It’s natural for a business to develop an appealing idea with good market potential. After you come up with that idea, you start looking for the team that can bring it to life. At this moment, the actual implementation of your vision into reality comes to the stage. So, you need to choose the technology and tools for making things work.
Depending on the chosen tech stack, you will hire a specific company possessing expertise and a track record with similar projects. Also, the tools you choose determine the cost to hire a designer, which is a vital factor for everyone. So, you need to plan the tech stack thoroughly. Focus on the mandatory elements and add what you consider necessary afterward.
Here is a detailed guide on the most common tech stack components for mobile app development. Look through these points to plan your project’s implementation more competently.
What is Tech Stack?
Now, what do you need to choose for your tech stack? What should it contain to cover all your web dev needs? Generally, it should consist of programming languages, libraries, frameworks, and additional tools involved in web app creation. These tools should address the front-end and back-end development aspects. The toolkit you use should also include the design aspects (UX/UI software) and scalability instruments.
Choosing all elements of your tech stack is a vital preparatory stage in every app development project. If you pick the wrong or incompatible tools, the risk of delaying or failing the project, wasting money, and losing the project vision gets high.
So, the initial task is to understand what type of app you need. Native, hybrid, and cross-platform apps require different tech tools, and the work process may be different. Let’s go through each of them.
Tech Stack for Native Apps
Native apps are platform-specific. That’s their major benefit and major limitation. On the one hand, building such an app is cheaper, quicker, and more manageable. The platform you choose already has many ready-made tools for app creation. However, you also become limited with that range of tools, unable to experiment and introduce custom design options.
1. Android
When developing an Android app, the two main languages you should consider are Java and Kotlin. Java is a developer-friendly, platform-independent language powering 3+ billion apps across the globe. Kotlin has been the official development language of Google since 2017, also giving an essential toolkit for hassle-free Android coding.
Developers can also use Android Studio, a ready development environment where a rich and flexible set of features is available for everyone. You can also use numerous templates and samples to quickly create and launch your app. Another source of handy development tools is Android SDK. It features many libraries, APIs, and a debugger to automate your development process and equip your app with vital functions.
2. iOS
When it comes to iOS development, most coders prefer Objective-C and Swift. Both ensure efficiency and flexibility in the coding solutions, giving a developer-friendly instrument for app design. Additional toolkits include Xcode and IntelliJ AppCode. Besides, the iOS SDK kit is an all-in-one development environment supporting developers in all phases of app design.
Tech Stack for Hybrid Apps
Hybrid app development is more nuanced, as it needs to combine native and web-based features. It is done with the help of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript mixes. Some code is shared with a native app, and other fragments are created from scratch.
The most frequent choices for back-end development are Apache Cordova and Ionic. Apache Cordova unifies the HTML, Javascript, and CSS functionality under one roof, allowing the native app’s code conversion in real-time. It also features pre-developed plugins with access to native APIs and handy plugins (e.g., TouchID, Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, and sensor use).
Ionic operates on AngularJS functionality and enables frictionless app development for mobile, web, and desktop apps. It integrates with numerous front-end tools, thus being a universal choice among coders.
Which Tech Stack Is Needed for Cross-Platform Development?
With the rise of cross-platform app development, you don’t need to limit yourself to one platform anymore. The only thing you need to do is compile an optimal tech stack covering your development needs and requirements. Here are a couple of suggestions:
- React Native – you can easily achieve the cross-platform functionality of your app by using this Javascript framework. React Native has all features needed for natively-rendered mobile apps. Thus, using it as your dev toolkit, you can achieve a seamless user experience regardless of whether they use Android, iOS, web, or UWP devices.
- Javascript – this golden standard of cross-platform development is universally suitable for cross-platform app creation. Coders use this programming language and its numerous libraries for all kinds of apps. So, you can never go wrong by including JS elements in your app design.
- Unity – many people know this brand for gaming development, but Unity goes much farther in its service offering. The Unity IDE is a universal tool for hybrid and cross-platform app design with various appealing functions, like animation, audio file support, etc. Its Asset Store also features many plug-and-play app pieces that you can purchase without wasting time on development.
- Flutter – you’ll definitely need this tool for the UI design of your cross-platform mobile app. This Google universal kit was created to help developers create stellar apps independent of the platform. Its unique strength is the framework’s layered architecture, which enables flexibility in composition and a great degree of experimentation.
Technology Choice Really Makes a Difference
These are only a couple of highlights for the process of tech stack choice for your next app. Don’t entrust this selection to chance and never rely on the developer’s preferences, as the underlying technology determines your project’s success to a large degree.
So, include all features you want your app to have in a list of specifications, brainstorm the app design, and research the market for available technologies and software. It’s a good investment in a quick, hassle-free design process, short time to market, and consistency between the front-end and back-end app parts.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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