Pick up your smartphone and take a look at all the applications that came pre-installed on it or the ones you installed. Did you notice something unique? All these applications have been developed from scratch either by an individual or by a whole team. Mobile App Development is a domain that is getting explored in deep by tech enthusiasts.
Thanks to the evolving technology, more and more app development tools are coming forth helping the intriguing minds to explore the field a little better and to uncover the underneath layers at ease.
There’s no stopping to the number of options (tools and frameworks) you can explore when it comes to app development. However, in this blog post, we will take you through 5 most important Mobile App Development tools that you must know about owing to the change in the industry.
Here are the names of all the 5 tools:
- js
- Appcelerator
- Easy AR
- Appium
- Pusher
1. BuildFire.js
Allowing you to custom design your application or plugin, BuildFire.js is your first go-to tool when it comes to mobile app development. You can develop and extensively integrate your custom functionality within the BuildFire.js framework. You also get to sell or distribute your plugin in its personalized marketplace.
The tool gives you the flexibility to secure your applications, store your data without worrying about server maintenance, and various other notable features (listed below). With so many features combined into a single tool, you get to customize your application(s) as per your requirements. Features of BuildFire.js include:
- Lockdown: for securing the application App Security
- Persist: storing data and other files
- Connect: it allows you seamless integration of any feature within the BuildFire.js app
- Engage: to connect with your users on a real-time basis via push notifications and targeted messaging
- Recon: permits you to keep a track of your app analytics
Pricing: Basic Plan starts with $53/month
2. Appcelerator
Appcelerator is designed majorly for enterprise solutions that allow cross-platform development making it one of the top favorites for the developers. Using this tool, you can reuse almost 60-80% of the code for all the apps be it for Android or iOS platforms.
Appcelerator Titanium is an open-source development tool that permits developers from around-the-world to contribute to its development. Apart from contributions, you also get to verify your apps through automated mobile tests or analyze the usability and the app results to improve your app overall performance.
Incorporated with drag-and-drop functionality, and allowing its developers’ free access to Hyperloop makes it one of the most strong cross-platform APIs on the market.
Pricing: Solo developers can start for FREE. For mid-sized teams and organizations, it offers multiple pricing options. Check out the official pricing page for more details.
3. EasyAR
As the name depicts, this development tool supports Augmented Reality (AR) concepts. EasyAR offers two different products namely:
- EasyAR SDK
- EasyAR CRS
EasyAR SDK
Easy AR SDK is further categorized into two variants: “EasyAR SDK Basic” and “EasyAR SDK PRO”. Both the variants come with a range of features like:
- Unity3D Support
- Java/Kotlin API for Android and Swift/Objective-C API for iOS platform
- Cloud recognition support
- Screen Recording
Etc.
Complete list of features can be found here: https://www.easyar.com/view/sdk.html
Pricing:The‘EasyAR SDK Basic’version is available for FREE, while you can purchase the ‘EasyAR SDK Pro’variant for $499.00/license key.
EasyAR CRS (Cloud Recognition Service)
Simply a web service, EasyAR CRS offers its developers the benefits of cloud computing and storage. It allows cloud-based image recognition services to its developers for large scale databases.
Its features include:
- Offline Cache for cloud recognition
- Cloud Database with a Large capacity
- Ability to recognize within 0.1s and with 98% accuracy
- Simple APIs to streamline the development process
- User-friendly GUI making the cloud database management easier
- Online rating
Head to the official EasyAR website to learn more about the tool.
4. Appium
Appium allows development on all 3 platforms namely iOS, Android and Windows OS. It’s an open-source tool used for developing native, mobile-web and hybrid apps.
- Native Apps: Appsthat are developed using iOS, Android, and Windows OS.
- Mobile web Apps: Apps which you can access via a mobile browser.
You can run Appium developed tools either via Safari browser on iOS or using the built-in/Chrome browser on Android OS)
- Hybrid Apps: The applications which have a wrapper around a ‘web-view’ – native controller which enables you to interact with web content.
Similar to Appcelerator, Appium too supports the cross-platform development process using the same API and drives the app development process using the WebDriver protocol. Interested in learning more about Appium? Check out the ‘Get Started’ guide right away.
5. Pusher
Pusher is a one-stop solution for developers as it combines 3 different products into one single platform. Each of the 3 products is designed to allow developers to create and incorporate various features into their web and mobile apps.
The 3 products are:
- Channels
- Chatkit
- Beams
Channels
They allow developers to create a real-time communication channel between servers, applications, and devices. You can utilize and incorporate ‘Channels’ feature within notifications, web-page updates, gaming, etc. –all those applications which require a real-time communication setup.
Pusher ‘Channels’ come with pre-set libraries for everything and allow you to debug, analyze and record every possible activity of your application easily. All the real-time data gets transmitted to the dashboard making it easier for you to track.
Chatkit
As the name suggests, ‘Chatkit’ came into inception only to allow developers to include chat functionality within their applications. Using ‘Chatkit’, you can add the following features within your application:
- One-to-one or group chat functionality
- Various typing indicators
- Storage facility and the option to attach files
- Informing when a user gets online
- Flexible permission system
Beams
It’s an API that includes a hosted service and specialized SDKs to manage push notifications within the iOS and Android applications. As a developer, you can allow either private notifications or public device interests for batch notifications. You can also debug and analyze the Insights to keep track of your notifications service health. Wondering how to start with Beams? Check out the beginners’ guide here.
Conclusion
Mobile App Development can get tricky until you pick out the best tool. However, with so many options available to consider within the market, picking the right one can be trickier. We hope our guide helps you make a wise decision and helps you begin with the development process easily.
What development tools are you planning to try your hands on from this list? Already using one for your app development? Do share your experiences and valuable feedback with us via the comments section below.
