Mobile app technologies

Mobile app development: what solutions are available?

The growth in the use of mobile devices has impacted the way people consume content and interact with businesses, which has created a need for mobile apps that provide a unique experience. Mobile app development offers a variety of options for developers: native development (e.g. Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android) offers superior performance and smooth integration of platform-specific features.

In contrast, cross-platform solutions (e.g. Flutter) enable faster development cycles, and code reusability, and provide high-performance applications with a native feel across multiple platforms.

Developers need to balance the benefits of native development with the efficiency of multi-platform solutions. Mastering these complementary approaches will enable our developers to build outstanding mobile apps that drive user engagement, deliver superior performance, and meet the diverse needs of an ever-evolving mobile audience.

Native iOS development: Swift

Native iOS development with the Swift programming language offers superior performance and seamless integration with Apple's ecosystem. Developers typically work with tools such as UIKit, SwiftUI and Core Data to build responsive and maintainable apps, adhering to Apple's design guidelines to ensure a high-quality user experience.

Native Android development: Kotlin

Native Android development using the Kotlin programming language allows developers to create high-performance applications while taking advantage of Kotlin's modern syntax and features. Key tools such as the Android SDK, Android Jetpack and Android Architecture Components provide a comprehensive set of tools for creating feature-rich, scalable and maintainable Android apps.

Cross-platform Flutter development

The Flutter development has emerged as a highly attractive cross-platform solution, delivering results approaching native alternatives in terms of performance and user experience. Its cost-effectiveness and unified code base make it an ideal choice for enterprises looking to develop mobile applications across multiple platforms. Flutter is constantly evolving and adapting to the changing needs of modern mobile applications thanks to the rapid pace of development within the ecosystem.

Its benefits make Flutter increasingly the first choice for developers launching new mobile projects, as it strikes the perfect balance between performance, development speed and maintainability. Its UI framework combined with the Dart programming language provides a solid foundation for building modern, high-quality mobile applications that rival their native counterparts.

Flutter is a versatile technology that not only excels in mobile development but also enables the creation of compelling web and desktop applications. By leveraging Flutter's capabilities, our developers can create powerful, platform-agnostic apps that cover a wide range of user needs.

Cross-platform React Native development

React Native, a popular framework for mobile development enables our developers to create high-quality cross-platform applications using JavaScript/Typescript and React. Its efficient development workflow, reusability and seamless UI components make it ideal for web developers transitioning to mobile development. However, React Native's popularity has waned due to the emergence of Flutter.

Despite this, React Native remains a major player in mobile development, offering performance comparable to native and a vast ecosystem of third-party libraries and plugins. The component-based architecture and hot-reloading feature simplify the development process, while continued support from Facebook and a dedicated community contribute to its continued relevance.

Cross-platform: Ionic web applications

Ionic is another cross-platform development option that is particularly useful for projects with limited budgets and an existing mobile-first SPA front-end.

While its performance or feature set does not reach that of native or Flutter development, Ionic allows for rapid prototyping and testing of mobile versions of existing web applications, and leverages web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create hybrid mobile applications close to native.