No matter what methods you are choosing for mobile app development, if you fail to put together a stable tech stack, then you are not going to achieve expected results. Future success hugely relies on the tech stack it uses.
If you want a functional, scalable, and innovative mobile app, you need to get everything about the technology stack. What’s more? Here, let’s explore the following points, which are essentials before getting started with the mobile app development process.
- What is the mobile app development tech stack?
- Why is it important to choose a tech stack for a mobile application?
- Top factors to consider while choosing the best technology stack
Let’s get started.
What is the mobile app development stack
To accomplish your business goals with mobile application development projects, selecting mobile tech stack is crucial. An appropriate technology stack does not provide project life, but it also makes it maintainable, scalable and committed to your functional requirements. It also may result in lower costs and cut time for mobile app development. The tech stack is mainly divided into four components.
Frontend Development: It is an interface on which users interact with mobile apps.
Backend Development: It is the part that takes the user input, processes it, and converts it into an output.
Development Platform: It is a place where interfaces and libraries come into the picture to design and develop the mobile app.
Additional: It includes the technology elements that impact on app performance, robustness, and security.
Now, moving ahead, and let’s have a look into the reasons why the tech stack is important for businesses.
Why is it important to choose a tech stack for a mobile app?
There are so many attributes of mobile apps, which depend on your selection of tech stack for mobile apps. It would decide whether the app is robust or will the app be scalable to various versions of different operating systems.
Picking up the tech stack without any proper planning will sure to affect the immediate performance of the app and its future growth prospects negatively.
With the wrong choice of mobile app tech stacks, you may encounter several issues. Since you’ve already got to know what mobile app development tech stack is and why it is crucial. Let’s have a look into a different technology stack that can strengthen the development of robust, scalable, and innovative web and mobile apps.
Native App
A native mobile app is a software program, which is developed for use on a particular platform or device. It can use device-specific hardware and software. That’s why native apps are created particularly to interact with a single operating system. To build an app for the iOS platform, developers make use of programming languages like Objective-C or Swift. On the contrary, programming languages like Java or Kotlin are used for developing apps for Android platforms. To build a native app opt a leading mobile app development company in Atlanta which can help you seamlessly to develop your app.
Native mobile app development comes with the benefits: high level of performance, speed, secured, and tends to have fewer bugs. Here’re a few popular native mobile app dev tools:
- Xcode: It is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for macOS. It contains a suite of software development tools by Apple. Xcode includes everything developers need to create apps for Mac, iPhone, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. It provides developers a unified workflow for coding, UI design, testing, and debugging.
- AppCode: It is an IDE for iOS and macOS development. It supports web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, XML, and CSS. The benefits of AppCode include: saving time on automating routine tasks, locating & fixing errors, and increasing developers’ productivity. This tool is recommended as a valuable asset for your business.
- Android Studio: It is an Android development software built by Google. This software provides shortcuts for coding and designing. Also, its layout designer makes it easy to use which helps reduce time spent on coding. It also enables developers to design the layout of projects by providing drag and drop features.
Hybrid App
A hybrid app is a software app that combines elements of both native and web apps. It is generally developed with the help of web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. It consists of two sections, i.e., Backend and Native shell. Hybrid apps are also known as web apps that have been put in a native app shell. The browser and plug-ins run on the backend, and both are visible to the end-user.
Hybrid apps are popular among developers because they allow them to write code for a mobile app once and still accommodate for multiple platforms. As a matter of fact, hybrid apps add an extra layer between source code and the target platform, and they may perform slower than native or web versions of the same app.
The most commonly used frameworks for the development of hybrid apps are: PhoneGap, Sencha Touch 2, Ionic Framework, Xamarin, and Cordova.
Cross-platform
Cross-platform development is about developing software products or services for multiple platforms or software environments. It also means using the same code to create apps that would run on various platforms – Android, iOS, and web. Cross-platform mobile development tools are quite simple to use as they are based on the languages for scripting, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The popular cross-platform development tools are: Titanium, Cocos2d, Unity3d, Qt, and 5app.
The cross-platform app tech stack is made up of these major tech combinations –
- Xamarin & C#: Xamarin lets developers share 90% of codes across a number of major platforms. This tool uses C# as the primary language.
- React Native & TypeScript or JavaScript: A JavaScript framework, React Native, is used for writing mobile apps that work like native applications. When React Native is used, then the application logic gets written and runs on JavaScript or TypeScript.
Top factors to consider while choosing the best technology stack
An ideal mobile app development technology can power your product. Now, we’ll explore a few important factors that you can consider while choosing the best mobile app tech stack for mobile app development.
The goal of the app
The choice of best tech stack depends largely on the objective of your mobile app. An app depends on load processing, which requires a much stronger tech stack. However, if you are looking to develop a high latency app versus a mobile app with fast response and low latency, then there would be a big difference in the choice of mobile app tech stack.
The skillset of the development team
Some myriad languages and frameworks that give the same results but have a few differentiating factors that separate one from the other. When it comes to deciding between two similar tech stacks, an ideal thing to do is to rely on the skill set of the development team. To cut extra expenditures, it is important to hire a professional and skilled development team of any leading mobile development company.
Parent Company
Choosing the right parent company of tech stack can make a lot of difference in the choice. Some brands offer a lot of better documentation and community support, including Google, Adobe, and Microsoft. These companies are known for advanced development options and a lot of better community support.
Security
Cybersecurity has always been a matter of concern. Sectors like banks, payment apps use PIN and password systems to counter this. It is all-important that the data of customers is safe and secure because any distortion could lead to massive distrust among customers.
Multiple Platforms
The tech stack of an app could be different from the one that runs on multiple platforms like Android, iOS, and the web. It is the level of scalability that should be introduced in mobile apps to be portable on other platforms. On the other hand, in the case of hybrid or cross-platform app development, different sets of tools would be required for native app development.
Summing it up
As more and more enterprises adopt mobile technologies, mobile app development will continue to grow. The best way to get outstanding results through your projects based on mobile apps is to choose the right mobile app tech stack that can surely help your project make the most out of it.
Author Bio
Hardik Shah works as a Tech Consultant at Simform, a leading custom software development company. He leads large scale mobility programs covering platforms, solutions, governance, standardization, and best practice
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardiksha/
