Mobile cross-platform frames are designed to build mobile applications on more than one platform. Most, if not all of the common cross-platform frames have support Android and iOS development. There are following frameworks as discussed in detail below with their respective advantages and disadvantages:
1. Ionic: Ionic is an Angular and Apache-Cordova cross-platform system. It helps you to build applications for more than one mobile platform. An application will work for both iOS and Android on the Ionic cross-platform system. Ionic apps have been created and are built like web apps using standard web technologies such as HTML, CSS and Angular. But Cordova, depending on it, makes it possible to use the native features of the unit. Various advantages and disadvantages of Ionic are discussed below:
Advantages
• As a company owner, you not only need to employ two sets of software developers, but you can use your current web development team to create a mobile app for your audience.
• It saves time and expense by using the Ionic production system.
• Ionic uses web technology, so working with them is easy.
Disadvantages
• In comparison to native apps, ionic apps are less effective.
• Ionic is not the best choice to create apps with high requirements for graphics processing.
2. Xamarin: In 2016, Microsoft purchased and opened Xamarin from its owners. Xamarin is a C#-based cross-platform architecture that takes a particular approach for designing cross-platform applications. Unlike hybrid frameworks, which use web technologies, it compiles the individual platforms into native code. Various advantages and disadvantages of Xamarin are discussed below:
Advantages
• Apps that are built using Xamarin have little or no difference as compared to native app output.
• Xamarin helps to create rich UI experiences.
• Xamarin will only share about 90 percent of the codebase for all platforms for you to build the user interface separately for each platform.
• A standard UI can be built across all Xamarin Forms platforms.
Disadvantages
• Xamarin implementations are typically very wide. A simple Android app "Hello World" could take around 16mb.
• Xamarin developers do need some knowledge of their mother tongues. For iOS and Kotlin/Java for Android, Swift/Objective-C.
• While Xamarin itself is free, IDE used for production can be very costly for businesses.
• The incorporation of third-party libraries into Xamarin is often a concern. Although Xamarin tools and libraries provide complete support for native technologies, Xamarin may not be provided by a vendor.
3. React Native: React Native is a Facebook mobile platform for the development of mobile applications. It is developed on JavaScript and ReactJS. Contrary to hybrid applications, React Native also uses online technology internally. The web views are not included. It uses actual components of Android or iOS to create user interfaces. It has XML like JSX (JavaScript-XML) for the creation of the user interface. React Native then calls for the platform-specific native rendering APIs, i.e. Rendering the programme on the screen with Swift and Java. Various advantages and disadvantages of React native are discussed below:
Advantages
• Respond Native's creation of software saves time. It has a "Hot Reload" feature which lets you view code changes on the phone right away.
• Like Ionic, a new group of developers is not needed to be employed. With React Native, web developers can easily migrate to mobile applications.
• Several ready-made components can be used for production.
• React native-built applications are fast and comparable in compiling them to native code, with native app results.
Disadvantages
• The output is not like that of native apps, as with other cross platform apps. No issue with easy applications. However, applications that require advanced features would develop problems.
• Apps developed with React Native may have memory management problems due to their JavaScript history.
• Apart from the React Native team ready-made parts, third-party vendors exist. But the components that they create most frequently appear to be inferior. There are a lot of bugs and malfunctions sometimes.
4. Flutter: Flutter is a Google-developed mobile user interface to create a beautiful and interactive interface that takes another approach to cross-platform creation. Unlike hybrid apps that make use of web views, or React Native apps that use native components, Flutter apps fully compile to native code. This native ARM-code compilation means that there is no layer between the system and the CPU that makes apps that are entirely native to Flutter. Flutter can do this by using its own graphics engine called Skia, a popular Google-owned 2D graphics engine. Flutter is developed with a Dart programming language that is object oriented. Various advantages and disadvantages of flutter are discussed below:
Advantages
• Flutter apps are very fast at about 60 fps (frames per second). There are even measurements by some developers in Germany of 120 fps.
• As usual, a single codebase means time and money is saved.
• As with React Native above, Flutter also gives ability to see changes made in code, the instance which is made on mobile hardware, emulator or simulator. This also makes debugging the app much easier.
• Flutter is open source. So is Dart and its graphics engine- Skia.
Disadvantage
• Developers have to learn a new language as Flutter doesn’t make use of any previously known language. Although Dart is fairly easy to pick up and this isn’t really an issue.
• Games and apps that require a lot of device-specific functions are better off not developed with flutter.
There are many items that rely on knowing the right structure to use. The best choice is to create a game or app that needs a significant number of device-specific functions. However, if your mobile app is reasonably simple, cross-platforming is the best choice because it saves time and money.
