The mobile app download figures have been skyrocketing since the pandemic making app development a profitable business. In 2019, the revenue figure from the mobile application was around $462 billion, which further inclined up to $639 billion in 2021. According to a study, around 3.2 billion people of the total population are smartphone users. The count of smartphone users is expected to reach 7.5 billion by the end of 2026, justifying the potential and profitability of the industry.
The success of any application is partially dependent upon the mobile app development tools. These tools are thoughtfully designed to help develop a flawless application. Therefore, developers leverage these tools to deliver outstanding applications to their clients. Android Studio, AppCode, Transporter, Flutter, Ionic, Appian, Buildfire, and Adobe XD are a few of the most reliable and worthy mobile app development tools available in the market.
What are Mobile App Development Tools?
The mobile application development tools are diligently designed software to assist in developing mobile applications. These tools offer numerous templates, IDEs, analytics and code-free developments. Additionally, it also abridge the process of integration and backend services. In short, designing and developing a mobile application becomes much easier with these tools. Individuals can create an application without coding with these mobile app development tools.
The market is flooded with such tools; it’s essential to utilize the best tools like Android Studio, Flutter, AppCode, and Adobe XD for the best results. There are specific ways to find the best tools among all; you can also consider the points mentioned below to find the best tool for developing your application.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Mobile App Development Tool
Using a mobile app development tool is necessary to develop an excellent application. Anyhow filtering the best tool is a hectic process. Therefore, here is a list of factors that you can consider to choose the most suitable mobile app development tool for developing your application.
Usability: The tool’s usability is the first and foremost factor to consider. Ensure that the tool has a simple and intuitive interface. Also, prefer conducting a free trial before buying any tool.
Cost: Purchasing a virtuous mobile app development tool can be expensive. Hence, it is essential to make sure that the purchase of the tool fits your budget.
Management: Once an application is launched, it is essential to test, analyze and maintain it throughout its lifecycle. So, ensure that the application has long-term capabilities and offers good management.
Security: This feature is a must as it gives the admin complete control over security controls, audibility and governance.
Integration: It is crucial for a mobile app development tool to integrate well with the service and system of the application throughout its life. Even MAM (Mobile Application Management) is necessary for the proper functionality of the application.
Expertise: Every tool has the expertise that makes it unique and better than others. Hence, ensure that the tool has all the expertise that a developer needs to build a specific mobile application.
Type of Application: Every tool offers unique features and functionalities. So, study the type of applications you will develop in future, i.e., web apps, hybrid apps or dedicated mobile apps and purchase a tool accordingly.
Delivery: The work associated with developing an application never ends. Every application requires management, upgradation, etc. Therefore, ensure that the tool offers easy upgrades and scalability of your applications for its smooth functionality.
20 Mobile App Development Tools
Native Mobile App Development Tools
These tools are highly recommended for developing an application that runs on a single platform. Native mobile apps tool assist in building mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms. The best tools falling under this category are as follows –
| Name | Pricing | Rating | Famous Application |
| Android Studio | Free | 4.5/5 | Netflix |
| IntelliJ Idea & Android SDK | Ultimate Pack – $499/YearAll Product Pack – $649/Year | 4.6/5 | Lyft |
| Transporter | Free | 4.8/5 | MyClassboard |
| AppCode | Normal Pack – $199/YearAll Product Pack – $649/Year | 4.3/5 | |
| Xcode | FreeNormal Pack – $99/Year | 4.1/5 | Uber |
| Cocoapods | Free | 4.4/5 | Duolingo |
Android Studio: This Android app development tool is highly preferred by mobile app developers as it helps accelerate the development procedure and offers a stable IDE. It also utilizes an integrated Gradle built system to improvise the developer’s experience. Furthermore, its graphical interface lets the app developer use the drag-and-drop feature efficiently. All types of android app development can be quickly developed using this tool.
Features
· Fast coding and iterating
· Feature-rich
· Multiple mobile app development framework and testing tools
IntelliJ Idea & Android SDK: It focuses on emphasizing the productivity of the app developers, which makes it another reputed app development tool. It helps manage routine and repetitive tasks to let the developer concentrate on the creative part. It works on JVM language and assists in refactoring, completing code, and analyzing static code. The android SDK guarantee the development of efficient and productive applications using the IntelliJ idea.
Features
· Excellent coding support
· Understands developer ergonomics
· Several tools for testing
· Brilliant development tools
Transporter: It is one of the most famous and reputed java-based development tools. It is majorly used to create apps with a sizable catalogue. The admin can directly upload the content on their application using this tool’s drag-and-drop feature. Also, the developer can easily upload pre-generated content on the OS platforms like Apple App Store, Apple Books, iTunes, etc.
Feature
· Drag and drop feature
· Lightning-fast upload speed
· Supports multiple file upload
AppCode: It is one of the best tools that simplify the code management task and save a lot of time by offering a united development environment. It is an excellent IDE and utilizes several languages like C, C++, Objective-C and swift. Even a developer can automate repetitive tasks with the help of it. The best part is that it also assists in finding and rectifying errors.
Features
· Single IDE for multiple languages
· Exceptional integration and in-built tools
· Offers assistance in coding
Xcode: The best part of this tool is that it offers debugging feature which helps the developer find and fix all the bugs in their coding. Even managing image assets and code files have become easy with its management tools. It comes with all the essential features like a compiler and text editor and builds a system which simplifies writing, debugging and compiling. Developers can easily build an application for OS platforms using this tool.
Features
· Easy to understand interface
· Multiple testing choices to fix bugs
· Offers complete documentation
Cocoapods: Managing projects becomes a lot easier with this ios app development tool. It can be used as third-party integration and has over 89k libraries. This specific tool has been used in over 3 million apps yet. It’s a majorly used user for finding and fixing the dependencies issue. At first, it finds the issue and later links it to the Xcode workspace to build the iOS application.
Features
· Aid to fix dependencies
· Assists in managing third party libraries
Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Tools
These tools are also recognized as hybrid app development tools because a developer can build applications for Android, iOS and Windows platforms with them. It is also the reason why the majority of developers tend to develop their applications using cross platform app development tools.
| Name | Pricing | Review | Famous Application |
| React Native | Free | 4.3/5 | |
| Ionic | FreeLaunch Pack – $42/MonthGrowth Pack – $102/Month | 4.3/5 | McDonalds |
| Flutter | Free | 4.5/5 | Google Ads |
| Unity | FreePlus Pack – $399/YearPro Pack – $1800/YearEnterprise Pack – $1899/Year | 4.5/5 | Shapes |
| Xaramin | Indie Pack – $25/MonthBusiness Pack – $999/MonthEnterprise Pack – $1899/Month | 4.4/5 | The World Bank |
React Native: This tool has a brilliant user interface to shorten the load time and speed up the app development without hampering the functionality and quality. It supports multiple languages like Swift, Java and C++. It promotes a single code base to let the developer build an application once and later deploy it on several platforms. In addition, the OTA (Over the Air) feature abridges the procedure of sharing the updated application version.
Features
· Fast iterating and coding
· Supports C++, Swift, Python and Objective C
· Up to 80% of codebase is shareable
· Regular OTA updates
Ionic – It is an open-source tool that a developer can use to build applications for free. It also has a comprehensive library of UI that lets the developer integrate a better user interface into their application. In order to ease the application development process, the developer can opt for JavaScript language. Web technologies like SAAS, HTML5 and CSS can also be witnessed in this tool, along with top-notch gestures.
Features
· Open source
· Comprehensive library
· AOT compiling
· Vanilla JavaScript
Flutter: It is well-recognized for building an application as quickly as possible. It provides admirable documentation and plenty of libraries to the developer. It lets you design a similar UI for manifold platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android. Developers can utilize dart languages instead of code-base to develop apps with flutter. Additionally, the developer also gets their hand on the exceptional toolkit.
Features
· Provides assistance in coding
· Flexible and Expressive UI
· Excellent API’s
Unity: This particular tool is famous for rendering 2D and 3D scenes and is considered one of the best hybrid tools for developing games. The tool offers first-class graphic quality to deliver an amusing experience to the app users. Moreover, its advanced “Bolt Visual” studio can be used for building logic in applications without coding. The app developed on unity can be deployed on 17 different platforms, including Android, iOS, PlayStation, Xbox, Wii, Windows, etc.
Features
· Access to Bolt Visual Studio
· Easy deployment of 17 platforms
· 2D animation
Xaramin: This mobile application development tool is owned by Microsoft and is quite popular among developers. It is also an open-source tool that assists in building high-quality applications for Android, iOS and windows using .NET and C#. In addition, it makes the job of a developer much easier by allowing access to numerous tools, multiple programming languages and rich libraries.
Features
· Free tutorial
· Offers SkiaSharp for native apps APIs
· Easy UI formation with XAML
Low-code Mobile App Development Tools
| Name | Pricing | Review | Famous Application |
| Alpha Anywhere | Professional Pack – $ 99/MonthDepartment Pack – $399/MonthBusiness Pack -$750/Month | 4.9/5 | Xerox |
| Appian | FreeStandard Pack – $75/Month | 4.5/5 | Domino’s Pizza |
| OutSystems | FreeBasic Pack – $1500/MonthEnterprise Pack – Custom Pricing | 4.6/5 | Deloitte |
This type of mobile app development tool is quite popular in the market. It is because these tools are simple and efficient in creating a top-notch application.
Alpha Anywhere – This tool lets you develop an offline business application and later integrate it with an existing database. It is also quite popular for the unified development of web and mobile applications and several components. In addition, the developers can fasten up the development process with its in-built Alpha Transform feature. The tool also aids in launching the application securely while integrating the data source.
Features
· Easy deployment
· Best collaboration tools
· Code debugging and refactoring
Appian: It has incredible features such as application integration and case management, which make it an ideal choice for building BPM (Business Process Management) applications. It is a balanced combination of low-code and intelligent automation platforms. It also provides pre-built API and connectors to ease the development procedure. As a result, smooth-functioning business applications with high efficiency can be quickly built with Appian.
Features
· Drag and Drop tool
· Native AI services
· Easy integration
OutSystems: This tool uses a single IDE from development to the deployment of the application, accelerating the complete procedure. It has all the necessary tools and features that are important to build a well-functioning app. It also enables rapid and continuous application development, making it a favourite pick of companies like WB (Warner Bros) and HP (Hewlett Packard).
Features
· Provides optimum security to the applications
· Helps in delivering scalable applications
· Multiple low-code tools
No-code Mobile App Development Tools
These sort of tools are preferable for people who have yet to gain experience in coding. However, even a non-programmer can develop applications with no-code mobile app development tools.
| Name | Pricing | Review | Famous Application |
| BuildFire | Spark – $5000/MonthIgnite – Custom | 4.6/5 | Game Id |
| AppSheet | FreePremium – $5/MonthPro – $10/Month | 4.8/5 | Arrivage |
BuildFire: Unlike the other tools, it lets the developer make template changes. It is more of a DIY-inspired platform, making it one of the best mobile app development tools for non-programmers. Individuals can quickly develop a custom app using the drag-and-drop feature in no time for their businesses.
Features
· Offers coding assistance
· Lets you edit templates
· Boundless functionalities with SDK
AppSheet: The tool is compatible with AWS DynamoDB, Salesforce and Office 365. Complex tasks like personalized reporting and managing projects are simplified and can be efficiently completed with AppSheet. It also provides impressive features like data integration, data visualization and multi-platform support, which makes it one of the best tools for developing an application with zero coding.
Features
· Multiple platform support
· Automated Workflow
· No coding
· Easy data integration
Windows Mobile App Development Tools
In order to build implausible windows mobile applications; powerful tools are required. These tools help navigate users and build and outstanding applications.
| Name | Pricing | Review | Famous Application |
| Marvel | $8/Month | 4.4/5 | Stripe |
| Adobe XD | $9.99/Month | 4.3/5 | Sony |
| InVision | $7.95/Month | 4.4/5 | Salesforce |
| Sketch | $9/Month | 4.5/5 |
Marvel: A person with zero technical knowledge can also efficiently operate this tool. Building designs and uploading them on any source is effortless with Marvel. It is loaded with all the essential tools that are required for designing. Designers can also perform advanced-level animation backed by Google Cloud storage on this tool. The designs built on this tool can be verified effectively through screen recordings.
Features
· User-friendly wireframe tool
· Easy collaboration
· Handful preloaded backgrounds
Adobe XD: This tool can efficiently edit and create vector files. At the same time, a developer can also build interactive prototypes and web pages. It is one of the most popular prototyping tools with vivid designs available for applications. Moving from the prototyping to the development phase is pretty quick with Adobe XD. Both Windows and mac OS support it.
Features
· Supports 3D animation
· Offers ease in scalability
· Effortless importing from photoshop and Illustrator
InVision: Last but not least, this tool is loaded with UI-centric features like layout settings and grid guides. The designers can also witness real-time collaboration, wireframing and a dedicated studio for prototyping and designing. Building collaborative mockups for designs are effortless with InVision. In addition, it also offers seamless navigation to help the designer process the complete design in one place and keep every associate updated.
Features
· Real-time design whiteboard availability
· Effortless design collaboration
· Offers a graphical workflow editor
Sketch: A designer can quickly scale their graphics game with this tool. This tool offers every essential feature required for designing icons to vector illustrations. It also has some mutual features and functions to Adobe Illustrator. Anyhow, its primary function is UX and UI designing. The designers prefer this tool as it boosts their workflow by adding more data to designs.
Features
· Syncing and saving document is hustle-free
· Access to inclusive libraries
· Allows workplace invitations
Which App Development Tool Should You Choose?
There are numerous app development tools available in the market. However, which tool you choose depends upon various factors like – type of application, platform, budget, features, etc. Anyhow, BuildFire is one of the best options for various reasons:
The tool offers complete assistance to the developer in coding.
The interface of the tool is simple and user-friendly.
Even it offers boundless features and functionalities with SDK to assist the developer till the launch of the application.
Read Also:- Ecommerce Website Development: A Complete Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
How to select a mobile app development tool?
There are specific types of mobile app development tools available in the market. Each one has its pros and cons, making them unique from others. Therefore, the best possible way to finalize a tool is to make a list of features and functionalities you will need to develop the app, including your budget. After that, ensure all your needs are fulfilled, and even the subscription pack is under your budget.
What are some factors to consider while choosing a mobile app development tool?
Choosing the best tool to develop an application ain’t that simple. There are specific points to consider while finalizing the tool. So, here is a list of the same; you can consider them to choose the best tool for developing the application.
· Usability
· Cost
· Management
· Security
· Integration
· Expertise
· Type of Application
· Delivery
Which is the best mobile application development tool?
The definition of the best mobile application development tool depends upon various factors like – genre of the application, budget, supported platforms, etc. However, BuildFire is currently ruling the market by offering developers all the necessary features and functions. A lot of outstanding applications are built leveraging the features of this tool.
