Before investing in a mobile application development platform, there are a few things to consider ensuring smooth and effortless app development.

Mobile App Development Platforms (MADP) are an all-inclusive group of tools that allow businesses to rapidly build, test and deploy mobile apps. With an increasing need for mobile apps by businesses, enterprises are relying on MADP for speeding up the pace of development. Not only do they accelerate the mobile application development process, but also, provide developers with a consolidated framework for designing the apps, testing them, and finally deploying as well. In other words, the process is made less complicated, yet, highly advanced. Thus, the app development process is expedited

Gartner predicts that by 2020, more than 75% of organizations will have at least one mobile app development platform incorporated into their systems. This will hasten the reach towards their business objectives, which is an increase of 33% from 2015.

Clearly, the need for integration of MADPs into businesses cannot be undermined anymore. In effect, this requires an understanding of the platform in detail. This would help in making the right choice when selecting one for your business.

Mobile app development platforms are many, and each claim to be superior to the other. Now the question is how you select the platform suitable for your business.

To begin with, background research of a company is the best way to start. While doing so, few factors should be considered. Here is a quick look the factors:

Developer Tools

Tools should allow for easy testing, building, hosting and debugging of apps. There is very few MADPs that provide low-code solutions which come with drag-and-drop support and templates. This plays a crucial role in choosing the apt platforms as designers need to be comfortable with the kind of controls it provides.

Open Source Libraries

Access to Open Source Libraries is important as developers are fairly dependent on them. They play a significant role in speeding up development, and integration. It is, therefore, necessary, that the MADP platform you select offers easy access and collaboration with these libraries.

Integration of Native and Web Elements

A native app is a program that has been designed for use on a particular device and can interact and leverage the features of a particular operating system or software installed on that platform. Web apps, on the other hand, are hosted on browsers and can typically offer more information than a mobile site which compresses information improve usability. While earlier, native apps were all the rage, today it is difficult to tell the difference between a web app, a native app, and a hybrid app. It has become important to select a MADP that easily integrates the native and web elements of an app when developing for multiple OS platforms.

Security

Lost devices pose a threat to enterprise app security. For this reason, they need an extra layer of security with certain authentication and authorization procedures in place. The MADP of choice needs to offer secure and easy management of data in all kinds of environments. In order to do this, it is necessary to assess a platform from the point of its integration abilities with MDM and MAM tools.

App Monitoring and Analytics

User experience is critical to the development of enterprise apps and user feedback stemming from its use allows developers to make modifications simultaneously. MADP plays a significant role in translating this user data into insights and analytics, providing an easy way to monitor an app’s performance and alter or add features accordingly.

Deployment

MADPs can be utilized as a cloud-based service or on-premise. Cloud service can provide an early start without upfront costs while on-premise fees can offer a lower total cost with increased levels of security. Before investing in a MADP, enterprises need to establish the developer’s needs and the capabilities of the MADP in delivering on those needs.