Today the vast majority use the smartphone for almost everything: communicate, buy, sell or even look for work. These globalized behaviors have made many of the new birth startups work through a mobile app and developers put the batteries to create it in the most effective way. But, what are the best tools to develop mobile apps?
Among the five best tools to develop mobile apps are:
It is created by the Appcelerator platform and is an ideal software to develop mobile apps similar to those native to mobile operating systems. Use JavaScript and is responsible for automatically translate the programming to other systems. In addition, it is very simple and it is not necessary to be an expert in programming to master it, since its very intuitive interface.
It has services in the cloud and makes it possible to develop apps interconnected with software and hardware, allowing the use of the micro, camera or GPS. It is available for iOs, Android and Blackberry, and applications developed with Appcelerator Titanium allow the most innovative technological advances in the world of mobile applications such as geolocation or augmented reality.
The negative part of this tool is its complexity at the time of layout, since it does not have an initial HTML where to add the controls. In addition, today part of their tutorials and documents are outdated.
Around 200 million users run applications developed with Appcelerator Titanium, hosting about 575 thousand developers. Companies such as Avis, Zipcar or Adidas use this tool for their mobile applications.
To know more about this tool, you can enter the article: Three tools to build applications at high speed
2.- PhoneGap:
Receive our weekly newsletter. Do not miss our tricks, tips, articles and the most innovative events. I have read, understand and accept the processing of personal data. System designed to develop cross-platform applications using exclusively HTML5, CS33 and JavaScript. It is currently the market tool that supports more platforms, in addition to allowing access to much of the elements of our smartphone such as the camera, contacts or database.
It allows to preset the navigation through the search engine that we decide like Chrome or Firefox.
PhoneGap does require advanced development knowledge, specifically in JavaScript and HTML. The apps that are developed with this system do not reach the performance of the native applications. For each platform uses a different system, Xcode for Mac and Eclipse for Android.
If you want to know more about PhoneGap in Apache Cordova article and PhoneGap: Develop applications for all environments you will find more information.
3.- jQuery Mobile:
Tool based on a framework that, with the use of HTML5 optimized for touch mobile phones, allows adaptation to the different devices and screen sizes.
Easy to use for people accustomed to working with HTML, it contains very good documentation that makes it even easier to use.
The apps that are created with this tool are far from being able to compare with native applications, the result is closer to a web adapted to smartphones. Besides that the handling of the CSS is, at least, complex.
If you are evaluating the possibility of using this tool maybe this infographic can help you: Keys to develop mobile apps.
4.- appery.io:
In the beginning it was called Tiggzi, but it has been recently renamed. Using open source technologies from other platforms such as JQuery Mobile or PhoneGap creates user interfaces for mobile apps.
Its biggest advantage is that it allows you to build complete programming environments just by dragging buttons and elements. In addition, it has a basic free version for simple projects, and at any time you can try the apps that are developed.
It is possible that if you are thinking of using it you are also interested in how to design mobile applications. We remind you in this article: So you can make prototypes
5.- iBuild App:
It uses a system of predefined templates that allow you to create complex mobile applications for both Android and iOS.