Apache Cordova vs. NativeScript

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apache Cordova
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
NativeScript
Score 4.8 out of 10
N/A
NativeScript is an open source framework that allows you to create native iOS and Android apps, with one codebase, using ​the web skills you already have (JavaScript and CSS) and ​the libraries you already love​.N/A
Pricing
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe NativeScript framework and CLI are completely free and open source. NativeScript Sidekick is a free download to improve developer productivity with optional paid tiers for power users.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Considered Both Products
Apache Cordova

No answer on this topic

NativeScript
Chose NativeScript
Ionic and Apache Cordova are hybrid tools, both based on Webview which is ok for mobile offline data apps but for high-performance enterprise apps that is the limit. NativeScript can go where the number of rules and processing required force us to gain access to the native …
Chose NativeScript
I was once a user of Ionic Framework which operates on Apache Cordova. At the time, Ionic was the obvious choice because it was lightyears ahead of the other cross platform frameworks. However, because Ionic Framework and Apache Cordova require a WebView component to function, …
Chose NativeScript
I've looked into and worked with multiple frame works such as Phonegap/Cordova, Ionic, and React Native. While they all allowed developers to create multi-platform applications easily, with different degrees of performance, I found them all to fall short in once you reached a …
Best Alternatives
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Small Businesses
Swiftify
Swiftify
Score 9.0 out of 10
Visual Studio
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Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Swiftify
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Visual Studio
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Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Swiftify
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Visual Studio
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Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(6 ratings)
4.8
(13 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apache CordovaNativeScript
Likelihood to Recommend
Apache
It is suitable for making portable applications, with almost the same code for several platforms. You can access native features of the device or use an open source plug-in from the repository to create a local database and access the internal storage of the device. It is wonderful for the construction of a native application, through the use of standard web code. It is not recommended for enterprise applications.
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Progress Software Corporation
I gotta be honest, after a PoC period, we choose to rewrite the whole application in a different cross-platform app. Our developers had to invest a lot of time and effort to debug a lot of plugin-related issues, which we needed to utilize the android mobile phone capabilities. QR reader, special visualizations, and fine-tuning were really hard and often resulted in writing native Android code instead of using the shared Angular code. In the end, we think that writing a standalone Android app and an Angular app would have been a better alternative, as the shared code base was so unreliable that it did not save us any time.
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Pros
Apache
  • Adobe Phone Gap has an extremely simple user interface that allows for easy learning to occur.
  • Adobe Phone Gap provides support for web languages and allows you to write in three of the main languages and transfer them to another language for use. This solves a common programming issue and is the greatest strength of the software.
  • Their desktop application allows for easy installation and programming.
  • Adobe provides quick support with questions about how to use the software.
  • The build interface notifies you of errors extremely quickly and helps identify the issue in your programming. You get an easy idea of what needs to be updated and adjusted.
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Progress Software Corporation
  • True native app. The app uses native components and that is quite noticeable in the overall performance of the app. NativeScript is also awesome in the way we can access the native APIs, so we are never really constrained by the framework. If we need, we can just dive into the native APIs without leaving our environment and language (JS).
  • Cross-platform. Builds for Android and iOS. It deals with the platforms differences very well.
  • Support for Vue.js. Even though it is just a community effort, the NativeScript-Vue plugin is the best alternative to build native Apps with Vue.js. That was a major factor to go with NativeScript.
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Cons
Apache
  • Cordova app code runs inside a webview component. So, expect the performance to be a little slower as compared to the native apps. This is more noticeable on older devices though. It is hardly noticeable when it comes to newer mobile devices.
  • Crashes can be hard to debug since the crash logs will not point you to the culprit javascript code. This is not a limitation of Cordova alone. Any other hybrid mobile app development platform suffers the same problem.
  • Even with tools like Safari debugger and Chrome debugger, it can be tricky to measure graphics and animation performance. Achieving smooth animations can be a bit of a challenge sometimes with hybrid mobile apps in general.
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Progress Software Corporation
  • The need to know the native Android and iOS APIs to access device hardware and other platform-specific functionality
  • Not all user interface components are available for free
  • NativeScript has no HTML and DOM, which requires some deep knowledge of different UI tools to be implemented instead
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Likelihood to Renew
Apache
No answers on this topic
Progress Software Corporation
The hybrid is ok but native is better for performance and the right use case I want to go for is the performance without dealing with too many development tools.
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Support Rating
Apache
No answers on this topic
Progress Software Corporation
The community support is excellent.
They have a slack community as well as a discourse forum
forum.nativescript.org
Both of these offer community driven support.
The forum is more for a threaded discussion. The slack community is more for a quick talk.
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Alternatives Considered
Apache
Apache Cordova is the mother of all other frameworks. The Ionic developed framework is well suited for development but most of their features are offered by paid services. As Apache Cordova is open source and has a license to modify it, it has no legal problems to work with it. Also, most well-known IDEs recognize the Apache Cordova snippets.
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Progress Software Corporation
Ionic Ionic is an excellent Angular-based framework for mobile, and it does give a lot of access to the native device api's. However, the technology is based on Cordova, which means the apps being built are just webviews, with html, css and JS all running on the UI thread, and potentially creating very slow experiences for users. NativeScript is a truly native solution, and so provides a faster user experience. ReactNative We evaluate ReactNative, and found it much the same as NativeScript. The main difference is that your JS is all written with React, while NativeScript lets you choose between normal JS, Angular, and Vue. For our team, Angular was the most appropriate choice.
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Return on Investment
Apache
  • Very economic for ROI purposes
  • Scalable for code reusability down the road
  • Convertible, easily switch platforms if Apache Cordova doesn't suit your needs
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Progress Software Corporation
  • The poor quality of NativeScript documentation has the potential to weigh heavily on development timelines, budgets, and QA resources in a NEGATIVE manner.
  • The poor interoperability of NativeScript plugins can significantly increase development time.
  • The need to seek out professional instruction to learn how to use NativeScript effectively may become a burden on your budget.
  • The number of breaking changes between versions of NativeScript, may cause your development efforts to lag further behind the most recent releases of NativeScript and your other chosen environments than you are accustomed to.
  • NativeScript still does not support the latest major version of Angular. Any significant changes to the other environment components of your systems may hold you back even further while NativeScript plays catch-up.
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ScreenShots

NativeScript Screenshots

Screenshot of Example of a styled NativeScript list viewScreenshot of Charts and graphs available as part of NativeScript UIScreenshot of Groceries – the app you build as part of the getting started tutorialScreenshot of Leverage native mapping systems with NativeScript