10 Best Android App Development Tools For Developers In 2024

I’ll admit it.

The mobile app industry has never been riding a higher wave than now.

Android applications are widely used in almost every industry to attract dedicated users. Some of these industries include education, entertainment industry, and the business industry. Frankly speaking, mobile app development has become an ultimate need for today’s survival.

However, it is quite a challenging job for Android app developers to develop or port an application due to many reasons that include the varying Android versions, UX designs, hardware capabilities, etc. 

Hence, you may require special Android app development tools to assist you as a mobile app developer in your work.

In this article, we are going to go through the best Android app development tools for developers in 2021.

Are you ready?

Okay, let’s jump right in. But before we take a look at these tools, let’s first look at what you need to consider before you choose an Android app development tool for your project.

To do this, you have to ask yourself some questions.

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Choosing The Best Android App Development Tool For Your Project

These questions will help you choose the right development tools that will help you in saving time and resources.

Without further ado, here are the 3 questions that you should ask yourself anytime you want to choose any top mobile app development tools for your project.

1. Have you considered all the necessary platform/tool features you need for your next app development project?
2. Does your mobile app development tools support multiple operating systems?
3. Which type of app do you want to develop for your business? Is it a web app, native, or hybrid mobile app?

Now that you have asked yourself these questions, let’s also look at some of the various ways that these tools can be categorized before we look at them.

The Different Categories of Android App Developments Tool

Since Android app development is a vast field, it’s no surprise that it’s development tools are also vast.

But, to make your work easier, these popular Android app development tools can be categorized in different ways.

Some of these categories are:

1. Conversion tools: These tools help you build mobile versions of the existing web app, desktop app, or website.  
2. Low code development platforms: As a mobile app developer, this tool will help you quickly design the app, prototyping, and launch the app.  
3. Integrated development environments: This is another best Android app development tool that helps you to code in an easy way and to come up with the best app.  
4. Libraries: These tools will provide you with important APIs so you can add features such as file sharing, messaging, mapping to other apps. 

Okay, we’ve looked at the questions that you need to ask yourself before you choose an Android app development tool and also some of the categories that these Android app development tools are in.

Now, let’s take an in-depth look at these best Android app development tools for developers in 2021.

1. Xamarin

It’s not a surprise that Xamarin tops this list of the most used Android app development tools.

Now, did you know that Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned framework? Yes, you read that right, Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned framework for native and cross-platform app development.

It’s worth noting that, this Android app development tool is a part of the vibrant .NET ecosystem which is used by millions of Android app developers like yourself across the globe. Xamarin comes with a lot of features that you should really know of.

Some of these features are:

• Xamarin is an open-source, FREE, and cross-platform app development tool.  
• It can develop apps using .NET from a single shared codebase for Android, iOS, and windows. 
• Has a strong community of around 60K contributors from 3700+ companies. And it allows great communication with the APIs of other mobile devices.  
• Xamarin also allows Deep linking and application indexing.  
• It provides faster time-to-market and produces fewer bugs. 

Xamarin has been used to build some popular mobile apps that help us in our day to day life. Some of these popular apps include Microsoft News, BBC Good Food, and Alaska Airlines.

2. HeadSpin

This Android app development tool provides companies with actionable insights into the user experience that enhance mobile results.

Look, HeadSpin prepares you for the growing challenges of resolving customer interactions in the dynamic mobile environment.

It does this by offering a comprehensive analysis of performance and user experience problems across every layer of the mobile stack-from client to server.

Now, this tool is available to thousands of devices across 150+ locations around the world. But, you should note that this Android app development tool requires no SDK to expand the codebase.

Additionally, everything in this app development tool is API based.

But that’s not all, all the performance issues in this tool are prioritized according to their impact by means of artificial intelligence that is built into the tools’ engine.

Headspin is available in dual versions. This means that it is available both on cloud and on-premises. So it’s suitable for you as an Android app developer.

 3. PhoneGap

This is another top app development software for cross-platform Android app development.

PhoneGap supports all popular operating systems like Android, iOS, and Windows. You should also know that PhoneGap is based on JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5.

But wait, there’s more. This best Android app development tool for developers in 2021 helps you add a native flair to cross-platform apps by tapping into the device’s native functionality.

Now as an Android app developer, you can use geolocation, camera, an accelerometer, and other smartphone features after tapping into these devices.

Some of its main features include native API support, you can use common languages like HTML, CSS, and JS, PhoneGap has a strong developer community, as well as the PhoneGap CLI.

4. Ionic

If you want to develop hybrid apps, then you should opt for this best app development tool in 2021.

Now, Ionic provides you with tools for building interactive mobile and web applications and also a library of mobile-optimized UI/UX components. This tool also creates amazing Android applications using various web technologies like SASS, HTML5, and CSS.

Additionally, it enables you to ship apps to the store with a single shared codebase.

Some of its main features include:

• It is known for features like animation, design, and performance. 
• Ionic is an open-source and 100% FREE app development tool. 
• It can access features like cross-platform deployment, live to reload, and other integrations.  
• Provides a base theme, ready-made components, and typography that adapts to each platform. 
• In numbers, 100% lightweight PWA performance score and 2x faster than previous versions.  
• It builds highly interactive Android applications and offers great tools.

Some of the apps built using this top Android app development tool are MarketWatch, Pacifica, etc.

You should note that Ionic will be familiar if you are well-versed in Angular as it’s the framework’s base language. If you want to hone your skills to a razor edge, you should check out my other article where I reviewed the best Ionic framework courses on Udemy.

5. Qt Creator

This tool is a functional integrated development environment that helps you as a software engineer to create native apps.

Qt Creator has built-in utilities for development, UI design, and deployment.

But that’s not all.

Qt creator also offers you as an app designer some of the best accessibility. For example, you can write an application for windows and move it to Android or iOS later.

Additionally, with the hyperloop features, you can access a wide range of browser APIs. Plus, you will also be able to use third-party integrations and libraries as well as create a powerhouse of an app.

Some of Qt creator’s main features include:

• Drag-and-drop UI designer
• Tools for visual debugging
• An integrated GUI layout builder
• Code auto-completion and syntax highlighting

This tool has a free trial, but after you have tested its features, you can upgrade. The subscription plan starts at $459/month.

6. Mobile Angular

Did you know that you can easily build HTML5 mobile apps with angular JS and Bootstrap using an angular UI Android app development tool?

Well, it is just like jQuery Mobile or Sencha Touch. This tool also helps you develop a better Android experience using some reliable and robust libraries such as overthrow.js and fasclick.js.

Additionally,  you can transform your desktop web application to Android applications with less possible effort. For this, this tool deserves a seat here on the list of the best Android app development tools for developers in 2021.

Some of its top features include:

• It comes with awesome mobile components and original Bootstrap 3.  
• You can create awesome Android apps with this open-source project.  
• It allows you as an Android app developer to test speed and responsiveness.  
• Using this, you can develop interactive mobile user-interfaces and a responsive app.  
• It can easily convert a desktop web application into a mobile app.  
• You can squeeze or stretch the browser window to see both mobiles as well as web versions.

7. NativeScript

With this Android app development tool, you can easily build native mobile applications with Vue.js, Javascript, Angular, and TypeScript.

NativeScript features deep integration with the router, CLI, webpack, code generation, and more in the case of Angular.

Now if you thought that was all of it, think again. This top Android development tool comes with various features like strong backing, native performance, cross-platform app development, and extensible app development tools.

For this reason, you won’t be wrong if you say that it deploys native Android applications from a single code base.

Some of its main features include:

• Gives 100% direct access to all Android and iOS APIs.  
• It can run anywhere with its native UI without using Webviews.  
• It’s a FREE and open-source app development tool.  
• Helps you as an Android app developer to increase your skills through the learning curve. 
• The team of NativeScript provides implementations of real-world apps.

8. Sencha

Now, this tool will help you optimize mobile responsiveness and user experience.

This tool has a broad library of UI materials, banners, toolbars, menu lists, and so on. Which makes it another top Android app development tool in 2021.

And thanks to its model-view-controller based Javascript framework, you will build projects that are compatible with the latest versions of mobile operating systems. It’s sample applications include admin and executive dashboards, employee directories, portals, ticket apps, and many other solutions.

Some of its main features also include:

• The libraries of pre-integrated UI components
• Rich data analytics tools
• Responsive configurations
• A built-in layout manager

9. Appcelerator

Appcelerator is one of the Android app development tools that is used to build native mobile applications and build interactive mobile APIs on just one platform.

This tool gives you the power to use a single Javascript codebase to create great native mobile applications.

Did you know that the Cisco app is a product of the Appcelerator? Okay.

Some of Appcelerator’s main features include:

• Builds native apps, connects mobile-optimized access, and measures data on its own analytics.  
• It gives high cloud capacity limits. 
• You can improve the speed of the complex mobile app development using this.  
• It also provides support for multi-region global app deployments It allows private virtual and on-premise app deployment.  
• Can also improve the speed of mobile app development. 
• Hyperloop, Vue.js integration, Angular integration, ES6 support are its top features.

10. Corona

This is an ideal cross-platform framework for creating applications quickly and also mobile devices as well as desktop systems.

This means that you can create your project once and publish it to multiple types of devices like Amazon Fire, Mac Desktop, Android phones, etc.

Some of its main features include:

• It is completely FREE and a cross-platform app development tool.  
• Avails numerous plugins to extend features like analytics, media, in-app advertising, etc.  
• It is a Lua-based framework which is a leading scripting language in games.  Corona app development tool is built on OpenAL, OpenGL 2.0, and other industry standards. 
• Allows Android app developers to share their code while building apps or publishing them to various platforms.  
• It is a powerful mobile app development tool in games. 

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Conclusion

Mobile application development is faster, easier, and cheaper if you have the best tool or apps to assist you.

While the high number of features allows businesses to keep the users’ interest at its peak, developing a feature-rich app will be more time-consuming and expensive.

To choose the right development solution, make sure to know your budget and time constraints as well as the feature benchmarks you want the project to hit. To choose the absolute best development framework for your business, be sure to first test a few alternatives. 

Then match them against a list of criteria as well as the estimated app development costs and make an informed decision.

You can also check out my other article on the best Android development courses on Coursera, these courses will help you master Android development and be perfect at it.

Are you currently using any of these best Android app development tools?

If yes, please share your experience in the comments below.