Mobile App Development Tools
Having a mobile app for your
business is becoming so important in an age where 95% of
Indians own a mobile device.
Plus, in a world where you
can build your app in mere minutes, you really have no excuse not to
create one.
However, there are so many
mobile app development tools out there today it can make your head spin. How do
you know which one to use? How do you avoid paying too much for tools you
simply don’t need? Do you need to become a developer to use them?
Don’t worry – We have you
covered. In this post, we’ll give you a detailed description of the best mobile app development tools and
which ones are right for you.
Mobile App Development
Tools That Are Open Source
1.
BuildFire.js
BuildFire.js is a cross platform library used
to build custom functionality in BuildFire’s platform. It allows unlimited
customization with nothing but JavaScript, making it one of the simplest to
implement frameworks.
2.
Framework 7
Framework 7 used to be iOS only, but now offers
Android support as well. If you want to develop an app that looks and feels
like a clean iOS app even on Android, Framework 7 is for you.
3.
Ionic
The Ionic Framework is based on the Sass CSS
language. It’s also cross-platform, meaning it can run on multiple operating
systems. It’s pretty easy to use and can also be integrated with AngularJS to
build more advanced apps.
4.
jQuery mobile
Over half of all mobile websites are
currently using jQuery mobile. It’s one of the oldest app dev tools out there,
and has more functionality than most. It’s been called the “swiss army knife of
mobile app dev tools”.
Cross Platform &
Hybrid Mobile App Development Tools
1.
BuildFire
BuildFire is one of few high-performance do-it-yourself
mobile app builders that supports Android and iOS phones as well as
tablets.
2.
Mobile Angular UI
Mobile angular UI is a free hybrid mobile app
development tool which allows you to build HTML5 Mobile Apps with Bootstrap and
Angular JS. It’s very similar to Sencha Touch and jQuery Mobile.
3.
Salesforce1
If you’re a Salesforce developer, Salesforce1
is for you. Regardless of your skill level, you should be able to find good
options for building mobile apps based on your Salesforce site. It’s easily
customizable with just a few clicks.
4.
Xamarin
Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned software company.
With C# codebase, you can develop Android, iOS and Windows apps. One of
Xamarin’s best features is that it allows code sharing in multiple platforms
(aka cross platform mobile app development). Xamarin also has a cloud service,
which allows you to test on any number of devices.
5.
Mag+
Mag+ is a nifty app SDK which allows developers
to build on top of their core components, saving loads of hours of coding. They
also have an iPad app which provides a fast and simple publishing platform for
creating mobile-optimized content, no code required.
6.
Xojo
Xojo is an app development tool for Mac OS X,
Microsoft Windows, x86 Linux, iOS, Raspberry Pi, and the web. They also allow
you to create native apps and provide Xojo Cloud for easy, secure, and
maintenance-free web app hosting.
7.
Corona Labs
Corona Labs supports all major platforms,
including Android, iOS, and Windows. While their app dev tool is specially made
for building 2D graphics games and educational apps, it can also be used for
developing other 2D apps.
8.
Cocos2D
Cocos2D is another 2D app builder that allows
you to publish from a single code base to mobile, desktop, web, and console.
You can also write in cocos2d-objc, cocos2d-x (which uses C++), cocos2d-JS
(which uses JavaScript), cocos2d-XNA (which uses C#), cocos2d- swift (which
uses objective C), and more.
9.
Unity
Unity is one of the most well-known game
development platforms. You can use it to build high-quality 3D and 2D games,
deploy them across multiple platforms, and even build AR/VR apps!
10.
GameSalad
GameSalad revolutionized learning through
applied game development. You can craft your own mobile games with a drag and
drop visual editor. It’s built to help graphic designers, animators, and game
developers quickly prototype, build and self-publish cross-platform games and
interactive media.
11.
Cordova
Cordova allows you to write a single code base
using HTML and JavaScript to be used to create apps for multiple platforms
including: for Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, Firefox, LG WebOS and FireOS.
All from a single code base wrapped into an app container.
12.
Kendo UI
Kendo UI works in HTML5 or JavaScript, and is available in
open-source or commercial versions (The commercial version starts at $999
one-time fee). The tool boasts tons of prebuilt themes with Material Design
styling, as well as a theme builder for custom themes.
It also offers a wide selection of UI widgets and plugins,
Angular and Bootstrap UI integrations, and performance optimizations. The only
downfall is the complexity of the tool – it’s not quite as easy to learn as
some of the others mentioned here.
13.
Appcelerator
Unlike others on this list, Appcelerator uses JavaScript to create
native code, with claimed benefits in performance. It offers over 5,000 APIs
for iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, and HTML5.
If you’re looking for performance and loads of features,
Appcelerator is for you. It’s not the easiest tool to learn, but you’ll get
plenty out of it once you do.
14.
Sencha Touch
Sencha is another mature platform available for free in open
source or as a commercial version (which starts at $9,475 for 5 developers).
With Sencha, you can prototype and develop, theme, code and debug, as well as
test your web applications on any browser and on any device.
Sencha uses tools like Ext JS Stencils to enable native-like
performance and make creating apps quick and easy.
15.
React Native
React Native is a fairly new and emerging open source framework
from Facebook that promises a “learn once, write everywhere” experience, using
JavaScript as its main code. It enables quick prototyping and a very high
initial velocity. Its basic features are also fairly easy to learn and
implement.
It can also be extended with native code and native views.
However, JavaScript code isn’t as efficient for calculation-intensive tasks and
there’s an overhead when JavaScript is controlling native elements.
16. Dropsource
Dropsource was built for developers to easily design,
build, and launch iOS and Android apps right from the web browser. They use
drag and drop features and allow you to connect apps with any RESTful API. They
use automated programming to generate clean and concise source code for you.
Native Mobile App
Development Tools
- Fastlane: It’s
very useful to automate tasks. You set up a list of actions and anyone in
your team can run these tasks from the console. It’s also very handy on CI
because you can run these tasks and deploy the application directly from
there.
- CocoaPods: It’s
the most popular dependency manager on iOS. Most of iOS projects use it
for fetching external dependencies and integrating them into their
projects.
- Screenhero: You
can do pair programming even being remote thanks to this tool. You can
share the screen with another person and you’ll be able to control it with
two cursors and keyboards.
- Sip: It’s a
colour picker that integrates with MacOS on the status bar. If you want to
get a colour and the representation in your favourite programming language
you can just open the tool, click the colour, and you’ll get the values
copied to the pasteboard.
- Zeplin: Very
useful tool to use across designers and developers. Designers can share
the designs with you by using this tool and developers can explore the
designs online, get colours, fonts, sizes… without having to ask the
designer.”
Rapid Mobile App
Development Tools
1.
Alpha Anywhere
Alpha Anywhere is a database-oriented, RMAD
tool that excels at creating hybrid mobile apps that work offline (allowing you
to work on them on the go). It allows you to build good apps quickly, with
strong performance and a native-like look and feel.
Mobile App Development
Tools for Android
1.
Android Studio
Android Studio is Android’s official free IDE.
2.
Eclipse
Eclipse is a free open source Android developer
tool and IDE. However, it also boasts an active forum and collaborative working
groups to help you, should you encounter an issue you can’t fix.
3.
IntelliJDEA
IntelliJDEA’s goal is to make development an enjoyable
experience. They have features like in-depth coding assistance, quick
navigation, clever error analysis, and refactoring.
4.
Corona Labs
While mentioned above, I also placed Corona
Labs here because it’s an excellent tool for developing Android apps and games.
Mobile App Development
Tools with No Coding Required
1.
BuildFire
BuildFire is a Web-based app creator
that does not require knowledge of code. It targets iPhone, iPad, and Android
applications.
BuildFire is free to build your app,
you only pay when you publish to the app stores.
2.
EachScape
EachScape is a cloud-based
drag-and-drop editor for creating native iOS and Android apps, as well as HTML5
Web apps.
EachScape is free to start, but you
have to pay to publish.
Windows Mobile App Development
Tools
1.
Xamarin
Xamarin, being owned by Microsoft, is perfect
for developing windows mobile apps.
2.
Corona Labs
Corona Labs is also excellent for designing
windows mobile apps, as mentioned above.
The Conclusion
There are more mobile
app development tools out today than you can even count. They vary in price,
complexity, usability, and a million other ways.
I hope you’ve found a great app development tool for your business
somewhere in this guide. That said, sometimes developing
an app – even using a simple
drag-and-drop editor – can still be too time-consuming or too confusing.
If you don’t have the time or energy to build your app, don’t
worry – we got you covered. You can contact
us anytime.