Using Qt for mobile development
Published: 2025-11-23T12:05:31Z
Categories: Software development
Strengths of using Qt
- Can make use of C++ and its ecosystem, including Qt
- Can have separation between back-end logic in C++ and front-end logic in QML/JS with mechanisms to allow communication between the two
- Can make use of JS for UI logic
- Can use LGPL license to learn how to develop mobile applications with Qt and release a MVP on Android, dynamically linking Qt libraries. Provided this is successful, can acquire a commercial license and develop enterprise application for iOS and Android, re-using learnings and own app code, provided the Qt Company approves the switch over.
- Have option to make use of Qt Design Studio for a pure QML design. UI Designers with little development knowledge can use this and end up with tangible code that the developers can use. Can work better as a team.
- Using performant language in C++, pay only for what you use
- It supports internationalization with Qt Linguist
- It's being invested into with continual updates.
- It's cross-platform for both Android OS and iOS
- It's mature although less mature for mobile development
- It's modular
- It's big with a lot of what's needed built-in
- It provides most of the essential low-level building blocks
- It's well-documented (for the most part)
- It's utilizing standard languages like C++, CMake, and JavaScript. If familiar with these technologies, have a head start.
- The C++ code compiles to native code
- With QML, can have custom UI components and extend upon them with new properties without having to declare a new component.
Neutrals of using Qt
- Have learning curve associated with picking up Qt and QML. This is not unique to Qt as other cross-platform frameworks like Flutter also require learning new technologies.
Drawbacks of using Qt
There's a higher cost associated with using Qt
- Can be less developers that know C++ and Qt well in region and learning these technologies is a huge demand. Size of C++20 standard is quite big even if a lot of it isn't used.
- Can be higher costs for expertise
- Can discontinue development on offerings of theirs (e.g. Qt Digital Advertising)
- Must purchase additional license to make use of Squish for GUI testing and Coco for code coverage, Axivion Suite for static code analysis, and Qt Insight for product usage analysis.
- Must use the commercial license for an iOS release and to incorporate a couple of useful modules for mobile development into project.
- Qt Graphs (Data visualizations)
- Qt Network Authorization (OAuth)
- Subject to longer development times
- Lacking built-in hot-reload, slowing UI iteration
- Higher barrier to entry to learning everything
- Qt Community is smaller so there's less answers to questions online
- Smaller ecosystem compared to native ecosystems, meaning some mobile-specific features need native code in Objective-C or Java. Then have to figure out how to bridge or wrap platform-specific features.
- The QML linter throws a lot of false positives
- With version updates, Qt documentation can become outdated
- Upgrading from one Qt version to another can result in new problems to solve
Areas Qt plans to improve in
Seek to target more of C++ developer market as well as broader software development market
- Greater support for Rust, Python, .NET, Swift, and Kotlin/Java
- Improvements to Qt AI Assistant
References
https://www.qt.io/hubfs/Investors/Qt_Group_SEB_presentation.pdf?hsLang=en
