Synopsis: In the business world, mobile apps are gaining prominence. If you’re looking to develop exciting and functional apps, you’ll want to make a smart decision when choosing your tech stack. Regardless of the mobile app development process you use, it’s impossible to succeed unless you combine a strong technology stack.
Entrepreneurs can easily achieve their business objectives by knowing about the capabilities, working and integration of the technology stack.
You can make your mobile application development project successful by choosing the right mobile technology stack. Consulting a top mobile app development company can help you go in the right direction. The right tech stack gives life to your project, makes it maintainable, scalable and committed to your business needs.
What is a mobile development technology stack?
The technology stack includes the technologies, tools, and frameworks that you will use during mobile app development. This will include programming languages, development platforms, data storage, security management, user interface design tools and other services. Four major components of the technology stack are:
- Front-end development – an interface where users actively interact with the application.
- Back-end development – which accepts user input, processes and produces output.
- Development platform – where libraries and interfaces are emulated for the design and development of mobile applications.
- Additional – where technical elements affect the app security, robustness and performance.
Factors that influence tech stack choice
The ideal mobile app technology stack can lead your product to success if it is an outcome of careful consideration and analysis of several factors that influence the following aspects.
Application type
Several app elements help determine the set of frameworks, libraries, languages, and software that will be combined to develop a mobile app. The factors vary from one app to another and may depend on the following:
- The device the app will work on
- The network the app will run in
- The platform an app will run on
- User experience to achieve
- Estimated go-to-market time
Application goals
The choice of tech stack for mobile application development also depends on the goal that your mobile app is going to achieve.
There are differences in the mobile app technology stack option when you want to develop a high latency app versus a quick response, low latency mobile app.
A mobile app that relies on heavy load processing calls for a much more robust technology stack than those that operate around streamlined interactions.
Functions and compatibility
A mobile technology stack tailored to the technology you are using in the project is very important. This is when you are introducing a new technology stack once the mobile app development process has started.
Along with the compatibility of the mobile tech stack with the current project, you should also check how compatible the tech stack will be with the tools you plan to add to the app later on.
Security
All mobile app development technology must address the security-related vulnerabilities that an app may face after its market launch. Problems can arise when you choose a mobile tech stack that is not sufficiently documented or that requires writing long codes.
The skills of the developers also matter a lot. Regardless of the technology stack in your mobile app, if the app is not developed securely, hackers will find their way. Therefore, your app development team must have the necessary skills.
Development team
Many languages and frameworks tend to give the same result but have slightly different factors. When you decide between two similar tech stacks, the ideal thing to do is to rely on the skill-set of the developer.
If the team you choose is well-versed with the technology stack, it will reduce the development effort, time and cost of mobile application development.
Portability across platforms
The technology stack of apps running on a single platform will be very different from apps running on all, namely, Android, iOS and the web.
The scalability level that you have to offer in your mobile app to make it portable to other platforms is another factor that should be considered. For example, a hybrid app or cross-platform app development will demand a different toolset than the one for native app development.
Native app development technology stack
It uses platform-specific programming languages, software development kits, development environments, and other tools provided by operating system vendors. Creating native apps for multiple platforms requires employing different mobile app development techniques for each platform.
For the iOS app technology stack, consider the following:
Objective-C, Swift as programming languages
You can choose either Objective-C or Swift to build an iOS app. Objective-C is a superset of the C programming language and provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic runtime environment.
Apple Xcode
If you choose Swift for your iOS app, you will need Apple Xcode as a toolkit to develop your native app. It is a full-featured development environment that lets you build mobile and desktop applications. Xcode provides integrated support for the user interface, instrumentation and debugging tools, and graphical editors for creating integrated documentation.
iOS SDK
The iOS SDK contains an application programming interface (API) that acts as a link between software applications and the platform they run on. APIs are created in various ways and include supporting programming libraries and other tools.
The iPhone SDK provides tools for Apple’s touchscreen interface and its operating system, to run iPhone and other Apple mobile devices such as the iPad.
For the Android app tech stack, pay attention to the following techniques:
Java and Kotlin as programming languages
Java or Kotlin is a good choice to develop a native Android mobile app. Java is a well-known open-source programming language with tools and libraries to help developers. Kotlin has also become a more stable development alternative to Android Studio.
Kotlin is lightweight and clean. In other words, the Kotlin API improves on the existing Java model by offering solutions to the design shortcomings.
Android Studio and Android developer tools (ADT)
Android Studio provides code editing, debugging, performance tooling, a flexible build system and an instant deployment system. This allows you to focus on creating unique high-quality apps.
It allows you full support for Android app development. In addition to offering Android-specific coding support, ADT lets developers use various debugging tools, a graphical UI builder, emulators, and automation support.
Android SDK
To write programs with the latest features, developers have to download and install each version of the SDK for a particular phone. The Android SDK components can be downloaded separately. You can also download third-party add-ons.
Hybrid app technology stack
Hybrid apps are usually developed with the help of standard web technologies like CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript. These usually consist of two sections — the backend and the native. These apps can run on all platforms and tend to provide access to APIs, get device storage, a camera, etc.
Hybrid app technology offers a mix of both Android and iOS technologies. It allows developers to build apps that work on both platforms. Cordova or PhoneGap and Ionic are some frameworks.
Thus, hybrid app technology saves developers the hassle of switching between two different application development platforms.
Cross-platform app technology stack
Cross-platform app development means using the same code to develop apps that will later run on multiple platforms – Android, iOS, and the web. React Native, Flutter and Xamarin are some frameworks.
Businesses typically choose cross-platform app development because they can work around a wider demographic, lower development costs and have faster go-to-market times.
Cross-platform mobile app development helps to create mobile apps that can be deployed or published on multiple platforms using the same codebase instead of developing the app multiple times.
For the final word
Now you know about the tech stack to make your business idea successful. It is the collection of tools, languages, frameworks, and APIs, etc. that come together to develop software. The technologies to develop an efficient mobile app are mainly backend, frontend, development, and additional.
The choice of technology stack depends on the type of the app and your business goals.
Choosing the correct tech stack for a mobile app is the key to the creation of a successful project, future growth and development. Contact a reliable mobile app development company that can guide you through the entire process.
