Application frameworks in android

10 Best Android Frameworks for App Development in 2020

Feb 20, 2020 · 5 min read

With a whopping userbase of 2 billion people and near to 1.5 billion downloads every month, Android sits cozily at the number one spot for mobile operating systems. If you’re looking to make customized apps, Android is the best platform as it’s market share is predicted to skyrocket to over 87% by 2022. Not only the smartphone market, but it’s also ready to take over tablets, PCs, cars, set-top boxes, smartwatches, home appliances, and more.

As Android is considered a highly customizable operating system with a massive global support community, lots of developers prefer making Android apps. Due to the growth of Android and lots of development frameworks coming in, the process of selecting the right framework for an Android project or app development, in general, has become a complicated question for many.

In this read, we help you select the right Android framework with a comprehensive list that you can consider for your app development projects in 2020.

What are the 10 Best Android Frameworks in 2020 — Click to read more

Ionic is a free and open-source framework certified by MIT that enables developers to use modern web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It is suitable for developers who want to build hybrid and interactive mobile apps. It is the most developer-friendly platform and has a rich toolset of elements, gestures, & animations that help you build high-quality mobile/desktop/PWAs from a single codebase.

Voted as the 3rd most wanted framework in a recent survey of more than 90,000 developers, React Native is one of the widespread open-source platforms. Developers say that it makes customized app development easier and faster. It uses native platform-based interface components & APIs that are built-in for inducing a natural look and feel which is performance-friendly. It solves issues like codebase differences, imperative programming and iteration period while making custom-code reusability simplified.

This is Google’s free & open-source mobile UI SDK framework for building apps in a unique approach compared to other frameworks. Considered best for hybrid app development, it uses a single codebase and allows developers to test, perform UI, unit and functionality tests without encountering errors. It’s hot reload feature is used for continuous testing without the need for restarting an application. Other features include a screen reader, faster development cycle, quicker rendering and themes for Android & iOS.

The Native Android SDK provides developers with API libraries and tools necessary to build, test, and debug quality apps for the Android platform. Developers who need to implement parts of their applications in native code using C & C++ will prefer working on Native Android as it provides full flexibility in delivering innovative applications and games for mobile devices.

Xamarin is an open-source platform for building performant and modern apps for iOS, Android & Windows with .NET. It features a friendly development environment that allows you to build native apps, with shared UI code written in C#/XAML. It is mainly for those developers who intend to share code, and test business logic across platforms writing cross-platform applications in C# with Visual Studio.

If you look to accelerate your app development process, NativeScript SDK is another great choice as a framework for hybrid apps. It helps developers craft mobile apps with Angular, Vue.js, TypeScript or JavaScript while sharing the application code across platforms. Developers who are looking to make multi-platform apps in little time and lesser cost, then they should go for NativeScript. It also features direct access to iOS and Android APIs and the reuse of CocoaPods and Android SDKs.

This is an HTML5-based cross-platform development framework that provides one of the easiest ways to develop mobile and web applications. It promises highly responsive applications that work on smartphones, tablets and desktop platforms. The jQuery mobile builder offers added support through including a custom JS file and structure-only style sheets for creation usage. Plugins like popup boxes, image sliders, and content sliders make web pages simpler, user-friendly and interactive.

This is the newest full-featured development platform designed for Android, iOS and Desktop apps. It is an open-source mobile HTML framework that just needs an HTML layout and CSS, JS files to get it up and running. Developers who know HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript can easily flow with Framework7 which focuses on crafting optimum experience and simplicity.

Here is the full guide where we explain what are the 10 Best Android Frameworks for App Development!

This cross-platform development framework is free and used to create apps and games for mobile, desktop and TV devices on a single code base. It leverages the use of Lua, with more than 1000 built-in APIs, a massive selection of plugins and extensions that help make your development experience easy. It helps you see changes instantly in the simulator and can iterate extremely quickly.

Appcelerator Titanium SDK allows making native apps using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS without having to learn Java or Objective-C. Apps made by this framework show performance equal to apps written using native APIs and it supports operating systems including Android, HTML5, Universal Windows & Blackberry with a single JavaScript codebase.

It must be kept in mind that every project or application has a different requirement likely to be fulfilled by a specific framework. This choice is to be made considering the advantages of using one framework over the other. Make sure you explore the different frameworks to enhance your app development experience.

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12 лучших фреймворков для разработки приложений под Android

Android – прекрасная платформа для мобильных устройств, она работает на миллионах смартфонов в 200 странах по всему миру. В этом посте я собрал несколько популярных фреймворков для разработки приложений под Android, из числа популярных среди разработчиков.

Смысл фреймворка – увеличить производительность, уменьшив затраты усилий на разработку. В идеале они экономят разработчикам время на то, чтобы заняться реально важными при разработке приложения вопросами.

1) Corona SDK

Богатый инструментарий для создания игр и приложений за рекордно короткое время

Обеспечивает возможность очень быстрой разработки. Элегантный API упрощает добавление сложных функций, технологический процесс позволяет сразу же видеть внесённые изменения, сама же разработка идёт на Lua – простом для изучения языке. Всё это приводит к рекордной скорости разработки.

Самый популярный фреймворк, часто используется разработчиками игр, но подходит для любого рода приложений. Уже более миллиона разработчиков пользуются API, поддержкой нативного интерфейса, встроенным движком и рекламной платформой.

2) Phonegap

Простое создание приложений при помощи веб-технологий.

Использует HTML5, CSS и JavaScript. Спонсируется Apache и Adobe. Версия 2.0 предлагает поддержку Windows phone, новых библиотек и функций CLI. Для вставки кода в крупные приложения используется инструмент Cordova WebView

3) Xamarin

Для этого фреймворка код можно писать на С#. Также он работает в iOS и Windows. Поддерживается тестирование приложения в облаке.

4) Sencha Touch 2

Идеальная платформа для разработки и управления безопасными бизнес-приложениями, работающими на разных устройствах. Разработка ведётся на JavaScript и HTML5. Встроенная система MVC, 50 различных встроенных компонентов, система управления разработкой. Имеется бесплатная функция публикации приложения в Google Play.

5) Appcelerator

Разработчики утверждают, что в мире работают два миллиарда приложений, созданных на этом фреймворке. Частью фреймворка является Titanium SDK, который поддерживает разработку на языке JavaScript

6) Basic4Android

RAD (быстрая разработка приложений) и наличие своего IDE. Разработка ведётся на простом языке программирования, напоминающем Visual Basic.

7) JQuery Mobile

JQuery, заточенный под работу с сенсорными экранами. Помогает разработчикам строить сайты с отзывчивым дизайном и приложения, работающие как на десктопах, так и на планшетах и смартфонах.

8) Dojo Mobile

Фреймворк для создания приложений на базе HTML5 + JavaScript, помогающий реализовать быструю разработку мобильных приложений для Android и iOS. Присутствует набор форм, MVC, и симпатичные темы приложений.

9) Sproutcore

MVC-дизайн, оптимизация быстродействия и забота о расширяемости приложений.

10) Theappbuilder

Основан на HTML5. Предлагает простой drag and drop интерфейс без написания кода, что позволяет очень быстро разрабатывать приложения. Особое внимание уделяется интеграцией с соцсетями и прямая отправка приложений в Google Play.

11) DHTMLX Touch

Библиотека на основе AJAX и JavaScript, предназначенная для создания виджетов и приложений на основе HTML5.

12) Mo Sync SDK

Поддержка HTML5, JavaScript, C++ и 9-и различных платформ. Также возможно сопряжение с PhoneGap. Для отладки предлагается эмулятор под названием MoSync Reload.

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14 Best Android Frameworks for App Development in 2021

In the past couple of years, more and more businesses realized that apps are important to their brand experiences, as they can help establish a strong connection with customers. Over 2 million apps were available on the Google Play Store for download, Statista reports.

Today, many companies big and small include mobile applications into their marketing strategies, as the digital space provides a wide array of engagement opportunities.

Installed on the vast majority of existing smartphones, Android is often considered to be the best OS when it comes to building custom mobile apps. Many developers prefer Android as it is highly customizable and has a large community ready to help and provide useful information.

Android also has many integrated tools that help enhance the efficiency of an app while reducing the number of actions that need to be taken to perform a task.

Still, choosing the right Android framework for app development is not easy due to the large number of different options available. To lend you a helping hand, we have created a comprehensive list of the 14 best Android frameworks that can make the app development process fast and easy.

These frameworks help in reducing the effort that developers put in by boosting productivity and offering technology solutions to handle complex tasks.

Top Frameworks for Android App Development

Before we start, it is important to note that we categorize 14 top Android frameworks by their capabilities. Let’s have a closer look at the best frameworks for Android application development and what features they offer.

Best Android App Development Framework: Games Development

Unity

Unity is known as the best Android development framework for the development of multi-platform 2D, 3D, augmented reality, and virtual reality games as well as other simulations. Developed by Unity Technologies , this game engine comes in free and professional editions.

You can work with Unity in C# and UnityScript , the language of Unity that is similar to JavaScript. Unity is a cross-platform framework that and enables game developers to export their games to multiple platforms, like iOS, Web, PlayStation, Windows, Xbox, and more.

Being a physics engine, it can control the behavior of different game objects, lighting rendering, momentum, and graphic elements. Similar to many software development tools, Unity has a built-in editor that enables you to edit images and manage animations from the “Animator” window.

As of 2018, half of new mobile games and 60% of the augmented reality and virtual reality experiences are created with the Unity engine. All in all, It is an easy-to-use platform that allows game developers to create amazing content and a strong connection with the audience. In other words, the platform is a great choice for interactive experiences.

Best Frameworks for Android Development: High Performance

Kotlin

Originated in the minds of JetBrains , Kotlin is a statically-typed, modern programming language solution for Android that combines the features of functional and object-oriented programming. In 2017, Google declared Kotlin as an official IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Android development.

It runs on Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and is 100% interoperable with the Java language. In many scenarios, it is considered as a replacement for Java as it significantly streamlines the development process. Many programmers have adopted Kotlin as their primary language for Android.

Application developed with Kotlin also run as fast as the ones created with Java as they share a similar bytecode structure. In the recent Stack Overflow developer survey, Kotlin was ranked as the fourth most loved programming language.

In 2021, many of the large enterprises are planning to move or are in the process of moving to Kotlin. Trello, Pinterest, Basecamp, Uber, Twitter, Airbnb, and Netflix are all migrating to Kotlin for Android application development. Since its launch, Kotlin has proved itself as a highly intuitive platform for Android app development.

Corona SDK

Developed in 2009, Corona SDK is a perfect software development kit for building speedy apps and games. This general-purpose, cross-platform framework enables 10x faster development than other Android app frameworks. Corona achieves this by integrating Lua, a lightweight and multi-paradigm programming language, which is itself layered on top of C++/OpenGL and allows to achieve high speed, usability, and flexibility.

Highly popular among game developers, Corona is free and available both Mac OS X and Windows, with real-time testing support.

I n addition, the framework has native UI support, over 500 APIs, and a dynamic advertising platform built for developers. Its API suite features are feature-rich, with graphics, networking, widgets, particle effects, and more. Simple to understand and integrate into Android, Corona SDK has gained notable popularity among Android app developers.

Sencha Touch

Perceived as one of the best Android development frameworks by Android’s development community, Sencha Touch is an enterprise-first framework built for native mobile application development. It is based on JavaScript and HTML5, which allows for creating universal applications for Android.

Sencha Touch comes with nearly 50 built-in UI components and native themes, enabling developers to create engrossing and eye-catching apps. The framework utilizes hardware acceleration techniques, so the apps created with its help exhibit high performance.

Big companies choose Sencha Touch due to its high-level compatibility and flexibility, responsive touch features, and fast execution. Apps built using Sencha Touch are rich in fluid animations, smooth scrolling, and are highly adaptive. Its huge collection of themes, enriched UI, integrated MVC system, and vast data package make Sencha Touch the leading Android application development framework.

TheAppBuilder

Powered by HTML5, TheAppBuilder is an app-building framework that supports a codeless user interface, which means users do not need to know how to code in any language to create a solid app.

Plus, with its drag-and-drop interface, developers can build applications really quickly. The framework comes with pre-built blocks which include features like feedback, content updates, polls, push notifications, and much more.

Android app development framework also got traction from users because it allows them to submit their apps directly to Google Play and boasts social network integration. Plus, it generates analytics reports, so users could identify the issues that slow down their apps. In most cases, businesses use TheAppBuilder to cut costs.

SproutCore

SproutCore is an open-source JavaScript framework used for developing blazing fast applications with advanced features. Developed by Apple , this HTML5-driven framework offers users a clear MVC design that enables performance optimization and scalability for applications. Unlike other JavaScript libraries, SproutCore comes with a complete set of tools required to build a desktop-like application in a browser, including routing, UI components, testing, and deployment tools.

With more than 50,000 items in the toolset, maintainable application code, and well thought out business logic behind it, SproutCore has become a top framework for Android app development. These features, when combined, provide a rock-solid foundation for building feature-packed, high-performance applications.

Best Android Frameworks: Native Apps Development

React Native

Backed by Facebook , React Native is a powerful open-source framework that offers ample support to other development tools and their IDEs. It is based on React, a JS library for web solutions. Companies like Instagram, Walmart, Airbnb, Tesla, as well as many other Fortune 500 companies, use the framework to develop native mobile apps.

As most of the React Native APIs are cross-platform, developers can write code once and then run it anywhere, which improves development speed and helps cut costs.

React Native uses building blocks similar to the ones employed in most Android development frameworks. With the hot-reload option in React Native, developers can link updated files while retaining the current state of the app. The developer community of React Native has been growing much faster than Facebook’s expectations.

Google Trends indicates that the framework has been gaining more and more traction in the past few years. As of today, around 1600 developers have used this framework.

Xamarin

Owned by Microsoft, and one of the top Android development frameworks, Xamarin offers an advanced toolset that enables developers to build native apps for multiple mobile platforms on a shared C# codebase. With Microsoft’s cloud testing service, the apps built using Xamarin can be tested on numerous devices. Moreover, its code-sharing feature makes it developers’ favorite as it reduces coding time and the number of bugs in the software development process.

Compared to other Android frameworks, Xamarin is one of the oldest cross-platform frameworks and is already used by 1.4 million developers across 120 countries.

Xamarin became a part of Visual Studio IDE, which made large companies in industries like healthcare, and energy shift to using this framework. Xamarin has been around for a while, but the number of developers using it has increased a lot over the years as compared to other frameworks for Android.

Appcelerator Titanium

The best Android framework according to some developers, Appcelerator Titanium is an open-source platform for building native apps with a single JavaScript codebase. Titanium became popular as it allows for creating multi-platform mobile apps using around 60%-90% of the existing code. The framework employs the JavaScript programming language to ensure the high performance of applications.

Titanium can be used to develop solid games, while mobile apps built with Appcelerator Titanium can utilize hardware-specific features like Android menu buttons, OS-centric controls, and platform-appropriate notifications. Currently, over 345,577,760 apps run through this Android application framework. Also, it provides many other useful features like automated testing on mobile devices, application monitoring, and performance regulation.

Best Android Frameworks: Hybrid Apps Development

Ionic

Ionic is a free and open-source framework certified by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and allows developers to build progressive hybrid apps with the help of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Ionic has become one of the most famous frameworks for Android development due to its cross-platform functionalities and the ability to integrate AngularJS.

It hosts a simple CLI (Command-line Interface ) that facilitates features like emulators, live reload, and logging. As it is Cordova and Angular based, Ionic has a large community. Around 4 million Ionic-based apps were built, with more than 5 million developers in around 200 countries worldwide using the framework. Moreover, it integrates with many services, including Google Play, Instagram, and many more.

Flutter

Designed and maintained by Google , Flutter is a multi-platform mobile app SDK that can be used to build applications, but in a way that is different from other Android app frameworks. It simplifies the cross-platform development process and is written in the Dart language. When it comes to selecting a framework, Flutter is the best choice for hybrid app development.

Google’s Flutter framework uses a 2D rendering engine called Skia for visuals that are similar to material design and the Cupertino style. Flutter also serves as a solid testing framework, enabling developers to perform UI, unit, and functionality tests. Moreover, Flutter has best-in-class hot-reload functionality, which allows for seamless testing without the need to restart the application.

Cordova

Cordova is a free open-source Android framework that allows developers to build multi-platform apps using a single code base like Appcelerator Titanium. It is a hybrid framework that enables app development based on standard web technologies, including JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. Cordova serves as a bridge between a mobile application and a web application.

Also, it can access native device APIs, making it hard to identify whether the app has been developed using a native language or not. Primarily designed to develop online apps, Cordova also provides support for offline scenarios, making it a perfect platform for developing desktop apps as well.

PhoneGap

Supported by Adobe and Apache , PhoneGap is an open-source Android app framework that allows software engineers to build apps using web development technologies (HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript). With PhoneGap, developers can instantly see changes during the development of the apps. Commonly used for developing hybrid mobile applications, PhoneGap provides best-in-class performance as well as the freedom to work without hardware-specific limitations.

In addition to Android, the platform helps developing apps for several other operating systems. The latest version of this cross-platform framework comes with a built-in Cordova WebView for integrating PhoneGap code into larger native apps. Its extended plugin library, third-party software tools, and growing community make it stand out among other Android app development frameworks

NativeScript

Listed as a top framework for hybrid app development, NativeScript is a free open-source framework that enables developers to create applications using Vue, TypeScript , and Angular . This Android framework is backed by a Bulgarian software company Telerik . From Gradle to CocoaPods, developers can easily reuse a wide array of plugins from directly in the projects with NativeScript.

The framework enables web developers who are well-versed in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, as well as Native UI markup, can build outstanding progressive apps with NativeScript. One of the biggest reasons to choose NativeScript for Android app development is that it offers UIs with the native platform’s offering engine, which is results in native-like UIs and performance. With JS running on the UI thread, NativeScriptenables high-performance on all native platform APIs.

Wrapping Up

Selecting the right Android framework for app development is a complicated process. If you are looking for a one-shot solution for app development, you should know that, since every business and project has different requirements, what works best for one company might not work for another.

First, you should consider the capabilities of each of these frameworks, then focus on your project objectives, and after, pick out the platform from the ones mentioned above — based on your business needs. That is the way you can guarantee your choice will have a positive impact.

If you have some questions left, don’t hesitate to contact our experts to get additional information about mobile app development.

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