Top 15 Mobile App Development Frameworks in 2024

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, the significance of mobile app development frameworks cannot be overstated. These frameworks have experienced a remarkable surge in demand over the past few decades, essentially driven by the need for businesses to establish a robust mobile presence. As mobile technology continues to reshape multiple industrial domains across the globe, businesses that embrace a mobile-first mindset are able to capture the attention of an increasingly mobile-centric society.

However, it’s crucial to recognize that entering the mobile market is just the beginning. The overall success in the cut-throat ecosystem depends on a deeper understanding of the customer needs. So, to pave the way for success and get maximum ROI, businesses need to be mindful of these needs and the subsequent development of digital solutions and applications that effectively address them.

Crafting a new mobile application demands a well-defined vision and a strategic approach that ultimately results in an app that resonates with its target audience. So, what is the first thing that comes to mind when discussing mobile app development?

The sure-shot answer is the mobile app development frameworks to use. This selection lays the foundation for the entire process, which includes determining the application’s efficiency, scalability, and overall success. Hence, when choosing the mobile app development frameworks for your project, the idea should revolve more around leaving a lasting impact in an increasingly mobile-driven world and less around creating just an app.

This blog will help you understand the best mobile application development frameworks for your business in 2024. In addition to looking at the trending frameworks, we will help you choose the appropriate one per your business needs. So, without further ado, let’s start by understanding a bit about mobile app development frameworks and the types of mobile apps available for businesses.

What Are Mobile App Development Frameworks?

Mobile app development frameworks are reusable and efficient solutions that streamline the creation of feature-rich mobile applications. They aim to expedite the mobile app development process, ensuring effectiveness and speed. They also enable the development of applications that can seamlessly operate across multiple platforms using a single, unified codebase.

Mobile app development frameworks are comprehensive and include essential elements, such as the application’s core structure and necessary software development kits (SDKs). These frameworks provide a toolkit that consists of crucial tools like programming interfaces, compilers, API tools, debugging utilities, code libraries, and prebuilt solutions, among others.

Simply put, a mobile app development framework is the foundational infrastructure for creating mobile applications for specific environments and platforms.

Types of Mobile Application Development Frameworks

Mobile development frameworks categorically fall into three distinct categories, namely mobile web app frameworks, native frameworks, and hybrid frameworks. Developers create the application’s source code, and the mobile framework harnesses the various components to generate the application. This ensures compatibility of the app across multiple mobile devices.

Native Frameworks: These frameworks are designed for platform-specific development, provide direct access to a device’s hardware, and offer the best performance but require separate coding for each platform (e.g., iOS and Android).

Mobile Web App Frameworks: These frameworks focus on web-based applications accessible through mobile browsers. They offer cross-platform compatibility but may have limited access to device features.

Hybrid Frameworks: These combine elements of both web and native development, allowing for cross-platform development with a single codebase. Businesses must understand that they may sacrifice some performance compared to native apps.

According to Grand View Research, the global mobile application market was valued at $206.85 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $567.19 billion in 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 13.8% from 2023 to 2030. The mobile app development framework market is surging due to the widespread use of smartphones, the need for cross-platform compatibility, faster time-to-market, and enhanced productivity.

Thus, now is the right time to choose suitable mobile app platforms for your project to capitalize on this explosive market growth and help you dominate the dynamic digital landscape.

Top 15 Mobile App Development Frameworks

Modern mobile app development frameworks offer speed, efficiency, and a bug-free environment by leveraging elements like compilers and debugging tools. Now, it is vital to understand that partnering with a reputable mobile app development company enhances the creation of fast, responsive, and user-friendly mobile apps, streamlining the development process. Let us now look at multiple mobile application development frameworks in detail below:

Adobe PhoneGap

The PhoneGap framework for mobile app development enables people to see changes instantly. Moreover, it is a cross-platform development framework that allows app developers to develop in Javascript, HTML5, and CSS languages. This is the reason why it is one of the first choices for those developers who are interested in building hybrid apps.

The apps that are developed using Adobe PhoneGap not only ensure high-quality performance but also allow mobile app developers to develop apps without any hardware limitations. In addition to the standard Android and iOS platforms, it is one of the mobile development frameworks that can create robust apps for operating systems like Windows, BlackBerry, Mac OS, Ubuntu, and Firefox.  Additionally, the developers can extend its functionality by adding plugins that are associated with this framework.

Ionic

Ionic is a highly popular and free framework for mobile app development. It is a front-end network that helps to build native-like mobile apps with HTML, CSS3, and Javascript. It works optimally on the latest mobile devices available and provides the best possible environment for the app to hit the market in the desired way.

An Ionic market is an online place where templates and projects developed by other developers can be downloaded. The Ionic lab components ensure that you test your app on the most popular platforms, Android and iOS.

The mobile app development platform has other advantages, such as working with a powerful SDK called Angular. Because of its ability to build native-like mobile apps, Ionic is a great framework for PWA development. It works well with PhoneGap, Trigger.io, and Cordova projects, along with the accessibility of efficient core architecture, fitting simple to complex types of apps.

Xamarin

Xamarin is one of the mobile development frameworks that is owned by Microsoft. With the help of the C# codebase, app developers can use Xamarin tools to develop Android, iOS, and Windows apps. These codes can be shared across multiple platforms, including Windows and Mac OS.

It is also one of the 5 Must-Try Open Source Mobile Web App Frameworks, even when the React Native vs. Xamarin comparison is in the picture.

Intel XDK

Intel XDK is a cross-platform mobile app development framework for every app store. It helps you build apps with plugins, responsive apps, interactive apps, and web services for any device. This best framework for mobile apps helps developers develop, test, emulation, debug, and finally publish the app. They have been making developments in the framework lately, and now they have software support for IoT apps.

Intel XDK is one of the frameworks for app development that provides a live preview of the changes you are making while developing the application. There is also a drag and drop option to create apps, which is easy, although it creates numerous unnecessary codes.

React Native

React Native is one of the best frameworks for mobile app development and is giving competition to Xamarin and Native Scripts. It was developed by Facebook and is used by Airbnb, Instagram, Tesla, Walmart, and many other Fortune 500 companies.

Being one of the famous mobile app development technologies, React Native uses the same UI building blocks as Android and iOS development frameworks. This is why it becomes difficult to differentiate between an app built using React Native and an app built using Objective-C.

There have been debates on React Native vs. Ionic quite often since both are top preferred frameworks. But one of them is more liked. Because of its rich UI, the React Native framework gets so much attention from both businesses as well as the developers. It helps you build an app with great performance using the JavaScript framework, which has changed the scenario of the development world.

According to Statista, more than 32% of developers preferred to use React Native in 2022, making it the second most popular mobile app development framework after Flutter.

Flutter

Flutter came unannounced and became one of the best hybrid mobile app development frameworks. What makes Flutter app development unique is that it uses a 2D rendering engine known as Skia to create visuals.

According to a developer survey, Flutter stands out as the top choice among global developers for cross-platform mobile framework usage, with 46% adoption rate.

These visuals are made to look like Material Design and Cupertino-style widgets, but in reality, they are not. The framework allows ease of testing to developers without restarting the project if any error occurs.

Although backed by Google, Flutter is not just one of the popular Android frameworks for app development but is also suitable for iOS apps. This framework lets you build cross-platform apps for iOS and Android that can be run on any device. It uses the programming language, Dart.

Corona SDK

Corona SDK provides ten times faster development than any other mobile framework. This is because the Corona backend is supported by Lua, which is a lightweight programming language that focuses mainly on speed, flexibility, and ease of usage.

This framework for mobile app development is great for those who want to code fast and still maintain the quality of apps. The framework is free of cost and can be used to build on all platforms supporting Windows and Mac OS X.

Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a great hybrid mobile web app framework. It is especially good for those who prefer Bootstrap and Angular. Mobile Angular UI combines Bootstrap and Angular framework that lets you build using HTML5.

In one of our previous blogs on React vs. Angular: Which is The Best JavaScript Framework, we discussed why it is better to use AngularJS over react native regarding performance boost. It is vital to understand that Angular gives good server-side support and supports complex apps with ease.

This mobile app development software framework allows developers to use fastclick.js and overthrow.js for a smooth mobile experience. This framework is free and available to be used under the name of MIT.

Native Scripts

Listed among the best Android frameworks, Native Scripts is backed by a Bulgarian software company, Telerik and was created by Progress. The apps built with Native Scripts use the same APIs as they were built using Xcode or Android Studio.

The official website of Native Scripts continuously provides resources and tutorials for budding developers to learn to work in this framework like a pro.

JQuery Mobile

JQuery is an HTML5 framework for mobile apps. The greatest advantage of mobile app development for JQuery lies in the fact that just one version of the code is developed, and it can run across all devices. Irrespective of whatever is built using this framework, either website or app, it runs not only across all devices but also in a variety of operating systems such as Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows, and Firefox Mobile, as well as Kindle, Nook, and MeeGo.

It is possible to download JQuery either as a custom download or the latest stable version. JQuery is an ideal choice when there is a need for rapid development of apps with the plugins that come with the app.

Framework7

Framework7 emerges as a prominent contender among the top-tier mobile app development frameworks for 2024. Renowned for its comprehensive suite of tools and resources, Framework7 empowers developers to craft sophisticated and high-performance mobile applications effortlessly.

This free framework for mobile app development can be used to develop hybrid apps for Android and iOS. It uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with ease during app development. It provides some extraordinary features such as supports multiple viewing, library agnostic, native scrolling, caching, browser history, etc.

With an extensive array of UI components and seamless integration capabilities with popular JavaScript libraries like Vue.js and React, Framework7 facilitates the development of sleek, responsive applications that deliver a native-like user experience across diverse devices.

This framework also helps in building a quick prototype for an app. This comes as a great advantage to mobile app development companies when they have to show the clients a rough idea of the project.

Appcelerator Titanium

Appcelerator Titanium uses a mix of both PhoneGap and Xamarin. This mobile app framework uses JavaScript to write codes and supports Android and iOS development frameworks. However, it does not come with CSS and HTML. To use Titanium, start with the Titanium studio, which comes with its own Titanium SDK and platform-independent APIs.

It uses Alloy to develop faster. This also makes it easy to reuse the apps, which reduces time and cost.

The developers can send data models effectively through Appcelerator Titanium as it offers a schema-less data set, ArrowDB. It significantly focuses on smoothing out the components of the mobile application framework with the help of the native components.

Sencha Touch

Enterprises usually prefer Sencha Touch as it has a wide range of products to work with. ExtJS is the main JavaScript used for development and gives the apps a rich look and high performance. It has ready-to-use tools for all platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry.

Sencha Touch is one of the mobile app development technologies that also provides a drag-and-drop option for visual app builders for ease of development. It is one of the best frameworks to achieve a high-performing app with great visuals.

Swiftic

Swiftic is one of the best mobile app development frameworks in 2024, accessible on the iOS platform. It has the feature of an effectively navigable interface. Utilizing Swiftic is an advantageous alternative as you get a 30-day money-back promise option for every one of its plans. In addition, it has an additional half-year of success scheme. In the event that you don’t get any outcome from it, then a half-year service is free.

Some significant features of Swiftic that makes it one of the preferable technologies for mobile app development includes:

• Push notifications
• In-app coupons
• Loyal shopper with a loyalty card
• Scratch cards for prizes
• Customer Engagement
• Social & Media Feeds
• App Publication Assistance
• Advanced Analytics
• Third-party integration

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova is a powerful framework that utilizes HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, making it highly favored by developers. It enables the creation of visually impressive and user-friendly applications through its efficient prototyping capabilities. This framework is both cross-platform and hybrid, offering exceptional developer-friendliness and a strong community support system. Cordova achieves the impressive feat of wrapping HTML/JS apps in native containers, allowing access to device functions on multiple platforms.

Key features of the framework include the ability to support multiple platforms with a single codebase, access to native device APIs, a wide range of plugins, and the ability to expedite the development of hybrid apps.

How to Choose the Best Mobile App Framework for Your Business?

It is a fact that no single engineer can accomplish every one of the objectives of an organization. As a leading mobile app development company, we understand the trade-offs of every platform, and that’s why we are providing you with the know-how of how you should choose a mobile app framework.

• Make sure you know what’s the purpose of your app
• Take note whether your app requires local storage or online cloud storage
• Gain knowledge about the level of encryption needed for the data stored in mobile
• Know what device features have to be integrated
• What OS capabilities are required within your app

Being a dedicated development firm, we have more than eight years of expertise in creating robust mobile applications using multiple frameworks including Flutter, React Native, Ionic and more.

Our AI-based recruitment app, JobGet is especially designed to transform the employment landscape by slashing the job search time for blue-collar workers to half. The revolutionary app was able to secure  $52 million in series B funding.

We also pride ourselves in developing Edfundo, the world’s first financial literacy and money management app, using native Android and iOS application-based solutions supported by a highly scalable NodeJs backend. Awarded as the Best FinTech Startup in 2022 at Seamless Awards, the mobile app was able to bag 500K in pre-seed funding.

We also developed and launched seven food delivery apps for KFC within a year using open-source technologies, including NodeJS, Aerospike, and Magento. The apps helped the brand in bolstering their digital presence globally and increasing the conversion rate by a massive 22%.

If you wish to learn more about mobile app development frameworks that can help you thrive in the industry, contact our team at Appinventiv, and we will guide you through the entire app development process. We will be more than happy to provide you feedback on your app ideas.

FAQs

Q. What are the key mobile application development frameworks to focus on in 2024?

A. In 2024, it’s essential to focus on React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Swiftic, Ionic, Apache Cordova, and jQuery Mobile, as these frameworks remain crucial for mobile app development.

Q. Which mobile app development framework is the most widely used?

A. React Native is among the most popular choices in the software industry, allowing businesses to create apps for both Android and iOS.

Q. Which is the most user-friendly mobile app development framework?

A. Framework7 is user-friendly and open-source, enabling the creation of native-looking apps for Android, iOS, and desktop using web technologies like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.

Q. Which mobile app development frameworks support cross-platform app development?

A. Mobile app development frameworks like React Native, Ionic Framework, Node.js, Xamarin, NativeScript, Adobe PhoneGap, and Flutter have excellent cross-platform app development capabilities.

Q. What are the recommended frameworks for native app development?

A. NativeScript, React Native, and Xamarin are accessible frameworks for building native apps across various platforms and operating systems.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director