but write the business logic in C#, enabling that logic to work seamlessly on an array of platforms. It delivers faster development because you can share more than 75% of the code across platforms, and it consists of a single tech stack for faster development and it allows for sharing more than 75% of code across platforms. It also has a strong community of over 60,000 contributors from more than 3,700 companies.

Cons

Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Forms/NET.MAUI…that’s a lot of Xamarin for specific UI development and yet, building the UI is still time-consuming and access to some important mobile app libraries is limited. Plus, if you aren’t using Forms, you may have to rewrite a significant portion of any mobile app that targets multiple platforms. But if you are using Forms, be prepared to stop; it’s now shipping as NET.MAUI in Visual Studio. There are no customer stories of note around NET.MAUI yet, and there is unfounded or confused speculation that Microsoft is phasing out all flavors of Xamarin. Also, if you want to build apps that are heavy on graphics, the different method of laying out screens for each platform can put a damper on that plan.

5. NativeScript

With the unfortunate discontinuance of Cordova (which served many developers so well for about a decade), NativeScript, a direct competitor of React Native, grabs the #5 spot in this list. Like React Native, it is supported by a large organization (Progress) and used by industry giants like SAP. An open-source compiled cross-platform framework for creating native iOS and Android mobile apps, its motto is “Liberate your development by using platform APIs directly without leaving your love of JavaScript.” Therefore, it provides direct access to all native platform APIs using JavaScript, TypeScript, or Angular, offering native-like experiences on web, iOS, and Android. Although NativeScript offers a similar cross-platform development experience to its meta rival, but how it approaches development is more like the Ionic Framework.

Pros

NativeScript offers fully native performance, something its hybrid framework competitors can’t. The direct, 100% access to iOS and Android APIs, plus the rich support for JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, Vue, and CSS, and a wide range of plugins and templates for faster development make it a fan favorite. It is backed by a strong community of these fans, who often tout its easy learning curve. NativeScript continually updates its features and versions to comply with the changing and upcoming mobile OS versions. Also, because it is platform-independent, you can reuse its code on other platforms.

Cons

Because NativeScript does not support DOM or HTML, your access to libraries like jQuery is limited. If you’re thinking that debugging should be like that of React Native, it’s not. You have to do it on an emulator or devices. And although their motto about APIs is cool and all, it turns out that you have to know these Android and iOS APIs to access the particular platform features and the device hardware. Also, although it is open-source, you have to pay for a few of the UI components.

As you can see, cross-platform frameworks for mobile application development are, for the most part, fast, robust, and capable. If you want to develop a mobile app that’s not Roblox, Royal Match, or Flickr, one of them is likely to meet most of your needs.

There’s Another Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Way, Though

Worried that there’s a library you need but you won’t be able to access because of the cross-platform app development framework you chose? Or are you concerned that you might have to write JavaScript or code for a native GUI that you didn’t plan for? Or is it just too hard to choose? Well, you have another option. You can use a high-performance low-code platform built to make mobile app development easy and fast.

A high-performance low-code platform, i.e., OutSystems, embeds mobile frameworks like those mentioned above, but it obscures all the complexity. With built-in visual tools and automation for CI/CD, the OutSystems high-performance low-code platform adds another productivity boost layer on top of that already delivered by the underlying framework - making delivering mobile apps far more satisfying and efficient.

Learn more about low-code mobile development with OutSystems.