12 Best Mobile App Development Tools

The prospects in the world of mobile app development has never been brighter with technologies getting smarter every coming day. Due to incredible breakthroughs and sensational innovations, the role of mobile apps is growing intense rapidly, becoming more engaging than ever.

Any company selling products or services and expecting exponential growth find it viable to build a dedicated mobile app that looks after their business goals. However, developing great mobile apps requires in-depth analysis of needs and resources to support the dream.

There are plenty of mobile app development tools and frameworks that can help you create app for single or multiple platforms. If you are willing to build an app from scratch, the following are the best app development tools for 2019.

1. Android Studio

Android presents unrepressed amount of opportunities for Android developers, with density of users owning Android smartphones hitting the peak.

Android studio is without a doubt a best Android app development tool in 2019 and is likely to stay like that in coming years. Android studio presents you with incredible resources, handy tools and other important features.

Updated regularly, Android studio gives you various design dimensions including dp, pt, mm, px, in, etc. You have Logcat, Dalvik, Manifest viewers built in this tool.

The neat status bar helps you get started quickly and lets your control permission manager for access management. Android studio is comprehensive with all required user-friendly developer settings that enable creating high-quality Android apps.

2. Xcode

Xcode is considered as the best iPhone app development tool for 2019 as it is wholeheartedly dedicated to helping iOS developers build impeccable, slick and highly engaging apps for Apple’s iOS platform.

Xcode comes with professional polished editor that lets you write flawless codes with advanced code completer, syntax highlighting and code folding.

It contains message bubble as well to give you warning of errors and code-related information so that you can correct or improve it in time. You can design and test the app UI and use its graphic debugger for more refined results.

Using iOS SDK, you can build cocoa touch apps which you can run and test in Mac simulator. Due to its rich features, Xcode must cross the mind of iOS developers.

3. Xamarin

Xamarin is compatible cross-platform framework based on C# that app developers can leverage. The best trait about the tool is that it allows users to work with native IDEs, APIs or languages.

This quality makes Xamarin a preferred choice of tool for building native applications. This wonderful tool enables data access across multiple platforms and reuses business logic layers.

This attribute of Xamarin gives developers a handsome advantage while implementing specific functions such as local data, offline capability, image recognition and more.

The framework is quite useful for creating apps for popular mobile platforms: Android, iOS and Windows.

The tool also allows developers to monitor quality and function tests run on a variety of devices, which improves development efficiency and results in more robust, reliable and scalable applications.

4. XOJO

XOJO is another grand option for developing apps for iPhone devices in 2019. Revered for its simplicity, the tool allows developers to work on building mobile apps faster and experience better efficiency. It works as a cross platform tool and has all the rich features as desired by a developer.

It provides generous support for graphics, DB servers, IPs so that you can build any kind of apps, bringing imagination to reality. The tool has minimum distractions which helps developers focus on essential elements for shaping outstanding apps. XOJO is a great option especially when it comes to building a brilliant app interface.

5. PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a versatile open-source app development tool from Adobe and is most sought after by new-age app developers because of its abundant benefits.

This tool allows you to create a single app that works on most all mobile device platforms like Android, iOS and Windows.

These apps also support other platforms including BlackBerry, iTouch, iPad and Symbian. This is the biggest advantage app developers have with PhoneGap.

The app built with this tool are compatible with HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3. The tool interacts best with native device elements such as GPS, camera, accelerometer, sound and more.

The framework has broad library of components that you can use to improve app functionality. Its immense flexibility saves time and efforts spent on building apps of great quality.

6. Appcelerator

Appcelerator is the name that itself hints at accelerating the app development process, and it does so by letting developers create apps with succinctly thin lines of code.

It is basically a Titanium platform popular on Twitter, which developers can leverage to build native apps for mobile platforms, desktop ad tablet devices.

It works well with JavaScript, HTMS, Ruby, PHP and Python languages. Appcelerator has a spoken reputation of powering more than one thousand native apps every month.

The tool is quite a preferred choice for many developers as it benefits them generously in the matter of location information and APIs and customizable metrics. It also offers real-time analytics for performance monitoring and finding issues.

7. NativeScript

NativeScript is an open-source app development tool to make Android and iOS mobile apps.

The tool is free to use and does not really confine your usage with a tier unlike a few other tools providers. All its advanced features can be utilized by anyone with app development skills.

You can build mobile apps for iOS and Android using Angular, JavaScript or even TypeScript along with NativeScript.  It has incredible ability to support hundreds of useful plugins that help extend the role of functionality. NativeScript is great for those who has previous app development experience and knowhow on command line.

8. Ionic

Ionic framework is CSS based development tool that works on many OS. Simple and easy-to-use, Ionic can also be integrated with Angular JS framework especially when there is a need to build more complicated, high-performance apps.

It is an open-source SDK that is widely used for making hybrid applications along with web technologies like HTML5 and CSS.

It has an expansive library of mobile-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components and tools. Uniqueness of its features and services and good community support makes Ionic a great framework for building interactive mobile applications.

9. GameMaker

GameMaker is a cross-platform videogame creation tool to develop intricate games that can be playable on different operating systems like iOS, Android, Mac and even on HTML web.

The tool offers an intuitive interface from where developers can easily manage and monitor all the relevant phases of mobile game app development.

Its unique features and amazing functionality makes it stand out from the other game makers technologies in the market.

GameMaker is a complete, simple and fully-fledged video game development tool that provides a range of options and intuitive flexibility to build fascinating games.

10. Monocross

Monocross is yet another open-source cross-platform mobile development framework with which you can build dazzling apps for Android smartphones and tablets, iPhone iOS and iPad systems, Windows, etc. It relies on C#, .NET and Mono framework in order to create mobile apps for multiple platforms.

Versatile and efficient, Monocross makes it easier to port apps across platforms and works nicely for any devices that are webkit-enabled.

We find the tool singular solution for mobile app development in 2019 because it helps businesses extract the best from the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of mobile platforms.

11. RAD studio

Quick, rapid and user-friendly, RAD studio is a great mobile app development solution especially for integrated build of modern apps.

It works surprisingly well with all sizes of target device screen and completes the mission quite speedily. Its speed for designing a better UI gets a boost from live data, making the development process a lot easier.

Depending on how UI design receives data, the tool helps build prototype in no time. Highly feature-rich, the tool also allows you to run your app’s UI on multiple Operating systems by means of flexible FireUI multi designer. RAD studio can therefore be considered as a terrific app development tool in 2019.

12. MoSync

MoSync comes handy for standard web programming and as an SDK tool for multi-platform mobile app development. The unique and most commendable aspect of the tool is its ability to offer generous libraries, compilers, device profiles, runtimes and many other vitals.

MoSync is quite compatible with programming languages including PHP, Python, JavaScript, Ruby and even Eclipse-based IDE for C/C++ programming.

Apart from Android and Windows, it also supports other popular operating systems like Symbian, Linux distro and Moblin. For these traits, MoSync becomes a considerable mobile app development tool for 2019.

Conclusion

These was the list of a few best mobile app development tools you can adopt for 2019. Efficient and unique, each of them has amazing potential to fulfill your project requirements and deliver an app for both Android and iOS. Hope you will find them usable in 2019 while building mobile apps with these tools.

14 Best Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Tools

Mobile applications are no more a luxury. They are now an everyday necessity. One of the biggest challenges that app developers faced earlier was creating applications that work well on multiple platforms. But not anymore, here we are sharing the top 9 Cross-Platform Mobile App Development tools that would help them in designing cutting edge and productive apps in short duration of time.

The latest app codes support the concept of write once, run anywhere (WORA). The developer writes code once on a platform, and run on multiple platforms. The purpose of such tools is to save time and effort on the part of the developer. Developers can reuse the code and can design apps that can work efficiently on multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, windows and much more.

1) Google’s Flutter:

Flutter is Google’s new cross-platform tool that lets you make native app for Android or iOS in a very short time. Perhaps a competitor for Xamarin, Flutter is written using Google’s dart language along with C++ runtime and also has a set of user interface widgets for both Android & iOS.

Eventhough you don’t have a previous mobile app development experience, Flutter is easy to use and fast in developing beautiful apps. The public beta of the tool has already released and Google has started internally working on a few apps with Flutter.

Pros:

  • Fast development
  • Expressive and highly flexible UI
  • Provide complete native performance on both Android and iOS

2) MoSync:

This is a complete rich, open source free cross-platform development SDK designed for the upcoming upcoming mobile app developers. Using this tool, you can create richer and faster mobile apps for Android, iOS and all other major platforms.

Pros:

  • A software development kit that can be used to develop apps using a single environment & C/C++ code base on OS X/Windows.
  • Can be seen as a virtual OS, where apps are created for universal use
  • Has a community that has a wide range of developers who together work in to take software development to the next level.

3) iFactr:

Without giving any compromises in app development, this tool is here to empower the app developers with plenty of rich features. In this case, you just need to concentrate on your app functionalities as iFactr handles complexities of making the app in any device.

Pros:

  • Accelerated app development
  • Reduce developmental cost
  • Compelling UI experiences
  • Support every platform
  • Can re-use code logic from any business

4) 5App:

Compared to other tools, this is quite unique as this mainly targets on businesses that develop apps for their employees. For coding it uses JavaScript and HTLM5 and has better emphasis on security to any enterprise system using standard API.

Pros:

  • It ensures that the users automatically have the latest version of software available
  • Brings the benefit of transactional management capabilities and workflow to design the perfect business mobile apps

5) Alpha Anywhere:

This tool mainly focuses on enterprises and can be used to create apps for various OS as well PC and Mac. Using JavaScript and HTML for coding, this tool also has the feature to work in offline mode. This multi-platform app development tool undoubtedly meets the need for better mobile experience without expense of native development.

Pros:

  • Build apps quickly
  • Vast library of tutorial make it easier for developers to make apps in no time
  • Includes reports, charting, mapping, GPS, video and image support, data connectivity etc.

6. Codename One:

Codename; this cross-device platform helps the developer in developing industry based applications. The platform supports rapid application development. The developer can write code in Java, the application will be tested & verified with Codename One’s simulator devices and test automation tools. The framework supports popular IDE’s like NetBeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA. The most interesting feature about its build server is, the developer can build native iOS apps as well as native Windows app without Mac machine or Windows PC. The platform is recommendable for developing iOS apps.

Cons: Codename graphic UI does not match the requirements of large projects and its visual themes are not updated. Another major flaw is, all the event handlers are stored in a single file, it makes development part more cumbersome.

7. PhoneGap:

This open source platform can make building cross platform apps a lot easier. The tool works best for mobile applications that do not rely on device’s native features for performance. A product of Adobe, one can use it to translate code from HTMT5, CSS, and JavaScript. The PhoneGapplatform allow the developers design app for platforms like iPhone, Android, Windows, and BlackBerry. This free resource is high in demand among the developers due to its features and support that it offers to the developers.

Cons: The only limitation in this tool is it is not suitable for graphic intensive apps.

8. Appcelerator:

This tool makes it possible for coders to create cross platform apps with fast speed. The tool deploys JavaScript codebase. The plus point of this tool is it is extensible and open. The developer can create apps for platforms like iOS, Android, and BlackBerry; it even supports HTML5 and hybrid apps. The Appceleratortool has an open-source SDK and it supports more than 5,000 devices and OS APIs, Eclipse-based IDE Studio, and the MVC framework Alloy.

Cons: The only disadvantage that we have come across so far about the tool is, its support team, especially developer community is slow in response.

9.Sencha Touch:

Sencha Touch, the platform is an ideal choice for a cross platform mobile app framework. The framework allows developers to build cutting edge apps using hardware acceleration techniques. What makes this highly recommendable among developers is it allows developers to develop well-tested apps, the framework is ideal for designing large business application. It offers built-in themes for every popular platform. Sencha Touch supports Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows platform.

Cons: The native looking themes are limited. The commercial licensing feature is not easy to comprehend.

10. Monocross:

If you target to build interactive and interesting apps for Smartphone and tablets, then Monocross is the framework is for you. This open source, cross platform framework supports C#, Microsoft, .NET and Mono framework. What makes this tool interesting is, it allows developer full access to the native device APIs while still coding in C#.

Cons: The document and support for Monocross framework are few in number on the internet, so developers may find them in a tricky situation while developing the app as they don’t have enough resources to learn about the framework.

11. Kony Mobile Platform

Here comes the platform that is laced with features like automatic coding, app preview facility, API connection along with various other surprising features. This Kony Mobile Platform lets developers to build multi platform mobile applications. It has pre-built apps, that make it easier for novices to develop an app easily.

Cons: The scarcity of documentation and resource support can create a peculiar situation for developers.

12. Native script:

Here is another wonderful open source platform for building cross platform compatible mobile apps. The framework provides native APIs in JavaScript. The developer can easily reuse the available plug-in npm directly in NativeScript projects. It provides support for Angular.js 2 and TypeScript.

Cons: The resources are not extensive, one may not find useful examples and documentation on each of its features.

13. Rhomobile

The Rhodomobile framework offers application tools to developers for developing multi-platform, native mobile users and enterprise applications.

RhoStudio comes along with a free Eclipse plug-in, it allows developers to generate, develop, debug and test applications, even in the absence of other hardware or emulator. Here developer can easily access an offline data with Rho Connects.

Cons: One of the biggest disadvantages with Rhomobile is Its RhoElements RFID plug-in is not freely available for Windows Mobile/CE.

And the number one is

14. Xamarin

Xamarin has made it possible for the developers to design native apps for multiple platforms using only C# code base. The tool allows developers to use same IDE, language, and APIs everywhere. The Xamarin cross platform development has been adopted by big names like Microsoft, Foursquare, IBM, and Dow Jones. If a developer wants to use Ruby or C#, then it is one of the most suitable development platforms for them. Xamarin platform allows the developer to share code that means an app can be created in a lesser time and in decreased cost.

Cons: The free version of Xamarin offers limited features and it does not allow a developer to use open-source libraries due to compatibility issues.

If you seek a cross platform compatible application for your business or looking for Xamarin app developers then Redbytes can be a right choice for you. Our team of developers has caliber and exposure to develop quality applications for different purposes.