Top 15 Most Popular Mobile App Development Frameworks In 2020

Here are few questions that we need to answer our-self before we proceed for top mobile app development frameworks

Q: Do you have a smartphone?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you use any mobile app in your daily life?

A: Yes.

Q: Any time you got the curiosity to know how to make an app from scratch?

A: No/Yes

Q: If yes, do you think it is easy to develop?

A: No/Many answers will be yes, but it’s not that easy to build mobile applications.

Mobile apps UI is so simple, which makes users think that they are easy to build, but there will be a lot of developers who work harder to provide a user-friendly and beautiful UI.

For developing a single mobile application, various elements like the back end, front end, integration, and testing need to work together for months.

Mobile app developers use different types of mobile development tools and mobile development frameworks.

Q: Any time you thought of developing a mobile app?

A: If your answer is yes, then this article will be helpful for you in choosing the best mobile app framework.

Innovation is the fundamental nature of technology, by which the biggest revolutions were taking place in the tech industry.

Currently, the revolution is taking place in the mobile app industry. In recent times the mobile app industry developed very drastically.

The increased number of smartphones in the world over a decade is the cause of the rapid development of the mobile app industry.

As the number of people shifting to smartphones, the majority of businesses also started moving to the mobile apps form desktops.

With this, everyone started using more mobile apps rather than web apps, by which the demand increased for mobile app development companies and mobile app development frameworks.

As the demand increased for the programming frameworks, many companies started releasing mobile application development platforms/frameworks, which created confusion for the developers in choosing the right one.

To clear all the confusion in your brain, we are giving you the top mobile app development frameworks, which can be useful for 2019 and 2020.

Before we know about mobile development platforms or types of frameworks, let us know how many types of mobile application frameworks are there.

Mobile app framework:

The mobile app framework is a library that provides an essential structure for the development of a mobile app for a distinct environment. The framework is like an outline to support for building the app.

There are three types of mobile app frameworks, which you can know by in detail below:

Types of mobile applications frameworks:

From the beginning of mobile application development to the current era, we have three types of mobile applications.

Native apps:

If any mobile app developer wants to develop a mobile app depending on the platform either on Android or IOS, then it is called a native app.

A native app will design exclusively for one platform. The developers use compatible programming languages to develop a particular mobile app.

IOS: Objective-C and Swift

Android: C, C++, Java, and Kotlin.

Web apps:

It is a web application, which is designed to deliver web pages on different web browsers and platforms. You can see this mobile on any mobile device like Android, IOS, and Windows. It also works on pcs and tablets.

The programming language used:

HTML

JavaScript

CSS

JQuery

Hybrid apps:

Hybrid apps are a mixture of both native & web apps. In the current situation, many developers preferring to develop hybrid mobile apps.

The hybrid applications have cross-platform compatibility. The same code can use on different platforms & devices to get faster results.

Programming languages used:

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

Cordova

Cross-platform mobile development frameworks.

“ Best Hybrid app frameworks.”

Uses of mobile app framework:

Code re-usability
Encapsulation of frameworks
Customization of framework

Now, let us discuss the top 10 mobile app development frameworks in 2019, can be used depending on the business.

List of Top 15 mobile app development frameworks you need to know.

React Native
Ionic framework:
Xamarin
Adobe PhoneGap
Mobile Angular UI
JQuery Mobile
Corona SDK
Flutter
Native Scripts
Intel XDK

1. React Native:

React Native is the best framework for mobile app development, which is used by top most companies around the world as well as startups.

React Native is an open source platform which was developed by social networking company Facebook in 2015, to build native mobile apps for different platforms like Android & IOS. ( Develop app like Facebook )

In recent years, most of the mobile app development companies first priority is react native app framework. The react native uses React and JavaScript languages to develop mobile applications.

Many companies like Facebook, Facebook ads manager, Instagram, F8, Bloomberg, Pinterest, Skype, Tesla, and many more companies from startups to fortune 500 companies.

Choose the right platform before you start building your app.

Price: Free (Open source)

Benefits:

Community for developers: A large community where each one will contribute to the development of the react native app framework. In this year, 10K developers contributed to react native, which is the second highest in the GitHub.

Code re-usability.

Cost effective.

Great user interface.

Can use third-party plug-ins.

Predefined solutions & libraries.

Optimal Performance.

2. Ionic framework:

The ionic framework will stand second in the list of top mobile app development frameworks based on user usage, features, and advantages.

Ionic framework is an open source on the SDK platform developed by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley in 2013. It will provide very influential tools and services to develop a mobile app on the best mobile app development platform.

Ionic framework is most used by the USA developers when compared to all over the world. 4 million mobile apps used this open source platform to create hybrid apps.

This hybrid app framework will use web technologies like CSS, HTML5, JavaScript, and SaaS.

Some of the top mobile apps built on this hybrid app framework are McDonald’s Turkiye, Diesel, JustMatch, MarketWatch, Sworkit, and Untapped.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Cross platform app development framework.

Greater design & user interface.

Framework Compatibility.

We use Cordova plugins in this hybrid mobile app framework to get features like camera, location, and many more.

AoT Compiling with which we can load our app in lighting speed.

Live Reload: You can reload your app every time to see the changes on immediate effect.

3. Xamarin:

Xamarin is one of the best mobile app frameworks, which is developed and supported by Microsoft.

It used to develop cross-platform mobile applications with the help of C#. It uses the single programming language which can work on different platforms like Android, IOS, and Windows.

One of the best features of this best mobile development framework is we can share the same code on different platforms without changing the single code and language.

With the use of Xamarin, many top companies build their mobile applications like Olo, the World Bank, Just Giving, and FreshDirect.

Price: Free/Premium

Benefits:

Single code on multiple platforms.

Faster mobile app development on various platforms.

Cost effective.

User-friendly user interface.

It has a complete ecosystem to develop a mobile application.

4. Adobe PhoneGap:

Adobe PhoneGap is one of the best mobile frameworks to build ideal mobile cross-platform applications by using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS programming languages in the USA.

Adobe PhoneGap is an open source, can be used freely. The framework has millions of downloads, and they used these sources to develop unique mobile applications for various platforms. The apps developed by using the Adobe PhoneGap are in different play stores and directories.

With the help of this framework, we can develop mobile applicationson different platforms like Windows, Android, IOS, Blackberry, and Ubuntu.

This framework will not depend on hardware configurations while developing. Many apps like The DHS Program, TripCase, and Healthtapare developed using the Adobe PhoneGap mobile app development framework.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Plugin library: We can use different plugin’s to increase capability of your mobile applications

Third party tools: We can use free third party tools to help the developer in testing, managing, and debugging.

High quality performance.

Cross platform app development framework.

Large developer community to regularly update the framework.

Code re-usability.

5. Mobile Angular UI:

Mobile Angular UI is the free and open source mobile app development framework, which is widely used by the developers in the USA and the world.

If you are a mobile developer and planning to develop a mobile app with less effort using Bootstrap and Angular, then you can directly choose the Mobile Angular UI. If we combine both Bootstrap and Angular, we can design a great hybrid mobile app framew ork.

This framework will use HTML5 programming language, apart from this the developers can also use the libraries fastclick.js and overthrow.js. It is same as Sencha Touch or jQuery mobile framework.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Developer’s community.

Easy conversation from web to mobile apps.

Responsive framework

No of default controls

6. JQuery Mobile:

Tagline: “Write less; do more.”

If you are a developer and planning to develop mobile in very less time, you can choose JQuery Mobile.

JQuery Mobile is the hybrid mobile app development framework, which is used by 73% of popular websites. It is the best cross-platform mobile app framework that uses only one code that will run across various platforms/devices.

It uses the HTML5 based framework, which will design various active mobile apps and websites, which will work on all devices which are there in the market like smartphones, PCs, Desktops, and tablets.

JQuery mobile framework can be downloadable in two different variants:

Customized framework

Stable version.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Cross-platform mobile app development framework

Responsive framework

Add-on plugin’s

Supports multiple platforms & devices.

Open platform

7. Corona SDK:

Corona SDK is the free and open-source cross-platform framework mainly for designing the mobile apps related to games.

Any developer who wishes to develop a mobile app ten times faster they can opt for the Corona SDK, which is the ultimate option for the developers. It uses the Lua scripting language for programming.

With this framework, we can get unused apps even though we are developing mobile apps in less time when compared with the other frameworks.

With the help of this framework, many developers developed many gaming apps like The Lost City, Egg Baby, Zip Zap, Draw Rider Plus, and Fun Run 2.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Cross-platform framework

Real-time simulation

Live testing

High Speed and performance

More than 200 Plugins.

Easy setup.

8. Flutter:

When you are planning to develop hybrid mobile, then Flutter is the best choice by the many developers in the USA and all over the world.

Flutter is a mobile app development framework, which is the open-source developed by Google in 2017. It is known for the cross-platform app development, which originated in Dart language.

Flutter will provide a tool kit by which we can build outstanding, native-compiled applications to mobile, Desktop, Embedded, and web with a single code.

For developing visuals, Flutter uses Sika, which is a 2D rendering engine. You can test your app with this mobile app development framework.

The Flutter mobile app development framework is used by Alibaba, Tecent, App tree, and JD finance.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Fast development

Flexible User interface (UI)

Native performance

Developer’s community: Every year, Google conducts Google I/O for the improvement of developers and Google.

9. Native Scripts:

Native Scripts is one of the top hybrid mobile app development framework used by most of the developers.

It is an open-source platform developed by the Progress in 2014.

The Native scripts are a cross-platform app development framework, which is developed using Typescript, Angular, Vue.js, or JavaScript.

We can develop both Android and IOS apps with the native scripts mobile app framework.

The Native scripts mobile app framework is used by ten thousand loyal customers like Infosys, OpenText, BOSCH, Audi, SAP, Samsung, and Salesforce.

Price: Free

Benefits:

Native performance.

Easy to learn.

Re-usability of code

Strong Backing to developers with the help of progress.

Cross platform mobile app development framework

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10. Intel XDK:

Intel XDK is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is used to develop native apps mobiles and tablets.

The framework uses various technologies HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, Java, C++, C#, Objective-C. It will develop creative mobile apps with the help of various plug-in for all the devices. It also supports various other technologies like IoT and Node.js.

The beautiful thing about this framework is you can preview live changes made for the mobile app.

Benefits:

Cross-platform mobile app development framework.

Can develop a mobile app with a drag & drop option.

Live preview.

Testing & debugging can be done.

11. Framework 7

Framework 7 enables the team of app developers to create Android and iOS apps, web apps, and progressive web applications (PWA) with native look and feel. Framework 7, coupled with additional best cross platform mobile development tools like NW.js and Electron, enabling to build native desktop applications.

Benefits:

Develop Android and iOS applications with JavaScript, CSS and HTML

The learning curve combined with Framework7 is simple to manage.

With the availability of components and widgets, application development process is fast

The similarity in syntax with jQuery is another important advantage.

12. Swiftic

Swiftic framework is mainly available for the iOS, making mobile app development frameworks much easier. In addition to an easy-to-navigate interface, it’s a convenient choice with amazing features like scratch cards, in-app coupons, push notifications, social media feeds, and so on.

Over 1 Lakh applications created with this framework so far and has been running on the worldwide market successfully. Whether you have an e-commerce retail or restaurant business, Swiftic enables developers to create custom applications based on business needs.

13. Onsen UI

Onsen UI is a one of the best open source mobile application development frameworks that is used widely in UI app designing. OnsenUI is a very powerful tool for creating simple and complex mobile application. It has various fantastic features like CSS support, HTML5, and Javascript.

It helps predefined UI components like forms and lists and UI elements like side menu, tabs, and stack navigation. These User Interface elements are greatly supported on both iOS and android platforms and they will optimize to each platform automatically.

It also gives you an advantage to the graphics of the application, which is not the case with Cordova and PhoneGap based applications. Some of the applications that built with Onsen UI are Offcource Glof, Ski Patrol, Opal, PopVox, Ohalog, etc.

Benefits

‍Helps develop mobile web apps and HTML5 hybrid very quickly

Gives native look with ready-to-use components and automatic styling

Performance optimized for smart phones

Simple to develop and learn

14. Appcelerator Titanium

Appcelerator Titanium is a cross platform application development solution. It has a standalone API, making it reliable and smooth to access the hardware of mobile devices. It utilizes native UI components that provide outstanding performance.

This framework is depends on open-source titanium, a Javascript based SDK with more than 5000 APIs for Windows, HTML5, iOS, and Android that enables to reuse 90% of the Javascript code if your are planning to develop apps on multiple platforms.

Benefits

It is free and open-source framwork.

It is easy to learn and works well on multiple platforms

The app developer’s community offers good support.

It gives quick prototyping.

It also offers added advantages like BAAS (backend as a service) and app analytics.

15. Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch is a high-performance HTML5 mobile app framework used to create apps that allow world-class individual experiences, dynamic interfaces and intuitive touch. This is the foremost choice for app developers when it comes time to develop business apps.

It has several widgets that are popular for Window, Android and iOS platforms. This framework uses hardware acceleration to enhance the performance of existing applications. In addition, it offers high-level security while building robust apps.

Benefits:

It is one of the most cost-effective frameworks available on the today global market.

This offers a high level of responsiveness for an application to improve customer experience.

It is compatible with all updated versions of Blackberry, Android and iOS for providing best results

The use of this framework enables you and your customers to expect faster operation.

Wrapping Up

Frameworks are the most important driving tools for developing any web or mobile application. It should be remembered that each project or application have diverse requirements and so framework selection should be made carefully and after determining other important factors.

2020 will definitely sees the emergence of many well-known frameworks, but above 15 are the top of the priority list of mobile app developers.

If you have an idea to develop a mobile application and unable to choose the right framework, please contact us. We are here to help you out.