The best frameworks for cross-platform app development in 2024

6 min readApr 22, 2024

Developers all over the world choose cross-platform app development platforms because of the benefits it offers. Today, there are a huge variety of frameworks that allow developers to use the same repetitive code to create applications designed for different platforms. If you want to choose the best cross-platform app development framework for your project, you are in the right place. In this article, we’ll look at the leading frameworks available today that will allow you to achieve your development goals.

Before we look at the main options, let’s take a closer look at what cross-platform development is and what its benefits are.

What is a cross-platform framework?

Frameworks are special programs consisting of a set of tools and libraries that help developers create applications much faster and more efficiently. However, many of these frameworks are designed to develop applications for specific platforms such as Android or iOS.

Cross-platform frameworks add additional value to application development by providing tools to create applications for multiple platforms at once. Using such frameworks, a developer can create a single code to run Web applications, iOS and Android operating systems. Thus, many developers choose cross-platform frameworks because they open up new possibilities in application development.

Benefits of cross-platform frameworks

Below are some benefits of cross-platform frameworks

Creating Hybrid Apps: Applications built on cross-platform frameworks are often hybrid apps. They offer the same functionality to users on different mobile devices because the backend code is almost the same on them.
Easier code management: Code management is made easier with cross-platform frameworks as one code is used to create applications for different platforms.
Faster : Developers can build applications much faster, thereby reducing time to market.
Saves Money : Cross-platform frameworks reduce overall application development costs.

Best Cross-Platform Frameworks

The list of leading cross-platform frameworks at the time of writing is listed below.

React Native

React Native is probably the most popular framework for developing cross-platform JavaScript applications. Developers can use it to create code and run WEB applications, applications for IOS and Android operating systems.

Since its release as an open source framework in 2015, React Native has gained widespread adoption among developers and has become one of the leading platforms for cross-platform app development.

Benefits of React Native

Savings : React Natives helps companies around the world reduce application development costs by reusing code. Developers save money and development hours by deploying the same code to multiple platforms.
React Native Community : React Native has a large active developer community that supports the platform. You can find a lot of content such as tutorials, written code examples, and documentation online. New developers can also get help from the community without any problems.
Impressive Performance : This platform has an impressive list of applications created. The performance of applications written in React Native is enhanced by features such as different flows for UI (user interfaces) and APIs, Modules and Native Controls. React Native can talk to native iOS and Android functions, so it requires less processing power to interpret.
High Stability : The child component cannot degrade the performance of the parent data in React Native. Thanks to the user data linking technology used by the platform. This is why React Native apps are secure and stable.
Support for Third Party Plugins : Developers can use third party plugins such as JavaScript Mobiles and Native Modules. These plugins allow developers to add useful features such as Maps to applications.

Flutter

Google, the owner of the search engine, created Flutter and released it as an open source framework for mobile app development. It offers tools and features for creating applications for iOS and Android operating systems.

At the time of writing, developers can only use the Dart programming language on the Flutter platform. Flutter consists of toolkits of UI elements, SDKs, and frameworks.

Advantages of Flutter

Reduced Costs: The platform’s tools allow developers to create applications faster while saving money.
Excellent performance: Flutter requires no additional interpretation; it interfaces directly with machine code and works great.
Creating WEB Applications: Flutter is an excellent tool for creating WEB applications, mobile and browser applications that work offline. In 2019, the WEB version of Flutter was released with expanded capabilities for developing WEB applications.
Dart Support: Using the Dart programming language, this is a great option for new programmers. It offers easy syntax and other features that make application development accessible even for beginners.

Cordova

Adobe acquired Cordova , an application development platform from Nitobi, in 2011. The platform allows developers to create hybrid applications for iOS and Android operating systems using CSS, HTML and JavaScript. Cordova apps are not completely WEB or native, but they do use APIs to access native functionality. Thus, Cordova applications combine hybrid elements with native features.

Benefits of Cordova

Developers gain access to tools that make media management easier . They can also efficiently perform media queries and add CSS to application codes without any extra effort.
Community development is another great feature of Cordova. They include several frameworks, libraries and additional development tools.
Because Cordova uses CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, developers can use the scripting language to create great application features without having to learn a new language.
Cordova makes multi-platform development easy and fast. It can be used to create hybrid applications that work on the web, Android and iOS.

Ionic

Over the past years, Ionic has undergone significant changes from AngularJS for the front end to Apache Cordova. Now it consists of WEB components that provide options for choosing a development framework: VU.js, Angular, or React. An update was recently released that allows developers to use ionic features without adding a UI.

Benefits of Ionic

Support for the popular framework integration for AngularJS is useful for developing ionic applications. Developers have the opportunity to choose other frameworks,
Ionic runs on many platforms such as Windows, iOS and Android.
Ionic allows developers to use various third-party plugins to perform a variety of application development functions.
This platform allows developers to create applications for multiple platforms using a single programming language . Thus, you do not need to learn an additional language to develop applications for iOS and Android operating systems.
It’s easy for the average developer to create great apps in Ionic because it uses basic markup and scripting languages such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

Xamarin

While most cross-platform frameworks use JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, the Xamarin framework uses C# to create cross-platform applications. Thanks to the Xamarin development environment, everything works the same on Windows, iOS and Android operating systems. C# Xamarin code can access native iOS and Android features. This is why Xamarin apps look and feel like native mobile apps.

Xamarin Benefits

Gives developers access to many application development resources , such as diagrams, user interfaces, controls, and more.
A feature called Text Cloud allows you to test applications in real time, simulating the experience on various mobile devices. This feature is useful for bug fixing and performance testing.
Pre-made UI mockups help developers kickstart app development projects and create functional and attractive user interfaces.
Xamarin works great with Visual Studio, which is considered an excellent IDE . Therefore, developers can create high-quality native codes faster and more efficiently.
Developers can use the same code on different platforms using the application logic sharing feature.

Conclusion

Developers benefit greatly from using cross-platform frameworks. The sheer number of options on the market makes it difficult to choose the right structure. Therefore, in this article we looked at the best cross-platform frameworks at the moment. This will help new and experienced developers choose the best cross-platform framework for their project.

FAQ

What is a Framework?

Frameworks consist of tools that allow you to create high-quality applications much faster and more efficiently. Most frameworks support development for a single platform, while cross-platform frameworks support the creation of applications for multiple platforms at once.

Why use a cross-platform framework?

– Allows you to create hybrid applications
– Simplifies code management
– Speeds up application development
– Saves money

What are the best cross-platform frameworks?

– React Native
– Ionic
– Cordova
– Xamarin
– Flutter

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