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Top 20 Developer Tools SDKs Used in iOS Apps on the Apple App Store
Last update: 24 Sep 2023 CET
App Store

Top 20 Developer Tools SDKs Used in iOS Apps on the Apple App Store

We at 42matters have identified the 20 most popular Developer Tools SDKs leveraged by iOS apps available on the iOS app market.

Developer Tool SDKs help developers build sophisticated mobile apps. Technology vendors and platform providers develop these SDKs — which include programming libraries, APIs, sample code, documentation, and other tools — for third-party app developers that want to build mobile apps that leverage the features and functionalities of their technologies or platforms.

This list is based on our analysis of the millions of mobile applications – and the 2,300+ SDKs they use – that constitute the vast inventory of the Apple App Store. The accompanying data provides readers with a glimpse into the rich mobile application insights generated by the 42matters technology. This data is also available via our APIs, file dumps, Explorer, and SDK Explorer.

The intended purpose of this article is to assist app builders in their search for the perfect Developer Tools SDK to leverage in their app, as well as to give SDK developers insight into their biggest competitors and potential customers. This data collected by our technology may also serve as a useful tool for folks researching the wider mobile app market.

The 20 most widely-integrated developer tools SDKs:

1st

Apple Core Foundation

Check “Apple Core Foundation” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 99.97% have integrated Apple Core Foundation. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
1.49m
App Store
App Share
99.97%
App Store
Apps
1.30m
Games
190.19k
Total Downloads
334.40b
App Store
Download Share
99.98%
App Store
App Downloads
255.71b
Game Downloads
78.69b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple Core Foundation.

2nd

Apple AVFoundation

Check “Apple AVFoundation” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 78.12% have integrated Apple AVFoundation. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
1.16m
App Store
App Share
78.12%
App Store
Apps
983.00k
Games
180.86k
Total Downloads
319.68b
App Store
Download Share
95.58%
App Store
App Downloads
241.31b
Game Downloads
78.37b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple AVFoundation.

3rd

Apple WebKit

Check “Apple WebKit” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 56.13% have integrated Apple WebKit. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
1.03m
App Store
App Share
56.13%
App Store
Apps
920.68k
Games
113.45k
Total Downloads
315.25b
App Store
Download Share
94.26%
App Store
App Downloads
240.57b
Game Downloads
74.68b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple WebKit.

4th

Apple Swift Framework

Check “Apple Swift Framework” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 35.89% have integrated Apple Swift Framework. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Apple Swift Framework is a powerful and intuitive programming language for macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS and beyond.

Total Apps
645.04k
App Store
App Share
35.89%
App Store
Apps
587.88k
Games
57.16k
Total Downloads
130.49b
App Store
Download Share
39.01%
App Store
App Downloads
83.45b
Game Downloads
47.04b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple Swift Framework.

5th

Google Firebase

Check “Google Firebase” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 31.96% have integrated Google Firebase. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Firebase is Google's mobile platform SDK that helps you quickly develop high-quality apps and grow your business.

Total Apps
632.16k
App Store
App Share
31.96%
App Store
Apps
586.80k
Games
45.36k
Total Downloads
150.04b
App Store
Download Share
44.86%
App Store
App Downloads
98.27b
Game Downloads
51.77b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Google Firebase.

6th

Apple Core Data

Check “Apple Core Data” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 35.75% have integrated Apple Core Data. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
513.45k
App Store
App Share
35.75%
App Store
Apps
479.58k
Games
33.86k
Total Downloads
200.73b
App Store
Download Share
60.02%
App Store
App Downloads
167.98b
Game Downloads
32.75b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple Core Data.

7th

Promises by Google

Check “Promises by Google” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 16.29% have integrated Promises by Google. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
369.94k
App Store
App Share
16.29%
App Store
Apps
338.88k
Games
31.06k
Total Downloads
99.88b
App Store
Download Share
29.86%
App Store
App Downloads
70.27b
Game Downloads
29.60b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Promises by Google.

8th

Protobuf

Check “Protobuf” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 14.29% have integrated Protobuf. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Protocol Buffers (a.k.a., protobuf) are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data.

Total Apps
232.01k
App Store
App Share
14.29%
App Store
Apps
222.72k
Games
9.29k
Total Downloads
54.77b
App Store
Download Share
16.38%
App Store
App Downloads
43.86b
Game Downloads
10.91b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Protobuf.

9th

RxSwift

Check “RxSwift” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 2.67% have integrated RxSwift. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

The RxSwift SDK offers a framework for interacting with the Swift programming language.

Total Apps
46.52k
App Store
App Share
2.67%
App Store
Apps
46.17k
Games
343
Total Downloads
24.71b
App Store
Download Share
7.39%
App Store
App Downloads
24.51b
Game Downloads
202.30m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use RxSwift.

10th

FSCalendar

Check “FSCalendar” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.66% have integrated FSCalendar. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

FSCalendar is a fully customizable iOS calendar library SDK, compatible with Objective-C and Swift.

Total Apps
30.63k
App Store
App Share
1.66%
App Store
Apps
30.60k
Games
30
Total Downloads
9.03b
App Store
Download Share
2.70%
App Store
App Downloads
8.95b
Game Downloads
79.66m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use FSCalendar.

11th

CocoaLumberjack

Check “CocoaLumberjack” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.40% have integrated CocoaLumberjack. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

CocoaLumberjack is a fast and simple, yet powerful and flexible, logging framework SDK for Mac and iOS.

Total Apps
26.88k
App Store
App Share
1.40%
App Store
Apps
26.64k
Games
240
Total Downloads
18.25b
App Store
Download Share
5.46%
App Store
App Downloads
17.54b
Game Downloads
710.85m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use CocoaLumberjack.

12th

YYModel

Check “YYModel” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.79% have integrated YYModel. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

YYModel is an SDK that offers a high performance model framework for iOS/OSX.

Total Apps
26.79k
App Store
App Share
1.79%
App Store
Apps
25.83k
Games
963
Total Downloads
25.80b
App Store
Download Share
7.71%
App Store
App Downloads
22.20b
Game Downloads
3.60b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use YYModel.

13th

SAMKeychain

Check “SAMKeychain” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.44% have integrated SAMKeychain. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

SAMKeychain is a simple wrapper SDK for accessing accounts, getting passwords, setting passwords, and deleting passwords using the system Keychain on Mac OS X and iOS.

Total Apps
25.75k
App Store
App Share
1.44%
App Store
Apps
24.89k
Games
860
Total Downloads
16.78b
App Store
Download Share
5.02%
App Store
App Downloads
15.56b
Game Downloads
1.22b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use SAMKeychain.

14th

Bolts

Check “Bolts” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 3.32% have integrated Bolts. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Bolts is a collection of low-level libraries designed to make developing mobile apps easier.

Total Apps
25.46k
App Store
App Share
3.32%
App Store
Apps
22.02k
Games
3.44k
Total Downloads
5.77b
App Store
Download Share
1.73%
App Store
App Downloads
5.18b
Game Downloads
596.26m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Bolts.

15th

Mantle

Check “Mantle” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.48% have integrated Mantle. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Mantle is a Software Development Kit (SDK) that makes it easy to write simple model layers for your Cocoa or Cocoa Touch mobile applications or games.

Total Apps
23.95k
App Store
App Share
1.48%
App Store
Apps
23.12k
Games
827
Total Downloads
12.85b
App Store
Download Share
3.84%
App Store
App Downloads
12.45b
Game Downloads
397.86m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Mantle.

16th

Apple Core ML

Check “Apple Core ML” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.10% have integrated Apple Core ML. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Total Apps
22.70k
App Store
App Share
1.10%
App Store
Apps
14.46k
Games
8.24k
Total Downloads
72.51b
App Store
Download Share
21.68%
App Store
App Downloads
45.08b
Game Downloads
27.43b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Apple Core ML.

17th

libPhoneNumber

Check “libPhoneNumber” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.02% have integrated libPhoneNumber. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

This SDK is an iOS port from libphonenumber (Google's phone number handling library).

Total Apps
18.26k
App Store
App Share
1.02%
App Store
Apps
18.19k
Games
72
Total Downloads
9.32b
App Store
Download Share
2.79%
App Store
App Downloads
8.14b
Game Downloads
1.18b

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use libPhoneNumber.

18th

Ionic Keyboard

Check “Ionic Keyboard” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, 1.89% have integrated Ionic Keyboard. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

Ionic Keyboard is a keyboard plugin for Cordova. This SDK has been designed to work seamlessly with cordova-plugin-ionic-webview, so make sure you have it installed first.

Total Apps
15.97k
App Store
App Share
1.89%
App Store
Apps
15.85k
Games
126
Total Downloads
493.35m
App Store
Download Share
<1%
App Store
App Downloads
487.76m
Game Downloads
5.59m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use Ionic Keyboard.

19th

SwiftMessages

Check “SwiftMessages” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, <1% have integrated SwiftMessages. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

The SwiftMessages SDK is a flexible view and view controller presentation library for iOS.

Total Apps
15.00k
App Store
App Share
<1%
App Store
Apps
14.87k
Games
131
Total Downloads
3.58b
App Store
Download Share
1.07%
App Store
App Downloads
3.44b
Game Downloads
146.40m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use SwiftMessages.

20th

SDNetworkActivityIndicator

Check “SDNetworkActivityIndicator” SDK Insights

Among all apps utilizing developer tools SDKs, <1% have integrated SDNetworkActivityIndicator. This accounts for 88% of app downloads within the developer tools SDK category.

The SDNetworkActivityIndicator helps developers handle the showing / hiding of the iOS network activity indicator to allow multiple concurrent threads to show / hide the indicator such that the indicator remains visible until all the requests have completed and requested the indicator to be hidden.

Total Apps
14.93k
App Store
App Share
<1%
App Store
Apps
14.84k
Games
94
Total Downloads
605.49m
App Store
Download Share
<1%
App Store
App Downloads
571.98m
Game Downloads
33.51m

Use the 42matters SDK Explorer to find all apps that use SDNetworkActivityIndicator.

Browse iOS and Android SDKs With the SDK Explorer

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  • SDK IntelligenceSDK Intelligence

    See how many apps integrate specific SDKs, how many times these SDKs have been downloaded, developer details, similar SDKs, and more.

  • New Installations and Removals HistoryNew Installations and Removals History

    Analyze installation and removal trends for SDKs. Discover which apps have removed or integrated specific SDKs in a given timeframe.

  • Market Share per Google Play and Apple App Store CategoryMarket Share per Google Play and Apple App Store Category

    See which app categories or genres are most likely to use specific SDKs. Detect SDK market share per category.

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We’ve developed a number of machine learning algorithms that scan millions of mobile and connected TV (CTV) applications on a regular basis. In addition, we collect ground truth app performance intelligence and use this data to build statistical models that estimate the performance of apps for which we do not have ground truth data.

What SDK data does 42matters collect?'

We track over 2,300 of the most popular SDKs integrated in iOS and Android apps. We collect a variety of SDK insights (title, platform, ID, category, and developer website); performance metrics (the number of apps that have installed each SDK, installation and removal trends, and app downloads); market share statistics (including market share per app category); and more!

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