What a good tech stack for a mobile app is and how to, actually, pick the right one to avoid wasting time and resources.
Introduction
An excellent mobile app has to be a one-size-fits-all for your specific audience nowadays. It has to meet the needs and requirements of the users it is created for. Needless to say, all users expect only safety, smooth and flawless operation, and a user-friendly interface from your app. Taking into account the reviews of customers on the app stores, not every developer or business can ensure such an experience for their users.
According to Jat App, every company should choose the best stack for developing its mobile app. The success of the app directly depends on it. It will save tons of your time for the development, create new opportunities, and facilitate your further project. The question about how to pick the right technology stack for your future app remains urgent and concerns a lot of business owners.
Below, you are going to learn more about it, how to choose the stack for your native app, or cross-platform app development. The modern world is mobile-oriented and you cannot deny it. If you are going to succeed with your mobile app and bring only positive experiences to your users, then read carefully and see which mobile app stack will be the most effective and valuable for you.
What a Tech Stack, Actually, Is
First, let us figure out what a tech stack is. To make it simple, a tech stack is a range of tools, programming languages, libraries, and frameworks. It has two core sides — server and client. The rest of the constituents are user experience, stability, development platform, reliability, etc.
The choice of a mobile app tech stack affects the success and efficiency of your future app. Yes, it is that important! If you do not weigh all the pros and cons and make the wrong decision, you risk wasting your time and money. Last but not least, it can cause the failure of your future app.
Thus, choosing the right and appropriate tech stack is crucial. To do that, you have to think of the goal of your app first.
How to Choose a Tech Stack for Your Needs?
A tech stack consists of:
- Back-end
Which, in turn, includes:
- Server
- Database
- Front-end
- Webserver
- Web framework
- Operating system
- Programming language
Which includes the following components:
- CSS
- HTML
- Java Script
- User’s Browser
Although everything looks complicated, it is not really so. The market is full of different technology stacks. Picking one of them will not be too complicated. However, before you start working, you must have a plan that will affect the success of your app and business. Your app must have a range of appropriate features, and be functional, scalable, secure, and maintainable.
It’s crucial to consider several aspects while creating your plan before making a decision. Let’s see how you can and should do that properly!
General App Needs
All apps are different and have different needs and requirements. You cannot deny that applying the same rules and approaches to all of them is impossible. The device for which the app is created, user experience, network type, the platform to run on, time to market, etc. differ for different apps.
All these aspects must be key factors when choosing a tech stack for a mobile app because the library, language, software, and framework you will choose will depend on them.
The Range of Skills of The Development Team
Different languages and frameworks bring the same results. However, you must reach brilliant results, and thus, pick clear factors. When choosing the stack, it is crucial to take into account the developer’s skills.
Not every tech stack is user-friendly, unfortunately. If you pick such one, it will only raise the development time. It’s not difficult to guess that the cost of the development will also grow. Vice versa, if you choose a good user-friendly stack with which your team is comfortable, you save their time and therefore, your budget.
The Overall Goals of The App
While making your stack mobile choice, it is necessary to take into account the app goals. Mainely, its primary target. If the app depends on heavy load processing, then it is necessary to pick a reliable tech stack. Precisely streamlined interactions will not be suitable in this case.
Multiple-platform Running
If you compare an app running on one platform and the one running on all platforms, you will notice that their tech stacks will be different. But apart from that, you have to take into account the necessary set of tools to scale the app and port it to other platforms, such as Hybrid Platform App Development or Cross. They will be totally different from the set of tools required to develop a native app.
Parent Company
Taking into account the parent company of the web application tech stack is also crucial when developing your app. Some platforms (Google, Adobe, or Microsoft) offer much better community support and documentation than the rest of them. Advanced development options will be a good bonus.
Data Security
The safety of your data matters. Even a small leak of users’ data may seriously harm your reputation. It will all lead to the loss of trust from users. For that reason, you should always choose only the tech stack that guarantees the highest security of all information and data.
Budget
The type of your project is affected by many features, such as functionalities, the cost of the development, the time required to complete the project, etc. Your task is to consider all of the needs without extra features. It will boost the development process and save you money from unnecessary expenses.
Taking into account the enlisted aspects, you will know what kind of stack you need to pick for your project. It has to make your app really innovative and scale it.
Compatibility With Other Technologies
Current technologies are also important when it comes to a choice of a tech stack. They both have to comply with one another. It is not all yet. The tools you plan to input into your app later must also be compatible with the chosen stack.
The Difference Between Native and Cross-Platform Apps
Native app development prevents you from difficulties with creating a sustainable product that covers several platforms and is focused on creating an appropriate design for such target platforms as iOS, Android, or others.
Cross-platform development is aimed at creating an app that can cover as many followers of the brand as possible thanks to covering a wide amount of end devices in the process of development and programming. Cross-platform apps are perfect for new requirements of omnichannel retailing where consumers expect the main interaction between devices and channels.
Here are the core differences between native and cross-platform apps:
- Cost — Native app development is more expensive than cross-platform app development
- Code usability — Native apps work for one platform while cross-platform apps can work for multiple platforms
- Performance — Native apps have high and responsive performance while cross-platform apps have high performance, but lags and hardware compatibility issues are not uncommon
- Device access — Native apps’ platform SDK provides access to the device’s API without any hindrance; With cross-platform apps, there is no access to all device’s API
Conclusion
Choosing the application technology stack is an important stage of the development process. It has to be done before you start working on your app, otherwise, all your finances and precious time can be simply wasted. Take into account the above-mentioned factors before choosing your technology stack. It will decide whether the development process and the app itself are going to be successful.
