The Six Most Popular Cross-Platform App Development Frameworks

Flutter

Released by Google in 2017, Flutter is a popular framework for building mobile, web, and desktop apps from a single codebase. To build applications with Flutter, you will need to use Google's programming language called Dart.

Programming language: Dart.

Mobile app examples: eBay, Alibaba, Google Pay, ByteDance apps.

Key features:

• Flutter's hot reload feature allows you to see how your application changes as soon as you modify your code, without you having to recompile it.

• Flutter supports Google's Material Design, a design system that helps developers build digital experiences. You can use multiple visual and behavioral widgets when building your app.

• Flutter doesn't rely on web browser technology. Instead, it has its own rendering engine for drawing widgets.

Flutter has a relatively active community of users around the world and is widely used by many developers. According to the Stack Overflow Trends, the usage of Flutter has been trending up over time, based on the increasing use of the corresponding tag.

React Native

An open-source UI software framework, React Native was developed in 2015 (a bit earlier than Flutter) by Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook. It's based on Facebook's JavaScript library React and allows developers to build natively rendered cross-platform mobile apps.

Programming language: JavaScript.

Mobile app examples: React Native is used in Microsoft’s Office, Skype, and Xbox Game Pass; Meta’s Facebook, desktop Messenger, and Oculus. Check out more in the React Native showcase.

Key features:

• Developers can see their changes in their React components immediately, thanks to the Fast Refresh feature.

• One of React Native's advantages is a focus on the UI. React primitives render to native platform UI components, allowing you to build a customized and responsive user interface.

• In versions 0.62 and later, integration between React Native and the mobile app debugger Flipper is enabled by default. Flipper is used to debug Android, iOS, and React native apps, and it provides tools like a log viewer, an interactive layout inspector, and a network inspector.

As one of the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks, React Native has a large and strong community of developers who share their technical knowledge. Thanks to this community, you can get the support you need when building mobile apps with the framework.

Kotlin Multiplatform

Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is an open-source technology built by JetBrains that allows sharing code across platforms while retaining the benefits of native programming. It enables developers to reuse as much code as they want, write native code if needed, and seamlessly integrate shared Kotlin code into any project.

Programming language: Kotlin.

Mobile app examples: McDonald's, Netflix, Forbes, 9GAG, Cash App, Philips. Read more about Kotlin Multiplatform case studies.

Key features:

• Developers can reuse code across Android, iOS, web, desktop, and server-side while keeping native code if needed.

• Kotlin Multiplatform can be seamlessly integrated into any project. Developers can utilize platform-specific APIs while making the most of both native and cross-platform development.

• Thanks to Compose Multiplatform, a modern declarative cross-platform UI framework by JetBrains, developers have full code-sharing flexibility and the ability to share both the logic and the UI.

• There's no need to introduce a new language to your codebase when you already use Kotlin for Android. You can reuse your Kotlin code and expertise, which makes migrating to Kotlin Multiplatform less risky compared to other technologies.

Even though this cross-platform mobile development framework is one of the youngest on our list, it has a mature community. In November 2023, JetBrains promoted it to Stable. It's growing fast and is already making a distinct impression on today's market. Thanks to its regularly updated documentation and community support, you can always find answers to your questions. What's more, many global companies and startups already use Kotlin Multiplatform to develop multiplatform apps with a native-like user experience.

Ionic

Ionic is an open-source mobile UI toolkit that was released in 2013. It helps developers build cross-platform mobile applications from a single codebase using web technologies, like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with integrations for the Angular, React, and Vue frameworks.

Programming language: JavaScript.

Mobile app examples: T-Mobile, BBC (Children's & Education apps), EA Games.

Key features:

• Ionic is based on a SaaS UI framework designed specifically for mobile OS and provides multiple UI components for building applications.

• The Ionic framework uses the Cordova and Capacitor plugins to provide access to device's built-in features, such as the camera, flashlight, GPS, and audio recorder.

• Ionic has its own command-line interface, Ionic CLI, which serves as the go-to tool for building Ionic applications.

There's constant activity on the Ionic Framework Forum, where community members exchange knowledge and help each other overcome their development challenges.

.NET MAUI

.NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) is a cross-platform framework that was released in May 2022 and is owned by Microsoft. It allows developers to create native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML. .NET MAUI is an evolution of Xamarin.Forms, one of the functionalities of Xamarin, which provides native controls for the platforms supported by Xamarin.

Programming languages: C#, XAML.

Mobile app examples: NBC Sports Next, Escola Agil, Irth Solutions.

Key features:

• .NET MAUI provides cross-platform APIs for accessing native device features, like the GPS, accelerometer, and battery and network states.

• There's a single project system which is enabled using multi-targeting to target Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

• With the support for .NET hot reload, developers can modify their managed source code while the app is running.

Even though .NET MAUI is still a relatively new framework, it has already gained traction among developers and has an active community on Stack Overflow and Microsoft Q&A.

NativeScript

This open-source mobile application development framework was initially released in 2014. NativeScript allows you to build Android and iOS mobile apps using JavaScript or languages that transpile to JavaScript, like TypeScript, and frameworks like Angular and Vue.js.

Programming language: JavaScript, TypeScript.

Mobile app examples: Daily Nanny, Strudel, Breethe.

Key features:

• NativeScript allows developers to easily access native Android and iOS APIs.

• The framework renders platform-native UIs. Apps built with NativeScript run directly on a native device without relying on WebViews, a system component for the Android OS that allows Android applications to show content from the web inside an app.

• NativeScript offers various plugins and pre-built app templates, eliminating the need for third-party solutions.

NativeScript is based on well-known web technologies like JavaScript and Angular, which is why many developers choose this framework. Nevertheless, it's usually used by small companies and startups.

1. The expertise of your team

Different cross-platform mobile development frameworks are based on different programming languages. Before adopting a framework, check what skills it requires and make sure your team of mobile engineers has enough knowledge and experience to work with it.

For example, if your team is equipped with highly skilled JavaScript developers and you don't have enough resources to introduce new technologies, it may be worth choosing frameworks that use this language, such as React Native.

2. Vendor reliability and support

It's important to be sure that the maintainer of the framework will continue to support it in the long run. Learn more about the companies that develop and support the frameworks you're considering, and take a look at the mobile apps that have been built using them.

3. UI customization

Depending on how crucial the user interface is for your future app, you may need to know how easily you can customize the UI using a particular framework. For example, Kotlin Multiplatform offers full code-sharing flexibility with Compose Multiplatform, a modern declarative cross-platform UI framework by JetBrains. It enables developers to share UIs across Android, iOS, web, and desktop (via the JVM) and is based on Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.

4. Framework maturity

Find out how frequently the public API and tooling for a prospective framework change. For example, some changes to native operating system components break internal cross-platform behavior. It's better to be aware of possible challenges you may face when working with the mobile app development framework. You can also browse GitHub and check how many bugs the framework has and how these bugs are being handled.

5. Framework capabilities

Each framework has its own capabilities and limitations. Knowing what features and tools a framework provides is crucial to identifying the best solution for you. Does it have code analyzers and unit testing frameworks? How quickly and easily will you be able to build, debug, and test your app?

6. Security

Security and privacy are especially important when building a critical mobile app for business, such as banking and e-commerce apps that include a payment system. According to OWASP Mobile Top 10, some of the most critical security risks for mobile applications include insecure data storage and authentication/authorization.

You need to ensure that the multiplatform mobile development framework of your choice provides the required level of security. One way to do this is to browse the security tickets on the framework's issue tracker if it has one that's publicly available.

7. Educational materials

The volume and quality of available learning resources about a framework can also help you understand how smooth your experience will be when working with it. Comprehensive official documentation, online and offline conferences, and educational courses are a good sign that you will be able to find enough essential information about a product when you need it.