HTML5 mobile development is quite common these days in hybrid app development. However, creating a custom-coded mobile application in HTML5 is time-consuming and expensive – and the fruits of the developer’s work might not be worth all the work.
So, coders use a few go-to frameworks to make cross-platform mobile app development faster, better, and easier. You might’ve heard of Sencha Touch and others, but Ionic is among the most popular.
While the framework itself is completely free, it isn’t easy to get the hang of it without web development experience. Thus, consider hiring an Ionic developer if you’re looking for a hybrid app.
In the post, we’ll review what makes the framework this attractive, touch on the Ionic bases, and determine the cost of building a simple mobile native vs. hybrid app.
What is Ionic?
Back in the day when the framework was created, it was pretty clear that widely used HMTL5 would eventually make its way to mobile. Seeing the power of the language combined with the benefits of hybrid apps, Ionic founders decided to create a framework that would allow developers to develop apps for mobile browsers like WebView.
The Ionic creators describe the framework as designed for the official website’s front-end mobile app user interface. It’s mostly used to develop hybrid apps (those running in the browser). Iconic has a strong community; the technology is open to open-source project management methodologies and is free. Note that the framework is 100%-free.
Advantages of Ionic
We’ve talked to many developers and noted that Ionic is a widely-loved mobile development framework. That is clear – its advantages and multi-functional features are hard to resist. Here are but a few.
- Based on AngularJS. No matter how experienced you are in web development, you’ve certainly heard a thing or two about AngularJS – one of the most popular JS frameworks backed by Google. Ionic is the same as Angular, which is extended and adapted specifically to build mobile apps.
- Ionic makes hybrid apps feel native. While native apps have maintenance and many other issues, developers still strive to make web apps as comfortable on mobile devices. Ionic is probably the best HTML5 framework to improve user experience (it allows native scrolling and uses hardware-accelerated animations DOM elements).
- A powerful default library – Ionic has a few CSS and JS packs you can use in your app immediately. This includes forms, buttons, fancy sliding menus, tabs, sliding boxes, etc.).
- Iconic has an active community – creating a framework that will be open-source both technology and spirit-wise; the founders of Ionic made a huge bet on curating the community. They succeeded splendidly! The Ionic community is one of the best things to happen to a developer – there are always software architects to help you solve all the possible problems; you can jump into a discussion or ask for an opinion.
Top apps created with Ionic
As one of the most famous frameworks for hybrid apps, Ionic creates a fair share of products currently on the App Store and Google Play market. Let’s take a look at a few of these.
1. MarketWatch
Marketwatch is designed to track the trends that are popular in different markets. The software development company used Ionic to create a custom and user-friendly product for the app. Most functions were added via native plugins – Facebook, Twitter, Omniture, etc.
Ionic usage allowed the mobile app development company to create a cross-platform app exploiting the familiar technology – JS, CSS, and HTML5.
Also, the app’s creators benefited greatly from well-organized teamwork thanks to an open-sourced framework.
2. Watch
The app is a streaming search engine. The app creates an easy way to browse through film and series titles.
JustWatch is written with Ionic and Angular JS for Android and iOS. The interface is minimalistic, the app takes little time to load, and is quite multi-functional.
3. honey
Another useful app created with Angular is HoneyFi, which allows couples to track family business and have a backlog of spending. It’s famous for its user-friendly interface with no redundant elements and items. All of that is the merit of Ionic – thanks to the framework, developing an app takes little time.
Basic steps to develop an Ionic app
As a business owner, you might wonder what it takes to create an Ionic app from scratch. We won’t be going through every step of the way. However, you’ll get an outlook on the process.
Step #1. Installing the framework
Before a developer can start working on the project, he has to install Ionic on the computer. The framework is free and can be installed in a few clicks on Ionic’s official website. A client with a default “side menu” starter template will open as soon as it’s done.
Step #2. Adding/removing components
The number of components depends on the pages your future app will have. A developer will delete the folders’ list in the “page” folder if it’s a one-page app.
Adding new components consists of sorting all the files needed by formats – there are separate folders for HTML, CSS, and JS objects and fonts.
Step #3. Building back-end
A developer needs to write the back-end code to launch an app. To do that, one will install a few models, change the import property, save the reference of HTTP via the constructor function, and create a new method reload.
Step #4. Data binding
This step consists of binding all the HTML data to JS components. Angular has a few peculiarities when it comes to that (for instance, you have to use curly braces), but we won’t touch on the details.
A developer tests the app’s look in a browser when the components are bound.
Step #5. Building an APK
The next step is creating an APK file that can be tested and rolled out to Google Play Market and App Store. It will take a few changes in your app directory. Later, a good developer would customize all the icons and cross-test an APK on different devices.
Step #6. Tests and launch
At this stage, a developer tests the app’s overall performance and load time. There might be some debugging to ensure the app can run on different devices simultaneously.
After the app is cross-tested, it can be rolled out to the Play Market. Later, some changes might be made since the community will always provide you with feedback on the product.
Cost of Iconic development
The work of professional coders in the US might seem pretty expensive. That’s why a distributed team can reduce development costs – in Ukraine, for instance, the average software engineer’s salary is slightly over $1500 monthly.
After the app is launched, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee of 99 dollars, so that’s important to keep in mind as well.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a fixed mobile app development cost since it depends on how complicated you want your app to be and how skilled a team you need.
Conclusions
- Hybrid apps have many advantages for a target audience- they are faster to load, easier to maintain, and run in a browser.
- HTML5-frameworks are a go-to tool for app developers. The Ionic is the most popular among all the options on the market. It has many advantages – the framework’s built on familiar technology,, a strong built-in library, and a dedicated community of coders.
- Ionic development doesn’t take that much time. The development process can be easily broken down into basic steps – installing the framework, adding components, writing the back-end code, data binding, debugging, and rolling the app out.
- Hiring a team of developers could be pretty expensive. Yet, it’s not the case if you know how to hire a mobile app developer – distributed teams from Eastern Europe can provide a result that’s just as good for three times less wage.