Top 10 Mobile App Development Frameworks for 2021

More often than not, people in 2020 are using their phones to access the web. Software development companies have, rightfully, exploited this and will continue to do so in 2021. There’s no doubt that the year ahead of us will come with a huge number of new apps, and in this post, we will go over the best frameworks for software development.
Speaking of app development frameworks, they can be clustered into three broad groups: native, web-based, and hybrid. Native apps are specifically developed for a single platform. Web-based apps are more suited for different web-based platforms. On the other hand, the hybrid app development framework allows an app to be developed simultaneously for various platforms.

Let’s now go over some of the best mobile application development frameworks for 2021.

1. Flutter

Flutter can be the right choice for developers who don’t want to struggle too much when developing a new mobile app. Designed and developed by Google, this is a very popular UI framework that makes the process of developing a cross-platform application for Android and iOS extremely easy while also being cost-effective. Flutter revolves around what they call widgets, of which they have a vast repository. You can create pretty much anything you like quickly and easily. Google Ads, Space X Go are some of the popular web-based apps developed using Flutter.

2. React Native

React Native is a cross-platform application development framework. Also, it’s one of the most widely used web-based frameworks. React Native runs on JavaScript and can be used to develop both Android and iOS apps alike. Developed by Facebook, it’s a very commonly used open-source framework. Some of the popular apps developed using React Native are Instagram and SoundCloud.

3. Xamarin

Xamarin is suitable for app development in Android, iOS, and Windows, as it’s supported by .NET. Xamarin has a large online community that can help you get anything done should you encounter any trouble when developing. Xamarin was recently acquired by Microsoft, which means that it’s got huge support behind it. Of course, Xamaris is open-source, which gives you open hands. Alaska Airlines is an example of an application built using Xamarin.

4. Ionic

Ionic is powered by its command-line interface, and as such, it’s extremely convenient when it comes to cross-platform application development using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript for Android or iOS. Ionic is based on AngularJS, which means that the framework is best suited for fast development with a great UI experience. A popular application built with Ionic is Market Watch, which helps screening stocks and gaining knowledge and insights about the market. That’s just one example of a rich and powerful application that has been built using Ionic.

5. Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI might be a great tool if you are searching for a cost-effective and light-weight but also fully responsive and powerful framework. Mobile Angular UI combines the power of Bootstrap and Angular, two of the most popular web development frameworks. Also, it integrates Java-based features, which are extremely rich. Using this framework, you can easily convert a web-based application to a mobile-based one.

6. NativeScript

If you want to build a truly native mobile app with Angular, Vue.js, TypeScript of JavaScript, that NativeScript could be the best open-source framework out there. NativeScript is used by developers who want to build a relatively good app in little time and money. It’s completely free to use and provides developers with almost everything they need for building an amazing native mobile app with JavaScript, and a lot more than that.

7. PhoneGap

If you’ve ever done anything related to design and illustrations, you’re familiar with Adobe. PhoneGap is a mobile app development framework backed by Adobe, which uses HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to develop cross-platform web apps for Android, iOS, and Windows. As it’s yet another framework with a giant behind, you can be certain that the community is alive and lively. For example, Wikipedia is a website that’s been built using PhoneGap.

8. JQuery Mobile

JQuery Mobile is another powerful mobile app development framework. If you put a lot of emphasis on cross-platform compatibility, this HTML-based framework might be just what you need. As it offers a whole bunch of powerful widgets like image and content sliders, it can solve many problems simply and effectively. There are also various add-on themes that could be added to the light-weight stack to make the framework more powerful and responsive.

9. Corona

If you want to build a game quickly, then Corona might be the best open-source, cross-platform app development framework for you. Through this framework, you can create one application and publish it towards multiple devices running all the different OSs, such as Apple’s iPhone, Android devices and tablets, Amazon Fire, Mac Desktop, Windows Desktop, and even connected TVs such as Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV. Corona is easy to use as its syntax is simple, making it one of the best choices for beginners. It’s the best platform for creating 3D and 2D games.

10. Appcelerator Titanium

This framework is a single unique solution for all mobile application development needs. As it provides a substantial set of independent APIs, this is the ideal solution if you want to avoid working with multiple software and libraries. With Appcelerator Titanium, you get it all in one package, which gives you more time to focus on the important stuff.

Final thoughts

There are many mobile app development frameworks out there, and the ones that we’ve presented in this post are definitely some of the best, but far from the only ones. When starting a new project, it is of great importance to find the most suitable framework before even typing a single line of code. Making this choice beforehand can save a lot of time and money down the road when the whole project gets complicated.

Each mobile app development framework comes with its own set of unique features, which is why it’s important to choose the right one for the project. Even though most of them are similar, they are not the same, so make sure to pick the right one and have fun coding!