Best Mobile App Development Software in 2020

Integration with a large number of third-party services, real-time synchronization, working with VR/AR platforms, multiple user-defined types — this list of tasks that developers have to solve is far from being exhaustive. How do they manage to do all that? Look for an answer in our article!

Building a really powerful, reliable, and easy-to-use app is not a task that takes a couple of days to complete, even in case of a truly skillful developer. There are many factors that make the delivery of a new application quite a challenging job. Want to know which mobile development software is best to use in 2020? Go on reading for details.

Native, Cross-Platform or Hybrid Apps

The software varies in purposes and application scopes, which means different apps need different software to be developed. Let’s first revise which kind of apps are out there and then move on to the software that developers use to deliver them in 2020.

So, now we’re clear about the definitions. Let’s get down to mobile app development software.

Software Used for Mobile Application Development

Mobile application development software includes programs that help facilitate app development by providing ready-made building blocks for mobile apps: data synchronization features, IDE, APIs, etc. The concept of mobile app development software is very generic and includes many components (SDKs, tools, libraries, frameworks, etc.).

As we’ve already mentioned, each specific product requires specific technologies. For example, developers choose the popular Bootstrap framework for fast and high-quality website coding. By comparison, powerful Dropwizard is designed to simplify the development of RESTful web services. The same goes for apps. Building a particular type of application needs a particular tool. In other words, to build a native iOS app engineers use Xcode, not Android Studio. That is why below we will categorize the software by application types.

Since it is impossible to describe all existing software used to develop mobile applications within a single article, we will focus on some of the best-known SDKs, environments, and frameworks.

Mobile App Development Software for Native Applications

1. XCode

Xcode is a suite of tools to develop applications for Mac OS X and iPhone OS created by Apple.

2. iOS SDK

iOS SDK is a software development kit for iOS released by Apple in 2008. It is also known as iPhone SDK and is available only for Mac OS X.

The iOS SDK is a set of software components, development environments, documentation, and artifacts that each developer needs to create a truly great iOS application.

1. Android Studio

Android Studio is an integrated development environment designed specifically for the Android platform, which unsurprisingly makes it the most popular platform for Android development.

2. Intellij IDEA

Intellij IDEA is a leading fast development environment for Java developers, a high-tech complex of closely integrated programming tools. It streamlines routine operations, helps eliminate errors in a timely manner, and improves code quality.

Mobile App Development Software for Cross-Platform Applications

1. React Native

React Native is a framework released by Facebook. The product allows achieving close to native app performance and is the mobile app software of choice for Facebook, Instagram, UberEats, Tesla, Pinterest, and many other tech giants.

2. Xamarin

Xamarin is a convenient framework for cross-platform mobile application development (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) using the C# language. Xamarin allows creating apps that are almost identical to native ones, which means that they are perfectly suitable for distribution through Google Play or App Store.

Mobile App Development Software for Hybrid Applications

1. Ionic

Ionic is a framework for building hybrid mobile applications which was created based on AngularJS, SASS, and Apache Cordova.

2. Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova is a mobile app development platform that is primarily intended for web developers. Apache Cordova allows creating apps for mobile devices using CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, instead of using specific platform APIs (Android, iOS, or Windows Phone). The framework offers a simple but powerful API for executing machine code from JavaScript. That being said, one can transfer any data from WebView to the device.

For your convenience, we've made a summary table containing all of the above-mentioned tools. We've also added up some extra details that we failed to cover for you to get a real bird view of the best mobile development software for 2020.

Who is the Winner in the Mobile App Race?

Sure thing, there are much more tools for creating excellent mobile applications. However, we have described the ones which in our opinion are the best mobile app development software, the most reliable and time-proven ones. Moreover, we use the above technologies in our projects and are well aware of what they are capable of as well as of their limitations.

Before we go, however, there will be last but not least point to mention. Software is a tool, and if you want to get a great product, this tool must fall into the right hands. A true artist can create a masterpiece just with a pencil, while others won’t be able to depict the simplest things even if given a whole array of tools and colors.

The surest way to find such an artist or a team of talents is to contact an established mobile software development company for support. Contact our support team or visit our website for more details on our mobile development competencies and accomplishments.