If you are a mobile app developer, you may have encountered the difficulty of selecting the appropriate hybrid mobile app development languages for your project.
According to a StackOverflow survey, Swift and Kotlin are the top languages for iOS and Android development, respectively. However, there are other dominant languages.
Which hybrid mobile app development languages should you use?
To make things easier for you, we’ve produced an article that covers hybrid mobile app development languages. Additionally, we included the pros and cons of each language. Let’s get started.
Hybrid Mobile App Development Languages List
1. Xamarin
Xamarin is a commercial app development tool for creating cross-platform applications. Xamarin was founded by the creators of the open-source development platform Mono and acquired by Microsoft in 2016. Since its acquisition, Microsoft has made its SDK open source, and as a result, Xamarin has become one of the most popular app development platforms.
All of Xamarin’s apps are coded in C#. Coding with Xamarin is comparable across all app platforms. C# coding enables Xamarin to be used.Net provides native API access for its apps.
Pros
- Singular Technology: Because Xamarin employs C# based on the.NET foundation for all mobile applications, more than 95% of the code may be reused across platforms.
- Performance is comparable to a native app: Compared to other hybrid solutions, Xamarin performs similarly to Java and Swift-C apps. Its visual studio is also useful for app development, testing, and measuring performance.
- Hardware Support: Xamarin apps interface with hardware via plugins and particular APIs, resulting in exceptional functionality.
- Comprehensive Development Ecosystem: Unlike other platforms, Xamarin has a comprehensive development environment that includes all areas of app development while also providing excellent technical support. Xamarin already supports wearable and IoT apps, as well as regular apps.
Cons
- Limited access to technologies: While native development uses a wide range of open-source technologies, Xamarin requires you to use those given by the platform.
- Costs: Xamarin for professionals and businesses is more expensive than other development platforms.
- Lack of experienced developers: Unlike its competitors, Xamarin has a small talent pool because many professionals prefer other options.
2. React Native
Facebook developed React Native, which is the most popular hybrid app development platform among developers. ReactJS, a web interface development platform, was first launched in 2013.
The first React Native build, designed exclusively for hybrid app development, was released in 2015. In June 2019, Facebook released the first stable build of React Native.
React Native apps are built by merging procedures for native app development and interface creation, with JavaScript serving as the coding language. React Native, like Xamarin, may leverage native device APIs to provide exceptional functionality.
Pros
- JavaScript is a popular, quick, and easy-to-learn language. This translates into the existence of a sizable developer community.
- React Native, like Xamarin, may exploit device characteristics to achieve performance that is nearly identical to that of a native app.
- React Native is less expensive than its competitors.
- The UI of React Native is simple and easy to understand.
- React Native allows third-party plugins, allowing for greater customization of apps built with it.
Cons
- Lack of documentation and expertise: Because React Native is a new technology with a large number of inexperienced developers, there is an acute shortage of standards, documentation, and knowledge. Finding good developers for the platform is often difficult.
- Limited Third-Party Solutions: While React Native includes several third-party plugins and apps, they are limited and are designed for the present build of React Native. There is a strong chance that these solutions will stop working when a new version of Native is published.
- Instability and compatibility difficulties: As stated above, apps built using React Native are prone to instability and may even have compatibility issues.
3. PhoneGap/Apache Cordova
Nitobi produced Apache Cordova, which was previously known as Phone Gap, back in 2009. As one of the earlier app development platforms, it was as popular in certain circles as PhoneGap.
Adobe purchased PhoneGap in 2011 and renamed it to its current name. Cordova, on the other hand, had a constraint that required developers to use a Mac for iOS apps and a Windows machine for Windows apps.
Current versions, however, offer cross-platform app builds thanks to what Adobe refers to as a ‘cloud compiler’. Cordova renders source code using CSS and HTML5, while code logic is implemented in JavaScript. The code is then passed via the ‘cloud compiler’, which builds the app.
Pros
- HTML5 is very popular: That alone earns Cordova a brownie point. The use of HTML5 opens Cordova to a large audience of developers who wish to try their hands at app development.
- Designing is easy: App design is often more difficult than the underlying functionality of an app. Cordova streamlines the app’s design.
- Fast development: Developing apps with Cordova is faster, easier, and takes less time.
- Plugins: Cordova receives a large number of plugins, and its community continues to release new ones, much to the satisfaction of developers.
Cons
- Apps are slow: Cordova apps are noticeably slower. Cordova lags behind its competitors due to linguistic differences in rendering and logic, as well as a lack of direct access to native APIs and features.
- Lack of support from enterprises: While Cordova is popular among small firms and receives excellent ratings from developers, larger industry-specific businesses prefer to shy away from Cordova.
- Better suited for app prototypes: Cordova is better suited for organizations that want to prototype apps to evaluate the viability of an idea.
- Cordova has become a niche product: With 84% of small enterprises using it, it has identified a place for itself, and Adobe is unlikely to forsake that niche.
4. Flutter
Flutter is a truly future-proof hybrid development platform. It was released just over a month ago, in July, and is Google’s massive response to the hybrid app market. While it is still new, suggesting it will set a new standard is an understatement.
Designed exclusively for Google Fuchsia, Flutter’s defining feature is its ability to create apps across multiple platforms with a single codebase. Flutter uses its own programming language, DART, which is a blend of Java and Kotlin.
Pros
- Extreme cross-platform capability: While Flutter is primarily built for Fuchsia, it is also compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, and other systems. Its cross-platform compatibility is unparalleled.
- Tried and tested: Flutter is used by both Google and Alibaba for certain of their functions.
- Outstanding Speed: App speed on Flutter is outstanding, especially for a hybrid app framework.
- Seamless UI design: Flutter apps have a wonderful feel and futuristic design aspects are simple to integrate.
Cons
- Limited community: Currently, the only ‘experts’ in Flutter are employees from Google and Alibaba. The Flutter community is small and will take time to grow.
- New Platform: Work on the framework’s real-world application continues. It will take time to break the software and evaluate its full potential. Flutter is like the new child on the street who turns out to be a prodigy. It will take time to see if he is worth all the hoopla.
- Apps are large: Apps developed with Flutter are 40% larger than native versions.
5. Ionic
Ionic is one of the metaphorically ‘older’ app development platforms. More than 5 million apps have been created since its launch in 2013 as a hybrid app development platform.
Ionic supports cross-platform development, with unique UI elements for each platform. Ionic is an npm package that requires Node.js in a JavaScript environment.
Pros
- Singular Codebase: Like the others, Ionic has a single codebase, which simplifies development.
- Abundance of UI components: Because UI styling differs between platforms, Ionic gives a good array for selecting the appropriate components. The list is very remarkable.
- Excellent documentation: Ionic has a distinguished community, and its documentation is nearly unrivaled. There are exhaustive explanations for every available feature.
- Strong community: The Ionic community is experienced, supportive, and positive. Simply ask the community each time you encounter a wall.
Cons
- Ionic falls short when it comes to bigger apps: it cannot match the speed of other hybrid apps. The app’s speed decreases as it becomes more complicated.
- Depends on plugins: Ionic has too many plugins for its apps, which may degrade their speed.
- No hot reloading: Hot reloading enables you to make changes in real-time. It is a standard feature of many frameworks. However, Ionic does not support hot reloading.
Conclusion
All of the choices of the finest hybrid mobile app development languages provided in this guide are solid and valid choices to consider. They all have pros and cons. Additional programming languages for mobile app development include Python for server-side programming, among others.
You simply need to determine what is best for you, your organization, and your objectives.
- What type of application are you developing?
- What does the application require?
- Where do you want to put the greatest effort?
- Do you want to create it once or several times?
- What mobile device will the end user be using?
- Do you build for several platforms?
The above questions are what you should ask yourself to figure out where your time, effort, and resources are best spent. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you can get the greatest app to market as soon as feasible.