Q&A of Software Development

Software developers and programmers are offered with so many distinct programming languages for software development. Every now and then, new programming languages are coming into foray. Hence, it can be difficult to pick the best ones. Here are a few of the best programming languages which a software development firm should focus on to train its developers. 

1. Java 

It is among the best programming languages for the purpose of the development of server-side applications along with mobile app development. It is among the oldest ones, and it quite platform-independent. Also, it can run on any type of platform and can easily be utilized for Android apps too for high-quality performance. It is designed to be quite portable. Developers can easily create different modular programs along with reusable code with this programming language. 

2. Python 

A python framework can easily be utilized for web apps and even data analysis and for software development. It is popularly used for creating GUI based desktop software, scientific as well as computational software, business as well as enterprise applications. It is known for its quite simple as well as straightforward syntax. Python is also used for creating swift runtime data structures. It provides improved process control capabilities that can easily be utilized for the development of complex network applications with multiple protocols. 

3. Ruby 

It is in huge demand at present. Since it supports different programming scope, it is often utilized for creating web applications. Among a few of the reasons for its popularity is its huge collection of libraries. Also, it is quite a fast web platform to easily develop on. It is immensely expressive as well as a readable language. 

4. Swift 

It is a programming language utilized to develop iOS applications. Since iOS-based devices such as iPhones have become quite popular, it has been used for custom software development too. It has easy to read code and is quite low maintenance too.

Renting Multi-vendor Marketplace business is a quick buck idea, which is rapidly growing at pace. This software allows both the admin as well as the marketplace owners the ability to earn a profit. With the help of a rental software, a vendor can rent their most preferred products or the ones they don’t want to utilize anymore. On the other side, marketplace admin can keep a commission fee for providing services, thereby helping both the parties to earn a profit.

If you are thinking to launch an online rental marketplace, then you can create it with the following two options:

1. Develop a rental marketplace from scratch
2. Start with ready to launch solutions- If you are looking to enter the market at pace then, ready to launch solutions is a reliable option, as you can set up your rental marketplace quickly and cost-effectively.

Some of the popular online rental marketplace solutions are listed below, which allows the users to launch their rental marketplace swiftly:

Yo!Rent

Yo!Rent is a well-established and robust multi vendor eCommerce rental platform that enables its users to run their site off as their server. This software also provides full customization according to their requirements with intriguing rent and sell features. Yo!Rent is a content management system, which allows its users to create a marketplace along with the authority to publish, edit, and delete their content to rent out or sell items. In addition to this, the software also performs with multiple payment gateways and multi-layer security for the distribution of payments to vendors. This feature provides a visual dashboard that manages order and understands business expansion. Yo!Rent software is explicitly designed for a wide range of eCommerce Rental Business platforms right from startups and small webshops to significant and multi store online marketplaces. This tool creates white label solutions through subscription-based web applications.

Pricing:- $1,999 Lifetime License(12 months of technical support)

Arcadier

Arcadier is a SaaS technology-based e-commerce platform that enables its users to build a multi vendor rental marketplace with an exclusive feature. The software comprises of published APIs (like Shopify) and built-in CSS and JavaScript input to allow tweaks into the existing templates. Arcadier is customizable, user-friendly, developer-free, and sets up within minutes. Arcadia even comprises of the off-the-shelf DIY platform, which comes with robust inbuilt features and integrations. It authorizes its users to buy, sell, trade, or rent any goods, space, or services. The software works with a collaborative approach encompassing an ecosystem of partners, including design studios, marketing and SEO agencies, PR firms, payment providers, and many more. Additionally, Arcadia offers a support network for its marketplace owners and administrators.

Pricing:- $34 per month (Free Trial)

Sharetribe

Sharetribe is a SaaS-based platform explicitly crafted for entrepreneurs that desire to build an online rental marketplace. The software enables its users with full customer support and automatic multistore management feature from a single location. Sharetribe even offers excellent email marketing and SEO management features. Startups and entrepreneurs can build and monitor customer accounts as the tool provides outstanding order management functionalities, that will help the customers to keep track of the orders. Sharetribe’s e-commerce software is a simple, user-friendly, and customizable tool that satisfies every requirement of the user.

Pricing:- $79 per month (Free Trial)

#ExlCart

Exlcart is an open-source platform offering an online rental marketplace that provides an option to customize its source code according to its client's requirements. This tool can manage unlimited vendors on a single platform and authorizes them to upload an unlimited number of products to rent out. ExlCart comprises of various in-built themes which can be utilized to represent brands specific to renting services. Additionally, users can even share their products on Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus to increase their traffic. ExlCart enables vendors to utilize multi-level categories to upload products, which helps the customers to find the products easily. In ExlCart, admin and vendors can manage all transaction records. Moreover, if required, they can even utilize them for future references. 

Pricing:- Exact information not available

Being a software developer, these are the languages I consider to be the best for development:

1. Python:

Python is quite easy to learn, it provides a broad base of support libraries, helps to produce optimized code, prototyping in Python is quick, moreover, it can be treated in a procedural way, and an object- orientated way or a functional way.

2. Java:

Java is an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) language. The strong presence of java in development is because of its "write once, run anywhere” philosophy, that means one can write Java software on any device, compile it into low-level machine code, and then execute it on any platform that’s equipped with a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). This means Java is highly cross-platform compatible. Java is also the basis for the Android operating system.

3. JavaScript:

JavaScript is a powerful and flexible programming language, used for both front-end and back-end of web development. It provides interactivity of web pages. It provides various frameworks and libraries that enable one to create complex applications with low overhead. It helps one to build multi-functional website.

4. C++:

C++ is a high level OOP language. It is portable and is often used for multi-device, multi-platform app development. Also it gives user control over memory management practices. It is mostly used for Virtual Reality, gaming, computer graphics developments.

5. Swift:

Swift is a user-friendly, intuitive, general-purpose programming language developed by Apple Inc for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS and beyond. It enables easy release of applications.

Other languages like C,R, SQL, PHP, Scala, Ruby, Go etc. are also used extensively in software development.

Well, you should choose an inventory management software according to your business. While selecting an inventory management software, there are few points to consider:   

• It should be fully customizable  
• Must have multiple integrations with different marketplaces and sales channel  
• Real-time data syncing  
• Automates all inventory activities  
• 24* 7 client support   

Generally, the price of the SaaS-based product varies from as low as $25/month to $3000/month. If you're a startup and still don't receive large quantities of order then a cheaper software would be all right. 

Before you choose to buy an inventory software, you'll have to decide how much you're prepared to spend on it and how much you're expecting to get in return for your money. How much value do you benefit from automated inventory management system? Try putting on it a price tag. 

Here are some well-known inventory management software with their base prices and offerings:
 

* TradeGecko starts at $ 79 per month featuring unlimited orders, unlimited currencies, ecommerce, accounting integration and mobile apps. 

*Orderhive starts from $45/month which includes 200 online orders, Unlimited ecommerce integrations, Premium accounting integrations and Unlimited SKU's. 

* Zoho Inventory starts at $29 per month for 100 online orders/unlimited offline orders, 2 warehouses, 10 ecommerce integrations and 10 automated workflows. 

If you choose an insufficient solution, after you figure it out and understand something needs to alter, you will most probably have to spend even MORE on the correct solution. First time, it's much better to just make the right choice so you don't have to spend time and money on the incorrect one. 

Within a year or potentially within six months of purchasing and fully implementing inventory management software, you as a seller/retailer should have saved enough to cover your purchase costs entirely.  

You can cut storage expenses with inventory software, save a lot of man-hours on menial duties, eliminate the need for too many warehouse employees, and enjoy other money-saving advantages.

An automation tool is the latest technology for businesses that want to stay on the top in their industry.

Some of the prevalent benefits of an automation tool are:

• Saves Time
• Checks Quality
• Early Bug Detection
• Performs Tests 24/7
• Reusability
• Distributed Test Execution
• Easy & Robust Reporting
• Testing Capabilities
• Improves Test Coverage
• Manpower Utilization
• Improves Team Motivation
• Testing Flexibility
• Improves Accuracy
• Overcomes Failures of Manual Testing
• Improves ROI

The above benefits of automation testing would help you to manage tasks within your organization.

Some of the leading automation tools for off-line applications for businesses are listed here:

1. Mabl
Mabl provides end-to-end test automation without scripts. The automation provided by this software is integrated with your delivery pipeline, which helps in improving your app. Mabl implements proprietary machine learning models, which helps in automatically identifying application issues in real-time.

Features:

• Diagnoses and fixes bugs in real-time
• Ships more codes in less time
• Maintains qualitY

2. Ranorex
Ranorex Studio is a unified tool for test automation that offers 360-degree assistance to its users. The software provides a codeless click-and-go interface, which is user-friendly for beginners.

Features:

• Functional UI and end-to-end testing
• Cross-browser testing
• SAP, ERP, Delphi and legacy applications
• iOS and Android
• Run tests locally or remotely
• Powerful reporting

3. TestCraft
TestCraft is a codeless Selenium test automation platform that creates fully automated test scenarios without coding. Testcraft is driven by revolutionary AI technology and unique visual modeling. AI technology enables faster test creation and execution of the data along with eliminating test maintenance overhead.

Features:

• No programming skills required
• Substantially reduces maintenance costs
• Selenium-based
• User-friendly

4. Squish
Squish is the Test Automation that offers automation to the functional regression tests and system tests.

Features:

• Detailed support for all significant GUI technologies
• Complete support for all desktop, mobile, web and embedded platforms
• Test script recording
• Powerful and reliable object identification
• Does not requires screenshots or visual appearance
• Robust integrated development environment (IDE)
• Complete set of script languages for test scripting
• Provides full support for Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
• Full control via command-line tools
• Integrations with Test Management and CI-Systems

5. TestCafe Studio
TestCafe Studio is a cross-platform, end-to-end web testing platform that enables its users to create, run, and maintain automated web tests with zero code.

Features:

• No code required.
• run tests on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, within Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and IE
• No Additional Tools Required
• Auto-generated Element Selectors
• Built-in Waiting Mechanism
  

6. LEAPWORK

LEAPWORK Automation Platform allows you to perform test automation without writing code. Test cases are designed as flowcharts on a design landscape by fabricating powerful building blocks together. The building blocks comprises of all the commands and logic required for the automation of various applications. All UI elements and operations are captured and defined with few clicks.

Features:

• Test applications in any operating system
• Data-driven automation
• Fast troubleshooting
• Enterprise-Grade platform
• Integrates with your CI/CD pipeline
• Extensive user support
  

7. LambdaTest
LambdaTest is one of the well established cloud-based cross-browser testing platforms. This tool empowers users to perform automated compatibility testing of their website or web applications on a combination of more than 2000 real browsers & OS.

Features:

• Automated Cross-Browser Testing
• One-click bug logging
• Integration with various tools
• Live interactive testing through the cloud
• Automated screenshot testing on 25 combinations at a time
  

8. Zephyr
Zephyr is one of the leading test management tools that offers end-to-end solutions for businesses of all sizes. With this platform, you can get flexibility, visibility, and insights you need to release the accurately functioning software.

Features:

• 1-click integration
• Cloud, Server, and Data Center Deployment Options
• Advanced Analytics and DevOps Dashboards
• No Annual Commitment Required
• More Information
  

9. TestArchitect
TestArchitect is a codeless test automation platform that emphasizes on increasing automation coverage & productivity by leveraging Keyword Driven Testing.

Features:

• Codeless automation
• Intuitive spreadsheet IDE just like Excel
• Supported platforms
• Windows, Linux, macOS, Androids & iOS
• Integration plugins
  

10. Parasoft Selenic
Parasoft Selenic is an automation tool that utilizes AI technology to address your problems with Selenium(It performs directly with your existing Selenium tests).

Features:

• Self-healing at runtime and AI-driven recommendations post-execution
• Create Selenium test suites with the Page Object Model
• Optimize test execution with Test Impact Analysis
  

There is no dearth of software companies around the globe but finding the right technology solution partner can be a challenging task. So, herein, saving your research time and energy, I'm sharing a consolidated list of top software development outsourcing companies for startup size firms. These companies are bagged by skillful people, easy public policies and service-based economies, making them favorable for mobile and web development.   

Moreover, they cater to a plethora of clients, including fintech, hospitality, retail, automobile, and so on.   

1. Code Brew

If you're looking for quality software development solutions, then Code Brew fits the bill. It aims to provide top-notch quality services at the most affordable rates. Code brew comprises of diligent and enthusiastic app developers who act as building bricks of the company. They have their offices in India, US, and Dubai.   

2. ValueCoders
 

Value Coder has been into offshore software company for 13 years now. Their skill and expertise into software development and proven methodologies make them an ideal partner. They are proactive, professional, and cost-effective. If you're looking to scale beyond local capabilities, then look no further than ValueCoders.   

3. OpenXcell
 

OpenXcell is a team of talented, passionate, and skilled software enthusiasts, technology enthusiasts, and creative designers. Established in 2008, it is a CMMI level 3 software development company pioneering in web and mobile app development, real-time systems, bot development, and IOTs.

They are focused on delivering high-performance and scalable software products to different industries. Catering to a plethora of diverse clientele, they're maintaining successful software products, eCommerce portals, marketplaces, social networks, real-time business analytics, and composite sync and integrations. Openxcell has its development center in India.   

4. Intellectsoft
 

It is a full-cycle software development company providing services to over 800 clients in more than 30 countries globally. It includes development, adjustment, and integration of complex enterprise-level solutions, advanced mobile and web apps. Not just startups, it also serves fortune 500 companies. You can connect with them Application Development, IT consulting, QA and testing, customer support, mobile app development, Web App development, and so on. Intellectsoft is headquartered in the US and the UK.
 

If you want to find more such leading outsourcing companies, click here.

Hotels require a powerful Hotel Management Software solution to enhance their guest experiences. There are several Hotel management systems available. They come in different versions like; on-premise, cloud-based, free, open source, paid, etc.

The image below shows key standard features that can help hotels to carry out their day-to-day activities efficiently.

Although the hotel industry has made considerable strides in terms of offering the best of services, embracing and investing in innovative digital technologies will offer added advantages to the hotel business. The prime reason for this is the change in the requirements of the guests. Today, there is a demand for distinct and personalized experiences. New technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc., will allow the hoteliers to understand their guests better.

Reports indicate that Today, millennials account for nearly 30 percent of all hotel guests. Utilizing new technologies will surely open doors to increased business revenue, unlock new profits, reduce time, and improve quality.

Many of the Hotel Management Software comes with a user-friendly dashboard, offering enhanced security and protection to their customer data. With an excellent backup facility, several systems support real-time information management too. Also, several software systems come with multi-currency support along with tax settings. Many of them come with training and 24 X 7 support.

In the current world where social media presence is one of the best ways for a business to stand out to reach a wider audience. It has become a necessity for any brand that wants to become an industry leader to connect with its potential and current customers. Some of the best social media management tools I have used are:

1. Hootsuite – One of the best social media management tool I have ever used. It provides me to manage all the social media profiles from one dashboard saving my lot of time. Moreover, I can manage 3 social media profiles for free.

2. Sendible – It streamlines the process of managing social media accounts from panning and collaboration to engagement and analytics. It provides a 30 days free trial and its plan starts from $29/month or $24/month if billed annually which stands out to be the best for Solopreneurs.

3. Agoraplus – It is a simple tool with which you can easily schedule your content, get reports and engage followers. It provides a 28 days free trial and its plan starts from $99/month or $89/month if billed annually which stands out to be the best for small business.

4. Sprout Social – It enables brands for all points of connection with their social audience. It provides a 30 days free trial and its plan starts from $99/month which stands out to be the best tool for professionals.

Out of thousands of app development platforms available online, I am definitely going to provide you the list of top-rated free and open source app development software solutions as per my understanding. But, before that, you should be clear on what type of app you want to create and for what purpose. Many times, I have witnessed the challenges app developers face like their apps do not get noticed by their audience, problems with developing cross-platform applications, building applications with advanced UI/UX features and so on. Whatever app you are going to create, i.e., a hybrid, native, mobile, web-based and in that too, Ionic, Angular, React Native, Xamarin or other, your focus should always be on creating a self-explanatory application.

So, if you are ready, then here goes the list of the best open source app development software solutions that are always free-to-use:

1. Buildfire.js - It is a powerful and easy-to-use app builder for iOS and Android apps. It is fully customizable and 100% free app maker.

2. Apache Cordova – Cordova allows you to use HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to develop cross-platform apps.

3. PhoneGap – It is best to make outstanding hybrid apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

4. IonicFramework – It is one of the most reliable mobile UI toolkits to develop high-quality cross-platform apps.

5. Framework7 – It is a full-featured framework to create mobile, desktop, and web apps and an indispensable prototyping tool as well.

6. NativeScript –This open source framework is best to build truly native mobile apps using JavaScript, TypeScript, Vue.js, and Angular.js.

7. Flutter – Google’s UI toolkit – Flutter is now available to build more beautiful native apps for mobile, web and desktop. Flutter 1.9 is live now!

8. Jasonette – The new name is ‘Jasonelle’ that utilizes JSON, Javascript languages to build Android/iOS native apps.

Check out the comparison chart given-below to select the best app development software of your choice:

If you want complete detail of these software programs, check it out here – the best free and open source app development software solutions.

Final Words: Just focus on building an agile app with clean architecture. Let it go through a complete A/B testing process, promote it slightly on the web and most importantly, follow the guidelines of the app stores before submitting your app over there. If it would be incompetent, it will be rejected instantly, even before your audience notices it.

I hope this answer will be satisfactory. Good Luck with your app venture!

Thanks for asking this question. Let me tell you my own story. Based on my account, you will be able to decide what is the cost of building a website in Magento. 

I did eCommerce lifestyle startup " Yuvastyle.com " in 2012 and was competing against eCommerce giants like Myntra, Fashionara, Flipkart ( Amazon was not in India ). We developed our eCommerce website in Magento considering the following points :  

1. Cost of development is low as website use the ready-made community version of Magento. We can host it and get started. 
2. Magento developer availability was good. 
3. Magento developer community and forum participation was excellent. 
4. Extension store of Magento had hundreds of ready-use plugins. 
5. Being a software service company we did some projects in Magento for our customers.  

eCommerce website was only 10% of our business but took 40-50% of our time. 

Everything looked good until we started scaling our business to around 50 orders a day. Following are problems we faced with Magento :  

1. Magento website will go damn slow with an increase in concurrent users. Sometimes, it will go down. 
2. With slowness, we blamed our AWS infrastructure and started scaling our servers from small to medium to large to xlarge. I was paying $8K to $10K per month to AWS to keep my Magento website up and running. 
3. We hired some expert Magento consultants ( expensive once ) considering that current developers are not able to find the problems. Experts advised us to use caching for faster delivery. We started using Redis/Memcache, which increase AWS billing again. 
4. We reached out to Magento to resolve scalability issue, and they pitched us Magento Enterprise, which was $14K per year. We analyzed the proposal and found that only difference between community and enterprise was support and few additional features which were not required by us. 
5. I focused on the website ( I am a programmer too ) and found some problems with extension and code optimization. We removed the extension ( lost some required features ) and took more time to optimize the current website. Optimization made website scalable for some more time.  

In 2014, we stopped Yuvastyle as we were burning money and were not able to make any profits. We analyzed our failure, and using Magento was one of the reason. It was a wrong decision to use Magento, either I would have used Shopify, Bigcommerce, and focused on business. Magento cost us a lot of time and money which we could have used to solve other core business problem. eCommerce website was only 10% of our business but took 40-50% of our time. 

Conclusion : 

Cost of developing a Magento website is not high, but the cost of maintaining and scaling is exorbitant. Please don't go for it. It's my recommendation.