It is no news that the availability of many tech stacks does contribute a lot to choosing a tech stack.
We go from Javascript frameworks to PHP frameworks and then there are python and a bunch of programming languages to combine and create a stack.
However, choosing a tech stack for your project is dependent on some major factors, it could range from what audience you’re building for, or what solutions you’re looking to offer and to what audience.
The decision of choosing a tech stack is dependent on the team which should consist of the developers, CTO, and depending on the availability and participation of investors and general contributors.
This is because each person has a role to play in building not just a mobile app but a product.
In this article, we will be going through details on what tech stacks are, how to choose the best tech stack for building mobile applications, who and what factors affect these decisions, and finally a good list of tech stacks to consider when making a decision as to what to consider.
Table of Contents
What Are Tech Stacks?
Tech Stacks short for technology stack as the name implies is a combination of frameworks, programming languages, and different tools built on top of each other to achieve a specific goal – designing and building a product which could be a website or an application.
An example of a tech stack (Source: airstack.com)
However, all these items are grouped into two major components. The front-end and the back-end. Also referred to as the client-side and the server-side respectively.
With the front-end having HTML, CSS, flutter, and Javascript for building interfaces for the client-side. On the other hand, we have node.js, PHP, Python, and Dart, etc.
Now, we’ve understood what tech stacks are, we’ve seen general examples also. I’d like to discuss tech stacks for mobile app development.
In developing for mobile apps, tools, frameworks, and languages aren’t as rampant as building for the web. In the past few years, we’ve seen a certain level of growth in the mobile app development ecosystem.
I mean we have developers for the iOS, developers for android and then there are developers for cross-platform applications.
With the latter taking on the trend with rising frameworks that are making things a lot easier.
Programming Stack For Cross-platform App Development
Recently, building for cross-platform applications seems to be the order of the day. Start-ups building MVP’s, trying to validate their products.
Developers looking to optimize development by building for multiple platforms with one codebase.
React native.
Javascript/typescript.
Flutter and Dart
How To Choose The Best Tech Stack For Your Mobile App
As a software developer, oftentimes, I get asked questions such as:
How best do we store our data?
What programming language or frameworks to use?
What’s the best stack for building a mobile application?
I have an app idea, and would love to test it, what technology do I use to build an MVP?
The amazing thing about being in the tech community is recognizing these tech stacks by name or by fancy apps that have been built using them.
But when it comes to choosing a stack or solving a problem a lot of factors are considered. However, you want to choose a stack that not only builds the app but is maintainable and scalable in the future.
Choosing an appropriate mobile app development stack could result not only in lesser cost but also in lesser production time.
In most cases, business owners, and entrepreneurs already understand what problems their apps will solve, who the solutions are targeted towards, and how they’ll make profits off it.
But deciding what technology stacks to use is where we come in.
I think knowing the capabilities of team members is important when considering building a mobile application.
In a team where the developers only know how to code in native languages such as Swift or Java may prefer to build individual products, this in turn will increase cost and may take a long development time.
We won’t ignore the fact that using individual languages will give the two apps different looks compared to when it’s a cross-platform language.
Type Of Project/Audience
The type of project/solution to be built contributes massively to the choice of stack. Before you begin, you should ask these questions:
What mobile phones do our audience use the most, android or iOS?
What is our audience like?
Answering these questions helps to determine what stack to choose.
For example, if team A is working on an MVP for a startup, they may choose to build using React Native or Flutter because this will permit easy team collaboration, save development time, and no need to build for iOS or Android individually which in turn cuts costs.
So, if you’re considering testing a product, validating an idea, or just building an MVP-(Minimum Viable Product), then a cross-platform stack is exactly what you may need.
When building products/ mobile applications, it is very important to consider the future of the product. Firstly, we need a technology that will permit us to handle larger numbers or expand our base.
Maintaining our software is important as well, we wouldn’t want to choose a technology stack that doesn’t have a future.
So, in choosing a tech stack we want to put into consideration a technology that will not only have a future but one that allows your business or solution to grow.
Just like every business requires finance, building products require finances too. You’re either paying developers, or product managers, or UI/UX designer, or brand strategist, or the project developer.
You’re funding space, subscriptions, and miscellaneous for the duration of the project.
Therefore, it is as important to ask the necessary questions like:
How many developers do we need?
How much are we spending on space, and payments to individual teams? Knowing fully well that, the more the individual teams the more money we need to spare.
How much maintaining this project will cost? Why use a premium version for a database/cloud service when you could get a freemium package using a different stack for an MVP?
The conclusion you reach from answering these questions go a long way in helping you figure out what exactly will be suitable for helping you build a mobile application.
Conclusion
In summary, we have shared a lot of information about what tech stacks are, what to consider when we choose a stack, and how to pick what’s suitable for your mobile application.
However, this information will only help you consider factors to inquire about.
If you need the expertise to help consult, plan, and execute your mobile applications, we at acodez.com are willing to organize a call and help build your dream app.
Acodez is a renowned web design and Mobile app development company in India. We offer all kinds of website design services to our clients using the latest technologies. We are also a leading digital marketing company providing SEO, SMM, SEM, Inbound marketing services, etc at affordable prices. For further information, please contact us.
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Jamsheer K, is the Tech Lead at Acodez. With his rich and hands-on experience in various technologies, his writing normally comes from his research and experience in mobile & web application development niche.
