{"id":20667,"date":"2023-04-13T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/?p=20667"},"modified":"2023-04-11T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T14:43:15","slug":"cross-platform-friendly-frameworks-for-mobile-development-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/frontend\/mobile-dev\/cross-platform-friendly-frameworks-for-mobile-development-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Platform Friendly Frameworks for Mobile Development in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to building an app for several different mobile platforms, you typically have two options, native or cross-platform. Native apps are reckoned to run faster, but take greater developer resources to produce<\/strong>. Typically a different development team is needed for each OS, codebases are entirely separate, and development, test and release cycles are independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To simplify things, cross-platform frameworks can be leveraged to minimize development resources<\/strong>. Teams then work with a single SDK which automatically generates apps for a range of platforms. Historically, this has tended to mean reduced performance, especially where some kind of run-time wrapper or virtual machine is required. However, by producing native code for each platform, a new generation of cross-platform frameworks like Flutter<\/a><\/strong> promises single codebase development without the performance hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at cross-platform development and give an overview of the top five frameworks. We’ve also teamed up with Wolters Kluwer<\/a>, a leading provider of software services, for some key insights into getting the best results with your cross-platform development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of cross-platform mobile development<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More than ever, customers today expect to be able to use the same apps and services across a range of devices, be they smartphones, tablets, desktops or websites. However, developing a consistent user experience for different OSs can be a challenge<\/strong>. Plus, maintaining a development team for each platform is expensive and harder to manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a decade ago, there were rather more mobile operating systems – Windows, Blackberry, Symbian and a few others as well as Apple iOS and Android. Luckily for devs, most of these have now dropped out leaving only Google and Apple’s offerings. Still, maintaining codebases for both platforms effectively doubles developer resource requirements<\/a>. On top of that, customers usually expect a consistently-functioning web app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-platform frameworks have existed for some time. Titanium SDK and Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) were early players in the market. Such frameworks made it quick and relatively easy to code simple apps for a range of platforms. But while useful for proof-of-concept or MVP (Minimal Viable Product)<\/a> demonstrations, many producers found them too limited in specific functionality and somewhat slow in performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, however, these frameworks have improved a great deal and are now capable of generating consistent and high-performance mobile and web apps. In fact, the web aspect is key here, because frameworks like Flutter now allow developers to code generic codebases as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Native apps vs PWAs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In short, Progressive Web Apps are software applications delivered through web technologies. This is a long way from the document style of websites that appeared in the early days of the world wide web. The latest iterations of the web’s basic building blocks – HTML, CSS, Javascript and now web components<\/a> – allow browser-based functionality that meets many of the more sophisticated expectations of mobile or desktop apps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offline features, background data syncing, push notifications and much greater speed and stability are now reasonable expectations for a web app. In fact, native apps might still be more suitable compared to PWAs when there’s the need to work off-line or in areas without satellite or WiFi coverage. However, PWAs provide an excellent entry point for cross-platform development. So how do they compare with native apps in other areas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n