Useful information for iOS developers. Free iOS libraries to help improve the development process.
I love developers who spend their free time creating amazing things. They share with others and don’t want anything in return. Thank you for your work. Since I’m a big fan of curating, I picked the best of my favorite open source iOS libraries. I made the list randomly, but they’re all great.
DZNEmptyDataSet
With this library, you just need to take advantage of multiple protocols, and iOS takes care of presenting collections correctly and beautifully to users.
PDTSimpleCalendar
Need a simple, beautiful and well working calendar for your app? Now you have PDTSimpleCalendar – it’s probably the best calendar for iOS. You can customize it to your liking so that it looks great and still works well.
MagicalRecord
Core Data. “It’s easy,” they said. “It’s easy,” they said. Seriously, Apple? A ton of boilerplate code added to every project isn’t that easy or simple. Not to mention adding, removing, and updating a lot of stuff, keeping context, creating Core Data. I really like Core Data, of course, but Apple really could have simplified and improved it.
MagicalRecord works as a wrapper for Core Data and hides all the extra stuff from the developer. If you’ve ever worked with active record patterns (like Ruby on Rails), this is all familiar to you. I highly recommend this library if you use Core Data in your application.
Chameleon
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a programmer and not a designer. This is for you.
Chameleon is a color framework for iOS. It includes UIColor with beautiful, modern colors. It also gives you the ability to create color palettes from suggested colors. If you want to create a beautiful app, definitely add this library to your project.
Alamofire
Alamofire is a network of libraries written in Swift. Have you ever used AFNetworking? Alamofire is its little brother. Younger and more stylish, of course (AFNetworking is written in Objective-C).
You need to work with the network: download, upload, receive JSON? Then Alamofire is for you. The 8,000 people on GitHub can’t go wrong.
TextFieldEffects
Do you find the standard UITextField a bit boring? Neither do I. So give it up for TextFieldEffects!
You can even use IBDesignables in the storyboard! Unfortunately, this library doesn’t support CocoaPods, but it does support Carthage. You can also just download the project from GitHub and add it to your workspace.
GPUImage
Have you ever created a camera app? If not, you will definitely create one after getting to know this library.
GPUImage provides GPU camera effects (images and video) at incredible speed. There are hundreds of apps in the App Store that use this library – and one of mine does too: 8869 stars on GitHub, and that’s not the limit.
iRate
What’s the best way to get more reviews on the App Store? The easiest way to find out is to ask the user. It may be a little outdated, but if you don’t have time or don’t want to create everything from scratch, use iRate.
GameCenterManager
Game Center for iOS isn’t all that complicated, but with this library, it will be even easier and faster. The best is the enemy of the good.
I use this library in one of my games, and it’s a very good experience.
PKRevealController 2
This is a real gem, one of my favorite iOS controllers. PKRevealController is a side menu with a flipping effect (left, right or both sides) that you activate with your finger (or just by pressing a button).
I’ve tried other libraries that use the same control, but PKRevealController is the best. Very easy to install, easy to customize, and it recognizes gestures well. It could be included in the iOS SDK as a standard controller.
SlackTextViewController
Have you ever used Slack iOS apps? Probably yes, if you work for a large software company. For those people who haven’t, Slack will do just fine.
RETableViewManager
RETableViewManager will help you create and manage screen tables. There are standard items here, but you can create your own as well.
PermissionScope
A useful library for getting consent to collect user information by explaining why certain permissions are needed.
SVProgressHUD
This image loads quickly, you don’t have to wait long or refresh the page. This is what SVProgressHUD looks like in your application. If you need a custom wait indicator, this is the best you can find.
FontAwesomeKit
Font Awesome is a great library with which you can easily add fonts to your projects and use them in different ways.
SnapKit
Creating constraints in code isn’t easy, but luckily with SnapKit you can easily program your constraints.
MGSwipeTableCell
Another UI component that is often seen in many apps and that Apple should bring as a standard into the iOS SDK.
Quick
Module testing for Swift as well as Objective-C, integrated with Xcode. If you like Objective-C, I’d recommend Specta instead. But Swift Quick would probably be a better option.
IAPHelper
The in-app purchase function contains a lot of boilerplate code, which this library will help get rid of. And will create a simple wrapper for common tasks related to transferring money from an iOS user to a money account, yours or your company’s.
ReactiveCocoa
ReactiveCocoa is as good as the other projects on this list. ReactiveCocoa shows a completely different style of programming/architecture, based on signals and value streams. It’s unfathomable. To understand how it works, you’ll have to forget everything you’ve known up to this point. Not easy, but useful.