What are the best systems to deliver native Android and iOS apps from one code?

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110

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Jul 21, 2021

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9 Options Considered

Best systems to deliver native Android and iOS apps from one code	Price	Mobile targets	Languages
71 Flutter	-	Android and iOS	Dart
-- React Native	-	-	-
-- ionic framework	-	-	-
-- Qt	-	Android, Tizen, IOS/tvOS/watchOS, Plasma Mobile, Blackbery	-
-- Xamarin Forms	-	-	-

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score 39 · Answer 1

Flutter

Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

Still in development

According to the website, Flutter is still in its early stages of development. See More

Specs

Mobile targets:Android and iOS

Languages:Dart

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac and Linux

Desktop targets:announced Windows

Top Pro

Great developer tools debug/hotreload/analyser

Top Con

Based on Dart language

Dart is a Java like language, easy to learn and startup fast for millions of Java developers. BUT if you have to learn it ... it's a con. See More

Top Pro

Based on Dart language

Dart is a Java like language, easy to learn and startup fast for millions of Java developers. See More

Top Con

Dart is unpopular and never gained serious community traction like Kotlin or Java

Top Pro

A single codebase for iOS AND Android

Top Con

Does not support 32-bit iOS devices

If you plan on targeting iPhone 5, 5C or earlier, you can forget about Flutter. See More

Top Pro

Fast

The developer's goal is to allow people to make apps running at 120 FPS. See More

Top Con

Google has a bad history with product loyalty

See All

score 12 · Answer 2

React Native

Top Pro

It works really well with angular

It's fast and you can use mostly the same code base as for angular 2+. It also has really nice UI elements (pro UI library). See More

Top Con

It's not one code base (yet)

Despite that almost the same code can be reused, React Native, without third libraries, still can not provide one code base between iOS and Android. See More

Top Con

Yes, you need install libraries to build

You need third party libraries to be able to build or "convert" app from typescript to native language. See More

See All

score 13 · Answer 3

ionic framework

Top Con

Can be buggy

Ionic is still a young framework (version 1.0 was released in May 2015). There are still some quirks and bugs in the framework to work out, which you can see a list of on their Github. However Ionic is under active development and bugs are generally addressed quickly. See More

Top Pro

Fast prototyping

Ionic already has many components and layouts ready to go, respecting each platform guidelines, such as colors, animations, elements position, among others. But you can choose to respect or not, because is optional. See More

Top Con

Performance

Web based solutions do not have good performance as native solutions. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Ionic is free to use and open source, resulting in an active and helpful community of users and contributors. See More

Top Pro

Great for web developers who want to ship something compiled for mobile

Top Pro

Access to most native APIs/functionality

Top Pro

Fast testing

As Ionic is a web technology, You can test your UI app and almost all of you business logic in your browser (Chrome and Safari). With Ionic 3, you can still even mock plugins that access hardware features such as camera ou battery life in the browser. See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 4

Qt

Top Pro

Good native performance

Top Con

Big binary size

Qt applications for android and iOS has around 30+ MB of initial size. See More

IntuitiveTemazcalteci's Experience

Good learning curve - lots of target OS available. QML brings declarative programming paradigm which is as fun as efficient. See More

Specs

Mobile targets:Android, Tizen, IOS/tvOS/watchOS, Plasma Mobile, Blackbery

Platforms:UNIX/Unix-like (X11, Wayland), macOS, Windows, Windows UWP, Android, IOS/tvOS/watchOS, WebAssembly, Haiku

Popular Language Bindings:C++, Python, QML

Top Pro

Global community

The community behind Qt is both massive and approachable. Digia (also owners) are joined by the likes of Intel, KDAB, ICS, Canonical and numerous others in sponsoring development, while communities such as KDE also contribute significantly. Forums are active, mailing lists are open, irc channels chatting, git repositories well managed. Answers to questions are usually minutes away. See More

SmartGalene's Experience

Software developers you can leverage high performance by good coding skills if coding in C++. makes it fast that is not a good reason you can code directly to shared memory with C# & Java and get incredicle speeds and response times See More

Top Pro

Smart separation of front-end (UI with QML) from back end (business logic and efficiency with C++)

Top Pro

Open-source

Top Pro

Good documentation

Professional, thorough documentation with examples, available either in a web browser or in the stand-alone desktop client called assistant. See More

See All

score 9 · Answer 5

Xamarin Forms

Top Pro

C# or F# as a language

Top Con

Not easily customizable

If you want to do something that is out of the box, Xamarin forms is absolutely amazing. However, if you want to customize something in an uncommon way, you're stuck writing a custom render for each platform. See More

Top Pro

Native performance

Top Con

Binary Size/Compile Time

Binary size is far too big (100+ MB for a relatively small app). The compile times are also way too long (5-12 min for the aforementioned app). See More

Top Pro

Windows support

Xamarin Forms allows you to create apps for mobile platforms and Windows desktop with one code base as well. See More

Top Pro

Uses Native UI elements on each platform

Top Pro

Great documentation and community

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Top Pro

Open-source

See All

score 4 · Answer 6

Onsen UI

Top Pro

Cross-platform; single codebase for both iOS and Android

Specs

Mobile targets:iOS, Android

License:Apache 20.0

Top Pro

Large selection of components

Onsen UI provides a wide selection of components that are ready to use out of the box and are easily customizable. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Onsen UI provides very clear, well-written and detailed documentation. It uses popular technologies that are likely already familiar to developers (such as jQuery and Angular). The framework is semantic and intuitive to use, making it quite fast to learn. See More

Top Pro

Can be used for web apps as well

Onsen UI is usable for classic web development as well as mobile. See More

Top Pro

Open source and free

Onsen UI is open source, and completely free to use. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 7

NativeScript

Top Pro

Integration with Angular framework

score 5 · Answer 8

Codename One

Top Con

Documented almost entirely in videos

There's java docs but frankly, everything explained in video should be available in scannable text. See More

Top Pro

Open source with active developer community

Specs

Mobile targets:Google, Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry

License:GPL with Classpath Exception, allows you to build proprietary applications

Languages:Java, Kotlin

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

See All Specs

Top Con

It's not free for any app you'd actually release in the store

See All

score 1 · Answer 9

Titanium Mobile

Top Con

Small community

A lot less libraries than other frameworks. See More

Top Pro

Access to any native API

Using Hyperloop, Titanium can access any native API. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Top Con

Has specific requirements with regards to installed libraries

See All

9 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Flutter

My Recommendation for Flutter

Open source

Still in development

Great developer tools debug/hotreload/analyser

Based on Dart language

Based on Dart language

Dart is unpopular and never gained serious community traction like Kotlin or Java

A single codebase for iOS AND Android

Does not support 32-bit iOS devices

Fast

Google has a bad history with product loyalty

My Recommendation for React Native

My Recommendation for React Native

It works really well with angular

It's not one code base (yet)

Yes, you need install libraries to build

My Recommendation for ionic framework

My Recommendation for ionic framework

Can be buggy

Fast prototyping

Performance

Free and open source

Great for web developers who want to ship something compiled for mobile

Access to most native APIs/functionality

Fast testing

My Recommendation for Qt

My Recommendation for Qt

Good native performance

Big binary size

Global community

Smart separation of front-end (UI with QML) from back end (business logic and efficiency with C++)

Open-source

Good documentation

My Recommendation for Xamarin Forms

My Recommendation for Xamarin Forms

C# or F# as a language

Not easily customizable

Native performance

Binary Size/Compile Time

Windows support

Uses Native UI elements on each platform

Great documentation and community

Cross-platform

Open-source

My Recommendation for Onsen UI

My Recommendation for Onsen UI

Cross-platform; single codebase for both iOS and Android

Large selection of components

Easy to use

Can be used for web apps as well

Open source and free

My Recommendation for NativeScript

My Recommendation for NativeScript

Integration with Angular framework

My Recommendation for Codename One

My Recommendation for Codename One

Documented almost entirely in videos

Open source with active developer community

It's not free for any app you'd actually release in the store

My Recommendation for Titanium Mobile

My Recommendation for Titanium Mobile

Small community

Access to any native API

Has specific requirements with regards to installed libraries

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