List of Best Cross-Platform Tools to Choose For Mobile Apps & Games Development

Cross Platform App Development

TechsPlace | An idea for building the most amazing app just came to your mind! You are probably confused: Whether to choose, iOS or Android platform?

However, the intelligent question should be: Why to choose?

Both the platforms are great, for different and equal reasons. It is advantageous to choose one platform and build a great native experience around it, especially in case of Consumer apps. Each platform comprises millions of users who are looking for fluid app experiences.

Building native applications are advantageous, but a creative and well-built cross platform mobile app will make that advantage seem small.

You can create the apps for both platforms by choosing a cross platform that suits your requirement. It carries own set of advantage, primarily,  users on more than one platform can easily access your product or service.

What is Cross Platform app development?

A process of developing the applications by using basic programming language for all the platforms is called Cross Platform app development. Its main advantage is that a large amount of coding can be shared between the platforms and the app interface can have the same quality like that of the Objective-C, Swift or Java. However, it will depend on the Cross Platform framework, you choose to build the application. In the end, you’ll be saving lots of precious time and money as you won’t be writing different codes ( from scratch) for an iOS and Android app.

It is expected that the Cross Platform app market will cross $7.5 million mark by 2018. The cross platform Mobile Apps and Game development tools are on the rise too.

Let me share the best cross-platform development tool for Mobile Apps and Game Development to code for Windows, iOS and Android, for the same time.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is built on Apache Cordova and is owned by Adobe. It is a free resource that can even be used by the novice app developers to translate the code from CSS, JavaScript and HTML5. The SDKs or Software Development Kits are maintained on their end for each of the platforms used to develop an app.  The framework is easy to handle and offers many libraries to work with. Beyond Android and iOS, it creates the apps for Windows and BlackBerry. A true cross platform mobile development tool.

Sencha

Sencha offers a number of a number of cross platform app development tools including Sencha Animator, Sencha Architect and more. Though, their primary product for app developers is EXT Js 6.0. Developers choose it as it can create HTML5 apps that works on handful of devices on varied platforms. It also boosts the productivity with the pre-built components, thereby saving a lot of time spent during writing a code. Once the code is developed, it can be transformed into native apps. The company proclaims that 60% of the Fortune 100 rely on Sencha. It is priced at $3,225 per year for up to 5 developers and $12,495 per year for up to 20 developers.

Xamarin

Xamarin is revered as one of the most amazing mobile development tool to create mobile applications for Android, Windows and iOS devices. Xamarin includes performance testing, monitoring and app store delivery. With the ability to test more than 1,000 devices virtually, Xamari ensures that everything is working fine, just like it should. With passage of time, Xamarin has seen exponential growth, generating the investment worth $54m. It utilizes C# or Ruby for code and has been adopted by big corporations like IBM, Dow Jones and more. Xamarin’s predecessor, Xamarin 2 offers developer a range of free and paid, user interface controls and  pre-built libraries with a cheesy pricing model. It’s business subscriptions start with $83 per month.

 Appcelerator

 Appcelerator is one of the most loved mobile development platforms that boost up the timeline to market with cross-platform testing and development. It enables the developers to write the JS with its Alloy MVC framework and provides simplified access to the data through optimized APIs. If you are working on a company data which is sensitive, Appcelerator offers a unique virtual private cloud option, especially for its enterprise customers. The tool offers real time mobile analytics, performance monitoring and management to measure results and engagements. Appcelerator Titanium is an extensible development platform offering easy development of native Android, iOS, Hybrid and BlackBerry apps. It is offered by an open-source SDK of more than 5000 devices and OS APIs. It is advised that you directly contact them for pricing.

Alpha Anywhere

If you as a developer looking for numerous options when it comes to a programming language like JavaScript, C#, VB.NET, C++, etc. look no further than Alpha Anywhere. It is an enterprise-focused solution that enables you to build apps for PCs, MACs and all major mobile platforms. It’s ‘built-in support for offline apps’ allows the developers to use the enterprise app even without the net connectivity. Not only this, its website offers a step-by-step guide (in the form of video) to assist the novice app developers thereby ensuring that they are on a right part. One year contract for Alpha Anywhere starts at $1,999. However, businesses can also choose to opt for one-month trial version at $199.

Conclusion

Being the part of one of the leading App development Companies India, I have to specify that cross platform mobile development is not as easy as writing the code. It takes a lot of courage to put it through a translation tool, and publishing it through the Android and iOS stores. A Cross-Platform mobile development tool is a great way to reduce cost and time associated with the app development on both the platforms. However, the User Interface needs to update to do the same.

As an organization or independent developer, you should choose the tool that meets the needs of use for your solution. The above-mentioned tools are all worthy. Choosing a perfect tool to boost the ability for delivering competitive web apps that suit your needs has to be quintessential.

What will you do? Will you develop an Android or iOS app first? Or choose one of the above-mentioned cross platforms?