4 Jul, 2023 | iOS Development Company

Best iOS App Development Tools To Develop iOS Apps

The popularity of premium and luxury brands - Apple continually expands its market. According to resesoftware to develop iOS appsarch by BankMyCell.there will be more than 20% iPhone users by 2025. This translates to around 1.56 billion iPhone users across the world! In addition to the iPhone, there are iOS device users as well. With these many active iOS users, you know why there is a need to develop apps for iOS. Whether you want to optimize the performance of your existing iPhone applications or like to get one developed, we can help you reach your iPhone users. This blog will give you the know-how of developer tools for iOS. From designing to launching a mobile app, we have all the tools listed for you in sequence.

Vital tools for iOS developers

iOS Design Tools

Sketch

It is an all-in-one digital design platform for Mac app designers. You can get your app ideas prototyped with this vector-based design tool. From early wireframes to flexible design systems, generating workflows to team collaborations, Sketch is a tool for your all round design requirements. It is powered with a feature called symbol that enables reuse of the UI components. The best part of designing with Sketch is you can check these designs in other design software like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop as well.

Figma

A web-based collaborative design tool known for UI designing and app development, Figma stands out for scalable design and development. Its freemium model makes it apt for startups, learners, and enterprises. One of the coolest features of Figma is Dev mode. It helps developers translate designs to code, which largely helps developers realize the design. Moreover, Figma's FigJam - an online whiteboard eases design approvals much better and keeps your entire teams in sync.

iOS App Development Languages

Objective C

Apple primarily used Objective C for iOS and macOS development before Swift. It's C language supporting Object Oriented Programming concepts. Its dynamic run-time environment gives greater flexibility to developers to modify the behavior of classes and objects dynamically. Moreover, its Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) minimizes the burden of manual memory management for applications.

Swift

Launched by Apple, Swift is an open-source robust programming language for building iOS, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch apps. It is fast, efficient, and reliable for developing future-proof mobile applications. Swift is capable of incorporating existing Objective-C code. It benefits developers who are well-versed with the knowledge of Objective C and gives a smooth transitioning experience for existing iOS application owners. A huge community from Apple backs it and provides rich documentation necessary for budding developers and those looking for support during development cycles.

Code Editors / IDE

Xcode

Xcode simplifies the development, testing, and distribution of iOS apps. It is an official IDE for all Apple apps and software. It lets you add live animations and get interactive previews to speed up your app designing process. Not only as a code editor, but developers also use its video recording feature to diagnose the test results. It helps developers with UI designing, coding, testing, and debugging. Moreover, you can stay organized with Xcode's new string catalog feature. It is widely regarded as a feature-rich IDE for iOS applications.

AppCode

An IDE specifically designed for iOS and macOS development is known to enhance the workflow of app development in iOS projects. It gives a productive and efficient environment for building quality, robust apps. Though AppCode is not a replacement for Xcode, both are compatible with each other. They both support projects and workspaces and use the same project format code. So, you can use advantages and overcome their individual limitations using both tools together.

VS Code

VS Code is a popular code editor among developers. While not specifically designed for iOS development, one can install the required extension to leverage it to develop iOS applications. Along with other iOS development tools, you can leverage the power of VS code for a custom build, run tasks, and execute various features in the iOS app. You can utilize extensions in VS code like code snippets, syntax highlighting, and autocompletion to get iOS-specific features.

Tools to Build iOS App Backends

Parse

It's an open-source platform for creating iOS app backends. Parse handles all the heavy-duty at the backend, like performing data calculations or retrieving files from the database with its commonly deployed features - the data modeling module. Parse's SDK minimizes some of this burden with task automation for some cases. Moreover, it allows easy integration with Google Cloud/AWS to improve the performance of iOS applications with cloud infrastructure.

Firebase

You can add Firebase to your Apple project and use it to manage the backend services. It is a powerful platform by Google that provides various backend services like Google hosting, real-time database management, authentication, cloud storage, cloud management, cloud messaging, performance monitoring, etc. Using Firebase's extensive range of services; you can minimize infrastructural complexities for the project.

iOS Libraries

AlamoFire

AlamoFire is HTTP network-based library that provides one-click access to Apple's networking stack. It is based on Swift and can handle web requests and responses on iOS and MacOS. In addition to HTTP methods, it supports JSON parameters, response serialization, authentication services, network enhancement, and several other features. Moreover, you can check for Cocoapods, SDWebimage, and PromiseKit when exploring rich iOS libraries.

RxSwift

A framework for working with Swift programming language, RxSwift uses functional type operators for asynchronous codes. It is one of the best libraries if you want to improve the performance of your app written with asynchronous programming. It helps you process data and run code in parallel to enhance apps' functionalities.

Wrapping Up

The list of iOS tools is still ongoing. I can help you with a whole series of tools to maintain and enrich your user experience in different verticals. However, these are the major ones you can count on for app development in iOS. Now that you know better about the mobile app developer tools for iOS applications, it's time to move forward with your ideas and explore the best service providers in the domain. You are in the right spot; we are right here and can help you with app development for iPhone. WeDoWebApps offers top-notch iOS mobile app development services to businesses and enterprises. Please share your project requirements with our team, schedule the best time to hop on a call, and let us help you reach your iOS app users.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are iOS app developer tools?

iOS app developer tools are software and resources specifically designed to assist developers in building, testing, and deploying applications for Apple's iOS operating system. These tools include integrated development environments (IDEs), frameworks, simulators, and debugging tools.

Which IDEs are commonly used for iOS app development?

Xcode is the primary integrated development environment (IDE) for iOS app development. It provides a comprehensive set of tools, including code editors, simulators, and debugging utilities. Other popular IDEs include AppCode and Xamarin Studio.

What frameworks are available for iOS app development?

iOS app development offers a wide range of frameworks to simplify and enhance the development process. Some commonly used frameworks are UIKit (for building user interfaces), Core Data (for data storage and management), Core Animation (for creating animations), and Core Location (for location-based services).

Are there any tools for testing iOS apps?

Yes, there are several tools for testing iOS apps. Xcode includes XCTest, a testing framework for unit and UI testing. Additionally, popular third-party testing frameworks such as Appium, Calabash, and EarlGrey can be used for automation and functional testing.

Written by Matt

Matt is a Mobile app development specialist at WEDOWEBAPPS LLC. His ability to look through things from the client’s perspective and his detailed vision makes him a successful developer. He has a passion for writing about the latest mobile technologies.