Putting together custom apps for digital marketing projects can be highly tricky in terms of complexity and cost, particularly if custom development is necessary.  There’s no getting around the requirement to deliver, however – it’s an essential part of any modern marketing campaign. In fact, mobile apps have become the driving force in accelerating digital.

To take the potential sting out of the tail, in this article we run the rule over four open-source mobile app frameworks which can help you delight both users and clients while keeping budgets under control. Bear in mind that as we progress, you’ll need to have specific technical skillsets already in place to make the most of these powerful tools.

Let’s kick things off with a classic!

1. Ionic Framework

Ionic is an MIT-licensed open source mobile SDK that puts a suite of familiar technologies at your team’s fingertips in order to quickly and painlessly bang out truly cross-platform mobile applications. A combination of familiar technologies such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, and HTML5 is used to power a single codebase that can output to multiple devices – a huge timesaver compared to going down the custom build route.

With Apache Cordova doing some of the heavy lifting behind the scenes, and a slew of developer-friendly features such as live reloading, solid CLI tooling, and excellent documentation, your tech team should be able to hit the ground running easily. Check out the impressive showcase of featured apps for inspiration before getting started yourself.

2. Titanium

Next up we have Titanium, the open-source underpinning of a wider commercial offering from Appcelerator, and still a very viable mobile app solution in its own right. JavaScript is again the main driver of this solution, and it provides a comprehensive SDK with over 5,000 APIs to target all major mobile platforms with relative ease.

You won’t get quite the same code reusability as you can expect from Ionic, but the option to seamlessly upgrade to parts of the wider paid Appcelerator stack as you go could be attractive for agencies looking for predictable scaling costs and requirements management on projects. A healthy development community and handy tools such as Alloy make Titanium a great starting point for greenfield projects generally.

3. Adobe Phonegap

Apache Cordova got a nod up above in relation to Ionic, but its roots are actually to be found in Adobe Phonegap (from which it was originally spawned). Take Phonegap for a spin and you’ll find a carefully considered set of tools that enable your team to target multiple devices by using standard web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML 5, and CSS.

Phonegap is essentially a custom build of Cordova with a suite of handy add-ons such as mobile preview apps, packaging tools, and third-party plugins. Documentation is extensive, showcase apps are present and correct, and getting started is relatively straightforward. As you browse the list of products that make up Phonegap, you’ll need to bear in mind that while the underlying platform is open-source, there are paid aspects of several of the associated cloud services depending on the nature of use. In other words, be sure to check the fine print.

4. React Native

Our last suggestion comes from a company that knows more than most about delivering mobile satisfaction at true scale – React Native from Facebook. Yet again, we’re looking at a JavaScript-powered framework that takes its cues largely from Facebook’s existing React library. If your team’s already plumped for React for day-to-day UI development, it could make a huge amount of sense to keep everybody on the same page when it comes to mobile by leveraging React Native.

As you’d expect from Facebook, the documentation is exemplary, and the showcase section is packed full of examples of web companies using React Native at enormous scale. If you’re dealing with mobile app projects that you expect to explode in popularity, React Native is an excellent base to build your solution around.

Conclusion

Having open-source mobile app frameworks available is an absolute godsend for agencies both large and small. They enable you to dodge a number of technical and usability bullets, while keeping overall costs under some sort of control.

Let’s close things out with a quick recap of the four solutions we’ve identified:

1. Ionic: An excellent option when the focus is on maximum code reusability and easy on-ramping for developers.
2. Titanium: For those looking to take a roll-your-own approach while having easy access to paid upgrades, Titanium deserves consideration.
3. Adobe Phonegap: An extremely solid solution from the same team who gave Cordova to the world.
4. React Native: Virtually guaranteed to work beautifully at scale, and sure to be on the scene for some time to come thanks to its heavyweight backing.