How to Choose a Technology Stack for iOS Development
In the past year, the mobile app market has made a big leap: from 197 billion to 250 billion downloads per year. It is obvious that the sector will continue to grow: more and more entrepreneurs are looking towards mobile development. Attractive and reliable software can improve branding as well as retain customers for a long time. But for an app to be so – it’s important to get the technology right.
The stack plays an important role in the app development process: the chosen technologies will determine what functionality the future product will pull and whether it can be scaled in the future. Also, the rate of specialists and development time will depend on the stack.
We have made a mini-guide on the technologies for development on iOS, which are the most popular. The article will help to understand and make a choice.
Native app development
Native development is the creation of a product that is written in native programming languages created specifically for the chosen platform. The native languages for iOS are Swift and Objective-C. Such an app will work only on “its” platform.
Objective-C is a general-purpose language that is designed on top of the C programming language by adding features from the Small Talk programming language, making it an object-oriented language.
Objective-C is used by Apple and has access to most of the standard libraries. An application developed on this technology will have a nice smooth interface and run fast.
Swift is a more functional language and it is easier to avoid errors in the code. In addition, applications in this language will be more productive, and Apple now also supports this technology.
At our web studio YuSMP Group, iOS developers use Swift because it offers efficient features with minimal code that can be easily maintained.
Other technologies for iOS app development
Flutter is a cross-platform development technology created by Google. Apps created on this framework will work on both Android and iOS. Flutter is flexible and widely used at YuSMP Group, but not always choosing a cross-platform technology will be the best choice. We wrote about which development to choose earlier.
Factors to consider when choosing a technology
There are quite a few iOS technologies in the field of mobile development, but it is quite difficult to choose the best one for a particular project. For this purpose, it is crucial to understand exactly what kind of product is needed now. The Discovery Phase – the development stage where ideas are worked out, a pool of future functionality is formed, and much more – helps to understand this.
The type of the project is the determining stack factor. For example, if you want to create a complex iOS app with high performance and user interface implementation – it is better to choose native development. In this case, Swift will be the best programming language for creating a mobile app.
Idea validation. Relevant for startups that only want to test the idea of the product. At this stage, it is important to engage potential users to better understand the needs of the target audience. Then Flutter can be considered as it is cost-effective and allows code reuse on many platforms. This leads to a wide platform reach and fast app delivery.
Time to market. The way companies bring products to market is important to maintain a competitive advantage. If you need to release a product as soon as possible, consider a framework or programming language with many out-of-the-box solutions for common development, such as social media integration and authentication.
