Recently I dedicated an article to the importance and prospects of an enterprise app development for millennials. So as an addition to that article, today I decided to tell our clients and partners about upsides of multi-platform tools and programs usage in order to build responsive and powerful enterprise apps. My team helped make a list of the most remarkable tools and programs that encourage a developer to move an app building process further much faster.
Statistics
Let’s talk a little about numbers and take a look at the statistics concerning cross-platform environment management in the building of apps for enterprises. According to the stats, more than eighty percent of devs use third-party programs, software, and tools in the process of app creation. For example, for the last year, the percentage of artists who use multi-platform engines has grown more than twice. Today, no less than 40% of devs trust multi-platform solutions in their work. The approach that involves such solutions can be used to deliver a stable app to every platform of interest and ensure great user experience across all of them. It is precisely what enterprises are looking for.
Tools Overview
I present little introductory bios in order to help you become acquainted with the most common multi-platform dev software that developers use to build enterprise applications.
Xamarin
Xamarin represents a multi-platform environment that is based on a C# programming language. It facilitates devs to build native applications for the most common and well-known platforms, such as Android, iOS, and Windows and share the code source over all platforms of interest. Also, Xamarin Test Cloud feature allows developers to test UI and app performance, at the same time, Xamarin Insights provides them with crash reports and tests records. Xamarin development services are highly demanding in the dev community.
Appcelerator
Appcelerator is positioning itself as a platform for mobile engagement that works with Javascript and uses MBaaS (that literally means ‘mobile backend as a service’). It possesses an open-source software development kit (SDK) that supports thousands of devices and works with devices API’s. Besides, this platform allows you to test the application's performance to prevent unexpected crashes.
iFactr
This software expects just essential knowledge from devs to work with it. It can be integrated with such universal cross-platform software like Xamarin. It works together with Xamarin to create native apps. iFactr can be used to build various prototypes or skeletons of the future applications.
Kony
Kony is a software that was made especially for enterprise app development. Users can adjust the level of cloud services that Kony provides on request. Besides, it allows developers to use testing and analytics features along with all multi-platform benefits. Thus, it's suitable for careful planning, organizing and creating a powerful enterprise app that requires integration with various databases, for instance, SAP or Oracle.
Alpha Anywhere
It's a full-circle cross-platform dev tool that allows users to quickly develop an enterprise app from a prototype to a fully functional application and deploy it for mobile devices, web businesses, and software as a service (Saas) applications at enterprise-level. Alpha Anywhere applies JavaScript and HTML as the main languages and allows to build offline apps that basically most of the enterprises need.
When To Choose Cross-Platform Development
Cross-Platform development is a strong and effective solution in a case when it's necessary to fit in a budget. Enterprises are extremely scrupulous when it comes to the financial aspect. They are willing to spend not a big amount of money and expect excellent results. Besides, the decision depends on resources. For instance, if there are not enough native app developers in the field or their services are too expensive (that brings us back to the money part).
Multi-platform development, on the other hand, is a solution for any complications regarding the lack of funding, human resources or time. This approach allows for creating an enterprise app that will be available for numerous platforms a couple of times faster. Besides, a code can be written by a single developer who builds an app for one platform and deploys it across other desirable platforms. As a result, it greatly saves time and money spendings on a dev process. That's why the multi-platform approach is gaining its popularity in the dev community.
The Program-Ace team is considered to be an expert in cross-platform development with many years of experience in enterprise app creation in particular. It will be ready to help customers to reach out the best solution for their task and provide them with astonishing services.
