Having a next-gen Mobile App is the dream of every small to large-scale enterprises. But, the process of sculpting an idea into a profit-generating mobility product involves lots of brainstorming and ability to make effective decisions in terms of technology and business. In most of the cases, organizations are clear about the business part. What matter for them is, to understand the technical feasibility and implementation of the concepts. Here they need to tie up with a reliable mobile app development company that understands and addresses their business needs.

During prototyping phase, mobile app developers and businesses work together to define the design, structure, architecture, features, and functions of the would-be mobile app. Before starting with code development, both parties have to select the most suitable technologies, platforms, frameworks, and tools for the application. Ideally, it’s a job of the mobile app development company. But being an investor, you have to participate in the process of selecting an appropriate tech stack.

Through this post, we help businesses in selecting suitable and cost-effective tech stack for their mobile apps. Let’s start from the stretch. To build a robust mobile app in terms of scalability and performance, you need to make smarter decisions related to the below technology aspects.

• Front-end (Client Side)
• Backend (Server Side)
• Mobile App Development Platforms
• Non -functional Requirements

Front-end (Client Side) Tech Stack

Developing a mobile application for a single platform doesn’t help businesses in gaining competitive advantages. Get the wider exposure across multiple channels and platforms to reach out the larger target audience, increase the sales and generate maximum ROI. With the support and integration of cross-platform technologies, mobile applications run seamlessly on different operating systems. To deliver a next-level experience to the users, enterprises have to select from Native, Hybrid and Progressive Web Apps as per their custom business needs.

Native Apps

Most of the mobile applications that we use are native apps. They are specifically designed to perform effectively on a particular mobile operating system. Native apps are a bit expensive as companies need to build duplicate versions of the same app. Few app enhancements are required to make it compatible with other platforms.

Toolkit

iOS Platform

Technology: Swift or Objective C
Toolkit: Apple Xcode & Intelli AppCode (iOS)

Android Platform

Technology: Java
Toolkit: Android Studio & Android Developers Tools for Eclipse

Advantages

• Faster Performance
• Better User Experience
• Highest Security
• Greater Responsiveness
• Device Notifications
• Access to Device Hardware/Software (contact, camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer, etc.)
• Gesture Control
• Work Offline

Hybrid Apps

Basically, Hybrid apps are mobile versions of the web apps. They are developed using HTML5 and JavaScript. Wrapped in Native containers, they load most of the data on the page as users navigate through applications. Hybrid apps look like native apps but ultimately they are fueled by company websites.

Toolkit

• Sencha Touch
• Unity
• Apache Cordova/Adobe PhoneGap
• AppGuyver Steroids.js

Advantages

• Easy Portability
• One Code Base Development
• Multi-platform Compatibility
• Faster Speed to Market
• Cost-effective
• Access to various hardware /software capabilities through plug-ins

Progressive Web Apps

Progressive apps are not mobile applications indeed. They contain HTML5 based development that gives a native-like look and feel to the users. Also, they run in a browser. With the increasing use of HTML5, it becomes difficult to differentiate between regular web pages and web apps.

Toolkit

• React JS
• Angular JS
• AMP
• Lighthouse
• lonic 2

Advantages

• Easy to Maintain
• A common code based development
• Run on multiple mobile platforms

Backend (Server Side) Tech Stack

Why compromise with slow running apps? Develop high performing mobile applications by using LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or MEAN (MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, Node.js) technologies. LAMP is considered as one of the reliable technology set that supports the enterprise web apps strategies. Using Node.js, mobile app developers create an event-driven architecture that improves user experience and reduces application loading time.

Mobile App Development Platforms

With each passing day, the demand for mobile application development, governance and unification increases. To host low code development features, enterprises have to adopt suitable mobile app development platforms. This is not an integral part of the tech stack but plays a key role in improving the application development process. To pick up the best platform, it is important to analyze them by considering

• Ease of integration with database, APIs, and back-end systems
• Integrated development environment – features and functionality of multi-channel (mobile apps, web, and wearable) and multi-platform (OSs and devices.)
• Seamless integration of core mobile backend services such as offline synchronization, geo-location services, push notifications, token management, authentication, and certification, etc.
• Integration of mobile app development lifecycle management tools that contain architecture design, development, testing, deployment, and support.

Non-functional Requirements

Most of the enterprises rely on their IT service providers for the mobile app development and maintenance as they need to focus on core business operations. But, don’t trust anyone blindly. The mobile app development company might suggest you a set of technologies in which they have proven expertise. Use of such technologies increases your overall investment and may not serve your business needs. In order to select suitable technologies, you have to consider following aspects.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Business expansion from local to global space is one of the key purposes of mobile app development. If you host your mobile app on a local server, then you may not achieve your milestones. Local servers take too long to respond to the global requests.

Let’s assume; your mobile app is hosted on a local server in California. A customer from Japan visits the app. In such cases, the request travels through the continents to get the request server that increases the loading time by 3-5 seconds and even more. This amount of time is enough for a user to leave your mobile app.

Launch your mobile app on CDN. It has exceptional capabilities to cache the frequently used resources or static resources into Content Distribution nodes that are close to your user’s geographical locations. CDN assures for quick downloading and faster response. Undoubtedly, it is the best solution for B2C websites but it also delivers an amazing experience to the mobile users.

Network Dependency

Both native apps and HTML5 based mobile applications run efficiently without internet connectivity. But HTML5 based apps have the limitations of in-browser caching. Enterprises have to analyze and define what type of behavior they want from their mobile apps in high latency and low bandwidth network. Businesses have to define response time, acceptable query time and data processing time of application in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Security

Cybersecurity is always a major challenge for the tech industry. Mobile apps are also facing vulnerability issues in terms of data caching. That’s why all the payment and banking applications offer password and pin based access to the security of imperative data. Though these are not the popular security measures, they help in avoiding the online security issues up to some extent. For the extended security of mobile apps, businesses allow VPN only access to their imperative enterprise resources or disable the application access over insecure public networks.

At Credencys, mobile app developers guide enterprises about the most suitable mobility tools, technologies, platforms, and frameworks to offer affordable and scalable mobile app development. We define custom app development strategy by considering your specific business needs. If you have any query or concern related to selecting an appropriate tech-stack for your mobile application, get in touch with our experts to make smart technology decisions.

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