Two mobile platforms dominate the landscape; Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Combined, these two platforms make up 99% of all mobile devices. Between the two platforms, over 4.2 million mobile apps have been released in categories such as gaming, education, business, music, and more.
Android is based on Java while iOS runs on Objective-C and Swift: two fundamentally different frameworks for developers to target. For a long time, companies wishing to develop mobile apps had to have two teams, one dedicated to iOS development and the other to Android. Hybrid or cross-platform frameworks and transpilers have gained popularity as they allow developers to target multiple platforms with a single code base, reducing cost and development time.
Today we will take a look at alternatives to building native mobile applications. We will look at various frameworks and approaches to bringing your app to the small screen and the pros and cons of each. Without further ado, let’s jump right in.