NativeScript vs PhoneGap

Overview

PhoneGap

Stacks578

Followers685

Votes94

GitHub Stars4.0K

Forks889

NativeScript

Stacks533

Followers1.1K

Votes516

GitHub Stars25.3K

Forks1.7K

NativeScript vs PhoneGap: What are the differences?

Developers describe NativeScript as "Build truly native apps with JavaScript". NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms. 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.

NativeScript and PhoneGap can be categorized as "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" tools.

Some of the features offered by NativeScript are:

100% Access to Native Platform API
NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project
Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS

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

Android
Blackberry
iOS

"Access to the entire native api" is the primary reason why developers consider NativeScript over the competitors, whereas "Javascript" was stated as the key factor in picking PhoneGap.

NativeScript and PhoneGap are both open source tools. NativeScript with 17.2K GitHub stars and 1.27K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than PhoneGap with 4.15K GitHub stars and 974 GitHub forks.

Typeform, Accenture, and WebbyLab are some of the popular companies that use PhoneGap, whereas NativeScript is used by Work Box, Zege Technologies, and GeekyAnts. PhoneGap has a broader approval, being mentioned in 86 company stacks & 36 developers stacks; compared to NativeScript, which is listed in 9 company stacks and 26 developer stacks.

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Advice on PhoneGap, NativeScript

Gabor

CTO at momento.

Aug 23, 2021

Decided

As a startup, we need the maximum flexibility and the ability to reach our customers in a more suitable way. So a hybrid application approach is the best because it allows you to develop a cross-platform application in a unique codebase. The choice behind Ionic is Angular, I think that angular is the best framework to develop a complex application that needs a lot of service interaction, its modularity forces you (the developer) to write the code in the correct way, so it can be maintainable and reusable.

209k views209k

Comments

Lucas

Jan 6, 2023

Needs adviceon

iOS

Visual Studio Code

TypeScript

Hello,

We're just brainstorming for the moment and we have a few questions.

We have an idea for an app that we want to develop, here are the prerequisites:

cross-platform (iOS, Android, and website);
as easy to maintain as possible / well documented / widely used;
Visual Studio Code and Copilot compatible;
Text to speech;
Speech recognition;
Running in background (screen off with TTS and speech recognition);
could be using TypeScript;
Monetized through ad and in-App payment for premium version;
Display on lock screen (Android only I guess)

So what would you recommend?

I've been trying to review the options available, and I've considered:

Thanks in advance for your help, and I'm open to any comments.

371k views371k

Comments

Alejandro

Aug 20, 2021

Needs adviceon

Java

Python

AngularJS

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.

565k views565k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

PhoneGap	NativeScript
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.	NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms.
Android;Blackberry;iOS;Windows Phone;Windows8	100% Access to Native Platform API;NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project;Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS;Cross-platform UI abstractions;Shared business logic and data models
Statistics
GitHub Stars 4.0K	GitHub Stars 25.3K
GitHub Forks 889	GitHub Forks 1.7K
Stacks 578	Stacks 533
Followers 685	Followers 1.1K
Votes 94	Votes 516
Pros & Cons
Pros 46 Javascript 13 Backed by Adobe 11 Free 9 Easy and developer friendly 6 Support more platforms Cons 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	Pros 75 Access to the entire native api 47 Support for native ios and android libraries 46 Support for javascript libraries 46 Angular 2.0 support 44 Native ux and performance Cons 5 Lack of promotion 1 Slower Performance compared to competitors

What are some alternatives to PhoneGap, NativeScript?

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.

Flutter

Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.

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.

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.

Framework7

It is a free and open source mobile HTML framework to develop hybrid mobile apps or web apps with iOS native look and feel. All you need to make it work is a simple HTML layout and attached framework's CSS and JS files.

Qt

Qt, a leading cross-platform application and UI framework. With Qt, you can develop applications once and deploy to leading desktop, embedded & mobile targets.

Expo

It is a framework and a platform for universal React applications. It is a set of tools and services built around React Native and native platforms that help you develop, build, deploy, and quickly iterate on iOS, Android, and web apps.

Vue Native

Vue Native is a mobile framework to build truly native mobile app using Vue.js. Its is designed to connect React Native and Vue.js. Vue Native is a wrapper around React Native APIs, which allows you to use Vue.js and compose rich mobile User Interface.

Shoutem UI

Shoutem UI is a set of styleable components that enables you to build beautiful React Native applications for iOS and Android. All of our components are built to be both composable and customizable.

Related Comparisons

Some of the features offered by NativeScript are:

100% Access to Native Platform API
NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project
Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS

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

Android
Blackberry
iOS

"Access to the entire native api" is the primary reason why developers consider NativeScript over the competitors, whereas "Javascript" was stated as the key factor in picking PhoneGap.

NativeScript vs PhoneGap