Did you know – “Over 54% of developers use open source mobile app development tools for their projects.”
The number has grown significantly in recent years with the rise of several best mobile app development tools in the market. Such apps assist in building top-notch highly responsive mobile applications in less time & cost. As compared to the conventional method where developers used to spend hours & hours, these tools offer a handy solution to them.
However, you should have an idea about them before we go investing in them. In this write-up, we are listing the best tools for mobile app development, arranged in different categories. But, before we dive in, let’s start with some astounding numbers in the industry.
There are dozens of mobile app development tools 2024 in the market but not everything is right for you. Here we have divided the list into different categories –
| Android App Development Tools | Released | Pricing | Operating System | Programming Languages | Tool URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Android Studio | 2014 | Free | Windows, macOS, Linux | Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, C++ | Web |
| 2. Appypie | 2015 | Basic – ₹6990 /App/Year, Gold – ₹9990 /App/Year, Platinum – ₹ 15990/App/Year | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based Desktop – Mac Android iPhone iPad | HTML 5 | Web |
| 3. Charles Proxy | 2002 | Free for 30 days Paid Plan starts @ $50 | Windows, Mac OS X 10.7 – 10.15, Linux | Java | Web |
| 4. ADB | 2007 | Free | Windows, Linux, macOS | C++ | Web |
| 5. Eclipse | 2001 | Free | Linux, macOS, Windows | Java, C | Web |
| 6. WireShark | 1998 | Free | Cross-platform | Lua, C, C++ | Web |
| 7. IntelliJ IDEA | 2001 | Price – Starts @499 USD / Year | Windows, macOS, Linux | Java, Kotlin | Web |
Android Studio is open-source software by Google based on the IntelliJ IDEA platform. It is the official IDE tool for Android app development and supports varied functionalities. Features include a code editor, layout editor, built-in emulator, integration with Google Cloud Platform, and many more.
Top Features |
| Built-in emulator – Test apps on Android devices & platforms |
| Code Editor – Helps in debugging, refactoring, and code completion; also suggests appropriate lines of code |
| Templates – Code templates are available in the feature set |
| Supports Kotlin – Android Studio also supports the official Android language Kotlin |
Appypie is one of the top android app development tools that allow building apps without coding. Launched in 2014, the platform has helped over 2 million users and offers free & paid versions both. The platform’s ability to integrate services like Tinder clones with support for features like AR. Some top mobile app development company in India use Appypie for building apps at affordable rates.
Top Features |
| Unlimited Bandwidth: Appypie offers unlimited bandwidth to its basic plan users |
| Unlimited app editing: Through the basic plan, users can use app editing unlimited times |
| App Downloads: You can download 500 apps in the basic plan |
| Earning Through Advertisement: You can also earn money through in-app advertising or in-app purchases |
| Money Back Guarantee: Comes with a 30-day money back guarantee |
Charles proxy is an efficient debugging tool that helps in checking the functioning of apps. Through this software, developers can inspect whether the app is interacting with users in an appropriate manner or not. Thus it helps in finding and fixing the faults in the app. Charles Proxy is a popular tool among cross platform mobile development company.
Top Features |
| Suitable for all mediums: The inspection can be performed on all platforms be it web browser, iOS, or Android |
| Easy Root Certificate Installation: Installing the root certificate on an iOS simulator or Android emulator is easy with Charles Proxy |
| Breakpoint Tool: Breakpoint tool is a prominently used functionality for debugging. Through this feature, app quality can be checked and content can be viewed, edited, and blocked easily |
| Rewrite Tool: Developers can also add, search, and replace any text in different response codes |
Android Debug Bridge or ADB is a programming command line tool that allows developers to debug Android devices. The tool is used to communicate with Android emulators to do various tasks, such as managing the device files, and systems, debugging and installing apps, and transferring files, making the mobile app development process much easier.
Top Features |
| Easy Transfer – The tool allows copying files from the host computer to any supported Android device |
| Easy Root Certificate Installation: Installing the root certificate on an iOS simulator or Android emulator is easy with Charles Proxy |
| Easy Monitoring – Allows provides visual information about app performance making monitoring easy for developers |
Eclipse offers an integrated development environment for Java developers and a comprehensive plug-in system for customizing applications. The tool was the most popular IDE among developers until 2016 for its wide range of plug-ins as compared to other IDEs such as NetBeans. It is still a preferable choice for Java developers making it a convenient choice for businesses.
Top Features |
| Customization – The tool allows customizing the layout and the interface, including choosing a theme |
| Breakpoints – The tool facilitates holding the execution at any line of code of the app |
| Open Source – It is an open-source and free-to-use IDE built on Java |
| Allows Multi Framework Coding – It offers the capability to code in more than one programming frameworks |
WireShark is an android development tool that allows developers to browse the network traffic. It is a network protocol analyzer that presents packet data in detail, thus helping programmers in analyzing them at micro level. The tool is popular among developers for understanding the root cause of troubleshooting network issues.
Top Features:
Top Features |
| Platforms – The tool can run on multiple platforms such as Linux, Windows, OS X, NET BSD, and more |
| Reads Live Data – The platform can also read live data from several devices and platforms including Bluetooth, ATM, USB, Frame Relay, IEEE 802.11, etc. |
| Micro Inspection – WireShark is able to do micro inspection of large number of protocols |
The last on the list is IntelliJ IDEA, the android app development tool that improves developer’s productivity. The tool helps developers in refactoring, self managing tasks, code completion, and static code analysis. Further, IntelliJ IDEA supports multiple platforms, such as Windows & Linux; and multiple languages, including Kotlin, Scala, and JAVA. This multi-platform IDE can compile languages into JVM Bytecode, making it much easy for developers to build native mobile apps.
Top Features |
| Assistance – The tool offers in-depth coding assistance to developers for easy management |
| In-Built tools – IntelliJ IDEA has several in-built tools that help developers build mobile apps |
| Developer Ergonomics – The tool follows developer ergonomics approach to increase the overall productivity |
| iOS App Development Tools | Released | Pricing | Operating System | Programming Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8. Swiftic | 2005 | $29.00 & $39.00 /month | Web, Android, iPhone/iPad | |
| 9. Xcode | 2003 | Free to use for 25 hours per month. | MacOS, tvOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS | C |
| 10. Code Runner | 2017 | $19.99 | macOS | C, C++, HTML, Java, Kotlin, Lua |
| 11. Fabric | Free to Use; Paid Plan Available for Extra Features | |||
| 12. AppCode | Starts @ $89/year | Swift, Objective C, C++ | ||
| 13. CocoaPads | Free | |||
| 14. Transporter | Free | Windows, Linux, and macOS |
Swiftic is a dedicated mobile app development tool for iOS. The user interface & experience are easy to use and navigate. The developers can create apps according to specific business requirements using this platform. It provides various features like push notifications, customer interaction, etc. which makes it popular amongst developers.
Top Features |
| Push Notifications: A unique feature of apps developed through Swiftic is that it give push notifications to the consumers to attract their attention |
| Customized apps: Swiftic helps in creating customized apps and publishing them on leading app stores |
| Boosts Customer interaction: The best part about using Swiftic is that it boosts customer interaction by making it convenient to stay in touch with them |
Xcode is one of the most robust native mobile app development tools for iOS. It is most suitable for team collaboration. It’s also free to use. It is suitable for a variety of operating systems like MacOS, tvOS, etc. The tool is popular among hybrid mobile app development companies globally and has reduced the overall mobile app development cost for users.
Top Features |
| Variety of Fonts: Xcode comes with a variety of font sizes and its design looks great on any UI |
| Universal Code: Developers don’t need to change any coding instructions because Xcode creates universal applications |
| Boosts Customer interaction: The best part about using Swiftic is that it boosts customer interaction by making it convenient to stay in touch with them |
| Accessible Tools: Xcode provides a simplistic UI and easily accessible tools for professional developers |
| Debugging and Crash Reports: Xcode is useful for real-time debugging and provides suggestions to improve coding speed and reduce errors |
Code Runner is another prominently used multi-language program. It supports a variety of programming languages and offers 200+ syntax features. Developers also get access to a variety of advanced editing features. However, you need to make sure when you hire mobile app developers, they have the required experience to use the tool and necessary mobile programming languages.
Top Features |
| In-built Debugging: Code Runner provides an in-built debugging facility. So you don’t need to print additional debugging codes |
| Multiple App Integration: Code Runner can integrate with a wide range of applications like C, C++, HTML, Java, Kotlin, Lua, etc. |
| Suitable for Businesses: Code Runner is suitable for almost every business be it small, mid-sized, freelancer, non-profit, etc. |
| Advanced Editing: Most suitable development tool for advanced editing; flexible and easy to use |
Fabric is a mobile app development tool that allows building and managing mobile applications easily. It was released by Twitter and offers a set of tools to developers, including Crashlytics for crash reporting, Beta by Crashlytics for allocating beta builds, and Answers for analytics.
Top Features |
| Integrations – Fabric can be integrated with other popular mobile development tools such as Android Studio & Xcode |
| Allocates Beta Builds – The platform also enables Beta by Crashlytics to allocate beta builds to testers |
| Real-Time Crash reporting – The tool allows identifying the root cause of the crash on real real-time basis |
Appcode is another popular IDE (integrated development environment) for both iOS as well as Android. Built by Jet Brains, the tool supports multiple programming languages such as Swift, Objective C, C++, and many more. The platform is developed to work smoothly with Android Studio and Xcode and offers several features to make efficient and fast coding.
Top Features |
| Error Management – The platform suggests code improvements to the developers and also allows detecting & fixing errors easy |
| Refactors Code – Automatically refactors code to improve maintainability and readability |
| Code Completion Feature – Provides advanced code completion feature to improve developer efficiency and save time |
Cocoapads can be used for third party library integration and is a dependency manager for Xcode projects. The tool has over 97,000 libraries and is popular among developers. Further, the tool is used in more than 3 million apps including duolingo, the popular language learning platform.
The tool saves a lot of time by getting the required source code to developers and resolving dependencies between libraries.
Top Features |
| Library Management – The tool helps easy management and incorporation of third party libraries easily |
| Source Based Distribution – Cocoapods allows source based distribution of integration into app projects and third party codes |
| Resolves Dependencies – The platform is popular for resolving dependencies between libraries |
A popular command line tool and well known iOS development tool, Transporter is used to deliver sizable catalogs. The tool allows developers sending media files to different platforms, such as apps, movies, books, shows, etc.
Further, the platform also facilitates immediate installation packages that comprises of installers for Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can send pre generated content to platforms such as Apple Book, App Store, or iTunes.
Top Features |
| Easy to Use – The tool allows easy drag & drop feature to transport content |
| Quick Process – You can streamline the delivery process by uploading different files faster |
Softr is a popular no-code mobile app development tool that allows building powerful and highly responsive apps without any prior coding knowledge. The tool offers a number of customization options for users and has a drag-and-drop feature to build software.
Price – Free Plan Available; Paid Plan starts @ $29/month
Top Features |
| Easy to Start – The tool is beginner friendly and simple to setup |
| Wide Range – The platform has a wide range of themes and templates for users to choose from |
| Integrations – The app can be integrated easily with third party apps such as Zapier |
Bubble is another top low-code mobile app development tool that allows building fully fledged mobile apps for users. The platform has an active community and has been gaining a lot of eyes for a few years. In addition, Bubble hosts development bootcamps for aspiring developers also.
Price – Paid plan starts @$32 per month; the free plan is also available
Top Features |
| Customizable – Bubble is highly customizable and is best for building a UI/UX-rich mobile app |
| Integrations – The tool gives the option to integrate with third-party API plug-ins and apps |
| Scalable – The platform is scalable and comes with robust infrastructure, server, and operations |
| Workload Sharing – Bubble allows teams & individuals to collaborate & empower them to make edits in real time |
Glide is an ideal fit if your target is mobile due to the way it structures the functionality and layout of the app. The platform has eight layouts in total that determine the overall functionality and interface of the app. The app has several customization options and enables you to build an app in just a few clicks.
Price – Free Plan Available; Paid Plan @25 USD/month
Top Features |
| Learning Resources – The app offers easy-to-understand and detailed learning content for users |
| Integrations – The tool enables third party integrations with APIs and plug-ins such as Zapier & Adalo |
| Easy to Build – Glide enables users to build highly responsive, good-looking apps easy & quickl |
Quixy is one of the best mobile app development tools that requires no coding skills. The platform has a drag-and-drop interface and comes with a number of advanced features. It allows the flexibility to design applications with customizations like grid controls, QR code scanning, facial recognition, & field calculation.
Price – $20/month
Top Features |
| Ease of Use – Drag and drop feature and a simple interface makes Quixy easy for users |
| Notifications & Reminders – Quixy sends reminders & notifications to its stakeholders to execute workflow smoothly |
| Live Reports – It provides a live dashboard and reports that help you to take actionable insights |
‘Bildr’ is used to develop Blockchain apps, chrome extensions, and other web applications for phones. The platform offers a highly visual building process and flexibility to the users. The tool provides a white canvas with all the screens, patterns, and pages required for your app, just like Figma. Note that this is a little complex tool as compared to other no-code platforms in the list.
Price – Free Plan Available; Paid @29USD /month
Top Features |
| Templates – The tool offers a wide range of ready to use templates for users |
| Easy Management – The platform is optimized for SEO & content management, allowing ease for the marketing team |
| Best for SaaS – The platform is an ideal option for building SaaS, cloud, or Blockchain based apps easily and in cost efficient manner. |
OutSystems is a popular low code app development tool and is quite popular among enterprises. Top companies like Deloitte, HP, and Warner Brothers have used the tool to build applications for them. The tool enables the agile, continuous, and quick development and delivery of all apps.
Apart from creating web & mobile apps, the tool is also useful in deployment and helps in managing omnichannel enterprise applications.
Price – Basic Plan @1500 per month, Free Trial is Available
Top Features |
| Integrations – OutSystems is easy to integrate with other systems and helps in delivering scalable solutions |
| Secure – The tool uses robust safety measures and offers tech enabled security for the applications |
| Real Time – OutSystems allow checking and analyzing performance dashboards in real time for users |
BuildFire is a top no code mobile app development that allows non-programmers to develop custom apps. The DIY tool is an easy to use and intuitive app builder using drag & drop feature. The tool is flexible and powerful & supports over 10,000 apps helping users fill their business needs.
Further, the tool has customizable in-built templates that can be used to build apps from scratch in short time and fewer efforts.
Price – Free Trial Available, Spark Plan @ $5000/month
Top Features |
| Drag & Drop – BuildFire provides the users with easy DIY drag & drop feature to develop apps with no code |
| Customized Branding – Users can also customize branding on apps with logos, colors, quotes, and other content |
| Compatible – The tool allows developing cross platform apps compatible for all devices |
So, these were the best tools for mobile app development for 2024 popular among developers. These tools for mobile app development assist developers in building highly interactive & responsive apps that eventually save time & cost both. App development and maintenance is a long & tiring process but with efficient tools, you can simplify your development process.
Mobile app development tools are equipment used to build mobile applications and come in handy with several functionalities. The tools allow the developing of interactive native & cross-platform mobile apps with various features.
Xcode & Android Studio are two best mobile app development tools that allow cross platform development for iOS, Windows, and Android.
Some of the top tools for mobile app development are – Xcode, Android Studio, and Charles Proxy.
There are several factors to consider before selecting the best mobile app development tools:
Vipin Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO at Konstant Infosolutions and is in charge of marketing, project management, administration and R&D at the company. With his marketing background, Vipin Jain has developed and honed the company’s vision, corporate structure & initiatives and its goals, and brought the company into the current era of success.
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