10 Frameworks that are topping the charts for Hybrid Mobile App development

Developing a mobile used to be a tedious process. There was the need to hire and manage separate teams of app developers for Android, iOS, Windows, and other platforms. Also, the entire workflow of mobile application development had to be replicated for each platform. Needless to say, the time duration to build and launch a native mobile app was unreasonably long and riddled with operational complexities.

That is Hybrid Mobile Development entered and wiped off all difficulties once and for all. Compared to native mobile app development, hybrid app development is easier, faster, and scalable too. It is just the silver bullet that enterprises with ambitious go-to-market plans need.

Today, you get to select from countless hybrid mobile app development frameworks. Most of them let you leverage the benefit of ‘Code Once, Run Anywhere’. A single code base is sufficient to launch mobile apps on iOS, Android, and Windows platforms.

Among all the choices, there are 12 top frameworks that you can choose for your app development. This blog is a round-up of those frameworks.

1. React Native
2. Mobile Angular UI
3. Ionic Framework
4. NativeScript
5. Xamarin
6. Kendo UI
7. Framework7
8. Onsen UI
9. PhoneGap
10. Flutter

1. React Native

React native is one of the most preferred frameworks owing to its ease of use. It allows users to build mobile apps using JavaScript. Hence anyone with working experience with JS can write code on React native. Also, there is no dearth of JS developers.

The biggest advantage of React Native is that, once the app is built, it gives the look and feel of a mobile that is built using Objective-C or Java. This is because it uses the same UI elements used in native app development. The framework lets you put together JS code and React UI elements to create hybrid mobile apps that deliver UX at par with native apps.

2. Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is used to build hybrid mobile apps by combining the prowess of Angular and Bootstrap frameworks. It offers several necessary mobile UI components like navbars, switches, overlays and so on that developers can use conjoin to build interactive mobile experiences. There is eliminates the need to take support from other UI libraries like jQuery or Bootstrap.

The highlight of Mobile Angular UI is that it is an open-source framework that is free to use under the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) license.

3. Ionic

For eons, CSS and HTML5 have been used extensively for web and mobile app development. In fact, the recent tide of SaaS applications is also largely built using CSS and HTML5 elements. Also, Ionic is framework-agnostic, meaning it can work seamlessly with other frameworks like React, Preact, Angular, and Vue. Further, there is a growing community of Ionic enthusiasts who can be banked upon for any support or how-to tutorials. This makes Ionic a top cross-platform app development framework.

4. NativeScript

If you want to build a mobile app that looks like it was built using Android Studio or Apple Xcode, then NativeScript should be your choice. The framework uses the same APIs as used by native frameworks thus delivering a UX that is indistinguishable from native apps. Also, NativeScript gives the benefit of repurposing third-party libraries from Cocoapods, Android Arsenal, Maven, and npm.js.

5. Xamarin

Xamarin is an app development framework from Microsoft. It helps build applications OS, Android, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows apps. The biggest draw of Xamarin is that it allows for 90% reuse of its C# shared codebase across all platforms. So, a single code base is sufficient to build multiple apps on multiple platforms. This saves a huge amount of time and resources to code, test, and deploy mobile apps.

6. Kendo UI

Kendo UI is a go-to hybrid app development framework for building high-performance apps with several sophisticated features. It provides access to ready-to-use widgets for jQuery, Angular, React, and Vue. These widgets can also be easily customized and themed with CSS helping building apps that look different on native platforms but deliver a consistent user experience. Compared to other frameworks, Kendo UI is largely preferred by enterprise users, because it has a price tag attached to it. The extensive support that the framework justifies the investment.

7. Framework7

Framework7 is a full-featured HTML Framework for building hybrid mobile apps. It offers several variants in combination with Vue, Cordova, React, etc. for mobile app development. In addition to app development, the framework can also be used for prototyping. It focuses largely on the material design philosophy that iOS and Google use. Also, unlike most cross-platform frameworks, Framework7 also helps build native desktop apps with caching, browsing history, and preloading features.

8. Onsen UI

Onsen UI entered the hybrid app development scene recently. However, with its powerful capabilities, it has become a stiff competitor to the leaderboard ranks. Onsen UI allows users to develop apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. They can then be combined with PhoneGap or Cordova to create a full-rounded app. The framework is also free to be used for commercial projects.

9. PhoneGap

PhoneGap is developed by Adobe and Apache combinedly. It is perhaps the oldest and most-widely recognized app development framework in the market right now. Moderate knowledge in HTML, CSS, and Javascript is sufficient to develop apps for mobile operating systems using PhoneGap. This is one of the reasons that propelled the framework into a popular choice. Also, Phone Gap borrows development techniques from web development which simplifies the task of hybrid mobile app development.

10. Flutter

Flutter is a comprehensive UI software development kit from Google. With Flutter, you can build stunning mobile apps for native platforms like Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web — all with a single codebase.

Flutter was introduced in 2017, however, within a short span of time, it has become popular and a preferred choice for hybrid mobile application development. It can support a wide variety of languages, including Java, Swift, and Objective C. The biggest draw of Flutter is its expressive UI that can make apps come to life with interactive experiences, all without compromising on the native performance.

The Final Choice

The world of mobile app development frameworks keeps growing. Every year, there is a new framework in town that offers superior features and capabilities. When it comes to hybrid mobile app development, these 10 frameworks have been topping the leaderboard for a very long time. It is fascinating to see that even new entrants have made it to the top lists.

So, which would be your preferred choice of framework if you were to build a hybrid mobile app?