16 Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile Apps

When it comes to mobile app development, one of the most important decisions you need to make is to choose the type of app – Android app, iOS app, hybrid app or web app. You need to consider the budget, timeline, UI and UX support, maintenance and other important factors when building a mobile app. For many business owners, choosing a hybrid app is a good choice as it combines elements of both native and web applications and supports multiple platforms.  

Many startups and small businesses prefer hybrid app development, as it allows them to reach all major platforms simultaneously. Basically, hybrid mobile apps are applications built using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but are packaged into a native app shell that allows them to be distributed through app stores and run on multiple mobile platforms. The shell provides a bridge between the web content and the native device functionality.

Let’s delve into what are hybrid apps, what is hybrid app development and the top frameworks for hybrid mobile apps.

What are Hybrid Apps?

A hybrid app is mainly a web app that has a lightweight native app container, making it easier to leverage native platform features and device hardware. It combines the elements of a native app and a web app, allowing users to access it on a specific platform like Android, iOS, and browser. Similar to web apps, hybrid apps are built with the front-end development technologies and languages such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, which give them a cross-platform functionality.  

Hybrid app technology is evolving, making it a cost-effective and fast option for mobile app development. Hybrid apps offer a native like experience due to high powered frameworks that have made it easier to solve the hybrid apps’ limitations. Instagram, Gmail, Twitter, and Uber are a few examples of high performing hybrid apps.

The main benefits of choosing hybrid app development includes:

•         Cross-platform computability
•         Faster development time
•         Scalability
•         Reduce app development cost

What is Hybrid App Development?

Hybrid app development refers to the process of creating mobile applications that can run on multiple operating systems (such as iOS and Android) using a single codebase. It is a practical and cost-effective approach for companies providing Android app development and iOS app development in Dubai. It combines elements of both native and web application development to leverage the strengths of both worlds.

Hybrid apps are built using a single codebase, typically written in web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This codebase can then be deployed across different platforms, significantly reducing app development cost and app maintenance effort.  

With a unified codebase and the ability to reuse code across platforms, hybrid apps can be developed more quickly than native apps. This can speed up time-to-market and allow for faster iterations and updates. Hybrid app development is particularly advantageous for businesses looking to reach users on both iOS and Android.

By combining the best aspects of native and web technologies, hybrid apps provide a balanced solution that can be advantageous for many development projects.

What is a Hybrid App Framework?

A hybrid mobile app framework is a development software that enables the creation of hybrid mobile applications. These frameworks use web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript and HTML to build hybrid apps that can run on multiple operating systems (e.g., iOS, Android) using a single codebase. No need to write code for different platforms, and the single code can be reused for progressive web apps and desktop apps by making some tweaks. 

In fact, with hybrid app frameworks, your app development team can develop a better-quality app. These mobile app frameworks contain libraries of code, API and other features, making coding faster and easier. These frameworks blend elements of native and web development to deliver apps with a native-like user experience while leveraging web technologies.

If you are wondering which frameworks to use for hybrid mobile app development, here is a list of the top frameworks for hybrid mobile apps.

Popular Hybrid App Development Frameworks

1. React Native

React Native is one of the most commonly used technologies required to build hybrid apps. The framework is owned by Facebook, allows app developers to build interactive mobile apps using JavaScript and React. It provides a native like performance by compiling to native code and supports both iOS and Android.

The React Native development process uses the same UI building blocks and components as regular iOS and Android apps, making coding easier for app developers using a single JavaScript codebase. All you need to do is combine those building blocks with React and JavaScript. Partnering with a React Native development company can ensure the effective use of native components and modules for enhanced performance and user experience. It also supports many third-party libraries. third-party libraries, further extending its functionality.

2. Flutter

Flutter is an open-source app development framework developed by Google. The framework is mainly used for developing high-quality apps for iOS and Android. Flutter uses the Dart programming language and provides a high-performance rendering engine to build visually attractive apps for iOS, Android, and the web from a single codebase. It enables the creation of visually appealing apps with a consistent UI across platforms. By offering a rich set of pre-designed widgets and a consistent UI, Flutter application development services ensure that apps look and feel amazing, with rich gadgets that enhance performance and efficiency.

3. Ionic

The Ionic framework is an important and famous hybrid mobile app framework that uses the traditional WebView approach to hybrid app development. The complete open-source and free SDK provides tools and other services for hybrid app development. Hybrid apps can be built with CSS, HTML, JavaScript and Sass and distributed through native app stores. 

The Angular JS based framework utilizes Angular (or React/Vue) and Cordova or Capacitor and pre-designed UI components for accessing native device features. Ionic focuses on providing a uniform look and feel across different platforms. CSS segments offer all components a portable app needs and offer support for React, Angular, Vue, Preact for web components.

4. Apache Cordova (PhoneGap)

PhoneGap, also known as Apache Cordova, is a cross-platform framework that allows mobile app developers to build hybrid apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It provides a set of APIs to access native device capabilities through web technologies. It acts as a bridge between web applications and native code, allowing developers to create apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Apache Cordova has a robust backend system that can speed up the development process, saving developers’ time and effort. The open-source framework has super features that makes mobile app development smoother. Developers with basic knowledge of HTML5, Cs3 and JavaScript can develop hybrid apps smartly with Apache Cordova.

5. Xamarin

The Microsoft-owned app development framework, Xamarin allows developers to write mobile apps using C# and .NET framework languages. It provides a single codebase that can be used to deploy apps on iOS, Android, and Windows, with access to native APIs through Xamarin’s bindings. With this hybrid app development framework, you can save a lot of time as it has re-utilizing abilities and tools to create the code.

This single tech stack is a great choice for faster mobile app development, allowing you to save time. Since Xamarin uses native components, you can create a platform-specific UI that enables developers to create a native app-like experience. A lot of third-party libraries are available, helping developers to use the selected elements and incorporate them into the code to achieve native like functionalities.

6. Ext JS

Ext JS is an enterprise grade app development framework, exclusively designed for building cross-platform, data intensive, mobile web apps. The framework utilizes HTML5 and JavaScript web technologies to build enterprise applications. Many app development companies and freelancers choose Ext JS framework for building mobile apps for large enterprises.

With Ext JS technology, you can build high-performance hybrid apps that offer native like experience across all leading platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. The framework has a drag and drop HTML5 visual app builder with many ready-made templates. The Ext JS framework has built in support for React and Angular.

7. Framework7

Framework7 is an open-source mobile framework, allowing you to develop web apps, progressive web apps and hybrid apps with a native look and feel. The open-source, free app development framework is packed with a number of pre-style widgets and components, helping you build apps faster. It has a built-in Fast Click library and built-in grid system layout for better arranging the elements in a responsive manner. The flexible router API loads the pages from templates.  

8. NativeScript

NativeScript (NS) is an open-source mobile app development framework designed for building enterprise apps – cross-platform apps for iOS and Android apps. NS apps are fully native apps that can use all the features of a device, including camera, GPS, contacts and more. NativeScript uses JavaScript technology and offers full-stack features such as integration with the Angular CLI, router support and code generation. The framework allows you to use third-party libraries from Android Arsenal, npm. Maven in your apps without even needing wrappers.

9. Kendo UI

Kendo UI is a comprehensive framework, commonly used for developing interactive and high-performance apps and websites. Kendo UI is a bundle of JavaScript libraries developed natively for Angular, React, Vue and jQuery. It includes a library with hundreds of UI components, data visualization gadgets, a built-in library, and client-side data source. With this framework, you can build an app with a modern, responsive, and ultra-fast UI.

App developers can easily incorporate complex JavaScript UI features such as data grids, schedulers and charts within a few lines of code. It is a great choice for mobile app development companies to build high-performance hybrid apps with amazing features. Kendo UI is a perfect choice for enterprise grade app development solutions.

10. Aurelia

Aurelia is a must-try open-source and free hybrid mobile app framework which is considered as a highly advanced, next-generation UI and developer friendly front-end framework due to its amazing capabilities. From two-way data binding to routing and UI composition, Aurelia offers many technical advantages to companies that offer Android app development services.  Aurelia is a famous framework for building the most complex feature rich hybrid mobile apps.

The framework empowers app developers to build components using vanilla JavaScript or TypeScript. It is considered as a collection of modern JavaScript modules that can function as a robust platform for building mobile, desktop and browser apps. It follows web standards and includes powerful modules such as binding, templating, routing – to name a few. The ecosystem is packed with plugins and tools for better performance and advanced features.

11. Quasar

If you are looking for building a mobile app on a budget, choose Quasar framework. It is the most cost-effective app development framework that saves development cost. The Vur.js based mobile development framework allows you to create state-of-the-art UIs for your apps and websites. The most performance-focused framework, which is easily customizable and extendable. Development teams find it easier to create responsive apps and websites with Quasar.

Whether it is a single page app, progressive web app, browser extension or server-side rendered app, Quasar is a great choice. Simply write the code once and deploy it as a mobile app, website, or an electron app. Quasar is loaded with high performance customizable material design components that make it easier for developers to build desktop and mobile apps faster.

12. Solar 2D

Solar 2D is considered as one of the top frameworks for hybrid apps that has a cross-platform ability; can work with native iOS and Android app development languages. Developers can create an app for multiple devices, including iPhone, Android phones, tablets, Windows desktop, Mac desktop, Amazon Fire, connected TV devices and much more. Solar 2D is Lua based framework, an easy-to-learn scripting language, that includes a large set of APIs and plugins, helping app developers to quickly create apps for multiple devices.

13. Intel XDK

Intel XDK is a software application commonly used for building cross-platform apps with web technology HTML5. For many app developers, it is a perfect development framework, as it is packed with multiple features that help them create innovative and functional app. It is considered as a one-stop solution for developing IoT apps. Web developers with in-depth knowledge of JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5 can find Intel XDK framework a good choice for building apps using open-source tools and technologies.

Intel XDK offers many ready-to-use app templates and apps developed by this platform are supported by iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, and Tizen. Its drag-and-drop UI builder enables developers to create app interfaces, making designing, testing, and building apps easier.   

14. Appcelerator Titanium

Titanium is a hybrid app development platform that enables developers to create cross-platform apps with JavaScript. The open-source mobile development framework uses a web technology JavaScript to write the source code and then converts it into native app using its WebKit. Titanium also works for browser environments and device specific windowing systems such as iOS, Android and Windows. inMobi, PayPal and Paint are famous apps built with Appcelerator Titanium framework.

15. jQuery Mobile

jQuery Mobile is a great platform, famous for its simplicity, cross-platform computability. The framework is packed with ready-made themes and UI widgets. It is the best fit for hybrid app development, well-optimized for speed and supports all major platforms and frameworks. With jQuery, building a mobile app is easier as it comes with excellent documentation. The lightweight framework uses HTML and JavaScript, making app development easier and faster. With jQuery Mobile, you can add collapsible menus, allowing developers to enhance app’s functionality, performance and speed.  

16. Onsen UI

Onsen UI is an app development framework that is the best choice to create complex mobile apps. The framework is built with web technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript and is compatible with React, Angular and Vue. It has ready-to-implement components, which are highly customizable and offer high-quality output. With Onsen UI, you can build multi-channel apps compatible with different devices such as desktops, tablets and mobile phones.

Onsen UI supports the development of hybrid apps, you don’t need to depend on different technology stacks for hybrid app development. From front-end to back-end development, Onsen UI framework can make things easier for developers to develop interactive HTML5 hybrid apps. You can easily achieve native look and feel with ready-to-use UI components, including stack navigation, side menu, forms, lists and other components. The framework provides iOS and Android Material design support and ensures the apps are optimized well on a wide range of devices and perform smoothly even on lower end devices.

Concluding Thoughts

With the increasing demand of hybrid apps, the trend of hybrid app development is gaining a huge popularity among startups, midsize and established businesses. Choosing hybrid app development is a worthwhile approach that makes it easier for business owners to build efficient and cost-effective apps.

Hybrid mobile app frameworks offer a practical solution for building cross-platform applications efficiently. They balance the need for native-like performance with the benefits of using a single codebase, making them a popular choice for many mobile app development projects. Choosing a hybrid app framework is a sensible choice for your development project.

The above listed ones are the top frameworks for hybrid mobile apps that your development team can use to build high performance, fast-loading and interactive apps. Connect with a Mobile App Development Dubai for a free consultation and learn about the essentials of mobile app development. The team of Android app developers will help you build a mobile app for your startup and offer a quality UX across multiple platforms.