#AppTools Archives

Firebase for Startups: Is it a Must-Have or a Bonus?

Posted on 15/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

There’s no secret to a mobile app that rules million hearts that goes beyond how well its Backend and Frontend is developed.

And the presence of well-structured frontend and backend, or their lack thereof, is what leads to a rise or a steep fall of any mobile app and ultimately the startup backing it.

While Frontend in itself a lot sorted in terms of it being a mere ‘the-step-ahead’ on the efforts put in by the Backend team, it is the Backend development process, particularly one involving Mobile app backend database, that needs some extra eagle-eye attention.

Backend Development, as we have already established in our Guide on Mobile App Backend Development is what powers the effortless experience that mobile app users swoon over and decides the future of a startup. And to achieve something so crucial the industry has offered a number of development tools and platforms.

One such tool that we are going to discuss here at great lengths is a powerpack offered by Google that goes by the name of Firebase Backend-as-a-Service – a platform that has over time created a lasting impression on both developers and startups, establishments around the globe.

Here’s an infographic showing the market of Firebase and enlisting the companies using Firebase in their processes…….

Now that we have seen the market that Firebase has captured, let us now look at what is Google Firebase and what does the term Firebase for Startups entail –

What is Google Firebase?

Firebase Backend-as-a-Service which started off as a YC11 Startup grew into a next-gen mobile app development platform for Google in no time.

The platform that gives developers two options – Realtime and Cloud Firestore – frees Firebase developers from the need to manage servers, write APIs or simply manage their datastore and focus on something that really matters – Curating amazing user experiences.

Let us look at everything that Firebase for web apps and mobile apps is –

List of Firebase Features

A. It is Real-Time

Most of the databases present in the industry today makes you do HTTP calls to gather and sync your data. But, when you connect to Firebase, you make a connection via WebSocket and not HTTP.

Now, the case with WebSocket is that they are very fast and you are not required to make specific WebSocket calls as only one connection is enough to sync all your data through the single WebSocket.

Firebase web app sends over new data instantly as it is updated. When the client saves a change in data, all the connected clients get the updated data in real-time.

B. It Stores Files

Firebase offers an easy way to save the binary files to Cloud storage straight from the client. The storage comes with its own security rules system for protection of your GCloud bucket from masses while giving detailed writing privileges to the authenticated clients.

C. It Authenticates

Firebase auth comes with built-in email and password authentication system. It supports OAuth2 for Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and GitHub.

Also, since Firebase OAuth2 is mainly copy/paste, developers can finally bid adieu to the difficulty that comes tagged with Custom authentication coding.

D. It Hosts

Firebase comes with easy-to-use hosting service used for all the static files and serves them via global CDN having HTTP/2.

And to make the whole development process completely painless, Firebase host makes use of Superstatic, which you can run locally for all the testing needs. The Superstatic + BrowserSync development environment that Firebase comes with is very neat. While BrowserSync handles all the reloading of development app across the connected devices, Superstatic copies Firebase mobile app hosting in a way that developers can deploy straight to the Firebase for production use.

E. It is Fully-Featured App Platform

Firebase developer team has made it possible to integrate a bunch of existing and new Google products with your Firebase mobile app. A number of these features can be applied to Android and iOS but not Web –

Remote Configuration
Crash
Test Lab
Dynamic Links
AdMob
Notifications

Now that we have looked at what Firebase is and what it stands for, it is time to look into the reasons that make Firebase for Startups ideal for those who are just starting with the mobile app development domain and are looking for a platform that would help them concentrate on creating real value for the users, instead of dealing with the time-taking backend tasks.

Why Should Your Startup Use Firebase for Apps?

For the Amazing Analytics

What is Google Firebase if not a product that offers a series of insights and analytics? One of the most preferred features that come tagged with a Firebase mobile app is its Analytics dashboard. The dashboard is free and comes with a capacity of reporting over 500 different event types with each of them carrying over 25 attributes.

The dashboard helps give a clear picture of the user behavior and in measuring the different users’ attributions. Lastly, it helps businesses in understanding how users interact with their app, giving them ways to optimize it better for the future.

For Sorted App Development Process

For the companies using Firebase, the platform takes ownership of a number of processes that are otherwise known to take away a major part of the developers’ time thus keeping them away from developing quality apps that offer unprecedented user experience. The features that Firebase web app comes with, make it possible for developers to focus on what is important –

Cloud Messaging
Hosting
Authentication
Test lab
Remote Configuration
Realtime Database
Crash Reporting
Storage

For Heightened User Engagement

No matter what category your mobile app belongs to, the ultimate aim that all businesses wish to achieve is high revenue and popularity – both that comes as a result of positive user experience.

Firebase web apps and native apps come with a number of in-built features that not just give you insights into the users – how they are interacting with the app, the stage where they are leaving the app, the part they are engaging with the most etc, but also give you measures to correct declining engagement.

For Increasing Your Revenue Count

Firebase is more than a mobile app backend database. Firebase prepares you to earn high revenues on your mobile app. The AdMob Firebase feature enables you to monetize the app even when you are at the stage of thinking about giving a pleasant experience to your users.

With Firebase, you can show your ads to millions of the Google Advertisers in the real-time, select the format that suits your mobile app, and work with over 40 ad networks with AdMob mediation.

For Knowing What Went Wrong

The feature that comes with Firebase for web apps and mobile apps helps in the creation of a detailed report of error which is categorized in groups having comparative stack flows chosen according to the seriousness of the impact that it has on the users. Other than that, it also gives businesses the ability to register to the custom events which helps in identifying crash before it even occurs.

For Becoming Searchable

The only direct route, besides advertisement, that will make your brand a known name in the world of millions of prospective users is through mobile app indexing – a process that will place your application on the top fold of the search engine when a user enters a query seeking solutions that your app offers. Firebase for apps come with an in-built App Indexing feature which makes it possible for you to place your app on the SERPs and thus in front of millions and billions of Google Search Engine users.

For Inviting New Users

Google Firebase with its ‘Invites’ feature makes it possible for you to motivate and compel prospects to become loyal users. It allows you to send customized emails, invitations, and messages to the potential clients directly on their device in a time that you choose.

For Firebase Dynamic Links

Firebase Dynamic Links is an example of deep linking done right and a silencing answer to ‘Is Firebase good?’. The links work as you want them to, on the platform of your chose and even when your mobile app is not installed on users’ devices.

With the Dynamic Links, users get just the right experience of the platform, which they open the link on. When users open your Dynamic Link on Android or iOS, they are taken to the linked content of your app. Likewise, when the link is opened on a desktop, the link takes them to an appropriate place which would get them the right experience.

Moreover, Dynamic Links operate across different app installs functions: when the user opens a dynamic link of Android and iOS when the app is not installed, they are given a prompt to install the app, and once it is installed, the first launch page of the app is one that users clicked the link for.

For Powering App with Machine Learning

Nowadays, with the upsurging demand of Machine Learning powered mobile apps which contains features like – text recognition, face detection, image labeling, barcode scanning, and landmark detections – has become one of the must-have element for every app that is to be termed as innovative.

Firebase, with its ML-Kit, offers you both – an on-device and Cloud-based API which works even when the network connection is missing.

So, you see how beneficial Firebase can be for your startup?

Now even though there are a lot of benefits that come attached with the incorporation of Firebase in a mobile app, there are some hard to ignore limitations as well that come attached to the platform.

Let us look at them before we head on to studying the instances where it makes sense to invest in Firebase and places where it doesn’t.

The Limitations of Firebase

The Console is Not Very Useful

Although the console lets you do multiple things but in the end, it is not very useful. A very limiting part about the console is that there is a massive lacking of detailed analytics and logs. While you get a graph showing the database usage, it is difficult to know the number of times a file was downloaded until you find a solution for yourself.

Defining the Security Rules

Firebase uses JSON file using Javascript code with strings for defining rules on the storage and database. Now, usually it is not that big of a challenge as one can use Bolt for making the process a lot less painful, but the fact that once get around the dozen simple rules, the file gets unmaintainable.

Restricted Javascript SDK

There are a number of Firebase features that are implemented only in the iOS and Android SDKs. The most prevailing limitation is the absence of offline persistence when working on JavaScript.

Although, all your hybrid, web, and React Native applications will work even when data is lost momentarily when you close the tab or application the data is completely gone. So, it then comes on you to implement a cache, which can be a pretty time-taking task on mobile.

Limited Data Modeling

Firebase database is simply one big JSON file. There’s not even a single way to show many to many or one to many relationships. When put into practice, it means that you will almost always end with duplication of data everywhere.

Now that we have seen the limitations that Firebase comes with, let us look into the time where it makes sense to employ the platform and place where it doesn’t.

Firebase For Startup: When does it make sense and when it doesn’t?

After all plus points and limitations are seen and adhered to, the deciding factor of when Firebase should be used and when Firebase for Startup is a bad option ultimately come down to the complexity of the mobile app project.

If the app belongs to simple to medium level complexity, Firebase should be incorporated in your mobile app but if your app belongs to high complexity and deals in a lot of data, you should choose some other option, one where the data is entirely in your control.

Also, when you consider the Firebase pricing into the picture, it will again make greater sense to use it for smaller projects as compared to complex ones.

After all said and done, the fact remains that we have worked on Firebase, a lot, and have been enjoying the experience to a huge extent. So for us, the only right answer to – is Firebase good? Is YES!

So, before we help you get direction to our Backend team who would help you get started with Firebase, let us look at how our experience has been so far.

Our Firebase Experience

We have worked around a number of Firebase offerings.

And using Firebase Analytics, we have created several project management tools and content management systems.

Overall, we have enjoyed working on Firebase. It is hands-down an exceptionally useful layer and flexible platform for building both mobile and web applications.

The platform has worked in our favor under a number of different projects that we applied it in – project management platform, a real-time chat, and a billing system.

The one thing that we loved about it is that Firebase grows as your development cycle grows – we first used Firebase editor for mocking up data and getting the idea of how the application works and then, later on, used the datastore, the same one, for serving up a huge amount of data per month.

Apart from this, there are three other factors that made us stick to Firebase for as many applications as possible –

Lets us Avail the Power of Realtime

It is almost surreal when the application you have developed works in a true real-time sense. It doesn’t ask people to wait as the page loads but give them the information as they get asked for it.

But realtime is an everything or nothing element. In case your data fails to broadcast updates, it becomes difficult to join with the realtime data again, making it very tempting to drop the idea to real-time altogether. However, with Firebase’s APIs and high applicability, we get to work realtime from the very beginning of the project.

Easy Firebase Scalability

We have moved from some test projects to hundreds of live design products without having to deal with the database servers. Firebase scalability, indeed, has been one of the most convenient elements for us when it comes to handling an infrastructure.

Build Crucial Data Structure in Firebase

All the apprehensions that we had when it came to trusting Firebase for development of fragile and critical data structures were solved with us locking and securing a number of areas of the database for allowing only our RPC methods to modify them.

Wish to incorporate Firebase in your mobile app? Get in touch with our team of Backend Experts, today!

Top 10+Mobile App Development Frameworks in 2019-2020

Posted on 02/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

One common question in the minds of the app developers is ‘What is the right framework for mobile app development?’ and that is exactly what we are here to discuss in this article. It has been a while since the first set of frameworks were introduced in the tech world and today there are numerous mobile app development frameworks.

The doubt arises when it comes to choosing one of the best frameworks for your mobile app in this pool. Quite often, the app developers need to transform an iOS application into an Android application. So it becomes crucial to choose the right frameworks which enable them to convert an application in one ecosystem into another. The purpose of choosing any of the cross-platform mobile app development frameworks is to make the work of an individual developer or a mobile app development agency, easier and the experience much more flexible.

So without further delay let us look at the top 10 Most Popular Mobile App Development Frameworks for 2019 to 2020:

1. Adobe PhoneGap

The PhoneGap framework for mobile app development enables people to see changes instantly. Moreover, it is a cross-platform development framework which allows app developers to develop in Javascript, HTML5 and CSS. This is the reason why it is one of the first choices for those developers who are interested in building hybrid apps.

The apps that are developed using Adobe PhoneGap not only ensures high-quality performance but also allows mobile app developers to develop apps without any hardware limitations. Other than the usual Android and iOS platforms, it can develop apps for Windows, Blackberry, Mac OS, Ubuntu and Firefox OS. Additionally, the developers can extend its functionality by adding plugins that are associated with this framework.

2. Ionic

One of the 3 Of The Best Frameworks For Mobile App Development in 2018, Ionic is the best framework for mobile app development and also it’s free. It is quite popular among the app development frameworks. Ionic is basically a front-end network, which helps to build native-like mobile apps with HTML, CSS3 and Javascript. It works in an optimized manner on the latest mobile devices available and provides the best possible environment for the app to hit the market in the desired way.

An Ionic market is an online place where templates and projects developed by other developers can be downloaded. The Ionic lab components makes sure of it that you test your app in the most popular among the platforms, Android and iOS.

The mobile app development framework has other advantages such as working with powerful SDK called Angular. Because of its ability to build native like mobile apps, Ionic is a great framework for PWA development. It works well in combination with PhoneGap, Trigger.io and Cordova projects along with the accessibility of efficient core architecture, fitting simple to complex types of apps.

3. Xamarin

Xamarin is owned by Microsoft and is based in San Francisco. With the help of C# codebase, app developers can use Xamarin tools to develop for Android, iOS and Windows apps. These codes can be shared across multiple platforms including Windows and Mac OS.

In fact, it is also one of the 5 Must-Try Open Source Mobile App Development Frameworks, even when the React Native vs Xamarin comparison is in the picture.

4. Intel XDK

Intel XDK is a cross-platform mobile app development framework for every app store. It helps you build apps with plugins, responsive apps, interactive apps and web services for any device. This mobile app development framework helps developers with development, testing, emulation, debugging and finally publishing the app. They have been making developments in the framework lately and now they have software support for IoT apps and Node.JS.

Intel XDK provides you with a live preview of the changes you are making while app development. There is also an option of drag and drop to create apps which is easy although it does create numerous unnecessary codes.

5. React Native

React Native is one of the best frameworks for mobile app development and is giving competition to Xamarin and Native Scripts. It was developed by Facebook and is used by Airbnb, Instagram, Tesla, Walmart and many other Fortune 500 companies. It uses the same UI building blocks that Android and iOS do. This is why it becomes difficult to differentiate between an app built using React Native and an app build using Objective-C.

There has been debates on React Native vs Ionic quite often since both are top preferred frameworks. But one of them is more liked. Because of its rich UI, React Native framework gets so much attention by the developers. It helps you build an actual app with great performance using JavaScript framework which has changed the scenario of the development world.

6. Flutter

Flutter came unannounced and made its place as one of the best hybrid mobile app development frameworks. What makes Flutter app development unique is that it uses 2D rendering engine known as Skia to create visuals. These visuals are made to look like Material Design and Cupertino style widgets but in reality, they are not. The framework allows ease of testing to developers without restarting the project if any error occurs.

Flutter, even though backed by Google is not just a Popular Android App Development Frameworks for Mobile Apps it is also for iPhones. This framework lets you build cross-platform apps for iOS and Android that can be run on any device. It uses the programming language, Dart.

7. Corona SDK

Corona SDK provides 10 times faster development than any other mobile app development framework. This is because Corona backend is supported by Lua which is a light-weight programming language that focuses mainly on speed, flexibility and ease of usage.

This framework for mobile app development will be great for those who want to code fast and still maintain the quality of apps. The framework is absolutely free of cost and can be used to build in all platforms supporting Windows and Mac OS X.

8. Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a great hybrid mobile app development framework. It is especially good for those who prefer Bootstrap and Angular. Mobile Angular UI is a combination of Bootstrap and Angular framework that lets you build using HTML5. In one of our previous blogs on React vs Angular: Which is The Best JavaScript Framework we discussed why it better to use AngularJS over react native when it comes to performance boost. Angular gives a good server side support and supports complex apps with ease.

This framework for mobile app development allows developers to use fastclick.js and overthrow.js for a smooth mobile experience. This framework is free and available to be used under the name of MIT.

9. Native Scripts

Listed among the best Android framework 2020, Native Scripts is backed by a Bulgarian software company, Telerik. It was originally created by Progress. The apps built with Native Scripts use the same APIs as if they were built using Xcode or Android studio.

The official website of Native Scripts continuously provides resources and tutorials for budding developers so that they can learn to work in this framework like a pro.

10. JQuery Mobile

JQuery is an HTML5 framework for mobile app development. The greatest advantage lies in the fact that just one version of the code is developed and it can run across all devices. Irrespective of whatever is built using this framework, either website or app, it runs not only across all devices but also runs in a variety of Operating System such as Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows and Firefox Mobile as well as Kindle, Nook and MeeGo.

It is possible to download JQuery either as a custom download or the latest stable version. JQuery was listed in the top 15 JS frameworks prediction for 2019 which proves it to be an ideal choice when there is a need for rapid development of apps with the plugins that come with the app.

So, these were the top 10 mobile app development frameworks but that is not all. There are many other frameworks that are being used to build great mobile apps. Let us look at them briefly.

11. Framework7

This is a free framework for mobile app development which can be used to develop hybrid apps for Android and iOS. It uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript with ease during app development. It provides some extraordinary features such as supports multiple viewing, library agnostic, native scrolling, caching, browser history, etc.

This framework also helps in building a quick prototype for an app. This comes as a great advantage to mobile app development companies when they have to show the clients a rough idea of the project.

12. Appcelerator Titanium

Appcelerator Titanium uses a mix of both PhoneGap and Xamarin. This framework uses JavaScript to write codes and supports Android and iOS platforms. However, it does not come with CSS and HTML. To use Titanium start with the Titanium studio which comes with its own Titanium SDK and platform-independent APIs.

It uses Alloy to develop faster. This also makes it easy to reuse the apps which reduces time and cost.

13. Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch is usually preferred by enterprises as it has a wide range of products to work with. ExtJS is the main JavaScript used for development and gives a rich look and high performance to the apps. It has ready to use tools for all platforms including Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry. For ease of development, Sencha Touch also provides a drag and drop option for visual app builder. It is one of the best frameworks to achieve a high performing app with great visuals.

If you wish to learn more about frameworks that mobile app development companies are using today then contact our team at Anteelo and we will guide you through the entire app development process. We will be more than happy to provide you feedback on your app ideas.

What makes Ionic Framework Great For PWA Development?

Posted on 01/04/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

The ionic framework was created by Drifty Co. in 2013 and by 2015 Ionic developers had reportedly created over 1.3 million applications with the SDK. Two years of time and Ionic frameworks rooted itself among the developers of the entire world as a breakthrough technology and it never went back. But what is the ionic framework and what was it that made it such a such a big hit in the PWA development industry such a short span of time?

As the definition goes – Ionic is an absolute open-source (100% free) SDK for hybrid mobile app development. Ionic app development suite provides tools and services for the development of hybrid mobile applications using technologies such as CSS, HTML5, and Sass.

Any kind of mobile applications can be built with these web technologies and later distributed through all the native app stores. The best apps made through Ionic framework are progressive web apps which are, as their name suggests, truly progressive.

So what are progressive web apps which have been continuously called the saviours of mankind and a lot more? In case you still don’t have a clue about the concept, head on to our article – This is What Google Wants You to Know About Progressive Web Apps

We know about Native apps which look and feel like Apps – they load offline, send push notifications, so on and so forth.

We also know about Mobile web apps, which are basically restricted by the properties of the browser and they do not do things like running offline and sending push notifications but they are smaller in size and do everything else a native app does, but only being online.

Progressive web apps, the concept coined as future of mobile apps, bridge this gap created between Native mobile apps and mobile web apps.

On the whole, a PWA provides a collection of technologies, design concepts, and web APIs which work in tandem to give the user an App-like experience on the mobile web.

Progressive web apps are proving themselves to be the future of mobile apps, standing right beside Native apps. In fact, in many ways, PWAs are points ahead in the PWA vs Native Apps comparison.

Now that we have looked into the concept of PWAs, let us get in-depth of what makes Ionic framework the best choice for a team of progressive web app developers, starting with the detail of what Ionic framework is.

Heads up: The answer to this goes beyond the fact that Ionic app development use the technology of service workers. They power the offline functionality, push notifications, background content updating, content caching and lot more.

To explain it more technically, a service worker is a worker script that works in the background, independent of your ionic web app or Progressive web app and runs in response to the event like network requests, push notifications, connectivity changes and much more.

What makes the Ionic framework awesome is that until the introduction of the framework, mobile app developers had to use Native coding to build Android, iOS or Windows apps. And each of these platforms required an independent, dedicated development. With the coming of Ionic, developers could build almost native-like mobile applications which worked on all technology stacks and different platforms alike, these were called the Hybrid apps.

What’s more is, in a survey taken from Ionic in 2017, it was revealed that the hybrid approach to developing mobile apps had gained ground over Native coding of apps. What’s unbelievable was that, according to the report, in a span of two years, the percentage of developers building exclusively with Native development tools dropped to 2.9 percent from 20 percent. Let us try to unravel the reason behind this popularity of the framework in making Ionic app development mainstream.

What is Ionic Framework?

We have already established the fact that Ionic is an open-source SDK for Hybrid mobile app development, but what makes it so popular among the mobile app developers is the plethora of features it carries along with it.

Ionic app developers work with over 120 native device features such as HealthKit, Fingerprint Authorisation, Bluetooth, along with Cordova plugIns and typescript extensions, it allows mobile app developers the utmost ease of developing advanced applications.

To list down the key features of the framework –

First and foremost, it provides all the functionalities that found in native mobile development SDKs. That simply means that the developers can create their own apps and easily customize them for any OS – Android, iOS or Windows, or deploy them through Cordova.
Ionic comes loaded with a very powerful CLI, providing the developers with the ability to build and test Ionic application on any platform
It provides the ionic app developers elements and ways for interaction using Angular.
The collection repeat feature is Ionic Framework’s smoothest solution for scrolling huge lists without any performance hits. It creates a scrollable container with which the app developers can interact by using a native-like delegate system.
It is based on SASS and thus it provides a load of UI components for creating really advanced, robust applications.

Now that we have looked into the features of the Ionic framework, let us get back to what we gathered here for – To know what makes Ionic the best choice for PWA development.

Progressive web apps with Ionic – Why?

Let us start with some stats here,

The best western river north hotel reported a 300% increase in revenue with their new PWA.
Tinder Cut load times from 11.91 seconds to 4.69 seconds. Also, The new PWA is 90% smaller in size than Tinder’s native Android android app.
Facebook, after expanding to PWAs witnessed a steep rise in its engagement rates and download count.
Uber’s PWA was designed to be faster even on a 2G network. The main app is only 50K gzipped and takes less than 3 seconds to load on 2G.
Pinterest’s new PWA saw them an increase of 60% core engagements along with a 44% increase in user-generated ad revenue and an increase of 40% in the average time spent on their site.
BookMyShow’s PWA takes less than 3 Seconds to load and increased conversion rates over 80 %. On top of that, their PWA is 54 times smaller than their Android native app and 180 times smaller than their iOS native app.

Yes, you have seen some big names mentioned in the above-written pointers. All then switched to PWA with ionic frameworks. There are also names like, Starbucks, Lyft, Twitter and Forbes who have seen a significant increase in the user engagements with their progressive web apps.

Why should one use the Ionic framework?

Ionic allows the mobile app developer to use a combination of programming languages such as CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript for ionic mobile app development. The unification of these three languages is potentially potent enough to make any ionic app development company deliver you with the best user interface for your targeted Audience. So, if you have got a very visually appealing App assignment to take on, go for Ionic. (combination of CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript)

Secondly, it is very easy to move platforms. That’s it. Unlike in the case of native applications where you need to code separately for all the platforms and operating systems, the Ionic platform provides the liberty of easily deploying code on any OS or platform. (Easy to move platforms)

Thirdly, the ionic framework is supported by Angular, the most common framework that is used for developing highly interactive mobile apps. In fact, the component API of Angular is the foundation of the Ionic framework. Besides, HTML’s sentence structure extensions given by Angular.js makes it very easy to incorporate user-friendly advanced features to the app. (Fully supported by Angular.js)

For the pool of Cordova plugIns. For those who are new to this, Cordova is a set of command-line tools and plugin bridges and it helps the developers in building native applications by calling the native code from JavaScript, adding platforms, running and building applications. And since Ionic is an HTML5 framework, it requires a native partner like Cordova to ensure its own functioning as a native application. And since Ionic framework comes equipped with Cordova plugins, it becomes easier for ionic app builders to access native features such as camera, GPS, Bluetooth, etc. (Flooded with Cordova native app plugins)

Finally, for the Ionic platform’s powerful CLI (Command-line interface). The ionic framework comes with CLI which makes it possible to create, code, test and deploy Ionic apps to the platform of your choosing. The CLI gives the ionic mobile app builders, the functionalities that are found in native SDK, which includes a built-in development server and debugging tools.

Moreover, this new CLI installation reduces over 90 MB of dependencies and thousands of legacy codes and even allows a much faster installation time in addition with a smaller footprint. This means an overall better speed and performance and more guidance and feedback during app development. (Powerful command-line interface)

What are the alternatives to Ionic application development service for PWA Development?

Xamarin: It is a Microsoft-supported framework for cross-platform mobile app development that uses C# and native libraries that are wrapped in the .NET layer.

React Native: It is a framework that allows the building of close-to-native mobile apps using JavaScript and React.JS.

Summing up, progressive web apps have rooted themselves among big brands and are running smoothly through ionic framework building. So much so that along with their native apps, they’re facilitating their users with an Ionic web app which can smoothly run on slower networks.

Although, many others continue to successfully use it for developing “native-like” apps and deploying them on app stores without any glitch. This is a testament enough that people are liking what they’re getting and there is no stopping them.

ASP.NET vs PHP: Make a choice for Your App Needs?

Posted on 10/03/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Both PHP and ASP.NET has broad bases. They are used by huge number of developers and this makes it difficult for the new developers to choose either one of them. In one hand, PHP is a general scripting language on which developers rely to a great extent and on the other hand, ASP.NET has a brand like Microsoft attached to its name.

ASP.NET vs PHP is an argument that doesn’t seem to have an end any time soon. Since both are quite popular languages in the programming world. You must have seen a ton of articles on differences between ASP.NET and PHP by now but in reality most of those articles are biased.

However, in this article we will talk about both the programming languages, breakdown the terms in for better understanding and discuss which is better ASP.NET or PHP.

PHP

PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor. It is an open source programming language that is used for web development and can be embedded into HTML. The best thing about PHP framework is that it is great for beginners since it allows simple and easy coding techniques. On the other hand PHP is great for professional programmers as well because of all the advanced features it offers. PHP framework is said to be adopted by many businesses in the near future and you can look at the upcoming best php frameworks here.

Pros and Cons of PHP framework

Pros:

One of the biggest advantage that PHP has is the rapid development. The market demands faster app development process and PHP gives the benefit to any mobile app development company that does multiple productions in one day. The framework is not only fast but ensures the security of the application. But the PHP developers have to make sure to use the framework as it is meant to be used to ensure application’s security. PHP is easier to maintain and has a huge community of developers that provides help whenever needed.

Cons:

PHP is prefered by developers for all the advantages it provides but they can’t ignore the disadvantages that comes with it. Slower execution, lack of ability to solve specific problems and time taking to master are some of the cons of this framework.

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is an open-source server side web development tool developed by Microsoft. The framework provides web development tools to produce dynamic web pages, web applications and web solutions. ASP.NET frameworks are written in .NET language and support Visual Basic.NET, JavaScript.NET and languages like Python and Perl. The framework also compatible with the previous version ASP.NET MVC.

Pros and Cons of ASP.NET frameworks

Pros

The pros of using ASP.NET include the flexibility to add and remove features as and when needed, the ease of setting up, an open-source and cross-platform framework and compatibility with other .NET frameworks. Microsoft has claimed it to be a highly popular framework soon just like Ruby and Node.js.

Cons

However, ASP.NET does have a few cons that may make its popularity a slow process. The framework does have problems when it comes to ease of making changes, documentation gaps, lack of supporting tools and lack of basic features since its too raw. These issues can be solved by ASP.NET developers, of course, by using external tools and methods.

ASP.NET vs PHP: The comparison

There is no doubt that both ASP.NET and PHP frameworks are great frameworks to work with but one may have few advantages more than the other. For professional developers this debate has already been settled based on their experience with each of the frameworks. But any budding developer might want to take a look at this comparison to decide which platform to start with.

Both PHP and ASP.NET provide multiple advantages and at the same time has some disadvantages. To decide which one is better than the other, we shall compare each of these two carefully. In this section we will discuss ASP.NET vs PHP: Which is better?

Performance

When it comes to the performance of a framework there is a misconception that the language of the framework determines its performance. However, this is not completely true. The performance of any framework depends on the way the coding was done.

The performance of ASP.NET is comparatively better than that of PHP. This statement may not be believed by PHP developers for the fact that many great websites have been built using PHP.

While that may be true but it does not dismiss the fact that ASP.NET allows parallel programming which lets chunks of code to run all at the same time whereas PHP does not support threading at all.

Market Share

The biggest difference between ASP.NET and PHP is the usage and market share. The chart below clearly shows that PHP has more usage popularity than ASP.NET. The websites built with PHP has been ranked among the Top 10k sites, Top 100k sites and Top 1M sites. Whereas ASP.NET hasn’t been awarded any titles that can beat PHP’s.

Security

Another huge difference between ASP.NET and PHP is the security options they both provide. Both the platforms provide security features to the developers however ASP.NET has built-in security features such as SQL injection. In other words, ASP.NET automatically does the work for you whereas PHP only provides you with the tools.

So to settle which is better ASP.NET or PHP security-wise, ASP.NET would be the right choice. The PHP developers are provided with the tool and if they wish they can structure their apps securely. Sadly, many PHP developers don’t care about it and that results in vulnerable apps.

Websites

Since it has been said earlier in the article that websites that used PHP has been ranked top as compared to ASP.NET built websites here are two lists to compare ASP.NET vs PHP websites:

Websites built using PHP

Facebook
Wikipedia
WordPress.com
Flickr
Yahoo!
iStockPhoto
Tumblr
Mailchimp

Websites built using ASP.NET

StackOverflow
Microsoft
GoDaddy
DELL
Visual Studio
Wild Tangent
Diply.com
TacoBell.com

Among these, some websites are extremely popular in both the lists but the majority of famous websites are PHP developed.

Cost-wise which is better, ASP.NET or PHP?

In this area, PHP is a clear winner for the reason that PHP is an open source development framework whereas ASP.NET charges some fee for hosting. The fee charged by Microsoft owned ASP.NET is not high but when compared to PHP’s free usage, it can make developers skeptical towards ASP.NET.

The cost does not however stop ASP.NET developers from building websites using the framework. Another great way is to outsource the ASP.NET mobile app development services.

Community Support: ASP.NET vs PHP

It’s a given that PHP has a larger community than ASP.NET because it’s free. But that is not the only thing to say about a good community. ASP.NET community consists of highly dedicated developers who are supportive of their community even though the numbers is not as high as PHP. Of course the PHP community regularly comes up with the solutions to the challenges faced during PHP web apps development process.

However, advantage of ASP.NET over PHP is that the ASP.NET developers have a community that is rather dedicated towards programming that having a large support.

Advantages of ASP.NET over PHP

All the comparisons in the previous section point towards choosing PHP over ASP.NET. But this may seem unfair to those who are looking for reasons to choose ASP.NET over PHP. So what is the use of ASP.NET?

ASP.NET provides the freedom to choose from multiple languages such as C#, Visual Basic.NET, C++, etc.
The SQL security feature that ASP.NET provides is automatically applied to the applications and has unlimited data storage.
With ASP.NET you get multiple .NET libraries which is not the case in PHP development.
ASP.NET allows threading of codes which allows multiple codes to run at the same time.
ASP.NET developers are paid much better than any PHP developer because of there are less ASP.NET developers in the market.

As this debate of ASP.NET vs PHP comes to an end its time to decide which one is better than the other. Both the development frameworks are exceptionally great in the work they do and developers freely choose between them as per the need of the development process.

In many cases PHP has proved to be a stronger framework but has also had some weaknesses that can affect the development process to a great extent. We have also seen a completely separate section for the advantages in ASP.NET development which consisted of strong points of benefits for the developers.

PHP has a huge community and is a free framework to work with. On the other hand ASP.NET is likely to have more scope in the future since it has a huge company name Microsoft behind it.

But if you still can’t decide between the two, contact our team at Anteelo and we will help you out. We engage in both ASP.NET web app development and PHP mobile app development services which will help us give you the best solution for your problems. Take a look at our mobile app development guide for more information.