Best SDK for Mobile Apps

Looking for the best SDK for mobile apps? We used our SDK intelligence solutions to identify the top SDKs for monetization, analytics, sales, marketing, security, privacy, app and game development, AR, VR, audio, visual, streaming, UX, UI, and app functionality.

Here’s what we cover in this blog post (click the links to jump to the corresponding sections):

About the SDK Market and Choosing the Best SDK for Mobile Apps
Our Data: How We Identified the Best SDKs
The Best SDKs for App Monetization
The Best SDKs for App Analytics
The Best SDKs for Sales and Marketing
The Best SDKs for App Security and Privacy
The Best SDKs for Game Development
The Best SDKs for Audio, Visual, and Streaming
The Best SDKs for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
The Best SDKs for User Experience, User Interface, and App Functionality
The Best SDKs for App Development

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About the SDK Market and Choosing the Best SDK for Mobile Apps

Software Development Kits (SDKs) are integral to the mobile app economy, enabling developers to add new features and functionalities to their apps, games, and services, without having to build them from scratch. They facilitate everything from app monetization to data collection and analytics, security and privacy, and audio and visual enhancements.

Moreover, demand for increasingly niche features has led to a highly competitive SDK market, with SDK providers competing both to build more specialized solutions and to carve out more granular segments of the market. They’ve sliced and diced the industry based on app genre, user demographic, language availability, regional and country availability, and more.

To put a finer point on it, finding the best SDK for your mobile app is relative! You need to consider things like where your user base is located, what aspects of your app you need to develop in-house, what solutions your competitors are using, etc.

Our Data: How We Identified the Best SDKs

To help you navigate the ins and outs of the SDK market, we put together the following list. It was compiled using the 42matters SDK Explorer, a web-based research and lead generation tool for mobile app and SDK developers. All SDKs were chosen based on popularity, as determined by the number of installations across iOS and Android apps. In addition, we limited our results to SDKs that are available to both platforms, meaning Google- and Apple-branded SDKs are generally omitted.

That said, if you’d like to see the best performing iOS- and Android-specific SDKs, don’t hesitate to reach out!

The Best SDKs for App Monetization

These SDKs enable app developers to profit off their apps. They provide services such as ad networks, ad mediation, attribution, and payments and commerce solutions.

The Best Ad Network SDK: Facebook Audience Network

Total installations: 510,297
Popular apps that use this SDK: CapCut, Phone Master, and Subway Surfers.

The Best Ad Mediation SDK: AppLovin Mediation Adapters

Total installations: 256,024
Popular apps that use this SDK: MX Player, My Talking Tom, and Subway Surfers.

The Best Attribution SDK: AppsFlyer

Total installations: 125,531
Popular apps that use this SDK: Royal Match, SHEIN, and Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game.

The Best Payments and Commerce SDK: Stripe

Total installations: 139,245
Popular apps that use this SDK: Telegram, MX Player, and Thief Puzzle: to pass a level.

The Best SDKs for App Analytics

App Analytics SDKs allow developers to collect data and generate insights about app performance, user behavior, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). App Analytics SDKs include SDKs in the following categories: Analytics, A/B Testing, Crash Reporting and Performance, and Data Intelligence.

The Best Analytics SDK: Flurry Analytics

Total installations: 174,136
Popular apps that use this SDK: Hi Translate, Words of Wonders: Crossword, and Brain Test: Tricky Puzzles.

The Best A/B Testing SDK: mParticle

Total installations: 4,713
Popular apps that use this SDK: Tetris®, Venmo, and Adidas.

The Best Crash Reporting and Performance SDK: Sentry

Total installations: 193,267
Popular apps that use this SDK: PhonePe, PUBG MOBILE, and HiOS Launcher 2023 - Fast.

The Best Audience and Data Intelligence SDK: Adobe Audience Manager

Total installations: 13,292
Popular apps that use this SDK: Dollar General, MeinVodafone, and Market Watch.

The Best SDKs for Sales and Marketing

As the name implies, Sales and Marketing SDKs help developers to optimize their app-driven sales and marketing strategies. Typically, they enable marketing automation, user support, and customer relationship management (CRM).

The Best Marketing Automation SDK: CleverTap

Total installations: 47,351
Popular apps that use this SDK: Hotstar, MX Player, and MyJio.

The Best User Support and CRM SDK: Intercom

Total installations: 70,310
Popular apps that use this SDK: PhotoRoom, BetterMe, and Blitz.

The Best SDKs for App Security and Privacy

These SDKs, which include security, privacy, and user authentication solutions, offer tools for improving app security and protecting user data.

The Best Security and Privacy SDK: SafeDK

Total installations: 41,878
Popular apps that use this SDK: Thumbdrift, Blackjack, and Subway Cute Runner.

The Best User Authentication SDK: AppAuth by OpenID

Total installations: 203,526
Popular apps that use this SDK: Royal Match, SHEIN, and Temu.

The Best SDKs for Game Development

Game Development SDKs provide specialized functionalities, like game engines and gaming services, for companies that build mobile games.

The Best Gaming and Game Engine SDK: Unity3D

Total installations: 504,869
Popular apps that use this SDK: Subway Surfer, Royal Match, and Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game.

The Best SDKs for Audio, Visual, and Streaming

These SDKs offer capabilities for adding and enhancing audio, visual, and streaming aspects in mobile apps. They fall into the following categories: Audio Processing, Image Processing, User Interface and Graphics, and Video Processing and Streaming.

The Best Audio Processing SDK: Nuance

Total installations: 2,264
Popular apps that use this SDK: Text Editor, Philips TV Remote, and Documents (Office Docs).

The Best Image Processing SDK: Giphy

Total installations: 5,863
Popular apps that use this SDK: Video Editor & Maker - InShot, VN Video Editor Maker VlogNow, and PayPal.

The Best User Interface and Graphics SDK: Lottie by Airbnb

Total installations: 442,473
Popular apps that use this SDK: SHEIN, CapCut, and Pinterest.

The Best Video Processing and Streaming SDK: Youtube Player

Total installations: 183,253
Popular apps that use this SDK: Flipkart, Google, and MyJio.

The Best SDKs for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

These SDKs support the development of AR and VR applications, providing tools for creating immersive and interactive experiences.

The Best AR and VR SDK: Vuforia

Total installations: 11,078
Popular apps that use this SDK: Natura, Ikea, and CoSpaces Edu.

The Best SDKs for User Experience, User Interface, and App Functionality

These SDKs offer tools for enhancing user experience and app functionality, by offering easy-to-use charts and graphs, social log-in, survey features, communication solutions, push notifications, scanners, and OCRs.

The Best Charts and Graphs SDK: ShinobiCharts

Total installations: 703
Popular apps that use this SDK: XP Trader, WeightFit, and Contraction Timer.

Total installations: 847,520
Popular apps that use this SDK: Instagram, TikTok, and CapCut.

The Best Survey SDK: Survicate

Total installations: 35,147
Popular apps that use this SDK: Bolt, Flashscore, and weather24.

The Best Communication SDK: OneSignal

Total installations: 408,744
Popular apps that use this SDK: Mob Control, Triple Tile: Match Puzzle Game, and Coin Master.

The Best Push Notifications SDK: OneSignal

Total installations: 408,744
Popular apps that use this SDK: Mob Control, Triple Tile: Match Puzzle Game, and Coin Master.

The Best Scanner and OCR SDK: ZXing

Total installations: 752,334
Popular apps that use this SDK: WhatsApp, Telegram, and Spotify.

The Best SDKs for App Development

Last, but certainly not least, App Development SDKs provide foundational tools for app development, including developer tools, developer frameworks, no code development, backend and cloud capabilities, database and data management solutions, text processing, networking, and connected devices.

The Best Developer Tools SDK: Protobuf

Total installations: 569,924
Popular apps that use this SDK: YouTube, Messages by Google, and WhatsApp.

The Best Developer Frameworks and No Code Development SDK: Flutter

Total installations: 532,211
Popular apps that use this SDK: Google Pay, PUBG MOBILE, and Alibaba.

The Best Backend and Cloud SDK: Amazon AWS

Total installations: 92,944
Popular apps that use this SDK: Pinterest, FIFA Soccer, and Amazon Prime Video.

The Best Database and Data Management SDK: Realm by MongoDB

Total installations: 109,138
Popular apps that use this SDK: ViX, Public - Indian Local Videos, and Flo.

The Best Text Processing SDK: Nuance

Total installations: 2,264
Popular apps that use this SDK: Text Editor, Philips TV Remote, and Documents (Office Docs).

The Best Networking SDK: gRPC

Total installations: 240,649
Popular apps that use this SDK: YouTube, Messages by Google, and YouTube Music.

The Best Connected Devices SDKs: Sensor Data Analytics

Total installations: 5,459
Popular apps that use this SDK: Music Player & MP3:Lark Player, AI Mirror, and Binance.