Top 10 Libraries for iOS Developers in 2017
What are the best iOS developer libraries? Ask 10 colleagues and you’ll get 10 different answers. This article reveals the most popular — by the numbers. By Kishin Manglani.
SnapKit
SnapKit is another iOS library that makes AutoLayout simpler. It’s similar to Masonry (above). In fact, SnapKit is a successor of Masonry that happens to be written in Swift. The authors of the library recommend that if you are starting a Swift project go with SnapKit, but if you are using Objective-C, go with Masonry.
Kingfisher
Similar to SDWebImage above, Kingfisher is a library for downloading and caching images that is written purely in Swift. It includes extensions for UIImageView and UIButton, which makes it more obliging. You can also add a placeholder image that displays while the actual image is downloading.
Conclusion
Many of the leading iOS libraries continue to be written for Objective-C, but I’m seeing new Swift libraries emerging regularly — almost daily at times. The trend is shifting toward Swift. You’re seeing so many Objective-C libraries on this list years after Swift’s release because they are tried and true and trusted in tens of thousands of apps.
As we close out 2017, these are the most popular libraries according to the number of installs.
You can pull the data for yourself from this link: http://metrics.cocoapods.org/api/v1/pods/Alamofire.
Just swap Alamofire with whatever library you want to query, and remember that it is case-sensitive.
You should have a good idea of the best libraries to make your iOS app development experience a little smoother. Think I missed a great library? Or want to talk about your experiences with these libraries? Let’s talk about it in the forums.