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Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Crosswalk vs PhoneGap

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Crosswalk
17
34
+ 1
6
PhoneGap
582
683
+ 1
94
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Crosswalk vs PhoneGap: What are the differences?

Developers describe Crosswalk as "Replace Android’s default WebView with Crosswalk, a predictable web runtime for developing powerful Android and Cordova apps". Crosswalk is a web runtime for ambitious HTML5 applications. All the features of a modern browser, deep device integration and an API for adding native extensions. On the other hand, PhoneGap is detailed as "Easilily create mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript". PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

Crosswalk and PhoneGap belong to "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" category of the tech stack.

Some of the features offered by Crosswalk are:

  • Develop around device fragmentation
  • Provide a feature rich experience on all Android 4.x devices
  • Easily debug with Chrome DevTools

On the other hand, PhoneGap provides the following key features:

  • Android
  • Blackberry
  • iOS

Crosswalk and PhoneGap are both open source tools. It seems that PhoneGap with 4.15K GitHub stars and 974 forks on GitHub has more adoption than Crosswalk with 2.17K GitHub stars and 569 GitHub forks.

Advice on Crosswalk and PhoneGap
Alejandro Pérez
| 6 upvotes · 376.5K views
Needs advice
on
IonicIonicPhoneGapPhoneGap
and
React NativeReact Native

Looking for some advice: we are planning to create a hybrid app for both iOS and Android; this app will consume a REST API. We are looking for a tool for this development with the following attributes:

  • Shallow learning curve; easiness to adopt (all team is new into mobile development, with diverse backgrounds: Java, Python & AngularJS),

  • Easiness to test (we discarded Angular-based tools already: creating a unit test in Angular we considered time-consuming and low value. At this point of the project, we cannot afford UI testing with Selenium/Appium based tools).

  • So far, we are not considering any specific capability of the device. Still, in the mid/long term, we would require the usage of GPS (geolocalization) and accelerometer (not sure if it's possible to use it from a hybrid app). Suggest any other tool if you wish.

See more
Replies (4)
Alcides Costa
CEO, Co-founder at inPlace · | 5 upvotes · 59.9K views
Recommends
on
KivyKivy

If your team has a strong background in Python and you want to release some prototype soon, you could try Python and Kivy. Kivy is an open-source, cross-platform Python framework for rapid development of mobile GUIs. It supports both iOS and Android. I have passed a similar situation recently: to start a mobile app with no background in mobile development. Kivy saved me a lot of time. I could develop a prototype and release it faster than I thoght.

See more
Frederico Bezerra
Engineering at Xtartup · | 4 upvotes · 61.3K views
Recommends
on
ExpoExpoReact NativeReact Native

To be honest , You need to think these points :

  • Developer Experience

  • Tooling

  • Maintainability

My vote for now is going with React Native with Expo , using Typescript...

With this stack You could follow some patterns and principle that the Java and python programmers are familiar with.

Typescript is a javascript Superset that you can follow Procedural , Functional and OOP approaches and an easy learning curve.

With Expo you need to concern only with the shared layer (Typescript) and the Native ones will be expo responsibility.

Please check Expo.com and try to get started using typescript.

Good performance and with EAS (paid plan) you can create a full CI CD pipeline for your app connected to the stores(Apple and Android).

See more
Max Lynch
at Ionic · | 3 upvotes · 33.5K views
Recommends
on
CapacitorCapacitorIonicIonic

If you already know how to build web apps, give Capacitor a try. You can think of it like "electron for mobile" in that you can build a web app but access native functionality. Pair it with Ionic if you want a UI kit that is optimized for mobile, or build your own UI from scratch.

A bonus to Capacitor is your app will run without modification on the web as a PWA, iOS, Android, and more.

See more
woodcockjosh
| 2 upvotes · 29.2K views
Recommends
on
React NativeReact Native

Other tools have very slow performance. They are usually selected because someone on the team likes Angular, but your customers won't care what framework you're using. They'll just know the app is slow.

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Decisions about Crosswalk and PhoneGap
James Bender
Lead Application Architect at TekPartners · | 5 upvotes · 51.5K views
Chose
Android SDKAndroid SDKKotlinKotlinSwiftSwift
over
Apache CordovaApache CordovaFlutterFlutterPhoneGapPhoneGapReact NativeReact NativeXamarinXamarin

I've yet to see a non-native application that I felt performed as well and/or provided the same user experience with Cordova/PhoneGap/Xamarin. Frankly, at best they all seemed like underpowered web applications deployed to a sandbox that ran on a phone. They didn't feel "slick" or "mobile-first" and in some cases the performance was unacceptable. At previous companies, we built a few of these apps at the client's insistence, and in every case, they re-engaged us about 18 months later to re-write the app(s) natively.

We are doing some research on React Native and Flutter, but I am not yet convinced that they can provide the same level of experience and performance as native, though I am trying to keep an open mind.

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Aleksandr Filatov
Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft · | 2 upvotes · 108.5K views
Shared a protip
on
Apache CordovaApache CordovaPhoneGapPhoneGapProGuardProGuard
at
()
What is Proguard?

ProGuard is the most popular optimizer for Java bytecode. It makes your Java and Android applications up to 90% smaller and up to 20% faster. ProGuard also provides minimal protection against reverse engineering by obfuscating the names of classes, fields and methods.

How to use it in Cordova app?

I didn't find any plugins for it. So I've implemented it by myself and shared it on GitHub.

Feel free to use!

See more
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Pros of Crosswalk
Pros of PhoneGap
  • 2
    Essential for Android hybrid apps
  • 1
    Improved performance
  • 1
    Hybrid desktop apps
  • 1
    New Modern Cordova
  • 1
    Pretty decent solution to Android WebView issues
  • 46
    Javascript
  • 13
    Backed by Adobe
  • 11
    Free
  • 9
    Easy and developer friendly
  • 6
    Support more platforms
  • 3
    It's javascript, html, and css
  • 2
    Common code base across all mobile platform
  • 1
    Not bound to specific framework
  • 1
    Powerful Framework
  • 1
    Runs on mobile browser
  • 1
    Similar UI across all platform
  • 0
    Free easy fast and not buggy in my experience

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Crosswalk
Cons of PhoneGap
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 2
      Never as good as a native app
    • 1
      Created for web pages, not for complex Apps
    • 1
      Poor user experience
    • 1
      Not build for high performance
    • 1
      Hard to see

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Crosswalk?

    Crosswalk is a web runtime for ambitious HTML5 applications. All the features of a modern browser, deep device integration and an API for adding native extensions

    What is PhoneGap?

    PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Crosswalk?
    What companies use PhoneGap?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Crosswalk or PhoneGap.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Crosswalk?
    What tools integrate with PhoneGap?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to Crosswalk and PhoneGap?
    React Native
    React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.
    Flutter
    Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
    Ionic
    Free and open source, Ionic offers a library of mobile and desktop-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components for building highly interactive apps. Use with Angular, React, Vue, or plain JavaScript.
    Xamarin
    Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
    Apache Cordova
    Apache Cordova is a set of device APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript. Combined with a UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or Dojo Mobile or Sencha Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
    See all alternatives

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