Top Native Mobile App Development Tools

Today, having a mobile app has become an important task for every business, irrespective of type, size, or geographical area. And why not? It is the easiest, most economical, quicker, and more flexible approach to reaching maximum users worldwide. 

It is predicted that the mobile app market will generate over $935 million in revenue from paid downloads and in-app ads. Plus, in a world, where every second person uses smartphones to go online and find information about particular products or services, lacking a mobile app is no less than digging one’s own grave, that too in today's cut-throat competition.

But only having an idea for an app isn’t enough unless you know about the best mobile app development company. And since you are thinking of investing in any of these tools, it is vital to know about them in detail. 

To help you out here, we have gathered a list of “Top Native Mobile App Development Tools” with a detailed analysis. Let’s choose the best application for your mobile but first know:

What Is A Mobile App Development Tool?

A mobile app development tool is a particular type of software designed to create the app & make the development process easier & up to the mark. These mobile app development tools allow developers & designers to speed up the process by simplifying the integration and backend requirements such as Push Notifications etc. 

It can be performed in many ways as a plethora of native & cross-platform mobile app development tools are out there. In this blog, we will talk about the best Native mobile app development tools.

What Do You Mean By Native App Development Tools?

A native development tool is a software that developers use to create/develop applications that can be operated only on a single particular system family, platform, or device such as Android or iOS, etc. In simple words, a native app is a specifically developed & coded app for a particular mobile platform in its native programming languages, for example,

• iOS (Objective-C or Swift)
• Android (Java or Kotlin)
• Windows (C#)

The following native mobile app development tools will help & guide you create mobile apps for Android & iOS devices.

Native App Development Tools for Android

Android Studio

A very useful app to develop native Android apps if you want a constant IDE and a faster mobile app development process. Designed by Google, this android development software comes with a flexible implementation editor for developers. Also, there are shortcuts for coding and designing in the tool. Plus, its layout designer makes it easy to use, cutting back time on coding. Android Studio also provides drag & drop features to design layouts for projects. 

Features:

• Starting Price: Free
• Availability of Demo/Free Trial - NO
• Comes with a highly integrated Gradle build system 
• Graphical user interface
• Quicker installation of apps
• Analyze the contents of your APK file to reduce the size of your android app. 

IntelliJ IDEA & Android SDK

An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) plays a vital role in developing a mobile app as it provides features like writing & editing source code, creating executable files, and debugging. IntelliJ IDEA is a renowned and one of the popular IDEs to develop android apps. It uses JVM language and increases the productivity of app developers by providing static code analysis, refactorings, and automated tasks. 

Features:

• The multi-platform IDE eases the process of developing native mobile apps for developers on Windows and macOS. 
• It also supports various languages such as Java, Kotlin, and Scala. 

Android SDK

This tool helps developers to create mobile apps using IntelliJ IDEA. In simple words, Android SDK has a collection of tools and libraries which are important in developing android applications. 

Features:

• It helps in writing program codes and testing code files
• The disruption-free flow of the development process
• To use IntelliJ IDEA, the developers have to separately download Android SDK packages.

Native App Development Tools for iOS

Xcode

Xcode allows developers to create native mobile apps for various operating system platforms such as iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. Its debugging tools detect & resolve the issues while the management tools make it easier to manage images and code files. If you are thinking of developing an iOS app, then this is the right choice for you. You can also publish apps on the Apple App Store.

Features:

• Swift is a new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch and after combining with Xcode tools, programming can be an interactive experience.
• Can create applications for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. 
• Various essential tools such as a text editor, a compiler, and a build system make it easier for iOS developers to write, compile, and debug apps. 
• Developers can create new requests, and inspect, build, and test results developed locally or by Xcode.
• The tool is available for free.

Transporter

Transporter native mobile app development tool allows developers to upload their content directly to Apple. Through this, it becomes easier to distribute content on the App Store, Apple music, or iTune store. Also, it is easy to upload multiple files simultaneously to smooth the delivery process. 

Features:

• The Transporter is a popular Java-based command-line tool suitable for sizable catalog deliveries. 
• The developers can send media files such as TV shows, movies, apps, books, and music on different platforms.
• The development tool requires App Store and iTunes Connect or an encoding house account.
• Immediate installation package including installers for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.

Recommended Read: Tips to Develop Successful Mobile Apps

AppCode

A popular native mobile app development tool with several valuable integrations for developers such as CocoaPods manager and built-in Reveal support. It is a popular IDE that can be used with various programming languages such as Swift, Objective-C, C, and C++. AppCode is built on IntelliJ IDEA platform and developers can use it for installing plug-ins or writing customized plug-ins. 

Features:

• Ideal for iOS/macOS development
• It supports web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, XML, CSS, and more.
• Multiple benefits to developers such as automated routine tasks, detecting & fixing errors, support from IDE, and improved productivity 
• Starting price - €8,90 per month
• Free trial of 30 days

Cocoapods

It is the most popular native mobile app development tool and dependency manager for iOS devices. It makes Xcode project management easier and saves time by taking external dependencies and incorporating them into the project. 

Features:

• The developers can use it for third-party library integration as it is available with 89K libraries and has over 3 million apps. 

• The dependencies for any project can be stored in a single text file, known as Podfile. 

Now you know the top mobile app development tools for native apps. This will help you choose the best one according to your business goals, suitability, and requirements. It is better to hire a professional iOS mobile app development company to develop native apps.