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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Silverlight

    Score3.4 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's Silverlight is a development tool.N/A

    NativeScript

    Score4.8 out of 10
    N/ANativeScript 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
    Microsoft SilverlightNativeScript
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft SilverlightNativeScript
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—The 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
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft SilverlightNativeScript
    Small Businesses
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    .NET
    Score8.7 out of 10
    SAP Extension Suite (discontinued)
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ASP.NET
    Score9.5 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft SilverlightNativeScript
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.0
    (4 ratings)
    4.8
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft SilverlightNativeScript
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    The Silverlight plug-in means developers can target a single, consistent runtime for browser-based apps, rather than working with the complexity of multiple browsers in different versions. You also get video and multimedia effects that are hard or impossible with pure HTML and JavaScript, though Adobe Systems' Flash has the same advantages.
    Incentivized
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    Progress Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Easy to implement
    • No need for additional frameworks on client side
    • Out of browser capabilities
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Progress Software
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • No longer being supported
    • No upkeep with ria services
    • Be nice to work in a modern browser
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Progress Software
    • 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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Progress Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Progress Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Silverlight allows more adaptability and it integrates well with our products across the company. Adobe Flash crashes or doesn't work with our shipping campus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Progress Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • Increased lecture delivery
    • Improved academic experience
    • Less A/V tech support and delay
    Read full review
    Progress Software
    • 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.
    Read full review
    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