Cross-platform app development is a wise decision to avoid missing a huge customer that uses another mobile operating system. As per the report by SensorTower, the number of iOS apps would rise to 5 million by 2020. This huge number suggests the success of Apple apps, but it is noteworthy to mention that Android also has an appreciable customer base. Statista reports the number of apps on the Google Play store was 2.6 million by December 2018 and is increasing with every passing quarter. These flabbergasting numbers suggest the massive loss of customers if one builds only native apps, which are mobile apps built for a particular operating system.
iOS application development would touch base to 5 million by 2020, while Android has more than 2.6 million apps revered by mobile users across the globe. This huge number suggests the need for cross-platform app development shortly.
To ensure that the business reaches a large section of mobile users, businesses prefer cross platform app development. There are several benefits of designing and developing apps that work on diverse operating systems. First of all, the cost of developing apps for different operating systems is quite high and is increasing with every passing day. Beyond this, the wider reach of apps that work on multiple OS means businesses can span across these global customers. They choose online shopping over other means of purchasing products.
Benefits of cross-platform app development:
Code reusability: Developed once and used multiple times, developers prepare apps within a short period. In addition, rapid development pushes marketing to another level and gives much higher returns on investment.
Incorporating cloud storage: Cross-platform apps are easy to deploy on a cloud platform. Even enterprise-grade plug-ins can blend in these apps to ensure global compatibility.
Limited technical glitches: There are lower technical issues in this case. This paves the way for flawless mobile apps within no time.
Even the developer community chooses frameworks that offer cross platform development and support. Two of the popular frameworks for developing cross platform apps are Ionic and Flutter. While both have their own merits and demerits, we shall compare and contrast to check which one is suitable for mobile application development.
Ionic or Flutter? Which one to choose for your business?
As discussed above, both frameworks offer advantages of quick development, lower cost of development, lesser technical errors, code reusability, cloud integration, and more. Now, the question is which one is better for any business. This depends solely on the kind of business setup and the approach towards going on a digital platform. Therefore, let us glance through the pros and cons of Ionic and Flutter frameworks.
Ionic cross-platform framework – What to expect?
Ionic came into existence in 2013 and has created a niche for itself. It already has 25,993 applications to its credit in a short period, as per the reports by SimilarTech. This open-source framework uses HTML5, AngularJS, and SaaS to develop highly interactive and competitive mobile apps. In addition, it offers predefined design flexibility in the form of its UI components to create visibly stunning apps.
Ionic also offers a Common Language Interface (CLI) to create highly secure apps. Furthermore, due to CLI, these apps can be tested at any stage of development, making it a preferred choice of mobile app developers.
Due to its native plug-ins supported by Ionic, the development process becomes highly simplified. Moreover, with its exclusive library for tools, gestures, and components, this framework offers feature-rich apps.
Most importantly, unlike the reputation of getting poor performance by hybrid apps, those made in Ionic have the caliber to create apps that perform and native apps and thus generate a high end-user experience.
The disadvantage of Ionic framework:
Like any other mobile app development framework, Ionic also needs improvement in some areas. For example, in-app navigation is still a challenge in some cases with Ionic. However, developers are coming up with technical breakthroughs to rule out the issues.
Flutter Framework – Expectations and Flaws:
Born in 2017, this Google-developed mobile development framework has gained huge popularity. Written in Dart, the Flutter framework offers rapid development and hot reloading capability for iOS and Android. It has its engine, foundation library, and design plug-ins which minimize coding yet give stunning user interfaces.
With the react-style framework and development tools, this framework is highly suitable to design customized interfaces, which work wonders for any business. Moreover, it performs native apps with smooth navigation, scrolling, and more.
It offers design widgets that generate flexible and expressive User Interfaces. This makes it ideal for designing customized mobile apps.
It is considered an ideal framework for MVP, and the Just-in-Time feature of Dart paces up the compilation and development process. Due to its OOP concept, this framework also reduces the need for lengthy code.
The disadvantage of the Flutter framework:
Only 2% of developers use Dart. This is a big limitation and makes it difficult to find the right resources for cross-platform app development in Flutter.
Again, Flutter has its ecosystem, library, and development tools. However, for any functionality that is not available in its library, the developers need to code and create for themselves. This is a very time-consuming process that increases the development cost and time to another level.
App size is another issue as Flutter mobile apps are normally larger than 4 MB, which is a big disadvantage. There is a possibility of ruling out this limitation in the future, but it currently exists.
Ionic and Flutter – Compare, Contrast and Choose:
When compared, both Ionic and Flutter have their own merits and demerits. However, categorically speaking, while the performance of Flutter is far better than that of Ionic, it is the support community of Ionic that scales much higher than Flutter.
Flutter uses only Dart, while Ionic apps are designed with HTML, CSS, AngularJS, and Typescript.
Speed of Flutter is more than Ionic, and even performance is better in the case of Flutter. However, the development time and cost are more, which is a drawback.
The GUI of Ionic is developed with HTML and CSS, while Flutter has its design widgets to simplify UI development.
conclusion
It is advisable to study the business model and approach for mobile development, which can help finalize any one of these two frameworks. If the mobile app concept is known, SysBunny can guide in choosing the best framework for any business. Share Your Requirements with us to design the right strategy for cross-platform app development. Give us a shout for the best mobile app development!
Can’t decide which framework to choose – Ionic or Flutter? Check the pros and cons of both cross-platform app development giants and decide the best one to justify your business model.
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