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  • Writer's pictureEsolz Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Top 16 iOS App Development Tools To Look For In 2022

All you are a top-notch mobile app to upthrust your business in this competitive digital world

iOS tools are designed to help you out in the detailed and time-oriented procedure of iOS applications that includes Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and iOS Software Development Kits (SDKs) to maximize the desired outputs. You can easily compile code and software packages with these tools to make a fluid design and workflow.


Mobile app development companies have the power to professionally manage, organize and develop the edgiest iOS application. They use programming languages like Objective-C and Swift to promote your brand and business online.


Here are some of the best, most effective, and most used iOS application development tools that you can implement to structure your business app in 2022-


XCode

XCode is a tool introduced by Apple for creating Swift applications for iOS devices. It is the developer’s first preference to create applications for Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.


XCode has a text editor, a compiler, and a build system to create iOS applications in its development environment. XCode is the best-suited tool as it reduces the amount of developmental time needed to create a mobile app, is consistent, and is much faster in the whole application development process. It is very well suited for macOS.


Purpose:

To write code, debug, and build app user interfaces.


Top Functionality:

Best iOS Editor. Also popular for Integrated Development Environment (IDE).


Version:

Free


Features:

  • Without writing a line of code, you can design and test a graphical interface.

  • You can build, install, run and debug apps in a Mac-based Simulator with the iOS SDK.

  • You can easily look into the Help index to find any kind of information for complete documentation.

  • It has an in-built user interface builder.

  • It has real-time fixtures and autocomplete features.


AppCode

AppCode is an iOS app development tool that is built on the IntelliJ IDEA platform and launched by Jetbrains. You can easily extend its functionality by writing your plug-ins as it accepts such enriched features.


AppCode is also popular among iOS developers as it can be used with multiple programming languages such as Objective-C, Swift, C++, and JavaScript. It makes code writing and analyzing with ease. It makes the code management task less time-consuming for developers. The IDE and editor can catch different coding errors as it is geared towards it.


Purpose:

Simplifying the code management tasks & automating routine tasks.


Top Functionality:

Top iOS Editor and IDE.


Version:

30 days free trial


Features:

  • AppCode is a single integrated development environment that works seamlessly with variant programming languages starting from JavaScript, XML, HTML, XPath, and CSS.

  • It has an intelligent code assistant that will help you to create clean code and reveal the context and structure of the project.

  • It also has built-in tools which make integrations easy for developers to run, test, and debug the iOS application with lesser time.


Transporter

The Transporter is an iOS app development tool that can upload your content directly to Apple. It allows you to upload all your content directly to Apple. You as a developer can easily send and distribute apps, music, TV shows, movies, or books on multiple Apple platforms. You can do so only by setting up an App Store Connect account by giving valid encoding house credentials.


Purpose:

To upload any application on Apple App Store.


Top Functionality:

Making simple and quicker ways to deliver content to Apple.


Version:

Free


Features:

  • Using Transporter, you can easily drag and drop the contents as you want to move them. using Transporter

  • You can easily upload multiple files at once from your computer to streamline the delivery process.

  • In Transporter, you can easily check out the status of your issues to be fixed, or look for validation warnings and delivery logs.

  • It keeps a detailed record including the date and time of all the past deliveries.

  • It even allows iOS developers with code blender features.

  • It can bolster some application testing units which are google testing systems supported.


Simulator

The simulator is one of the most reliable programs for iOS developers to test their applications before sending them off to Apple for their approval. It is a pretty great tool for quick testing of your iOS application.


The simulator is an XCode tool installed on the Mac which allows the developers to run on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Apple TV applications in a window. It is also helpful in streamlining your interactions. As it has a simulation environment, it combines all simulated devices and the simulation software which results further with its files and settings. These files and settings are saved to each of the devices that get tested. Therefore, there is not a great deal of back and forth between the screens.


Purpose:

To see UI/UX and features of iOS apps without real iOS devices.


Top Functionality:

Streamlining iOS user interactions.


Version:

Free


Features:

  • It can fluidly interact with apps on iOS, watchOS, and tvOS with keyboard and pointer support.

  • You can use this program to help you with prototyping and debugging applications

  • You can also use Simulator to tweak the graphics of a mobile application.

  • You can test your iOS application with ease for bugs before submitting it to Apple for approval and review.


CocoaPods

CocoaPods is largely used by developers ( around 83,000 active users) and has been integrated into more than 3 million applications as it is a dependency manager that streamlines the integration of third-party libraries into XCode projects.


While opting for CocoaPods, you need to create a Podfile which is a text file that will describe how your application depends on other libraries. There are around 59,000 libraries from which you can choose.


CocoaPods resolves the dependencies and fetches the source code for libraries. Then place it in an XCode workspace so that it can be linked with your application to thus create an iOS app. It uses the comprehensive Objective-C and Swift Cocoa resources. It is usually distributed as a Ruby library which can be installed through RubyGem.


Purpose:

To include libraries in the iOS development platforms


Top Functionality:

Widely used libraries on the internet


Version:

Free


Features:

  • It helps in third-party code from sources other than the project owner to allow integrations into the project and make it available for distribution.

  • It also helps in eliminating all dependency conflicts between the libraries.

  • CocoaPods makes incorporating third-party libraries much easier.

  • It has dynamic screen launch arguments.

  • It allows incremental installation.


Fabric

Fabric is one of the most enriched iOS application development tools available for developers which allows you to create a wide range of different applications in real-time. This tool comes with a varied range of application development kits that can easily integrate with the application development environment.


Thus Fabric makes it easier to create high-performing applications. It is also for iOS developers to add new features using Fabric into their apps. It can automate the deployment process for the developers as Fabric is a lightweight iOS app development tool. You can easily seek the help of expert app developers that can help you out professionally.


Purpose:

To build high-performance, real-time apps.


Top Functionality:

Best for Integrated Development Environment (IDE)


Version:

Free


Features:

  • It can easily save you the hassle of juggling multiple accounts by managing all your Software Development Kits or SDKs with one tool.

  • It ensures hassle-free testing of code snippets.

  • It has remote sudo execution.

  • It is very easy to maintain.

  • It even has backward compatibility.



Jazzy

Jazzy helps you to create easy-to-read documentation and a command-line utility for your Objective-C and Swift code. To generate accurate and stellar output, it uses SourceKits and Clangs AST representation of code.


Jazzy also helps the iOS app developers to manage essential attributes and understand the purpose of writing certain code. It is a result of an iOS development tool that works wonders for developers. The Dash documentation makes possible a great deal of accuracy and efficiency as it is installed directly to the source code of the websites.


Purpose:

The tool is best suited for iOS documentation.


Features:

  • It helps you to generate professional-looking applications manuals.

  • It is a very compatible tool with Objective-C and Swift.

  • It also helps in creating accurate stand-alone applications.


Design+Code

Design+Code is one of the iOS app development tools that help in faster results. It provides educational videos related to iOS application development and aids the developers in improving their learning skills.


Design+Code includes various topics like techniques related to iOS design, coding with video content covers, and tutorials on using XCode, AppCode, Sketch, and Framer. It is a knowledge-based platform that helps developers to build highly efficient, dynamic, and faster iOS applications. You can also bookmark the content that you may like for later reference and practice.


Features:

  • It can build quick applications with React and Swift

  • It strengthens the knowledge of the developers with video tutorials.


Applyzer

Applyzer helps the developers and programmers to monitor the position of their applications in the Apple Store. This tool is very easy to use and allows you to create your app ID. Then you can integrate your app ID to track your application’s positions on iTunes.


Applyzer is not exactly a development tool but acts as a helping hand for iOS app developers, programmers, marketers, investors, and publishers. Thereby. The editor tool enables the content developers to search keywords in the application’s content. This way, it includes the ability to view a list of all the keywords that may have been used and their results too.


Features:

  • It has hourly insights into the application for great performance.

  • It helps in finding the most relevant keywords that are being used for your competitors.


Alcatraz

Alcatraz helps in discovering and installing plugins, templates, and themes without manually copying files. It is an open-source package manager that is used for XCode 7+ and installs itself as an integral part of XCode. It has mainly 3 parts - plugins, color themes, and templates. XCode supports plugins because of Alcatraz for changing the editor’s behavior like themes and templates.


Marvel

Marvel draws the attention of expert iOS app developers as it allows hand-drawn sketches into interactive prototypes. You can easily create prototypes from photos and paper sketches and then design directly in the Marvel app. This way you design, edit and share your project prototype via email, URL, or SMS with your team. You can easily drag and drop sketches from Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, etc, and then design on it. You can easily take photos of the screens drawn on paper, then tap on the first screen, click on Add a Link to connect your screens, and just tap the play button to check out your new prototype.


Bjango

Bjango is a bundled collection of photoshop scripts, photoshop actions, macOS workflows, Hazel rules for screen designers and developers.


Features:

  • You can easily resize and design with a click from a scale of 50% to 200%.

  • You can also even adjust the brightness or lighting up to 90 degrees.


Dribble

Dribble is one of the greatest platforms for beginners as well as iOS developers, professionals, and designers globally for iOS app development services. Dribble operates as a self-promoting and networking platform for graphic designing, photography, web design, animation, and so on. It will help you to connect the designers online by supporting both iPhones and iPad.


iOS Console

iOS Console is used to debug messages and log files for macOS. This application tool is very useful in tracking down errors in iOS applications and thus getting a detailed idea of the system. This tool is best suitable for iOS developers, as it is very professional and sophisticated. It also consists of textual filtering. This makes it very easier for you to find any particular log message. You can easily attach a bookmark in the console log which makes the whole process much quicker and simpler.


Purpose:

The tool is best suited for iOS debugging.


Mockingbird

A mockingbird can help you with the initial stage of iOS development. It was first introduced to reduce the number of handwritten mocks and make it easier to write tests at Bird. This tool lets you mock, stub, and verify objects written either in Swift or C language. You can also easily change the color, font size and share the sketches with others. It is generally preferred over other frameworks as it takes a few seconds to generate mocks on large codebases. The production code is kept separate from the tests, stubbing, and verification failure that appears inline. It is mostly used by large organizations like Facebook, Amazon, etc.


Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is a professional programming tool that asks difficult questions and gets answers from their peers. It is kind of a QNA type of tool where you can learn, share and level up with the top iOS developers. As a result, the coding of the iOS app becomes an easier job at hand.


Conclusion-

Each of the above-mentioned iOS app development tools has its application, features, functionality, pricing, ratings, and purpose. You need to segregate what you need and how much you can afford for your app development process. Reach out to the expert app developers of the best app development company to help you out by providing an informative design journey.

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