Comprehensive Guide to Essential iOS Development Tools

Are you ready to build an iOS mobile app?

I’ve got some good news for you; iOS development isn’t as difficult as other types of programming. But with that said, it’s still something you need to learn before you can just jump right in.

Fortunately, the Internet is full of resources and tools, so you can teach yourself how to build an iOS app.

However, those tools are spread out all over the place. That’s definitely the most optimal way to learn something new.

Even if you’re an experienced iOS developer, taking advantage of different tools and resources can simplify your development process.

Rather than spending days or even weeks doing endless Google searches, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to find relevant tools. This ultimate list of iOS app development tools has been broken down into five sections.

• Language resources
• Editors and IDEs
• Libraries
• YouTube tutorials
• Plugins

So feel free to jump around to the section that you need the most help with. Whether you’re a beginner, expert, or somewhere in between, you can use this guide to help you build an iOS app.

Language Resources for iOS Development

There are two programming languages for iOS development.

• Swift
• Objective-C

These are the best resources and tutorials on the web for learning those programming languages.

Stanford

Stanford teaches you how to develop iOS apps with Swift. The course is available via iTunes U for iPhone and iPad. You’ll learn about the tools and APIs that are required to build apps with the iOS SDK.

In addition to Swift, Stanford will teach you about multi-threading, mobile device power management, memory management, animation, and object-oriented design.

There are 46 lectures in this course, and they’re all free.

Hacking with Swift

Hacking with Swift is a practical way to learn this programming language. They take you through real-world projects with iOS so you can test your new skills right away with a hands-on experience.

You’ll have access to 40 online Swift tutorials for free. Once you get through that, you can purchase other online books that go deeper into Swift coding.

Swiftlang.eu

The Swift Language center has resources that teach you how to use the newest versions of Swift. They also have the full Swift development environment, so you can code as well.

My favorite part about Swiftlang.eu is the community forums. Experienced developers are usually active and readily available to answer questions for beginners who need some help or clarification.

Thinkster.io

Thinkster starts from the beginning. The tutorial introduces each component of Swift, starting from its infantile stages. It’s a well-structured resource with readings and videos for different subsections. Thinkster covers things like:

• Swift syntax
• Swift types
• Extensions
• Loops and conditionals
• Optionals
• Functions and closures
• Object-oriented programing
• SDKs

Before you get started, you need to have a Mac that’s running on Mavericks or Yosemite, Xcode6, and an Apple developer account.

Udacity

Udacity has this great blog post about iOS programming languages. It was published a few years back, but the content can still help you today. The post starts by introducing you to Xcode before getting into the fundamentals of Swift. It’s a quick read and very helpful for beginners.

Design+Code

I think it’s safe to say that the name speaks for itself. Design+Code teaches you how to design and code iOS apps. You can sign up for premium access just $9 per month, billed on an annual basis.

The resource comes with over 60 hours of courses. There are 19 sections on learning Swift, and an additional 22 sections for advanced Swift users.

Cocoa is My Girlfriend

CIMGF is a blog. It’s not very flashy, fancy, and isn’t updated that frequently. But with that said, it still provides in-depth analysis on Swift and Cocoa, making it a resource that’s definitely worth reading. I’d recommend it for anyone who learns well by reading blogs.

Editors and IDEs for iOS Development

An IDE is an integrated development environment. The original IDE built by Apple is Xcode.

However, there are alternative options for iOS development. I’d recommend using Xcode first, but it’s worth knowing the others if you want to try something new or experiment.

Xcode

Xcode is the official integrated development environment for Swift, offered directly from Apple. It’s arguably the most powerful coding platform on the market. With Xcode, you can build apps for:

• iPhone
• iPad
• Mac computers
• Apple TV
• Apple Watch

Every iOS developer should learn how to use Xcode before they move on to anything else.

CodeRunner

With CodeRunner, you can code in any programming language. This lightweight programming editor is available for the affordable price of $14.99.

Right out of the box, you can use it for Swift on the IDE level with debugger support and syntax highlighting. It’s worth checking out if you want to branch away from Xcode.

AppCode

AppCode is powered by JetBrains. This IDE is compatible with both Swift and Objective-C.

The AppCode debugger also supports iOS extensions, just like Xcode. Some of the top features this IDE include:

• Smooth project navigation
• Smart completion
• Reliable refactorings
• In-depth code analysis
• Productive unit testing
• Rename refactoring

It’s definitely a top IDE to consider for iOS development.

Libraries for iOS Development

I’ve identified the best libraries for iOS development. You can definitely find everything you need on this list.

Some of the libraries are extensive and could be considered an all-in-one tool. But other options are for more specific needs.

RxSwift

The RxSwift library is specifically made for asynchronous programming. You’ll go through the basics of getting started with RxSwift before learning traits, testing, debugging, and the math behind Rx.

CocoaPods

CocoaPods is one of the most extensive dependency managers for programming in Objective-C and Swift Cocoa projects. There are more than 59,000 libraries here.

It’s also one of the most popular libraries on the web. Over three million apps have used CocoaPods. This library will help you scale your mobile app development projects.

The Foundation Framework

The Foundation Framework is the official library from the Apple Developer Documentation. Apple and the developer community recommends this library for anyone programming in Objective-C.

With the Foundation Framework, you can access collections, data types, and operating-system services that will define the base layer functions for your mobile app.

Libraries Use

Swift Standard Library vs. Foundation Network

Aspect	Swift Standard Library	Foundation Network
Purpose	Resource for developers writing in Swift	Resource for developers writing in Objective-C
Topics Covered	Standard library Data modeling Data flow Control flow Language interoperability	Not specified
Recommendation	Recommended by Apple developers for Swift	Not specified

This is the recommended Swift library by Apple developers.

Plugin	Functionality
KSImageNamed	Autocompletes imageNamed: calls for Swift and Objective-C in Xcode.
RTImageAssets	Checks for image size and creates dummy images for missing assets, renaming image files.

XCFui

The purpose of the XCFui plugin is very simple. It identifies your unused imports. After installing the plugin, all you need to do is go the “File” menu in Xcode and navigate to “Find unused imports” at the bottom.

Remote

With the Remote plugin, you can control your iOS devices (like iPhones or iPads) within Xcode when you’re running tests. The purpose of this is so you don’t have to physically pick up your mobile device to test it out while you’re going through the development process.

It also has a Marco log with an editable WebView that you can modify at any time. You can record your tests and save them as a Quicktime video to reference later on.

Crayons

Crayons is a color manager for your interface builder. This plugin lets you share color palettes from source files and directly add them to your interface builder without having to recreate them manually from your color picker.

Any time you want to change a color, you just have to alter the implementation. All of the colors get generated dynamically.

KZLinkedConsole

The KZLinkedConsole plugin makes your life much easier. Once installed, it allows you to create clickable links and log messages to jump between lines of code. This is much easier than aimless scrolling.

CATWeaker

The CATWeaker plugin is a helper tool for creating CAMediaTImingFunction curves. Basically, it makes this function more visible when you’re working in Xcode. It’s similar to ColorSense, but CATWeaker automatically shows the curve as an overlay. The curve adjuster lets you alter the curve in real time.

MarvinXcode

MarvinXcode lets you add commands and hotkeys while you’re developing in Xcode.

It automatically comes with a large collection of deletion commands, duplication, and text selections for coding. Essentially, this plugin can speed up your coding process.

XcodeBoost

XcodeBoost makes it easy to alter and inspect Objective-C code in Xcode. It automates tedious processes like extracting method declarations from definitions, adding line-based code manipulation, and persistent highlighting.

XcAddedMarkup

XcAddedMarkup adds custom markups for hyperlinks and images in Xcode. All of this takes place in the Xcode source editor. It’s a nice add-on for the XcodeColors plugin, which we talked about earlier on our list.

Youtube Tutorials for iOS Development

Often times, watching someone do something is much easier than reading about it. YouTube is a great resource for visual learnings.

When it comes to iOS development, there are certain channels and videos that have in-depth tutorials. All you have to do is follow along with the screen recordings. In my opinion, these are the best tutorials on YouTube for mobile development with iOS.

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson has a 25 part series on iOS development. You can skip over the Mac requirements video since it’s outdated. Some of the top videos cover things like:

• Creating new projects
• Navigating Xcode
• Using variables
• Designing and building interfaces in storyboard
• Editing headers to create custom classes
• Keyboard customization
• App icons
• Tab bar icons

As you can see, the videos go through a wide range of topics. On average, the videos are around ten minutes or so. He does a great job of explaining how to do things with his screen recordings and voice-overs.

A Casual Programmer

A Casual Programmer has tutorials in specific categories for iOS development. This channel has seven videos on iOS game development, ten videos on iOS application development, as well as ten videos for Objective-C programming.

With less than 4,500 subscribers, this definitely isn’t the most popular channel on YouTube. But with that said, the tutorials are extremely informative. Even without a ton of subscribers, his iOS application development tutorial has more than 134,000 views.

Stanford – theITx

TheITx channel covers lectures at Stanford University. The videos show the instructor speaking to the class. It’s mostly hands-on tutorials and explanations on programming. In order to understand these videos, you need to have a basic understanding of object-oriented programming.

So I can’t say I recommend these tutorials for a developer who is a beginner and starting from scratch. The majority of the content covers developing apps with Swift.

The New Boston

Over 2.2 million people have subscribed to The New Boston YouTube channel. Their videos cover things like graphic design, programming, web design, networking, and game development. So it’s not exclusive to iOS development.

With that said, there are still plenty of iOS resources and tutorials in here for you to check out. Just search their page for something you need help with, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find a solution.

There are more than 4,000 videos on this channel, and over a hundred are related to iOS development.

Code with Chris

Code with Chris is probably the best YouTube tutorial resource for beginners. His introductory guides and videos can teach you how to build an iOS app, even if you don’t have any prior coding experience.

More than 180,000 people subscribe to this channel. Unlike some of the other YouTube tutorials we’ve seen, Chris updates his content on a regular basis. In fact, he just came out with a new 10 part series for 2019. The series covers the latest version of both Swift and Xcode.

Chris is highly accessible as well. You can always reach out to him on Facebook if you have questions or need some direction with your projects.

Brian Advent

<img class="wp-image-28057" src="Brian Advent has a wide range of video tutorials on his YouTube channel. Here are some of the playlists you should check out that are related to iOS development:

Playlist	Number of Videos
Swift	138 videos
Xcode	27 videos
24 days of Swift tutorials	11 videos
iOS features and framework	33 videos
Swift tutorial conference	6 videos
Swift basics	14 videos
Become an iOS developer	5 videos
Cocoa programming	4 videos

Some of his best videos are a little older, but he has new videos that are uploaded on a regular basis. So it’s worth staying up to date on his channel as he continues to produce new and relevant content for iOS development.

Ravi Bedre

Ravi Bedre is another top YouTube channel for iOS developers to use as a resource. I’d recommend checking out his content covering:

• Swift programming tutorials
• Objective-C tutorials
• iOS app development

Ravi also has videos related to PhoneGap, Android, C#, and more. So he’s well-versed in this space, to say the least.

AppShocker

The AppShocker isn’t as extensive as some of the other tutorials. In fact, the entire channel only 14 total videos. But with that said, they are much longer than the average tutorials that we’ve previously discussed. Some of the videos are more than 30 minutes long.

The content on AppShocker is broken down into three categories.

• iOS programming with Objective-C
• Swift programming for iOS
• WatchKit app programming with Swift

All of the videos are screen recordings with a voiceover. The tutorials are helpful for beginners and experienced developers alike.

Bonus Tools for iOS Development

There are a few additional resources that didn’t necessarily fall into the sections above. But they’re still worth mentioning, and I wanted to make sure you had access to them.

While we’re on the subject of bonus categories, you should definitely check out my guide on the top mobile ad networks. Ads are a great way to monetize your app once it’s been developed and launched. But you’ll need to join an advertising network to set that up.

Cocoa Manifest

The Cocoa Manifest hasn’t been updated in years, and it doesn’t look like there is any sign of updated content in the near future. But there’s a good reason why I wanted to include it on this list.

Jonathan Penn, the author of the manifest, stopped contributing because he was hired as a software engineer for Apple. So it’s safe to say that his work is legitimate.

The website is very simple and there’s nothing flashy about it. However, it’s still a good resource for some basic fundamentals as well as advanced functionality for iOS developers.

Ray Wenderlich

Ray Wenderlich has more than 3,000 tutorials on his website. More than 2,800 of those tutorials are related to iOS and Swift. In order to access the tutorials, you just need to download the source code and personalize your profile.

By setting up a profile, it makes it easy for you to track your progress along the way, which is very helpful for beginners. This site also has a great network of open forum discussions that you’ll be able to contribute to as well.

NSHipster

NSHipster has eight contributors. The purpose of this online journal is to cover overlooked components of Objective-C, Cocoa, and Swift. So it’s definitely geared toward advanced and experienced developers, as opposed to beginners.

I like this resource because you get the perspective of different programmers, as opposed to just seeing the same viewpoint over and over again, like the majority of the resources on our list. Another great part about NSHipster is that it’s updated on a regular basis.

Conclusion

Don’t try and develop an iOS app on your own or in a vacuum. Your life will be much easier if you take advantage of various tools and resources.

Ultimately, by streamlining the development process and using tools on this list, it will end up improving the quality of your app as well.

I’ve included more than 50 of the best iOS development tools in every category. So whether you’re a beginner, expert, or fall somewhere in between, you’ll definitely be able to find what you’re looking for.

Refer back to this guide during all of your iOS development projects and use it to help you build a mobile app.

What tools are you using to simplify your iOS development process?