Project Description

Hybrid mobile app development is not only cost-effective, but also much more efficient since web developers are required to build only one single app, which will work across different platforms such as iOS, Windows, or Android. Naturally, such app development is considered much more profitable.

10 Popular JavaScript frameworks to build mobile applications

Today, we have numerous frameworks that help bridge the gap between both platforms, mobile and web. Depending on your need, you can choose the framework that best meets your needs.

  • React Native

    The future of hybrid mobile app development, React Native’s greatest strengths are: its compatibility with both Android and iOS, open source platform, delivers a strong performance, offers numerous plugins, has reusable components, consumes less memory, and saves time. It enables developers to use JavaScript frameworks for mobile app development. React Native is based on JavaScript. Some of the most popular and sought out apps built using React Native include Instagram, UberEats, and Facebook.

  • Ionic

    The next favourite is Ionic, for hybrid mobile app development. Designed with native-styles UI elements, Ionic is based on HTML5 mobile app framework that can be used to build hybrid mobile apps. Ionic offers a number of advantages that make it popular. This includes an extensible base theme, interactive paradigms, and typography to name a few. Further, it is also scalable, open source, easy to maintain, but has a dependency on wrapping angular framework.

  • Framework 7

    Agile is in the buzz word today and Framework 7, a hybrid mobile app framework makes the entire web development process agile. It has no external dependency on Angular or React, unlike other frameworks. It does not include a license fee, delivers a powerful performance, is open source, and includes a lot of UI elements.

  • PhoneGap

    An open source cross-platform framework (supports Android, iOS, Blackberry, iPad) PhoneGap is highly sought out by experienced developers for its robustness and rich features. The framework is built on HTML, JavaScript, and CSS3. It enables developers to add more functionality and also includes native functionality.

  • Onsen UI

    Onsen UI is an open source framework that is completely independent. A strong contender against Ionic, Onsen UI is well received for its versatility and flexibility. Like other frameworks, it is also cross-platform compatible and supports tools such as Angular, React and Vue.js. It also has excellent documentation, which is hard to find and is very easy to use. A desktop app, it is optimized for efficient performance.

Top JavaScript frameworks for mobile apps

  • jQuery Mobile

    Supports cross-platform mobile app development including desktops, tablets, smartphone and e-readers such as Kindle or Noor; this framework also includes UIs that can be also be optimized for touch enabled devices.

  • Sencha Touch

    Powered by CSS3 and HTML 5, Sencha Touch is a mobile framework that provides components, animations including APIs that are compatible with the current mobile platforms. This framework has a host of themes that give the feel of a native app. It supports both Cordova and PhoneGap.

  • Ratchet

    Originally used by Twitter, Ratchet is an open-source project that was used by the former as an internal tool for their mobile app prototype. Version 2 includes two premade UI themes for iOS and Android. Ratchet comes with reusable HTML classes, Java plug-ins and a collection of UIs to develop simple mobile apps.

  • Lungo

    Based on HTML5 and CSS3, Lungo is a lightweight mobile framework with aesthetic default styles, numerous JavaScript APIs and mobile UI components. Lungo supports Blackberry, Firefox OS, iOS and Android.

  • jQT

    Designed for WebKit browsers, jQT is a Zepto plugin that lends itself to customization and can also be extended. Its theme can be modified using Compass or Sass and extend the framework using the required functions.