Top 10 Best Hybrid App Development Frameworks of 2024

Mobile app industry is on the boom! As per a study, the size of the market for mobile applications globally is projected to increase at a CAGR of 13.8% between 2023 and 2030. This growth is also reflected in how widely we are using apps for our daily tasks. No doubt businesses are investing in mobile app development to reach a wider audience. 

You may be asking where to begin if you want to design a mobile application. An effective mobile app is built using appropriate frameworks, technology, and innovative design. A strong hybrid app development framework can prove to be the best choice for your hybrid app development company as it offers several advantages. 

Choosing the best framework for your project might be difficult because several options available on the market. In order to assist you in making an informed decision, this article will outline the characteristics and advantages of some of the top hybrid app development frameworks.

Why Use a Framework For High-performance Hybrid App Development?

Develop Apps Faster 

Web technologies and frameworks are utilized in hybrid app development to create apps that run on several different platforms. Additionally, rapid deployment is ensured while developing apps for various devices using a single codebase.

Better Adaptability and Accessibility

With robust third-party integration, your app will be able to access the device features, providing better adaptability. Moreover, it ensures better accessibility to iOS and Android platforms.

Broad Platform Coverage

If you plan to cover only a single platform to build your app, then native technologies might be the better choice. However, hybrid app development is the suitable approach if you want to build your app for various platforms simultaneously, saving development time.

Minimum Resources Required

A hybrid app can be developed using web technologies widely used by web developers. Hence, it is easy to find developers who can build hybrid apps working seamlessly for both iOS and Android platforms.

Cost-effective App Development 

It takes less time, money, and effort to develop an app for many platforms because just one codebase is needed. Additionally, by employing frameworks, developers may create and maintain apps more easily and at a lower cost.

Popular Hybrid App Development Frameworks to Choose in 2024

React Native

This is one of the well-known frameworks developed by Meta Platforms, Inc. (Formerly known as Facebook), used to develop hybrid apps. With vast community support and functional in-built components, it quickly gained popularity among app developers.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Hot Reload: This feature allows developers to view the changes made to the code at the front end, effectively reducing the development time. 
2. Community Support: One of the major reasons to choose React Native is having support from many developer communities and well-known organizations. This includes Microsoft, Google, Intel, Red Hat, and more.
3. NPM libraries support: React Native offers a wide range of third-party libraries, facilitating a seamless app development process. These libraries also support iOS, tvOS, Android, and Windows.
4. Reusable Components: The code written in JavaScript to develop a feature can be reused to build other components as well, serving as a building block of app development.

Flutter

Following the huge popularity of React Native, Flutter continuously competes to reach the top. With its unique features, adaptability, and transformative SDK, developers widely use it to build native-like apps. Moreover, it has a reliable smartphone UI framework, which helps to create and deploy appealing mobile applications.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Hot Reload: With Flutter, developers can render a change in a few seconds and view the change on the application. This significantly saves time and effort for developers, ultimately reducing the cost.
2. Extensive Widget Libraries: The ready-to-use libraries of Flutter make it easy for developers to build hybrid apps. Also, the animations in this framework allow them to create interactive apps.
3. Own Rendering Engine: It has a robust infrastructure and a rendering engine, helping you launch the Flutter app with seamless UI apps working consistently across platforms.
4. Tools, Extension, and Language Support: Flutter works on Dart, a dynamic programming language. Thus, developers have to learn this language. Moreover, they can use the pre-built plugins to integrate features and build new ones if there are no existing ones to build that feature. 

Ionic

App developers use Ionic to create PWAs and hybrid mobile applications. With UI elements like filters, inputs, views, easy navigation, and action sheets, it makes it easy for your team to develop strong, feature-rich apps for iOS and Android platforms. 

Features/ Advantages:

1. It can be used to develop Android, native iOS, Desktop, and progressive web apps.
2. It uses stable and modern web APIs, enabling Ionic apps to run on mobile devices.
3. Simple, accessible, and easy-to-learn framework.
4. The CSS components with JavaScript functionalities encapsulate mobile elements.

Onsen UI

This framework is designed to focus on creating a transformative user experience with UI elements. With support from libraries like Angular, React, and Vue, this framework is used to build user-friendly mobile apps quickly. Some of the crucial reasons this framework is popular are due to zero-time setup, native look & feel, ready-to-use components, and ease of learning.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Functions seamlessly with Monaca, a powerful command line tool.
2. Optimized animations to work consistently across devices.
3. Designed for mobile-friendly apps that adapt according to the running platforms.
4. Works with familiar languages: Javascript, HTML, and CSS.

Xamarin

This framework is widely used to build hybrid, native (Android and iOS), or desktop applications with .NET and C#. It facilitates app developers to share code, tests, and business logic across platforms, making the hybrid app development process easier than ever.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Sophisticated cross-platform support for iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. 
2. It uses a modern integrated development environment (IDE) and visual studio.
3. Include robust .NET Base Class Library (BCL) library for comprehensive and streamlined features.

Sencha Ext JS

This JavaScript application framework is used by developers to build creative cross-platform web applications. Thus letting developers build high-performance cross-platform web and mobile apps that work seamlessly across multiple platforms and devices. This powerful framework builds data-intensive, complex apps effortlessly.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Currently, this framework has 140+ pre-built components.
2. Develop and market apps faster, reducing app development costs.
3. Support ready-to-use, high-performance UI components.
4. Flexible layout manager, compliant with ADA standards, and robust data package.

Solar 2D

This full-featured, cross-platform framework is widely used by developers to build apps and games for mobile devices and platforms. The flexibility of this framework allows beginner developers and professionals to create a wide range of engaging apps. 

Features/ Advantages:

1. Support 1000+ APIs and plugins to make apps quickly and easily.
2. Built-in simulator to view changes on the app, speeding up the development process.
3. Can publish apps on almost all major platforms, including Apple iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Mac desktop, Windows Desktop, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV.
4. Use the powerful scripting language Lua.
5. The real-time device testing optimizes workflow all over a local network.

Mobile Angular UI

With this powerful framework, developers can build interactive HTML5 hybrid mobile and desktop apps using Twitter Bootstrap and Angular JS. It is an open-source framework similar in features to Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile. With support for a fully responsive and touch-enabled device interface, this framework helps you achieve a better user experience.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Offer essential mobile components like navbar, sidebars, modals and overlays, and switches.
2. The use of AngularJS and Twitter Bootstrap makes it easy for developers to learn and start developing creative apps.
3. Makes it possible to use ionic components along with Mobile Angular UI components.
4. With robust libraries like fastclick.js and overthrow.js, this framework can help you achieve a better mobile experience.

jQuery Mobile 

Working on the “write less, do more” mantra; this HTML5-based framework enables developers to make responsive web and mobile apps. This touch-optimized framework allows developers to design a single highly-branded responsive application functioning seamlessly across smartphone, tablet, and desktop platforms.

Features/ Advantages:

1. With jQuery and jQuery UI features, this framework can create mobile-compatible applications.
2. This is a lightweight framework, adding to its swiftness.
3. The ThemeRoller for Mobile allows you to create custom themes with easy drag-and-drop colors.

.NET MAUI

This cross-platform framework allows developers to use a single C# and XAML shared codebase, creating high-quality native mobile and desktop apps that run on platforms like Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. The quality that makes this framework unique is that developers can add platform-specific source code and resources as needed.

Features/ Advantages:

1. Use a single C# codebase to build apps for all devices.
2. Achieve a native look and feel with applications.
3. Integration of Visual Studio with .NET MAUI makes it possible to create intuitive apps faster and easier.

Conclusion

We have mentioned some of the widely used frameworks, including frameworks with high and low popularity, that your hybrid app development company can use. However, we recommend you use frameworks with large community support because of the frequent updates, bug fixes, and issue resolutions. It will ensure the technology you are working with is modernized and stay relevant in the ever-growing tech market.

Moreover, the unique project requirements will also play a crucial role in selecting the right framework for a hybrid app development project. For example, suppose you have a requirement for third-party integration, choose a tool that offers seamless integration capabilities. This way, you will be able to make informed decisions about the framework choice for your hybrid app.