Mobile App Building: Tools to Get Started

As our lives have become more integrated with technology, our reliance on mobile devices has increased rapidly. Our smartphones are almost always with us, and this creates an opportunity for businesses to reach customers, enable employees to communicate, and organize and allocate resources. 

Whatever your business needs, a mobile app can be a great way to optimize your business. There are many tools out there to allow you to develop a mobile app, but which one is right for your business? Here’s a look at just three of the currently popular tools available. 

React Native for Building Mobile Applications 

One popular technology for building mobile applications is React Native, an open-source JavaScript framework that was developed by Facebook (now Meta). One of React Native’s greatest advantages is that it leverages the huge React developer community. 

React is an extremely popular JavaScript framework that has allowed developers to build websites and web applications since it was released in 2013. Its large presence means that many challenges you may face throughout development are more than likely solved and well documented. 

If you know React, the transition to React Native will be simple, and, since React Native applications are built for both IOS and Android, you will only need to maintain one codebase to support both platforms. 

Flutter for Building Mobile Applications

Another often-used, open-source framework for developing cross-platform mobile applications is Flutter, developed by Google and released in 2018. Flutter is well documented and has a thriving community, but it is a less mature platform than React and its users code in Dart, a less familiar language than JavaScript. The learning curve to Flutter is steeper, but, once that is overcome, Flutter provides a myriad of benefits that make it a great choice. 

Flutter takes a more opinionated stance on user interface than React Native, giving developers access to widgets (buttons, lists, and other elements) based on Google and Apple’s design philosophies. This means Flutter applications can utilize battle-tested designs quickly while also allowing developers room for customization. It is also better suited for animations than React Native due to its advanced rendering capabilities. Like React Native, only one codebase is necessary to support both IOS and Android Applications.

Internal Tools to Support Your Business with Microsoft Power Apps

One last technology that can be used for mobile application development is Microsoft’s Power Apps. This product is used for developing internal tools for your business that interact nicely with Microsoft’s large, existing ecosystem. The biggest benefit of this product is that a working application can be created without a single line of code. This means that the learning curve of this product is much smaller for non-developers, and its interaction with Microsoft’s other products allows for easy management of company data. Microsoft offers drag-and-drop tools that can be designed to match the look and feel of your company branding. 

One drawback to this ease of use is less customizability than both React Native and Flutter. However, if you are building a relatively simple application with a small budget, Power Apps might be the right choice for your business.

Choosing the Right Tech for Mobile App Development 

Now, with an awareness of multiple options, you’ve got a start on picking the technology that best suits your business needs.