So you want to build a mobile app...

mobile-app-options.appspot.com

I wanted to make a mobile app for my site this year, and I had a decision to make. How to make it? There's actually a lot of options, and it's not an easy decision to make because you're making a big time commitment - you're pretty much always learning something new and making a new codebase. So you gotta know your options.

Native app

Platform	Language	IDE
iOS	Objective C	XCode
Android	Java	Eclipse
Windows	.NET	Visual Studio
Blackberry	Java	BB JDE
hpWebOS	C/C++/HTML5	?

Cross-Compiled code

		iOS	Android	WP7	BB	WebOS
ParticleCode	Java, AS3
XMLVM	Java, .NET
Monotouch	C#, .NET

Wrapper API -> Native
Often write once, run in multiple platforms

Runtime code

		iOS	Android	WP7	BB	WebOS
Titanium	JavaScript
RhoMobile	Ruby
Corona	Lua

Hybrid app

Native app wrapped around a web view, communicating with APIs, via JavaScript. All web technology. Bridging API + Web Tech

Bridge SDK

	iOS	Android	WP7	BB	WebOS
PhoneGap
trigger.io
appMobi

phonegap: open source, adobe bought, apache trigger: startup funded, SaaS appmobi: also for making offline web apps

Web Frameworks

Programmatic

Sencha · Jo · GWTMobile · SproutCore

creating app from JS, creating the whole container and UI using JavaScript

Declarative

jQueryMobile · Kendo UI · Wink

writing HTML first, using JS to enhance that HTML, mobile optimize it, make it interactive jQueryMobile + Kendo UI both based on jQuery

CSS

Twitter Bootstrap · ZURB Foundation

responsive, mobile, media queries, fixed header/footer

JS

Zepto · iScroll · jQTouch

touch events, scrolling

How to decide?

How many platforms do you want to support?
How important is performance?
How important is the user experience?
How many codebases?
What language(s) do you know?

My decision: Hybrid

PhoneGap + Zepto + Twitter Bootstrap