Mobile app development agencies are in the constant efforts to augment the user experience with the latest technologies. Hybrid app development is one such trending approach that most of the agencies are utilizing in order to build flexible and highly functional apps.

Hybrid mobile app development facilitates us with the ability to write the code at once and create mobile apps that run on the many platforms with no additional effort. The hybrid mobile applications can run on both iOS and Android, further, the code can be reused for progressive web applications and also for desktop applications.

However, the hybrid mobile app development can be effective only if the proper framework is chosen and utilized. Up till now an abundance of frameworks has been introduced in the app development field while exploring these entire mobile app development frameworks you might get confused which one is best for your particular requirements.

In this blog, we are suggesting 10 most prominent hybrid app frameworks that will diminish your confusion and help you to make an appropriate choice.

Before that we would like to enlighten you some remarkable benefits of hybrid app development:

Benefits Of Hybrid App Development:

Speed

It becomes really annoying when your app takes too long to respond. This is one of the major troubles that native mobile app developers have to face. This is the area where hybrid mobile development wins. Hybrid apps aid users to get rid of this situation providing a seamless experience to them.

Improved User Experience

Many times you tend to open a particular website like google.com or facebook.com, on two diverse browsers and surely you notice some major changes. This can have a contrary impact on user experience. Hybrid mobile app development greatly overcomes this situation by providing equal user experience and a consistent UI.

Availability

Most of the Smartphone users face difficulties for downloading and installing any new app. A large proportion of users go on using apps after downloading. However, not all the people who have downloaded apps use them. Here as well hybrid mobile app development comes in to picture to help app users stay away from irritation associated with this scenario.

Offline Availability

Similar to native apps, hybrid apps also makes use of the device API for storing some helpful information offline. This is one of the best benefits that for customers who tend to save money to be spent on data. The offline usage potential of the hybrid apps can impress mobile users having poor connectivity on their mobile devices.

Convenience of Integration

Both the hybrid and native apps makes use of the programming language of the device so as to synchronize with other compatible apps. This helps app developers to get rid of the integration difficulties. This enables hybrid mobile apps to work flawlessly with cameras, GPS, messaging, and other device information to offer the more enhanced user experience.

The List of 10 Best Hybrid App Development Frameworks

PhoneGap

This is one of the best and highly acknowledged hybrid app development frameworks. PhoneGap allows you to reuse existing web development capabilities to swiftly build hybrid applications for multiple platforms with one codebase so that you can reach to the users having any kind of devices.

PhoneGap applications make use of JavaScript for their logic and HTML5 and CSS3 for their rendering. HTML5 renders access to underlying hardware like the camera, accelerometer, and GPS. This hybrid app development framework can be extended with native plug-ins which will facilitate developers to include more functionality called from JavaScript and directly communicating between the HTML5 page and native layer.

Advantages of PhoneGap:

• Possesses big developer community
• Has swift turnaround and help to the get app faster in the market
• Supports Common Hardware Capabilities such as Network, Files, Camera, Statusbar, GPS, Contacts, Accelerometer, Geo-location and so on
• No additional development skills required
• Backed by Adobe

Disadvantages of PhoneGap:

• Lack of pre-built Transitions, UI Controls, Animations and Standard Controls
• No complete support to the features of an OS
• Though supported by a big community, however there is lack of professional supports which results in lots of unsolved complex issues
• Need to use 3rd party frameworks to get the native look & feel of the app

Learn More about Phonegap:- phonegap.com

Ionic

Ionic is an absolute open-source SDK for hybrid mobile app development. It is built on top of Apache Cordova and Angular.js. Ionic offers services and tools for building hybrid mobile apps by using Web frameworks like HTML5, CSS, and Sass. The framework is powered by a huge worldwide community and will always remain free to use. The community has more than 120 native device features including HealthKit, Bluetooth, Finger Print Auth, and more with TypeScript extensions and Cordova/PhoneGap plugins.

Advantages of Ionic:

• Open source and absolutely free framework
• Faster, reliable, stable, and simulate a native feel efficiently
• Additional services, like push notifications and graphical editing of apps
• Uses Angularjs for making application structure and takes advantage of its numerous features
• Javascript and CSS support provides you higher customization options

Disadvantages of Ionic:

• Not suitable for high-end graphics dependent applications or games
• Lacks in security aspects as compared to native apps
• Ionic apps are not as fast as the native apps
• Since apps may lack in native functions, plugins need to be developed

Learn More about Ionic :- ionicframework.com

React Native

Maintained by Facebook, React Native is a JavaScript library. The framework is introduced particularly for designing natively rendered UIs for Android and iOS. It is much easier for developers to learn React Native who are well-acquainted JavaScript. The UI designed with react native can be integrated with existing mobile app code which makes it appear more as a library than a framework. Blending the productivity of web technology with the native app functionality, React Native is proving to be a game changer in the mobile app development field.

Advantages of React Native:

• Support for rapid development iterations
• Simplified user interface design
• Constant improvement and growing library
• The “hot reloading” feature saves additional development time
• Offers a truly native user experience

Disadvantages of React Native:

• Lacks in navigation components to offer users with seamless UX
• Apps built with React Native has lesser performance than native ones
• Number of third-party components is still limited
• Lack of Some Custom Modules

Learn More about React Native: reactnative.com

Framework 7

Framework7 is an open source and free mobile HTML framework to build hybrid mobile apps or web apps along with Android and iOS native look and feel. The key motive of the Framework7 is to provide an opportunity to the developers to easily build Android and iOS apps with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

Moreover, Framework7 provides certain useful features including library agnostic, native scrolling, multiple views support, pages transaction animation, route pages with the combination of XHR, hardware accelerated animations via CSS3, browser history, caching, and preloading.

Advantages of Framework7:

• Easy to learn and customize
• Offers a number of ready-to-use UI elements
• Alive forum community
• Most components don’t need any JavaScript
• Native scrolling with fast animations

Disadvantages of Framework7:

• Confusion over platform support
• Average documentation

Learn More about Framework7:- framework7.io

Xamarin

Xamarin is recognized as one of the best mobile app development technologies. Though it is a comparatively new framework, it has a big community of over 1.4 million developers across the world. The Xamarin platform is based on the WORA concept which means write once, run any. About 90% of the codes of Xamarin can be reutilized to make mobile apps for different platforms. Along with C# shared codebase developers can make use of Xamarin tools to create native iOS, Android, and Windows apps having native user interfaces. Xamarin also allows you to build a business mobile app with native look and feel.

Advantages of Xamarin:

• Allows combining the same APIs and UI controls used for developing Android, iOS and Mac apps
• Allows functionality and QA testing for bugs to ensure a perfect integration
• Local UI controllers can be used for developing apps with standard look and feel

Disadvantages of Xamarin:

• Limited Support
• Small Community
• Needs Some Manual Coding

Learn More about Xamarin:- xamarin.com

Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a free and open source hybrid app development framework having best capabilities of both Angular and Bootstrap 3 framework which allows developers to create impressive HTML5 apps. The framework also comes with fastclick.js and overthrow.js so as to render smooth and improved mobile experience. There are UI components like switches, overlays, scrollable areas, sidebars, and so on.

Advantages of Mobile Angular UI:

• Works well with older browsers
• Allows developers to leverage JQuery knowledge extensively

Disadvantages of Mobile Angular UI:

• Hard to customize and add customer functions

Learn More about Mobile Angular UI:- mobileangularui.com

Onsen UI

Open UI is open source framework with Apache license. Though Onsen UI is a new framework it’s considerably giving a strong competition to Ionic. Open UI is very flexible and easy to use framework having semantic markup components. It is free for commercial projects. The framework incorporates a big collection of ready to use components that help you to write code in JavaScript and HTML5 and run it through PhoneGap and Cordova for making the app.

Advantages of Onsen UI:

• Free and Open Source
• Easy to Use
• Working for mobile and classic web development
• Multi-screen Support

Disadvantages of Onsen UI:

• The apps appears out of the place when viewed on larger screens
• Custom routing, you can’t use AngularJS routing

Learn More about Onsen UI :- onsen.io

Appcelerator Titanium

Titanium is the great blend of environments offered by PhoneGap and Xamarin. Though the apps are written in JavaScript still you must have to use a custom Appcelerator and XML API to support several native features. Appcelerator Titanium is cross-platform having complete support for iOS and Android. The framework is the best solution for building hybrid mobile apps. The Titanium comes with platform-independent APIs which allows accessing phone hardware.

Advantages of Appcelerator Titanium:

• High dependency on JavaScript normalizes code across platforms
• Good performance due to use of native UI components
• Allows developers leverage existing skills

Disadvantages of Appcelerator Titanium:

• Local management of native SDKs requires a lot more time
• Performance due to native UI components has a learning curve rate

Learn More about Onsen UI :- appcelerator.com

Kendo UI

Powered by Telerik, Kendo UI is free and open source HTML 5 framework used for building cross-platform apps. The framework mainly depends on jQuery and brings more than 70 readymade jQuery widgets. It is also possible to integrate it with Bootstrap UI and Angular framework. Since most of the developers are well acquainted with jQuery, Kendo UI is easy to learn for them. The features are somewhat limited and fail to provide dedicated technical support.

Advantages of Kendo UI:

• Strong integration between mobile data and mobile UI
• Strong dependence on JavaScript normalizes code across platforms
• Allows developers leverage existing skills
• Still alive and in active support
• Native look depending on mobile platform

Disadvantages of Kendo UI:

• Extending with new widgets is not easy
• Costly for some developers
• Lack of 3rd party support

Learn More about Kendo UI :- kendo-angular-ui

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch is an enterprise-grade framework for making cross-platform and end to end web apps with JavaScript and HTML5. The framework offers set of ready to use widgets having native look and feel for the major platforms like Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone. It also provides a drag and drop HTML5 visual application builder along with plenty of readymade templates. With Sencha Touch, it is also possible to make custom components and add to the library for reuse.

Advantages of Sencha Touch:

• Good library of UI components
• Excellent themes
• Extensible API

Disadvantages of Sencha Touch:

• May need to write custom plug-ins
• Utilizes a proprietary stack
• Sometimes slow performance

Learn More about Sencha Touch :- Sencha Touch

Conclusion

While deciding to make an app for any purpose, the hybrid app development must be considered as a viable choice. The above-mentioned frameworks are the most popular frameworks for making high-quality and robust hybrid mobile apps and selecting the one among them will surely benefit you.