In an all-around comparison, Swift comes out on top!
More than 4.32 billion different kinds of phones will connect to the Internet in 2021. It shows that over 90% of all Internet traffic 2021 will come from phones and tablets. Since the beginning, the mobile market has been growing steadily, and it looks like it will continue to grow slowly.
Apple became a giant in this market when the first iPhone came out in 2007. Thanks to that, iOS is now on more than 1 billion devices, and they have a big customer base.
If you want to make an iOS app but need help figuring out where to start, or if you don’t even have an idea for an app, it can be helpful to be well-versed in the Apple ecosystem and its development tools and guidelines.
What Should I Consider before Building an iOS App?
Know your target market
Before building an iOS app, knowing the details of your app’s target audience is critical. Knowing details about your target audience and how they typically use their devices will give you an idea of how to design your app and which features are most important to those people.
Knowing your target audience will also make placing ad campaigns for your app easier because you know who you are communicating with. So, the first thing you should do is do the market study to find out who your ideal customers are based on their gender, age, location, and other factors that are important to you.
Know the problem you’re solving
When planning to build an iOS app, you need to understand the problem to be solved clearly. It should always be the first step because if your app doesn’t solve any problem in the market, then no one will use it. It will also help you determine if you have competitors.
Scope of your application
After defining the purpose of your application, you now need to identify the different features that the application will have. For example, if you are building a fitness application, you need to identify the exercises to include. You can always expand the scope of your application in the future, but initially, it’s best to have a solid foundation of what you’ll be covering.
What devices are supported
Apple has been producing iPhones since 2007, so you’ll need to decide which of these iPhones your app will support. Your app’s features will help you identify the iOS devices with the database needed to run it. Knowing the devices that can run your app will help you determine which version of iOS you want to build your app for and which languages you can use to write it.
Evaluate your ability to build your app
It’s more complicated to make apps; it takes a team of people with various development skills. It means that before you write your first line of code, you must ensure you have the skills to build the app you want.
Some of the experts your team may need include front-end and back-end developers, UX designers, UI designers, graphic designers, and even QA developers and project managers.
You may have a developer playing two or three of these roles for startups. Eventually, however, consider hiring remote developers to help you scale your app.
What Language are IOS Apps Written in?
Developing iOS apps no longer requires the strict use of native code, and several iOS programming languages have emerged over the years. If you’re also considering the iOS marketplace as your next mobile app, evaluating your options and seeing which is best suited for your project is a good idea.
Swift
Apple created Swift as a programming language to make apps for all its operating systems, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. If we say “making native apps for iOS,” we mean writing Swift code for them.
Apple created Swift to make it easier and faster for developers to build apps in the Apple ecosystem. Some frameworks that work with Swift include Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, CloudKit, AVFoundation, and more.
As of January 2023, Swift is ranked #11 on the Tiobe Index, a platform that ranks programming languages based on their popularity.
Best use cases for the Swift programming language:
Swift is best used when you want to build iOS apps quickly and have the flexibility to scale them in the future. It’s also the best choice if you want the best app performance because, with Swift, you can eliminate the middleman required by other languages to interpret code into something the iOS platform understands.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| iOS Native Language | The number of people who can code in Swift is small. |
| It’s Easy to learn and use | Not as much community help as languages like Python, Java, and C++ |
| Stable and reliable | |
| Regularly updated | |
| Good scalability | |
| Enables rapid development of applications | |
| Automatic memory counting |
C#
Microsoft made C# in 2000 as an object-oriented, cross-platform computer language, but in Xamarin, it was only seen as a language for making apps for iOS. But when Xamarin came along, it wasn’t considered a computer language for iOS apps. Xamarin is a hybrid application development framework built on C# that lets teams share most of their code between apps for different target platforms, which makes development and support easier.
As of January 2023, C# is the fifth most popular programming language.
Best use case for C#:
If you plan to build iOS and Android apps, it’s best to use C#. It’s also ideal if you already have C# developers on your team.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Strong community support as it is a popular and mature language | Relatively steep learning curve for beginners |
| Open source | Limited flexibility as it is based on the Microsoft.NET framework |
| High performance | |
| It has a huge library. | |
| Cross-platform support | |
| Easy to use | |
| There are many C# developers. | |
| Extensible and updatable |
Objective C
Objective C is an add-on for the computer language C that lets you write programs that work with objects. In the early 1980s, this language was made. It’s the language used to make iOS, OS X, and their APIs. Because of this, it can also be used to make apps for iOS.
As of January 2023, Objective C is the 23rd most popular programming language.
Best Use Cases for Objective C:
Objective C is a relatively outdated programming language (last updated in 2016). If you’re making apps for older iOS devices that don’t support Swift, you might want to use it. You should use Swift to make apps for new and current iOS devices.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It is a stable and mature language | It is an outdated language and not very secure |
| It supports dynamic input | It has a steep learning curve |
| The talent pool is limited. | |
| It is not open source. | |
| Limited functionality | |
| Lack of new updates | |
| Low development process |
Java
Java was made in 1995 and is a general-purpose computer language based on classes and objects. More than 9 million developers around the world use it. It is one of the most well-known and mature computer languages.
One great thing about Java is that its code doesn’t need to be recompiled to run on any device. It makes it a very fast and reliable cross-platform programming language.
Like with C#, you need a system to turn Java code into something iOS can understand. Many, but Codename One is one of the most well-known.
Java is currently ranked as the third most popular computer language as of January 2023.
Best Use Case for Java:
Java is not a very popular language for iOS. While there are hybrid app development platforms such as Codename One, it’s only ideal if you already have an Android app you want to build for iOS with minimal effort. If you’re strictly building iOS apps, Swift is the best choice.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It’s a cross-platform language | Java apps use a lot of memory |
| Great community support | It isn’t easy to learn |
| It is an extensible and updatable programming language | It performs poorly |
| It has a large talent pool | Heavily typed language |
| Open source | |
| Flexible | |
| Secure |
JavaScript
Web applications can be made with web tools. They are a mix of HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript, and each one does a certain job:
● HTML is used to block elements of the application interface.
● CSS defines the visual presentation of elements defined in HTML.
● JavaScript is used to animate HTML elements, make them responsive and animated, and program the entire application logic.
Programming iOS using Web technologies requires that the generated code be wrapped in a container that can then be used to publish and run the application on the platform. The Cordova project at Apache is a common answer.
If you prefer to avoid using HTML and CSS, use a framework like React Native instead.
As of January 2023, JavaScript is currently ranked as the seventh most popular programming language.
Best Use Case for JavaScript:
You’ll need to use web technologies in your iOS app to make a web app or already have one.
If you want to start working on a new app, make sure that the workers on your team know how to use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. All three can be used together.
However, if you use React Native, the situation changes as you only need JavaScript developers to deliver hybrid apps that can be published to other mobile platforms or even as web apps.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lots of talent | Limited functionality |
| Multi-platform support | Responsive design issues |
| Open source | |
| Easy to learn and use | |
| Allows creation of offline applications |
Flutter
Google made Flutter, a framework for building hybrid apps. It uses Dart as its computer language.
Flutter and Dart are not widely available with the options listed previously, but they still provide an easy way to develop fast, responsive, and beautiful out-of-the-box applications.
As of January 2023, Dart currently ranks as the 38th most popular programming language.
Best Use Case for Dart:
The best use case for Dart is when you want to develop iOS apps and web app versions. If you want to adopt Google’s material design philosophy, Flutter comes with it immediately.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Multi-platform support | Limited talent pool |
| Open source | Relatively small community |
| Easy to create appealing visuals for your apps | Few libraries to help with the development |
| Offers an extensive collection of widgets to customize your application | |
| Allows creation of offline apps |
All in all, Swift is the best choice whether you’re developing for iOS or any other Apple platform.
However, since it’s Obj-C compatible, you don’t have to remove old code immediately. Instead, you can migrate as slowly as you like or use both as long as Obj-C is supported.
Which Programming Language Is Used in iOS?
Apple makes its iOS apps with the computer language Swift. Before Swift, Objective-C was the language of choice for the company. These days, many languages are used to make iOS apps, such as C# and JavaScript.
What Language Is Best for iOS?
Since you want to make native apps, Swift is probably the best computer language for iOS that you can choose from.
Apple writes its apps in this language, and the Apple Xcode IDE works perfectly. Swift gives you complete access to all iPhone features to make complicated and fast apps.
Is Python Used in iOS?
Using Python in an iOS game is possible, but the process could be easier to understand. You’d have to build and create the app in a cross-platform framework like Kivy, package it for iOS, and finish the process in Xcode.
Is iOS Written in C++?
A lot of the Apple iOS is written in more than one language, mostly Objective-C and Swift. And yet, C++ is often used by iOS device drivers.
Conclusion
Writing code for iOS will always be in style. To do this, you need more than one language and more than one setting. Take the time to find the best languages for making iPhone apps.
Picking the best computer language for iOS is a big choice that will affect how well your idea does. That’s why you should write down your wants and needs and then pick the best answer based on those.
Here is a list of the most important differences between these systems if you are unsure trying to decide which one to pick.
| Language | Key pros | Key cons |
|---|---|---|
| Swift | Fast development Good scalability Simple syntax | A limited talent pool Quite young |
| Objective-C | Dynamic Typing Stability and Maturity | Low Security Level Limited Functionality |
| C# | Automatic garbage collection High performance Fast Speed | Related with Microsoft. NET framework |
| HTML5 | Cost-effective Multi-platform Enables to provide good page ranking | Doesn’t allow to build native apps Limited functionality |
| Java | Flexibility & functionality Suitable for both native and cross-platform development Scalable and updateable | Type-heavy language Poor performance Requires significant memory space |
| Flutter | Needs only one codebase for two apps Easy to develop new features Enables to build good looking custom UI | A limited talent pool A lack of some libraries Relatively big app’s size |
| JavaScript | Lost of talent Multi-platform support Allows creation of offline application | Limited functionality Responsive design issues |
