Every app development team consists of tech architecture, UI/UX coding, front and back-end developers, a team of marketers, graphic or motion designers, and quality assurance specialists to ensure the app is running smoothly.

Nevertheless, developing a mobile app can take anywhere from a few months to a full year, depending on the size of your development team and the intended scale of your application.

As the world of technology progresses, there are now many hacks to streamline and speed up the app development process. One of these effectiveness measures is Software Development kits, known in short as SDKs.

What is an SDK?
What Makes a Good SDK?
Will an SDK Benefit Your App?
SDKs and APIs: What’s the Difference?
The Best SDKs for Your App
Find an SDK for Your App Today

What is an SDK?

A software development kit, or SDK, is a set of software tools and programs developers use to create applications for specific platforms.

These Software tools will include various things, including libraries, documentation, code samples, processes, and guides that developers can use and integrate into their own apps.

SDKs are designed to be used for specific platforms or programming languages. Each software development kit is created and curated to be used for particular platforms or programming languages. This means that you would need a specific Android SDK toolkit to build an Android app, an iOS SDK to build an iOS app, a VMware SDK to integrate with the VMware platform, etc.

What Makes a Good SDK?

The main point of an SDK is to provide value to other business apps and their developers. An SDK will only offer value if it has the following features:

• The SDK is easy to use for other developers;
• The SDK has a detailed documentation to explain how the code works;
• The SDK has enough functionality to add value to your app;
• The SDK doesn’t negatively affect a mobile device’s CPU, battery, or data collection;
• The SDK pairs well with other outside SDK.

Will an SDK Benefit Your App?

Here are the advantages of integrating an SDK into your app’s code:

Shorter Sale Cycles

One thing’s for sure – integrating an SDK into your app will speed up sale deals. If you’re trying to close more deals, having a mobile SDK will make those deals move quicker. Your software development kit will help shorten the sales cycle because it makes integrating with a customer’s existing tech stack much easier.

Faster Deployment

Given that the average Android app will use around 18.2 third-party SDKs (even more if your app is a game), you’ll quickly realize that no software developer has the time to code every tool from zero.

Imagine you want a way to share text or images from your app directly on Facebook. Instead of writing the code from scratch, your developer could start by checking out Facebook’s Android SDK toolkit to find code that would work for an Android device. This will speed up app deployment by saving developers time.

Increased Reach

Suppose the app you created and its accompanying SDK allow for a good amount of interoperability. In that case, you can increase the chances that other software tools will want to integrate with your product, which leads to more brand exposure for your brand.

Mitigated Risks

If you have an SDK, you have much better control over the elements of your user interface that show up in other apps. This access enables you to dictate not just how your product integrates with other apps but also how it looks to the end user.

SDKs and APIs: What’s the Difference?

Both SDK and API are tech acronyms that are often used interchangeably. However, they do refer to different aspects of the app development process. Let’s take a look at their differences.

As we said before, a software development kit (an SDK) is a pre-made collection of code that app developers can use to add functionalities to their app without having to code it from scratch.

And an application programming interface, called API for short, is an interface between two pieces of software, or, in this case – apps. Put simply, it’s a pre-made piece of code that allows for clearly defined communication between two separate apps.

A great example of an API in use is your Google Calendar and any travel app. The API allows the calendar app to communicate with your travel app, adding your travel plans and details to your calendar.

The relationship between an API and an SDK is that of a container with an apple. An API is just one part, the apple, of an SDK, a container filled with many objects. Think of the devkit as a larger “container” for an entire array of SDK tools, and you’ll be correct.

The Best SDKs for Your App

Here are a few of our picks for the best software development kits made for different purposes – app monetization, communication across apps, and an SDK created to help e-commerce apps operate their businesses.

Best for Monetization: Honeygain SDK

Honeygain’s new software development kit will help you earn money from your project in the long term. Working silently in the background of your app, the Honeygain SDK creates an additional revenue stream for you and innovatively connects with your users! This SDK is GDPR/CCPA compliant, and safety and privacy are ensured every step of the way.

Best for Communication: OneSignal SDK

The leading software development kit for including various communications channels in your smartphone application is the OneSignal SDK, available for Android, iOS, Huawei, and web.

OneSignal is a notification service for hybrid, native, and web apps. This SDK contains the powerful OneSignal API, allowing developers to use the service to send push notifications and in-app messages and even send messages to users via SMS and email.

Best for Commerce: Google Play In-App Billing

The most popular SDK for mobile commerce is Google Play In-App Billing, which allows developers to integrate Google Play’s payment interface directly into their apps and games. Of course, because this SDK is intended to function with apps on Google Play, it’s only available on Android.

Find an SDK for Your App Today

Now that you know what a software development kit is, how to determine which SDK is of good quality, and how it’ll benefit your apps, it’s time to explore the opportunities these SDKs can offer you.

From effortless monetization (Honeygain) to communication (OneSignal) and commerce (Google Play In-App Billing) to countless others, SDKs offer you and your team an excellent opportunity to improve your app and turn it into a money-making machine!