Businesses know the importance of being as close and accessible to their customers as possible. And what do most people these days carry around with them pretty much at all times? That’s right, smartphones. Apps are therefore valuable mediums, making app development software crucial tools to make your services available anytime and anywhere.
Mobile app platforms come in different formats, from drag-and-drop methods, non-coding approaches to metadata-driven and plugin options. Moreover, you want your app to adapt to the two major operating systems iOS and Android, also leaving room for cross-platform app development.
In a sea of a diversity of mobile app development platforms, you want to understand all its layers to make an informed decision of which software to use to get the most valuable results out of it.
In this guide we will present to you the various features of these tools and what to consider and look for when choosing from our carefully selected list of the top app development software out there.
What is an app development software?
Ranging from a variety of development capabilities, mobile app development platforms are a helpful tool to establish a more efficient app building and user interface (UI) design process for developers and programmers.
These software app platforms provide different features for front and back-end development as well as for security, data storage and monitoring layers, using low-coding approaches and an app building system that is user-friendly and far less complicated than if one were to take on the entire development process upon themselves.
An app development software is typically a set of multiple application functions that users can implement to build menus, lists, QR codes, various site sections, chat options, email and mobile marketing tools, including social media tools and more advanced features that can vamp up your app instantly.
Additional app building platform functionalities
When selecting your trusted app development software platform, app builders offer native and cross-platform application solutions. With innovative technological solutions spreading across major operating systems like iOS, Android and Windows, app development tools build qualitative apps, ensuring that your target users have access to your bespoke products and services.
Why do I need app development platforms?
With today’s world relying primarily on the wireless internet and digitized platforms, with smartphones, laptops and tablets being the go-to devices for the vast majority, applications provide great opportunities to reach your target audience effectively.
In this growing digital age, there are over 6.5 billion smartphone global users, which explains why the mobile app industry is expanding at a rapid rate. And this is no surprise, as you have surely noticed how attached people are to their phones these days.
But this is not too unusual, as many of us use our phones for work, leisure and for other daily chores. So apps are being used on a wider scale, with smartphone and app usage to grow even more in the near future. According to Statista, revenue in mobile apps is expected to increase by $613 billion by 2025.
As a specialized programmer and developer, you surely have several responsibilities and tasks on your agenda, and developing the app can be a tedious process and a challenging one too with too much already on your plate.
Partnering with one of the top app development platforms can therefore definitely make things easier, with the assistance of advanced tools and technologies to only get the best results from your newly created app, with easy and direct access to your services.
How do I select the best app development software?
When selecting the right mobile app development platform for your business, programmers and developers need to consider many factors that depend not only on the type of application they are looking to build but also the unique features of the business overall.
Overall, the best platform for app development will allow you to efficiently write, build, deploy as well as test, improve and maintain apps throughout its lifecycle. Productive middleware and back-end services are therefore vital to deliver a well-oiled machine that will only widen your presence in the app world.
When looking at individual app development software platform services, you want to choose an app builder that suits your individual requirements. Here are some features that you may want to consider when selecting software apps:
Low-code & code-focused developer tools
Low-code or codeless app development platforms typically use the drag-and-drop approach so that programmers and developers can easily integrate creative functionalities within a far less complicated and time-consuming software system.
This type of tool also enables you to implement metadata and model-driven as well as several other non-coding options, leaving room for more diversity and creativity when developing various app templates to match your users’ needs.
On the other hand, code-centric app development software provides a more in-depth overview of the structure and design of your app without having to make changes to the code. When the code is integrated into the software, you can track any changes and updates you make as you go.
Monitoring & data analytics
Monitoring and keeping track of your app’s performance is essential for really any business. So you want to make sure that you have effective app development platforms in place that specialize in analytics who will report back to you about this kind of data.
Back-end services
It would put a great amount of weight off your business’ shoulders when you use software applications that provide core back-end services as well for a much more cost-efficient and smoother app building process.
Back-end services include helpful functions like user management, push notifications, offline synchronization, sufficient data storage as well as optimal integration, API design and orchestration.
DevOps support
Another cost-efficient and productive service you want to look for when selecting the best app development software is DevOps support. They help accelerate the app development process, ensuring the qualitative results, by facilitating automation process and releasing management, and therefore decreasing the workload.
Security
Security when using mobile applications is vital for enterprise customers. Therefore, you want to choose a mobile application software that effectively tackles and eliminates security vulnerabilities.
Compatibility
iOS vs Android
Last but not least, compatibility is a feature you want to prioritize with an application development platform. As discussed earlier, iOS and Android are the two main platforms in today’s mobile app market. Your program needs to be compatible, and therefore created on a platform that supports these two operating systems.
Optimally, you may want to opt for cross-platform development software, allowing users on more than one platform to have access to your products and services.
But let’s take a closer look at iOS and Android app builders, as they are the two most popular platforms, and you may want to be up to speed with the first and foremost.
iOS development tools
Apart from Swift and Objective-C being the main two coding languages for iOS applications, there are a wide variety of tutorials for the xCode IDE, editors, libraries, plugins and other resources that are vast and of excellent quality.
We have covered the tools and platforms in more detail in our iOS App Development Tools List.
Android development tools
While iOS seems to make a bigger statement, Android has been taking over the app market at a steady rate as well. Developers usually stick to Java and HTML5 when building Android applications, but can also benefit from a wide range of language resources, plugins and IDEs.
You can find a more in-depth run-through of these tools and plugins in our Android Development Tools List.
Which software is best for app development?
Developers within the cross-platform mobile development field, looking for the best tools and resources, and not just the IDEs and Editors but also top language and tutorials, can take advantage of the list of some of the top app development software below.
Find iOS and Android app builders, app makers, game engines, and other app development software and tools that provide a set of templates users can build upon with their own content.
Of course, it’s not always feasible to build a really complicated mobile app with all of the features using a single app builder. So you can develop several apps using a software application that has all of the features you need at hand to get the best value for your app.
List of app development software, tools and app builders
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 10-50 |
| Employees | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-50 |
Mobincure is an app builder platform to create apps for iOS and Android. On top of providing an easy solution to create mobile apps, by placing interstitial banners, video ads or sliders, it offers app owners an opportunity to monetize apps they build with the tool. With Mobincure users can build apps with advanced features such as online shopping, push notifications, audio & video, databases, embedded web content and more.
- Its pricing plans range from Free for the set of basic options to 1,200 euro / year for a full-featured plan.
- 132k+ app were built & published with the platform
| Founded | Employees | Revenues | Social | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 11-50 | - | - | - |
Storyly, the app industry’s first third-party in-app story provider for app owners. We’ve reversed the loved concept of app stories, and created a tool enabling app owners to implement in-app stories to communicate with their users.
- Interactive stories and two-way communication
- Influencer collaboration (import influencer stories direct to your app)
- Social media import
- Story design studio
- Customer segmentation and personalization, supported with deep-links
| Founded | Employees | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 200-500 |
The ultimate IDE with features both C++ and Delphi developers love: code, debug, test and fast design for cross-platform mobile and desktop deployment.
Learn more about RAD Studio
Swiftic‘s solution to app building comes with the standard drag-and-drop interface but adds a suite of tools for monetization of your application.
Strongly business-oriented, it comes with a wide knowledge base and dedicated support teams, a highly customizable price plan and a 30-day money back guarantee, though its yearly plans do not include publishing costs to the App Store and Google Play.
- Monthly plan ($39 / month), Yearly plan ($33 / month – paid once a year), 2 Year plan ($29 / month – paid once every 2 years)
- Over 25 features
- Push Notifications
- Coupons & loyalty cards support
- Promotional toolkit to attract new customers
iBuildApp lets you select from over 1000 different starting templates to build your app in both Android and iOS.
You then fill the app with logos, content, branding and contacts before requesting the site submit the app on your behalf on the App Store and Google Play.
Learn more about iBuildApp
Zoho Creator is a low-code app development platform that lets you launch custom, mobile-ready apps. Create your own applications to automate workflows, internal processes, and manage databases.
Zoho Creator offers a first of its kind drag-n-drop interface to create tables/forms, design, schedule workflows and perform a variety of automated actions.
Zoho Creator’s powerful tools for data collection and management, analysis, reporting and collaboration for small to large organizations to run their business online, without any additional costs, infrastructure, or software.
Zoho Creator is used by more than 2 million users, and 3 million apps have been already created. Don’t let complex looking workflows and business rules scare you.
- Used by well known brands such as Whirlpool, Audible
- Zoho Creator app builder has 7 million users
- Workflow automation
Sellmyapp.com is one of the first marketplaces for buying and selling mobile source code. The marketplace strives to enrich and push the mobile developer community to innovate by offering a wide variety of options to make new income streams as a mobile developer.
- Sellmyapp produces a Win Win situation by allowing newcomers to the industry as well as medium range developers to purchase quality tested source codes by high quality responsive authors.
- This allows a simple and quick buying process that allows the buyers to focus on their launch tasks.
- The marketplace also has a team of experienced mobile developers to perform any code customization that is needed to reach the best result possible. The team has experience of more than 5 years in serving customers in the niche and generates only the best quality of graphics and usability.
- Any project size is possible to fulfil and hundreds of projects were already successfully executed to satisfied customers.
App Center is an app development platform for Android, iOS and Windowsphone which allows you to develop and distribute beta versions, monitor crashes, recruit testers and analyze app performance before launch. Launched in 2011, it was bought by Microsoft in December 2014, proving the sophistication and power of the platform.
The App Center pricing plans comes in five different tiers, with the lowest one starting at $10 per month and allowing you to publish up to 15 apps (and gives use of the software to three different owners). The highest pricing plan allows for 500 apps and 100 users, and for anything more a bespoke model can be negotiated.
- Also compatible with Unity and Xamarin
- 1 month free trial available
- Pay-as-you go service means you’re never tied in to a contract
Learn more about App Center
Telerik Platform is the cross-platform and native development software package made by Telerik, a major development company powerhouse founded in 2002 that has worked with 130k+ customers and won over 300 awards in that time. The platform runs on PC, Mac and Linux and has a “write once, run everywhere” philosophy, exporting JavaScript code from its visual development environment.
Telerik Platform also provides analysis tools, such as crash reporting and monitoring, post launch as well as on-demand Mbaas services and ready-made templates in order to speed up app production as much as possible. The platform covers all stages of app development and even comes with its own management system for post-launch support and updates.
- Key clients include NASA, Fox and Sony
- Also supports Cordova/PhoneGap plugins
- Free trial and demo available
Android Studio is Google’s proprietary integrated development environment for Android, launched in 2013 and available for free. It features a “What you see is what you get” layout as well as a drag-and-drop UI creator and a raft of tools and SDKs for testing, debugging and integrating with other SDKs.
Android Studio now allows you to build multiple projects from the same codebase with different APKs (Android application packages), giving you the freedom to create variants quickly and efficiently. It is the original tool to develop applications launching on Android platforms.
- Available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux
- Completely free
- Supports Android Wear development
- APK Analyzer, Fast Emulator,
- Intelligent code editor
- Flexible build system
- Realtime profilers