Battle of the Android App Maker: Android Studio or Eclipse?

If you are an app developer for Android, then you must be aware of the silent battle between the Android Studio and Eclipse, otherwise know as the best android app maker available in the market today.

Android Studio is the official IDE for Android apps because it provides a flexible Gradle-based build system, can create android app in multiple apk files, has a rich layout editor that can support drag and drop editing, and has a built-in Google Cloud Platform for easier Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine.

Advantages of Android Studio

supports dual monitor which is especially important when creating two projects at once

does not crash for both the alpha and beta versions

gradle build tool supports out of the box ideas and has a dependency management capability

builds several variants and can quickly alternate between different product versions

has a better version control merging than all IDE

Limitations of Android Studio

native code development is too traditional and can be very discouraging when trying to set-up

the analyser tool are not as good enough as the ones in iOS developers

the Gradle build system is not supported by other IDE

impossible to use Android Studio with other IDE without switching to this app maker entirely

As for Eclipse, it is one of the first IDE for app makers that contains a workspace, extended plug-in systems that helps in customizing the environment and codes are written mostly in Java, making it an easy tool for developers.

Advantages of Eclipse

can provide set of possibilities for most platforms

supports other languages apart from Java

free and an good source with a full customer support

highly extendable and easy to configure

has a lot of flexible tools and frameworks for buildings several types of apps

Limitations of Eclipse

does not provide a warning when opening a big file and immediately hangs up the system

has one import/export configuration

stops refreshing the workspace

has bugs that provides process ID in all apps or servers launched by the system

has no short-cuts for re-factoring tools that are often used by developers

Now that you’ve already noted all the benefits and limitations of both android app creator, it is easy to understand if you can’t make up your mind.

Tips for Choosing

As Eclipse has a workspace environment while Android Studio works with Modules and Library Modules

Gradle-build file is introduced in Android Studio, making it hard to open on other platforms. Eclipse, on the other hand, can be used in any platforms.

Android Studio, being new, has an improved interface design that can help the user view what your are working on and its related components. Eclipse also has a similar design which can provide view and visible actions and mechanisms for interactions.

Alternatives to Android Studio and Eclipse

If you’re not a programmer, you should take a look at ways to create apps without coding, such as Andromo App Maker for Android. It can be used to make many popular types of apps without having to get your hands dirty with Eclipse or Android Studio.

It is always best to get help from an Android Expert when you try to migrate your work to Android Studio from Eclipse as there are a lot of potential issues that may occur during the importation.

Andy Sullivan is the author of this article on android app maker. Find more information, about create android app here