Mobile apps have exploded in popularity in the past few years as mobile devices have taken over our lives. The market size for these apps is estimated to be over 200 billion in revenue in 2022. This means that there is a need to build quality apps whit excellent user experience that can be deployed across multiple platforms. JavaScript for mobile development allows you to reach these goals.

Reasons To Use JavaScript Frameworks for Mobile Apps

As mentioned earlier, JavaScript is suitable for multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, and Windows. JavaScript allows developers with different degrees of proficiency to build highly responsive applications that can be deployed quickly. It is relatively easy to learn, which makes it a popular programming language with a great community to support the developers. The extensive libraries built due to JavaScript’s broad adoption in web development means that pieces of code are easy to find to help you develop your application. The setup to get started is relatively cheap, making it a great choice for small start-ups and organizations to large ones.

Being so extensively used in web development and mobile applications, it is easy to find developers who can use JavaScript frameworks for mobile or transition to those frameworks with relative ease. And again, the point is to build applications with excellent user experience, something that can be done with JavaScript as it makes your applications more dynamic with the support of interactive elements and audio and video elements.

The Most Popular JS Frameworks for Mobile Apps

jQuery for Mobile

jQuery is a lightweight open-source framework that allows you to build applications that load quickly and are compatible with a wide range of screens and resolutions across multiple devices. It is HTLM-5 based and is supported by the most popular web browsers. It requires minimal scripting and also allows the creation of custom themes.

Apache Cordova

Another open-source framework that allows the development of cross-platform mobile apps using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. Plugins allow access to various components and files of a device, including the GPS, file system, camera, and SIM cards, among other things. The Cordova Command Line Interface allows you to build your projects for different platforms and emulate them.

Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is an open-source HTLM5 framework that allows the development of hybrid apps with a near-native-like experience. It is a common code framework that makes it easy to learn and use. The fact that front-end code can be reused between web development and mobile apps is translated into lower development times. This is also seen in the synching of the Model and View layers that allow a user to see changes in the data of the Model layer.

Ionic

Ionic is one of the best cross-platform open-source frameworks for hybrid mobile apps. It uses a single shared codebase of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It allows developers to build apps with Angular, React, Vue, or simple Vanilla JavaScript. The significant number of plugins available and using a unique code across multiple platforms allow for faster development times with reduced costs. Over 100 UI components, typography, and base themes are accessible and ready to use in the pre-designed application.

React Native

Used to build native apps on iOS and Android as code is written in JavaScript but rendered to the native platform UI. Reusable code from web to mobile applications and from one platform to another means savings in time and money. React Native modules are often available as npm packages, making them easy to manage and install.

Ember.js

EmberJS is a lightweight and open-source JavasScript framework that allows for the building of large client-side applications. It includes add-ons such as Fastboot, which allows your Ember application to run in Node.js. One can build single-page applications that are highly efficient since they don’t require refreshing the entire page for each action of the user. EmberJS supports data binding that allows the upgrading of one property when the other one changes. Other features of EmberJS include the Ember Inspector to debug applications, routes to manage URLs, and the use of templates for automatic model updating.

Summary

JavaScript is one of the core programming languages used to create web applications. Various open-source frameworks exist to help developers build robust and interesting applications that can be easily deployed across platforms. Choosing a framework, then, is a matter of which types of application is being built and the needs and constraints of the team.