You are considering building a web or mobile app to push your business? It is an innovative idea, and you are certain it will benefit your organization, the only problem is you have little to no idea about web or application development. So, you do the right thing, you talk to technical people where the words tech stack come out in the conversation. The problem is, you are not sure of what it is, how to choose the best one or if you even need one. No worry, here we provide you a first approach to this concept.
What Is a Tech Stack?
First thing first. Tech stack is IT jargon for the main tools used by developers to create and take care of applications. Imagine it as a Jenga tower where each of the pieces is a language, software or any other technology used to build your app. As such, if any one of them fails, is moved or taken away, the stability of the whole tower, your app, is in danger.
You can think of it as the skeleton of the project; the deep foundation that can make a project success or fail. Now, you understand that picking the right combinations of underlaying development tools is particularly important. After all, you cannot build a save and functioning bridge without solid foundations.
Why Should I Care about Technology Infrastructure?
Understanding what tech stack means is important for the success of your product, whether it is an app, a website, or an entire environment. It can have an enormous impact on the speed of working and creating and on how well the final product works. It can even predict how it will behave in the future. Technology services can also influence the scalability of the project you are working in.
As such, picking the right combinations of languages, programs and other development tools must be a priority since the initial stages of your project. The best advice is to make decisions about your what tech instruments before you start major production work. It is difficult and expensive to make significant changes in your stack once the production is on. It’s a major investment of time, man-hours, and money; so, make informed decisions.
There are so many combinations of tech stack and certain technologies will serve better to certain projects. It is nearly impossible to generalize but getting to know the specific services and tools used in your project before you start building the product, will help you and your teams of developers take advantage of strengths and mitigate the weaknesses.
Examples of iOS and Android Tech Stack
Now, the fact that you are not on the technical side, doesn’t mean you cannot learn a little bit about it. So if you are thinking of building an application, here is a list of the most used technology stack for iOS and Android.
Technology Used by iOS developers
Toolkit– Equipped with an advanced graphical editor, debugging tools, and other features, Apple XCode can create mobile as well as desktop iOS apps.
Programming languages- The most popular languages are Objective-C and Swift. The first one offers object-oriented capabilities and facilitates a developer to use a dynamic runtime environment. The second is more functional and offers online support for changing data and text strings. The dynamic libraries include Swift, which you can be directly upload to memory. This makes the app to consume less storage space and perform high.
SDKs– iOS SDK is the software development kit that comes up with an API. It connects the software app and the platform. The iPhone SDK offers various tools for Apple’s touchscreen interface.
Technology Used for Android applications
Toolkit- You can use Android Studio and Android Developer Tools as the toolkit while developing an Android application. Android Developer Tools offers debugging instruments, code editing, various performance tools, and has a flexible development & deploy system. Using Android Studio, you can build creative and high-performing apps. With ADT, the second toolkit, you can get support for developing an app for this operating system.
Programming language- Kotlin and Java are the two popular languages for developing an application. The former produces various open-source tools as well as libraries. In contrast, the latter is lightweight, clean, and wordy. Kotlin is a preferred choice for developing Android Studio.
SDKs– To embed the latest features, the developers should download and install the software development kit of each version for a specific phone. They can download the Android SDK separately. Both the Android and iOS comes up with their separate development tools, SDKs, and interface element.
Choose the Right Infrastructure for Your Project
There are a few things you need to think about before going into the search of developers. Ask yourself if the project you are working on is something that needs to be scalable and the timeframe it needs to be deployed. Do you have any legacy technology that will integrate with the application? Consider if you want to use client-side programs that are familiar to many people. Otherwise, you can go with a more technologically savvy market. Take a close look at your budget, present and projected in case the project needs future upkeep. Don´t forget flexibility, do you think something might change in the app in the near future.
Think about what is important for you. Make a list and keep it handy throughout the entire process to help you keep in mind the priorities of the project.
If you are not a developer, it might be intimidating to make the best decision regarding the services and programs for your app. The best advice is work with someone that has experience. Seek for developers who have built similar apps or webs to what you want in mind for your own. You can even hire someone part-time, freelancer or even a consulting firm to get the experience on your side and make right decisions.
Conclusion
Although tech stack is, as its name implies, on the technological side, it does not mean non-developers shouldn’t be involved. Everyone involved in making decisions must be aware of tools used. Also how they could affect the future of the company and product. In any case, take the time to talk to people who have long experience in tech stacks.
At Advancio, we have one of the best team of experts ready to help you. Get Started now and tell us your priorities, needs, and goals on the future of your app.
