5 Mobile App Development Tools for 2023

With the new year around the corner, business owners are considering new ways to add to their bottom line.  Considering the high ROI from mobile apps, it’s highly possible they may want one developer. However – which mobile app development tools and platforms should you use?

There are numerous mobile app development tools, services, and technology that are used for creating applications across different platforms. And choosing the right one is important to build cross-platform apps quicker and cost-effectively.

To help you make the right decision, here’s a quick look at five of the best tools you should consider.

1) React Native

Despite being a relative newcomer, React Native is one of the popular mobile app development tools. In fact, it’s used to develop apps for major players like Walmart, UberEATS, and Airbnb.

The framework allows you to build natively-rendered mobile apps using ReactJS. The latter is a JavaScript code library that was created and is maintained by Facebook.

So, what makes React Native so popular? In addition to helping create cross-platform apps with better user experience than most options, this tool offers these benefits.

• Quicker Development Time – Developers use JavaScript to code, then React Native takes care of creating platform-specific versions. This cuts development time in almost half.
• Improved Developer Productivity – The platform has many productivity features such as hot reloading and integrated components. These eliminate interruptions and create a productive developer experience.
• Better End Products – As developers are more focused and engaged, the app created will be good (if not great).
• Lower Cost – React Native apps come with a relatively lower cost thanks to efficient development and less work involved. You can even expect to work towards ROI quicker due t shorter time to market.

2) Swiftic

Formerly known as Como, Swiftic has helped create over 1 million apps since 2010. It was mostly used for developing apps for business owners who wish to promote their work and engage customers. In fact, it’s still one of the popular mobile app development tools for small businesses.

However, the tool has evolved a lot since then. It’s considered one of the leading no-code frameworks, helping create highly-functional and user-optimized apps. Other benefits you can expect with this tool are:

• Numerous Profitable Features – By using this development tool, you can leverage profitable features such as unlimited push notifications and analytics.
• Emphasis on UI and UX – The platform comes with multiple user interface (UI) modules. That way, developers can build apps that are optimized for performance. Good UI further ensures users interact with the app and access its services.
• Integration of Loyalty Programs – Developers can add advanced business features such as customer loyalty programs. This helps businesses that wish to provide coupons and loyalty apps via mobile apps.
• Developer Support – In addition to having a user-friendly interface, Swiftic doesn’t require developers to become overwhelmed with coding. They can easily create push notifications, integrate third-party services, and much more.

3) NativeScript

NativeScript has been giving React Native a lot of competition. This open-source framework is used to build native mobile applications for both iOS and Android deices.

What makes this one of the top mobile app development tools for 2023 is its personalized tech stack. NativeScript is built with JavaScript-related language and supports frameworks like Vue.js and Angular. Its developers can also re-purpose third-party libraries from the likes of Maven without wrappers.

What makes apps such as Buzzfeed, Livestream, and Skype use this tool are benefits such as –

• Native App Performance – Especially for Android, NativeScript can deliver platform-specific user experience and quick performance without undermining reusability.
• Support for Angular, Vue.js, and Svelte– NativeScript can easily be used with Angular, Vue.js, or Svelte stack. This saves time and effort as well.
• Own Official Marketplace – This tool has its own official marketplace rather than a third-party one for plugins and libraries. As a result, issues related to third-party plugins and their unpleasant consequences are removed.
• Lower Learning Curve – The code is quite simple and doesn’t require much effort to learn and work with it. Especially if you’re familiar with JavaScript. You can also reach out to other NativeScript developers for community support.

4) Flutter

Like NativeScript, Flutter is an open-source development kit from Google. As a cross-platform development framework, it ensures fast and effective performance. Moreover, it provides consistent visuals regardless of platform.

What else makes Flutter one of the top mobile app development tools for 2023? Here are four reasons.

• Cost-Effective Development – Flutter’s single codebase allows developers to build apps that can run on mobile, desktop, web, and even embedded devices. This reduces the turnaround time for building mobile apps for multiple platforms. It further lowers the cost of development, testing, quality assurance, and maintenance.
• Reduced Time to App Development – With easy-to-access and ready to use app widgets, Flutter can reduce development time. Especially as developers won’t need to write codes for every widget.
• Easy Language and Accessible Tools and Extensions – Developers with experience in JavaScript can easily switch to Dart, which is the language Flutter uses. While coding, they have access to functional plugins and can find more in Pub.dev.
• Hot Reloading – Because of the Hot Reloading/Hot Restart feature, developers can see changes in code and the app development process simultaneously. This helps them fix bugs faster while trimming down the reloading time on simulators and hardware.  

5) Ionic

Ionic has been gaining traction as one of the popular mobile app development tools. Used for apps like MarketWatch and McDonald’s, it has over 5 million developers.

The cross-platform, open-source framework allows developers to build hybrid apps. It’s based on a host of web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Because of the latter, its web components can be used with any JavaScript framework like Angular and React.

What makes Ionic so popular is its developer-friendliness. Developers won’t need to learn a new language to build software for a different platform. Other advantages include:

• Platform-specific Style – Apps’ components can be easily stylized according to the platform on which they run. Ionic has separate modes for each platform, modifying color, theme, and global variables.
• Wide Range of Integrations and Plugins – It’s quite easy to link an Ionic app with different tools such as analytical equipment and payment systems. There are also numerous plugins that help with hardware integration and you can purchase Ionic Enterprise to use Premier plugins.
• Testing Convenience – You can use the device’s browser to test Ionic apps, making the testing process convenient. You can later use a device or emulation for testing native functionality.  

Ready to Ring the New Year by Using these 5 Mobile App Development Tools?

Whether you’re a budding or seasoned developer, using the above will give you a competitive advantage. And if you’re looking for an, check out our open positions to join us.

A curious business mind with an idea for an app or the drive to become an appreneur? We can guide you on how to make a mark in the mobile app market. So, get in touch with us through the form below.