10 Cross-Platform Options for Building Native Mobile and Web
1. Flutter
Google’s open source mobile UI toolkit Flutter delivers high-performance applications with a native look and feel across mobile, web and desktop applications from a single codebase. Built atop the Dart programming language, it’s known for hot reload, a customizable user interface and a rich set of widgets. Flutter is used internally by Google but has also been used by companies such as BMW and Toyota.
2. Iconic
Iconic is an open source mobile UI toolkit for building high-quality, cross-platform hybrid and progressive web apps (PWAs) using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Developers use it to create applications that can run on the web, iOS, Android and desktop platforms.
Although past releases of Ionic were tightly coupled to Angular, version 4.x of the framework was re-engineered to work as a standalone Web Component library, so it can be used in most frontend frameworks, including React and Vue. Some JavaScript frameworks require a shim, which is code (often a library) that acts as an intermediary layer, for full Web Component support.
3. Kotlin
Kotlin is a general-purpose, multiplatform programming language developed by integrated development environment (IDE) provider JetBrains. Kotlin can compile to JVM, JavaScript for web development and to native code for building cross-platform applications targeting Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux and WebAssembly. Kotlin is used with UI frameworks such as Compose Multiplatform, a Kotlin-based framework for sharing declarative UI across multiple platforms for Android, iOS, desktop and, in experimental, for the Web.
The company also has Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile, a mobile development framework built on top of the Kotlin language. It allows developers to write platform-agnostic business logic once, then compile it to a Kotlin library for Android and native Universal Framework for iOS via Kotlin/Native. Netflix used the tool to create Prodicle, a mobile app to use in the production of TV shows and movies.
4. Lynx
Lynx is a family of technologies with LynxJS as the cross-platform UI framework created by ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. It enables developers to create native user interfaces (UIs) using a single code base for cross-platform apps — including the web, Android and iOS. It launched March 5, and is already drawing positive reviews and comparisons to React Native.
5. NativeScript
NativeScript is an open source, JavaScript-based framework for building mobile native iOS and Android apps with JavaScript, TypeScript or Angular. Unlike hybrid frameworks that render UI within a WebView, NativeScript compiles directly to native UI components, resulting in performance and a user experience that closely matches apps built with platform-specific languages like Swift or Kotlin. This allows web developers to leverage their existing skills to create high-performance mobile apps while still having access to native device APIs.
6. .NET MAUI
.NET MAUI, previously called Xamarin, stands for NET Multiplatform App UI. Developed by Microsoft, it allows .NET developer to build native mobile and desktop applications from a single codebase. It leverages C# and the .NET ecosystem, providing a unified API to access platform-specific features and create user interfaces that can run on iOS, Android, macOS and Windows. It’s used by Progress Software. Xamarin is still available.
7. One
One is a React-based framework that allows developers to write once and deploy to the web or React Native for mobile. It’s currently in beta, according to creator Nate Wienert, who also built the UI library Tamagui. One targets web and native with a single Vite plugin, allowing developers to create both web and native platform applications. It will generate single-page applications, static-site generation and server-side rendered web pages, which is a key differentiator for this new framework.
8. Qt
Qt is mature cross-platform framework primarily written in C++. It’s used for desktop development — Windows, MacO and Linux — but also supports embedded systems, mobile with Qt for Mobile and web with Qt for WebAssembly. It provides a rich set of UI widgets and tools.
Beyond UI development, Qt provides a set of libraries for functions such as networking, database access, multimedia and XML processing, so it can be used to build complex applications across platforms from a single codebase. Unlike the other options in this list, QT is available with the LGPL and GPL licenses, but there is a commercial license option.
9. React Native
React Native is an open source framework that enables developers to build native mobile applications for iOS and Android using JavaScript and React. It allows for code reuse across platforms, accelerating development while still providing access to native device features and performance. JavaScript web developers use it to build mobile apps. One way to leverage React Native is with Expo, a framework and platform built on top of React Native.
10. Swift
Designed by Apple for its own platforms, Swift has evolved into a cross-platform programming language. It’s available on Linux and Windows for server-side development, command-line tools and desktop applications. SwiftUI is a proprietary Swift-based framework for building applications across Apple’s platforms (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS).
