Best Technology Stack For Android & iOS Mobile App Development
Best Technology Stack For Android & iOS Mobile App Development
In this competitive world, the success of a mobile application is hidden in users’ satisfaction levels. When a mobile app grabs user attention and satisfies the unique needs of the users, then only it will become a successful mobile app in the market.
The development of such interactive mobile applications is only possible if you use the best technology stack, including programming languages, tools, and an attractive interface.
To guide mobile app development startups and businesses who are in plans to invest in mobile applications, here we have given detailed information related to which technology stack is best for mobile app development.
Let’s start with what is a technology stack for mobile app development.
What is Technology Stack?
A technology stack is a group of programming languages, frameworks, and tools that are together for developing mobile or web applications. Based on the app development platform and type (native or hybrid) of the application, app developers should choose the right technology stack.
Being the best mobile app development company, we classified the technology stack into three significant categories, including-
- Tools and technologies for Front-end development
- Tech stack for back end or server-side development
- Tech stack for app development
- Technologies for ensuring app security, quality, and performance
The technology stack is not the same for all applications. Depending on the clients’ business requirements and platform (android/iOS) they choose, the tech stack will vary.
Be android or iOS, the ultimate goal of leading mobile app developers is to pick the right set of technologies and tools that make great sense and ensure the best user experiences.
Also Read: Best Custom Mobile App Development Ideas That Enlist Your Brand On Top In 2021
Is It Important to Choose the Right Technology Stack?
Of course, yes. App performance depends on the technologies and tools that you used in the development process. To build powerful applications, developers need to focus on selecting technologies and tools that are highly compatible with the targeted app platforms.
Technology Stack For Native Apps Development
Native applications are mobile apps that use native software development kits and compatible languages and run on a single operating system, either android or iPhone operating systems.
Here is detailed information about the technologies used for native android apps and native iOS mobile apps.
Which Tech Stack Is Good for Native Android Apps Development?
Android is a popular operating system in the global smartphone industry. If you are looking to build a native mobile app on the Android platform, you can go with the following tech stack for android mobile app development
Most Proffered Programming Languages To Write Android Apps
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Java
Java is dominating the android mobile apps development market since the official release of the operating system in 2008. With its ease-of-use libraries and code flexibility, software developers across the world started using Java for mobile apps development.
Today, Java is the most preferred programming language for android application development. It is a very familiar and secured object-oriented programming language used for building android apps. Its built-in libraries, community support, and availability of documentation making it a simple and supportive language to write for android apps.
Why Java for Native Android Apps Development?
- It can be quickly adopted by the android platform.
- Platform independence feature
- Libraries of Java make android apps efficient in performing networking functions, calculations, and many other functions with ease.
- Runs smoothly on different hardware platforms
- Extreme Versatility
- Robust and secures
- Great community support
Telegram, Spotify, Twitter, Signal, and CashApp are a few of the best mobile apps developed using Java.
Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Develop an e-wallet App like Paytm?
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Kotlin
Kotlin is another best programming language used for highly advanced native android app development. On compared to Java, Kotlin offer various IDEs and assist application developers in writing reliable and clean code.
Benefits of using Kotlin for mobile apps development?
- Higher app performance speed
- Numerous integrated development environments
- Compatible with the Java language
- Prevents app crashes
Trello, Coursera, and Evernote are the best android apps that have used Kotlin.
Android Development Tools
Android Software Development Kit (SDK) offers a complete set of app development and code debugging tools for developers.
Android Studio and Android Developers Tools (ADT) are key for building mobile android applications.
Android Studio is an official IDE for native android apps development offered by Google. Its easy-to-implement code editing and fixing tools make code editing, debugging, and testing functions efficiently and simply. Android studio’s visual layouts and the drag-and-use feature ensure hassle-free usage and assist developers in creating high-quality and user-friendly Android apps.
On the ADT tools front, it acts as a plugin for the Eclipse IDE which is an efficient environment for developing flawless android applications. Along with coding and error-fixing tools, it also provides developers in creating a graphical user interface, in adding packages based on the Android framework API, export .apk files, and many other features.
The best thing is that developing apps in Eclipse integrated development environment using ADT tools is a fast way to get commenced app development operations.
The Best Tools for Android Software Development
- Stetho-An open-source library use for quick app debugging
- Gradle- An open-source build automation system
- LeakCanary- Memory leak detection tool that automatically notifies the developer in case of memory leak in your application
- IntelliJ IDEA- A Java IDE with smart code completion, instant code analysis, refactoring, and JetBrains plugins. The best alternative to Android Studio
- Source Tree- Tool for managing Git repositories
- Unity 3D- Comprise custom game development tools for android Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR) gaming apps development
- GameMaker: Studio- An easy-to-use tool for developing 2D games for Android
- BlockCanary- Performance checking library
- AVD Manager- an Android Studio tool that assists developers in creating simulations of Android compatible devices on a single system to check the performance and responsiveness of the app. This process will save the developer’s time in testing app performance.
- Vysor- a tool that let you view and manage native Android or iOS on a desktop
- Android Debug Bridge- This command-line tool belongs to android SDK tools that help users communicate with the android devices. For instance: It facilitates a range of device activities such as installing and debugging apps.
- NimbleDroid- for automatically testing android apps for bugs, if any.
Also read: How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Health and Fitness App like Fitbit?
User Interface (UI) Frameworks for android apps development
An Android application framework is a software toolkit that allows developers to create an application that taps the desired requirements of the business. A user interface kit offers a group of graphic files and resources that designers can use and create high-quality and attractive UI’s for mobile apps with a native look.
However, Android provides pre-built Android UI software. It allows developers to easily create user interfaces using given libraries and tools. Jetpack Compose (a modern Android UI tool kit offered by Google) is stood as another most-used UI kit for designing user interfaces for native android applications.
Jetpack compose prevents a heavy coding burden on developers as it needs less code. But, the drawback of using this framework is that the Jetpack libraries might cause fewer app crashes and memory leaks.
Technology Stack for native iPhone OS or iOS apps
Development of the iOS app development is a little bit complex process than compared to Android apps development. For developing iOS mobile apps, one must have a developer account from Apple and the Xcode IDE on a Mac computer. Windows operating systems do not effectively support iPhone app development and testing functions. These are two significant points that one must consider before commencing the iOS app development process.
Let’s move on to the most-used technologies, tools, and UI frameworks used for iOS apps development.
Programming Languages for iPhone Apps Development
#1. Swift
Swift is a programming language developed by Apple Inc. and is used for developing apps on macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Linux, iPad OS, and other operating systems. It works seamlessly with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch application development environment for developing a best-in-class app for iOS.
It also works efficiently with codes written in object and procedural programming languages like Objective C and C and makes the iOS app development process more convenient.
Benefits of using Swift programming language for iOS apps development
- Swift needs less code
- Simple code with high readability
- Code maintenance is simple
- Bugs free performance
- Easy to edit and debug
- Less error-prone
- Vast Open-source community
- Code reusability
- Less complicated syntax
- Makes app development faster
- Compatible with Objective C Programming languages
- Ideal language for Apple, Linux, and Windows platforms.
WhatsApp, Fitbit, Truecaller, Pandora, Dubsmash, and PokemonGo are a few applications developed using Swift.
#2. Objective-C
Objective C is the most traditional programming language used for building iOS applications. But, compared to the Swift programming language, Objective C is less preferred by developers because of its code complexity. It is developed as an extension of C, and hence Objective-C inherited a complicated syntax.
Another major drawback of using Objective C is its numerous code rules. The developers need to follow all these rules for writing code for iOS apps. Moreover, due to the lack of modern features like Swift, it ensures poor performance.
Advantages of Objective C
- It is a conventional programming language with over 25 years of maturity
- Extensive open-source library
- Availability of code documentation
- Dynamic typing to simply the code
- Compatible with the older versions of iOS and macOS
Tools required for developing iPhone apps
- Xcode IDE: Xcode IDE offers all the required tools for native iOS apps development, including iOS SDKs, code editor, compilers, emulators, and a debugger
- AppCode: It is another IDE with flexible functionalities that ensure optimized productivity.
UI Frameworks for iOS applications design
UIKit and SwiftUI are the most used framework for creating a user interface for iPhone apps. UIKit is the first choice of developers primarily for managing graphical components while developing iOS applications.
Whereas, SwiftUI framework is suitable for building UIs for iPhone apps for devices that run on the latest versions. This framework provides views, controls, and layout structures that help developers design an appealing user interface. SwiftUI also comprises event handlers and tools for sending input to an app to perform efficient functions.
Technology Stack for Cross-Platform Apps
If a business plans to target both Android and iOS users, the development of cross-platform apps is the right choice for such enterprises. Cross-platform application development is all about the development of a software application that runs well on diversified platforms. It helps businesses reach a wider audience, quick time to market, reduced development costs, and profitability.
Also Read: What Is The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Mobile Banking Apps Development?
Here is the most preferred tech stack for cross-platform apps development in 2021.
React Native
It is the best cross-platform app development framework in 2021. This JavaScript or TypeScript based framework can quickly understand and converts source code into the native elements for seamless performance.
Facebook and Instagram are two of the best cross-platform mobile apps that are developed using React Native Framework.
Why Use React Native For Cross-Platform Apps Development?
- Easy to read code
- Fast development
- Ready-to-use libraries ease development activities
- Ensures personalized user experience
- Error detection is simple and faster.
- Availability of community-supported projects
- Cost efficiency
Xamarin
Cross-platform apps development with Xamarin is one of the brilliant choices to create flawless applications with native user experiences.
This framework is based on .NET and C# languages. It gives access to use fifty native APIs, including powerful hardware features like geolocation, secure storage, sensors, and device information.
Why Xamarin for cross-platform apps development?
We have listed a few significant reasons behind the increasing use of the Xamarin framework for custom cross-platform application development.
- Xamarin offers an easy and convenient way to build apps
- Ensures native-like feel and look
- Open source code of Xamarin can be reused for developing other applications
- It comprises premium design and app development tools
- Xamarin Studio for designing outstanding UIs
- High-level security to the app
- Takes less development time compared to native apps development
- High code flexibility
Flutter
Flutter- this open-source UI software development kit from Google is another best framework for developing cross-platform applications. It helps developers in building user-friendly native-like cross-platform applications that ensure the best performance on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linus, and many platforms.
Why is Flutter best for cross-platform mobile apps development?
- A single easy to understand codebase for multiple platforms
- Code consistency
- Hot reload feature of flutter enable developers to build apps faster
- Takes fewer minutes to debug the code
- It offers enriched UI elements for creating interactive designs
How To Choose The Right Mobile Technology Stack
Here are a few factors that one must consider to establish to analyze which mobile app stack is suitable for the projects.
- App Requirements
- Project Goals
- App Scalability
- Data Safety and Security
- App Compatibility
- Project budget
- Development Timelines.
So, mobile app development services providers need to consider all these points and choose the required tech stack that offers a bright future for their client’s projects.
Final Words
We conclude that choosing the correct technology stack is one of the biggest parts before commencing development to come up with a successful project.
Java will be the best and most reliable programming language for Android app development. It allows the developer to write simple native code that works seamlessly across mobile devices with various versions. Hence, Java for Android development projects is the best choice. On the iOS apps development front, Swift is the most convenient language to developers for building iOS apps compared to Objective-C.
Besides programming languages, choosing a proper set of tool kits, databases, SDKs, frameworks, networking technologies, and many more will create a golden path for developing outstanding mobile or applications.
How Did Hyena Pick The Right Mobile App Development Stack?
Hyena.ai has vast experience in developing software, web, and world-class mobile applications for android and iOS. Based on our software application development experience, we suggest our patrons use the right development stack to enhance the quality, performance, appearance of app projects.
Whether you develop native apps or cross-platform apps to build an app that meets end-user needs, we focus on app requirements and UI complexity level to choose the right technology stack.
Being the top mobile apps development company, we focus on our client business objectives, their targeted audience size, and project goals as well.
Such research will assist leading mobile app developers (in the USA) in creating to make their client’s project more customer-centric and aids them in developing enterprise profitable mobile applications.
