The 88 Best Mobile App Development Tools for 2025

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Building a mobile app is more accessible than ever. This is partly due to the wealth of tools available to serve mobile app developers.

But the sheer number of tools and platforms can be overwhelming. Knowing what’s essential (and what’s just nice to have) can save you time, money, and a lot of headaches.

We want to save you hours of searching. This guide walks you through the key tools you need to know about for every stage of mobile app development. From design to development to analytics, these are the tools you need to build a high-quality app.

At the end, we’ll give you a few “starter stacks” to help you pick the right approach based on your goals.

Ready to go? Here’s a practical, no‑fluff landscape of the best software to know across the entire mobile app lifecycle.

Planning & Design: Laying the Foundation for Your Mobile App

Before a single line of code is written, planning and design set the direction for your app.This phase is where you map out how users will interact with your app and bring your vision to life visually.

Figma

The go-to tool for UI/UX design. Figma allows you to create beautiful interfaces, interactive prototypes, and design systems all in one place. It’s cloud-based, so designers, developers, and stakeholders can collaborate in real-time.

FigJam / Miro

These digital whiteboards are perfect for brainstorming, mapping user flows, and planning app features visually. Teams use them to sketch ideas quickly, organize requirements, and align on the app’s structure before moving into detailed design.

Zeplin / Avocode

While less essential today (thanks to Figma’s built-in features), these tools were made to streamline design-to-development handoff. They automatically generate specs, assets, and code snippets so developers can implement designs more efficiently.

IDEs & SDKs: Core Tools for Native Mobile Development

When building mobile apps from scratch, you’ll work with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) specific to each platform.

These provide the building blocks, compilers, and debugging tools you need to write, run, and optimize your app.

Xcode

Apple’s official IDE for iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS development. It includes everything you need to build iPhone and iPad apps using Swift or Objective‑C, including simulators, UI designers, and debugging tools.

Android Studio

Google’s official IDE for Android apps, supporting development in Kotlin and Java. It offers intelligent code editing, performance profiling, and a full suite of Android-specific design and testing features.

Platform SDKs (iOS SDK, Android SDK)

These provide the libraries, APIs, and tools that make it possible to access native device features like cameras, sensors, push notifications, and location services, ensuring your app can fully integrate with the operating system.

Cross‑Platform Frameworks: One Codebase for iOS and Android

Cross‑platform frameworks let you build apps for both iOS and Android using a single codebase, reducing development time and maintenance costs. 

They’re ideal for teams that want to reach a wider audience quickly without sacrificing too much on performance or design flexibility.

Flutter

Developed by Google, Flutter uses the Dart language and features a rich widget library for building fast, visually stunning apps. It’s known for near‑native performance and a strong developer experience, including hot reload for rapid iteration.

React Native

Created by Facebook, React Native lets you build apps using JavaScript or TypeScript and the popular React framework. It has a huge ecosystem and community support, making it a go‑to option for web developers transitioning to mobile.

Kotlin Multiplatform

Rather than sharing the entire UI, Kotlin Multiplatform focuses on sharing business logic between iOS and Android while keeping native UI components. It’s ideal for teams wanting native look and feel while avoiding duplicate core logic.

.NET MAUI

Microsoft’s evolution of Xamarin, .NET MAUI allows C# and .NET developers to build cross‑platform apps with a single codebase, leveraging their existing skills and tooling.

Unity

Although primarily known for game development, Unity is also used for interactive 3D apps and experiences. It brings powerful graphics and physics engines for AR/VR or other immersive applications.

Hybrid & Web‑to‑App Wrappers: Turning Web Apps into Mobile Apps

If you already have a mobile‑optimized website or web app, hybrid frameworks and wrappers let you convert it into a native mobile app quickly.

They’re ideal for businesses that want to launch fast and maintain a single codebase while still getting app store presence and access to device features.

Ionic + Capacitor

Ionic provides a library of UI components for building hybrid apps. Capacitor is the native bridge that gives web apps access to device APIs like push notifications and camera. Together, they allow you to build apps using standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).

Apache Cordova

One of the earliest hybrid app frameworks, Cordova wraps your web app in a native container, enabling access to native device features. While less popular today, it’s still used in legacy apps and simple hybrid projects.

Capacitor (standalone)

Capacitor can be used on its own to package an existing progressive web app (PWA) or mobile website as a native app, adding native plugins and app store distribution capabilities without a full rebuild.

MobiLoud

A turnkey service designed for businesses with existing websites or ecommerce stores. MobiLoud converts your site into a native app, enables push notifications, and handles app store submission and ongoing maintenance. 

It’s ideal for non‑technical teams that want a straightforward, easy to manage website to app conversion.

See what MobiLoud can do for you: Get a free preview of your mobile app now.

Low‑Code & No‑Code App Builders: Build Without Writing (Much) Code

Low‑code and no‑code platforms let you create mobile apps visually. They typically work by dragging and dropping components, connecting data sources, and configuring logic. 

They’re ideal for non‑developers, internal business tools, MVPs, or anyone who wants to ship quickly without a full engineering team.

FlutterFlow

Built on top of Google’s Flutter framework, FlutterFlow gives you a visual way to build production‑ready apps and export real Flutter code. It’s popular with startups because it balances speed with long‑term flexibility.

Draftbit

A visual builder for React Native apps, Draftbit is great for teams who want to start with drag‑and‑drop design but still have access to clean React Native code for customization.

Adalo

A pure no‑code platform aimed at small businesses and entrepreneurs. It’s perfect for quickly building simple apps like directories, booking apps, or internal tools.

Glide

Turns Google Sheets (or other data sources) into mobile apps instantly, making it great for data‑driven prototypes and internal dashboards.

Thunkable

A block‑based builder for iOS and Android apps, popular in education and quick MVP use cases.

AppGyver (SAP Build Apps)

A robust no‑code platform focused on enterprise apps, especially for teams that want to connect complex data sources without writing code.

Bubble (with mobile wrappers)

While primarily a web app builder, Bubble can be paired with wrappers like MobiLoud to deploy Bubble apps to mobile app stores.

Learn more: the best No-Code App Builders available today.

Backend‑as‑a‑Service (BaaS) & Serverless: Powering Your App Without Managing Servers

Your mobile app needs a backend for storing data, authenticating users, and running business logic. 

Backend‑as‑a‑Service (BaaS) platforms handle all of this for you, so you can focus on building features instead of managing infrastructure.

Firebase

Google’s all‑in‑one BaaS solution, offering real‑time and document databases (Firestore), user authentication, serverless functions, analytics, and push notifications. It’s popular with startups and solo developers because it’s easy to set up and scales automatically.

Supabase

An open‑source alternative to Firebase, built on PostgreSQL. It provides authentication, database, storage, and serverless functions while giving you SQL flexibility and more control over your data.

AWS Amplify

Amazon’s developer‑friendly toolkit for building scalable mobile and web backends on AWS. It offers APIs, storage, authentication, and hosting with deep AWS integration, making it ideal for teams expecting large-scale growth.

Appwrite

An open‑source backend designed for simplicity, with built‑in authentication, database, and file storage. Great for developers who want more control while still avoiding backend complexity.

Backendless

A visual, no‑code backend builder that makes it easy to connect APIs, manage data, and handle server logic without writing code. Popular with non‑technical teams and quick prototypes.

APIs, Authentication & Payments: Connecting Services and Handling Transactions

Most mobile apps rely on third‑party APIs for core functions like login, payments, and user data management. Using trusted services saves time, boosts security, and helps you launch faster.

Stripe

The go‑to payment platform for mobile apps, Stripe handles one‑time payments, subscriptions, and marketplaces, with robust APIs and mobile SDKs for seamless checkout experiences.

RevenueCat

Simplifies in‑app subscriptions and purchases across iOS and Android. It manages entitlements, cross‑platform sync, and analytics so you don’t have to build complex billing logic yourself.

Auth0

A powerful authentication and authorization platform that lets you easily implement secure logins, including social login (Google, Facebook, Apple) and enterprise SSO.

Clerk

A modern developer‑friendly authentication platform, focused on fast integration, user management, and developer experience.

Firebase Auth

Part of the Firebase suite, Firebase Auth makes it easy to add secure, production‑ready login with support for email, phone, and social logins.

Supabase Auth

Provides password and magic‑link login plus integration with popular OAuth providers, built on open standards and fully open source.

Twilio / MessageBird

Communication APIs for sending SMS, handling OTP (one‑time passcodes), and integrating voice or chat features into your app.

Postman / Insomnia

Essential tools for testing and debugging APIs, making it easier to ensure your app communicates with backends reliably.

DevOps, Build & CI/CD: Automating Your Mobile App Delivery

Once your app is being developed, you need reliable tools to build, test, and deliver it to users quickly. 

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools automate repetitive tasks like compiling, testing, signing, and publishing your app, so you can focus on coding and features.

fastlane

A must‑have automation tool for mobile developers. It handles tedious tasks like app store screenshots, code signing, beta distribution, and pushing updates to the App Store and Google Play with a single command.

Bitrise

A cloud‑based CI/CD platform built specifically for mobile apps. It automates building, testing, and deployment, integrating easily with popular frameworks like Flutter, React Native, and native iOS/Android projects.

Codemagic

A CI/CD platform focused on Flutter (though it supports other frameworks too), offering automated builds, testing, code signing, and app publishing with minimal setup.

GitHub Actions

GitHub’s native automation tool that can build and deploy mobile apps alongside your source code, great for teams already using GitHub repositories.

CircleCI

A flexible CI/CD platform that works well for mobile apps, often used by teams who need complex or customized build pipelines.

AppCenter (Microsoft)

Handles builds, testing, distribution, and diagnostics in one place. Though less popular today, it’s still used in enterprise settings and Microsoft‑heavy workflows.

Testing & QA: Ensuring Quality Before Launch

Testing ensures your app works as intended, looks good on all devices, and provides a bug‑free experience. From automated testing frameworks to cloud device labs, these tools help you catch issues before they reach users.

XCTest & XCUITest

Apple’s official testing frameworks for iOS. XCTest handles unit tests, while XCUITest is used for UI testing and automated user interaction.

Espresso

Google’s official Android UI testing framework, allowing you to simulate user actions and verify app behavior on Android devices.

Detox

An end‑to‑end testing framework for React Native apps, designed to run automated tests on real devices or emulators, ensuring consistent cross‑platform behavior.

Flutter test / integration_test

Built‑in testing tools for Flutter, covering unit, widget, and full integration tests to maintain app reliability during rapid development.

Jest & React Testing Library

Popular for testing React Native app logic and components, offering a smooth developer experience for JavaScript‑based apps.

BrowserStack App Live

A cloud device testing service, letting you run manual or automated tests on a wide range of real mobile devices and OS versions.

Firebase Test Lab

Google’s testing cloud for Android (and limited iOS), ideal for running automated tests across many device configurations.

Instabug

A crash reporting and bug capture tool that also allows testers and beta users to send annotated screenshots and video feedback directly from the app.

Sentry & Crashlytics

Crash reporting and performance monitoring tools that catch runtime errors and provide insight into why your app failed in production.

Analytics, Product Intelligence & Attribution: Understanding Your Users

Analytics and attribution tools help you measure how users interact with your app, track key performance metrics, and understand where your users are coming from. 

This data is essential for improving user experience, increasing retention, and optimizing marketing spend.

Firebase Analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase)

A free, robust analytics solution for mobile apps. It provides event tracking, user properties, and funnel analysis, with tight integration into other Firebase services like Remote Config and A/B Testing.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

A more generalized analytics solution that supports both mobile and web apps, allowing you to view cross‑platform performance in one place.

Mixpanel

Focused on product analytics, Mixpanel lets you track user events, create funnels, and analyze retention or cohort behavior. Ideal for growth teams focused on improving engagement and LTV.

Amplitude

Another product intelligence platform, known for its easy‑to‑use dashboards and deep behavioral analytics, often used for feature adoption and user journey analysis.

PostHog

An open‑source alternative to Mixpanel and Amplitude, giving you full control over data hosting and privacy while still offering product analytics, session recording, and experimentation tools.

Segment

A customer data platform that collects user data and routes it to any analytics, marketing, or data warehouse tool, helping you keep all data sources in sync.

RudderStack

An open‑source alternative to Segment, popular with teams that want more control and lower costs.

AppsFlyer

A leading mobile attribution tool that shows you which marketing campaigns are driving installs and revenue, helping you optimize ad spend.

Adjust & Branch

Other attribution and deep linking tools that help you connect marketing efforts with real user actions and retention.

Feature Flags, Remote Config & A/B Testing: Releasing and Optimizing Features Safely

These tools let you roll out new features gradually, personalize user experiences, and test what works best without shipping new app updates every time. They’re key for modern, data‑driven development workflows.

LaunchDarkly

A feature management platform that lets you control feature rollouts with precision. You can release features to a small percentage of users, run A/B tests, and instantly roll back if something goes wrong, all without touching the app stores.

Firebase Remote Config

Part of Firebase, Remote Config allows you to change app behavior and appearance dynamically. Combined with Firebase A/B Testing, it’s a free and powerful way to test different UI layouts, pricing, or onboarding flows.

Optimizely

A long‑standing leader in experimentation, offering advanced targeting and testing capabilities. While originally web‑focused, it supports mobile app testing and personalization as well.

Statsig

A modern alternative to LaunchDarkly, offering feature flags, A/B testing, and experimentation tools with a strong focus on analytics and product insights.

Split.io

Similar to LaunchDarkly, Split provides feature flags and experimentation tools with strong data governance and analytics capabilities, making it popular with larger teams.

Push Notifications & Messaging: Keeping Users Engaged

Push notifications and in‑app messaging are essential for engaging users, driving retention, and increasing revenue. These tools make it easy to send timely updates, promotional messages, and personalized campaigns directly to your users’ devices.

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

A free, reliable solution from Google for sending push notifications to both iOS and Android. It’s a great starting point for basic notification functionality.

OneSignal

A popular, user‑friendly platform for push notifications and in‑app messaging. It offers segmentation, automation, and analytics, making it perfect for marketing teams as well as developers.

Braze

A premium customer engagement platform offering push notifications, email, SMS, and in‑app messaging in one place. It’s used by large brands for advanced, personalized messaging campaigns.

Iterable

Similar to Braze, Iterable provides multichannel messaging capabilities with advanced segmentation and workflow automation, focused on lifecycle marketing.

Customer.io

A flexible messaging platform designed for product and marketing teams, offering behavioral messaging via push, email, and SMS with robust automation features.

Amazon SNS & Pinpoint

AWS tools for managing large‑scale push messaging, with Pinpoint adding analytics and targeting features on top of basic SNS notifications.

Monitoring, Performance & Observability: Keeping Your App Healthy

Once your app is live, monitoring and performance tracking tools help you spot crashes, performance bottlenecks, and user experience issues before they impact your ratings or retention.

Firebase Crashlytics

A free and widely used crash reporting tool that helps you track, prioritize, and fix stability issues in real time. It’s easy to integrate and provides detailed stack traces for fast debugging.

Sentry

A powerful error tracking and performance monitoring tool for mobile, web, and backend apps. It provides detailed insights into errors, slow transactions, and overall app performance.

Datadog

A full observability platform with mobile performance monitoring, infrastructure metrics, and log management. It’s great for teams needing a single view of app and backend health.

New Relic

Similar to Datadog, New Relic offers end‑to‑end observability, including mobile app performance metrics, backend tracing, and user experience monitoring.

AppDynamics

An enterprise‑focused application performance management (APM) platform that tracks complex app ecosystems, often used by large-scale enterprises with heavy compliance needs.

Firebase Performance Monitoring

Part of Firebase, this tool tracks app startup time, network latency, and resource usage, helping you identify performance bottlenecks easily.

Store Ops & Compliance: Managing Your App in the Stores

Publishing an app is more than uploading a build. You also need to handle store guidelines, app signing, review processes, and compliance requirements. These tools and processes help ensure a smooth launch and ongoing updates.

App Store Connect

Apple’s platform for managing iOS and iPadOS apps. You’ll use it to upload builds (via Xcode or CI/CD), manage metadata, pricing, and distribution, and access analytics and TestFlight for beta testing.

TestFlight

Apple’s official beta testing tool, integrated into App Store Connect, allowing you to distribute pre-release versions of your app to testers easily.

Google Play Console

The Android equivalent for managing app publishing, listings, releases, and user reviews. It also provides crash reports, pre-launch testing, and performance insights.

Google Play Internal Testing & Closed Tracks

Tools for quickly testing your Android builds with internal teams or external beta testers before public release.

StoreKit (iOS) & Google Play Billing (Android)

Frameworks required for in‑app purchases and subscriptions, ensuring compliance with store payment policies.

Code Signing & Notarization

Essential steps for securely distributing iOS and Android apps, typically handled through Xcode, fastlane, or CI/CD pipelines.

App Store Review Guidelines & Google Play Policies

Documentation from Apple and Google that sets the rules for content, privacy, payments, and user data. Reading and following these is critical to avoid rejections or removals.

Learn more: The Practical Guide to App Store Optimization (ASO)

AI Coding Assistants & Code Generation: Building Faster With AI

AI-powered development tools help speed up coding, suggest solutions, and even generate full features, making them valuable for mobile app developers looking to boost productivity.

GitHub Copilot

An AI coding assistant built into popular editors like VS Code and JetBrains IDEs. It suggests code completions, boilerplate, and even entire functions, speeding up development and reducing repetitive work.

Cursor

A developer-focused AI IDE that integrates AI into your workflow, helping with code generation, refactoring, and natural-language queries (“add push notifications to my app”).

Codeium

A free alternative to Copilot, offering AI-powered code completions and chat, designed to integrate into multiple coding environments.

JetBrains AI

Built into JetBrains IDEs (like Android Studio’s IntelliJ base), this assistant helps with refactoring, code explanations, and test generation using AI models.

OpenAI API & Gemini (Google AI)

General-purpose AI models that can be embedded into your mobile apps for features like chatbots, summarization, or natural language understanding, giving apps AI-powered capabilities out of the box.

Learn more: The Best Tools for AI Mobile App Development

Mobile App Starter Stacks

Choosing the right tools can feel overwhelming with so many options available. 

To make it easier, here are a few practical starter stacks (tailored to different types of projects) showing what you actually need (and nothing you don’t) to get an app built and launched efficiently.

1) Native-First, Maximum Performance

• iOS: Xcode + Swift/SwiftUI
  
• Android: Android Studio + Kotlin/Jetpack Compose
  
• Backend: Firebase (Auth, Firestore, Cloud Functions, FCM) or Supabase for SQL
  
• CI/CD: fastlane + Bitrise
  
• Testing: XCTest (iOS), Espresso (Android), BrowserStack for device coverage
  
• Analytics & Engagement: Firebase Analytics + RevenueCat for subscriptions + OneSignal for notifications
  
• Monitoring: Crashlytics + Sentry
  

2) Cross‑Platform, Modern UI & Speed

• Framework: Flutter (single codebase for iOS + Android)
  
• Backend: Firebase or Supabase
  
• CI/CD: Codemagic (Flutter‑focused) + fastlane
  
• Testing: Flutter test + integration_test
  
• Analytics & Engagement: Mixpanel or Amplitude for product analytics, Firebase FCM for push
  
• Payments & Subscriptions: RevenueCat
  
• Monitoring: Crashlytics
  

3) Web Team Shipping a Real App Fast

• Framework: React Native (if you know React) or Ionic + Capacitor (if you’re strong in web)
  
• Backend: Firebase (easy) or AWS Amplify (scales well)
  
• CI/CD: Bitrise or GitHub Actions + fastlane
  
• Testing: Detox (for RN) or BrowserStack for device testing
  
• Notifications: OneSignal (easier to integrate than native)
  
• Analytics: Firebase Analytics or Segment + Mixpanel
  
• Monitoring: Sentry
  

4) Already Have a Great Mobile Website (just want it in the stores)

• Approach: Web‑to‑App Wrapper
  
• Tool/Service: MobiLoud
  
• Push Notifications: Built‑in (MobiLoud comes with OneSignal integrated out of the box)
  
• Backend: Your existing backend (no changes)
  
• Store Ops: MobiLoud handles app store submission and updates for you
  
• Analytics: Keep your web analytics stack; add Firebase Analytics for app‑specific events

See your app in action: Get a free preview now

5) No‑Code / Small Team MVP

• Platform: FlutterFlow (exports Flutter code), Draftbit (React Native code), or Adalo/Glide for simple apps
  
• Backend: Firebase or Backendless for no‑code backend
  
• Payments & Auth: Stripe (via plugin) + Firebase Auth
  
• Testing: Built‑in previewing + limited external testing (BrowserStack if needed)
  
• Notifications: OneSignal or built‑in provider (FlutterFlow has FCM support)
  
• Analytics: Firebase Analytics

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Conclusion: Your Toolkit for Mobile App Success

Mobile app development has never been more accessible. 

Whether you’re building a high‑performance native app, leveraging a cross‑platform framework, turning your website into an app, or launching an MVP with no code, there’s a tool stack designed to fit your goals, budget, and team skill set.

If you’ve built for the web first, you’re in the enviable position where you can ignore almost all of the noise that comes with mobile app development.

With MobiLoud, you can turn your website or web app into a beautiful, fully-functional mobile app, with no effort, no mobile app experience.

We handle everything for you, from build to testing to publishing and ongoing maintenance.

It’s the ideal way for web-first businesses to launch mobile apps. Want to see what’s possible? Get a free preview of your app now.