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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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
    NativeScript
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    NativeScript
    Free Trial
    Yes
    Free/Freemium Version
    Yes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    No
    Entry-level 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
    NativeScript
    Considered Both Products
    Progress Software
    Chose NativeScript
    NativeScript was indeed a better experience at first than Ionic. But the real game-changer in 2022 for cross-platform applications is Flutter now. We changed to it shorty after NativeScript, as it is much more stable, more widely supported, has a ton of extra features, and does …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    First and foremost, the codebase on which the project application was developed in NativeScript on 90% can be shared with React Native framework. Moreover, the documentation of the framework is extensive in a manner to allow developers the easy low-level entrance for the …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    I have use AngularJS and Angular for many years, and when it came time to build a mobile app, I was asked to use Android Studio. I did not have any trouble in developing apps separately with these two technologies. By trying to combine web app development and Android app …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    I have several hybrid alternatives like Cordova + jQuery Mobile and ionic (which uses Cordova and angular). These alternatives always let you down in the long run because the performance and "feel" is never comparable to a true native app. Especially when the app's complexity …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    We have previously evaluated Xamarin, and the time it took us to get started, install all of the software, license it, learn Xamarin, and create a app that runs and debugs on connected mobile devices was painful. With NativeScript and the Playground, we're able to get started …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    Unlike its competitors, NativeScript offers its users 4 architectural choices. It shines in the area of offering 100% day zero Native API access. The development experience is great and feels like you are home, if you are a web developer coming from Angular or Vue background, …
    Incentivized
    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, …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    Ionic is based on an embedded WebView running an app looking website in the background. It has been around for a couple years, but it does not compare well to real native applications. In most cases the UI just doesn't have the feel of a real native app, and performance is …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    The direct native API access without having to write any Java or ObjC was the ultimate decision for us. We can drop in a native Android/Ios library and instantly code against that SDK without any special work. Whereas with Ionic or RN, you have to write some Java/ObjC (or …
    Incentivized
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose NativeScript
    NativeScript is superior in every way:
    Vibrant community - there is an open Slack channel where you can get advice and talk to other nativescript developers
    Active development team - The NativeScript development team reaches out to their user base consistently for feature …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    NativeScript
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    SAP Extension Suite (discontinued)
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    NativeScript
    Likelihood to Recommend
    4.8
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    NativeScript
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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