Introduction:
For businesses, especially small-scale businesses and startups, developing a mobile app is way more feasible than website development. A report suggests that smartphone users will increase to 4.74 billion by the end of 2025, with an annual 2.2% increase.
In addition to that, a study confirms that over 110
billion apps were downloaded from the Google Play Store in 2024.
Developing a mobile app can help businesses increase
their sales, get a better ROI, streamline their processes, and offer
value-added services to their customers.
A NASDAQ report points out that the Nilke mobile app has
helped the business improve its digital revenues by 4% and 1% on a reported and
currency-neutral basis, respectively.
Outsourcing your app development project to an Android
or iOS app development services
provider can help
you get future-ready solutions and reduce time and costs.
Regarding mobile app development, Android is one of the most popular operating systems
with the most significant global market share.
Android is an open-source platform with fantastic
flexibility and customization possibilities. Also, the community is so massive
and active that developers turn to it when they face any development issues or
hurdles.
Furthermore, Android apps are user-friendly, superior in
performance and speed, and can offer a great user experience. By incorporating
AI, ML, and other emerging technologies, you can offer highly immersive user
experiences to your target audience.
In addition, Android apps can be launched more quickly
than iOS apps, as developers can build Android apps much faster. Also, an
Android app's deployment is more straightforward than iOS.
Due to all these advantages, businesses are more likely
to choose native Android app development or cross-platform app development to reach a massive Android
audience worldwide.
What
Is An Android App Development Framework?
Android frameworks can be termed as the best friends of
Android app developers. These frameworks are software toolkits with a wide
range of development tools, like libraries, widgets, features, pre-built code,
pre-defined classes and functions, and a structure. A framework allows
developers to piece together various parts of mobile apps with pre-defined
components, libraries, and other tools.
It saves developers from writing code from scratch and
simplifies the development process. Also, frameworks help developers build an
end product that meets the business requirements of the publisher. Also, mobile
app frameworks can help developers mitigate, manage, and fix bugs throughout
the process.
Various Android app development frameworks share the
same attributes, and hence, it is difficult to comment on the superiority of
one of them. Unique advantages, drawbacks, features, and nuances are attached
to each framework. After defining their project requirements and expectations,
businesses can choose an Android app development framework.
Selecting the proper framework is crucial to speed up
the development process, save money, maximize ROI, and meet the audience's
demands. All you need to do is hire remote Android app
developers
who can understand your requirements and act accordingly.
Top
Android App Development Frameworks
We will discuss the best-of-class Android app
development frameworks to help scale up your business and simplify the
development process.
1. React Native
React Native is a household name among developers who
create awe-inspiring, feature-rich, and excellent mobile apps. Facebook created
React Native in 2013 and declared it open-source in 2015 for the public. Since
then, the popularity of React Native has grown tremendously.
Developers use ReactJS, JavaScript, and native Android
capabilities to build cross-platform Android, iOS, and web applications.
Discord, Airbnb, Instagram, etc., are popular mobile apps developed with React
Native.
The best React Native feature is it allows developers to
build UIs from the native building blocks of the system. It will enable React
Native apps to render like native applications.
Also, developers don't need to update or redesign native
Android components. They auto-update simultaneously with the system updates,
reducing maintenance costs.
Features of React Native:
●
As
React Native deals with native UI components, you can have mobile apps that
look and feel like native apps with stunning UIs.
●
React
Native has a massive library with UI components to speed up development.
●
Developers
can utilize native functionalities like cameras, GPS, etc., to build
device-specific features and functionalities.
●
Developers
can use platform-specific native code to customize and optimize mobile apps.
●
The
Hot Reload feature allows developers to see the changes made to the code
without refreshing the app.
●
Being
an open-source framework, React Native allows everyone to build next-gen mobile
apps.
●
Facebook
supports it with the latest updates and regular versions.
Limitations of React Native:
●
React
Native's built-in navigation might create issues as it is not as standard and
seamless as Android native navigation. It might create performance and speed
issues.
●
If
you wish to have complex animations, graphics, and transitions in the app,
React Native might not be suitable.
2. Flutter
Flutter does not need any introduction. It is one of the
most popular cross-platform app development frameworks released by Google in
2017. With Flutter, you can build multiple apps for iOS and Android with a
single codebase.
Unlike React Native, Flutter has its canvas for app
component rendering. However, Flutter developers have to rely on manual updating of the app. Flutter is
your framework if you want app components to stay as you have designed.
Flutter also has various widgets and libraries to build
mobile apps with highly immersive and impressive user interfaces. It has a
2D-rendering engine called Skia that creates user interfaces that adhere to the
guidelines of Google's Material Design and Apple's Cupertino widget style.
In addition, Flutter developers can manage visuals in a
standard and specific manner to ensure a consistent user experience across
multiple devices.
Flutter has a dedicated programming language called
Dart, an object-oriented language with a C-style syntax.
Features of Flutter:
●
Flutter's
Hot Reload feature allows you to see changes made in the code by developers in
real-time without refreshing the app. It speeds up the process.
●
Flutter
is a UI toolkit with pre-built widgets, APIs, CLI, and development tools.
●
Flutter
has various widgets that can be customized as well. Also, developers can create
project-specific widgets.
●
Google
backs FlutterFlutter, a highly reliable framework for building mobile apps.
●
Flutter
has a fast code implementation feature that makes bug fixing quick and
accurate.
Limitations of
Flutter:
●
Developers
must rely on third-party APIs and packages as Flutter does not allow many
native APIs.
●
Flutter
apps are large, and developers must compromise on images, animation, and the
use of libraries.
3.
Xamarin
Xamarin is another promising app development framework
owned by Microsoft. It is one of the oldest Android app development frameworks
for building mobile apps for Android, iOS, MacOS, and other operating systems.
Xamarin is one of the parts of Visual Studio IDE and
allows developers to write mobile apps in C#. The code is similar on almost all
the platforms.
Xamarin is the first choice among businesses that want
to build native-like mobile apps that offer high-end performance and speed.
However, Xamarin is a free and open-source framework, so you must buy a
large-scale mobile app development license.
Features of Xamarin:
●
Xamarin
mobile apps are great at performance and speed.
●
With
a robust ecosystem with C#, .NET, and Microsoft, Xamarin is a comprehensive and
perfect mobile app development framework.
●
Thanks
to the platform-specific libraries of Xamarin, developers can have APIs from
Facebook, Google, Apple, and others.
●
Developers
can reuse the code to build cross-platform apps that look and feel like native
apps.
Limitations of Xamarin:
●
Xamarin
apps are larger compared to native mobile apps.
●
If
you want to build an app with complex animation and gaming features, Xamarin
might not work for you.
●
Android
app development with Xamarin will require developers to rewrite some UI parts
in Java or Kotlin.
4.
Ionic
Ionic is a free and open-source Android app development
framework that uses HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to build hybrid mobile apps.
Another plus point of Ionic is that it can interact easily with AngularJS, making
Android app development smooth sailing.
The framework has many software development tools,
animations, gestures, and other components. Developers can build next-gen,
top-notch, feature-rich mobile, desktop, and progressive web apps.
Features of Ionic:
●
Ionic
has a simple learning curve. Web developers with expertise in HTML, CSS, and
JavaScript can build mobile apps.
●
Ionic
allows developers to access Cordova plugins to use native components of mobile
systems.
●
Ionic
has a community of over 5 million developers ready to help you with any issues
or development hurdles.
Limitations of Ionic:
●
With
Ionic, developers might find debugging challenging as unclear messages make it
difficult to find error sources.
●
Though
Ionic allows the accessibility of native functions, they are not stable and
might conflict with each other.
5. Apache Cordova
Like Ionic, Apache Cordova, previously known as
PhoneGap, also allows developers to build hybrid mobile apps by using web
technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
The most significant plus point of Apache Cordova is
that the app runs an app in a native container like WebView. With this
facilitation, the framework can be used to build apps for various operating
systems, like Android, iOS, Ubuntu, OS X, Windows, etc.
Features of Apache Cordova:
●
Apache
Cordova is a reliable, stable, and tested mobile app development framework.
●
It
also supports various operating systems, including OS X, Ubuntu, Windows, etc.
●
The
framework offers developers a wide range of plugins to build unparalleled,
feature-rich, and next-gen apps.
●
The
WebView container translates your HTML app into a native app.
Limitations of Apache Cordova:
●
As
the mobile app is executed in the WebView, it will not perform like other
cross-platform mobile apps.
●
Your
app might face various errors as some third-party plugins are outdated and
incompetent.
Conclusion
We have discussed the top five Android app development
frameworks that can help build high-speed, feature-rich, and unmatched mobile
apps for your project.
Apart from the mentioned Android app development
frameworks, some notable frameworks are JQuery Mobile, Titanium SDK, Corona
SDK, Native Script, Mobile Angular JS, etc.
Choosing the proper framework for your Android app
development project is crucial to streamline the process and get maximum ROI.
Discuss it with the Android app development agency you have hired to find the best
project-specific framework.