NativeScript Reviews & Insights

Score4.8 out of 10

18 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for NativeScript are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Extensive repository of plugins: Many users appreciate the extensive repository of plugins available in NativeScript, which allows them to enhance their development speed. This feature has been praised by numerous reviewers as it enables developers to quickly add functionality to their apps without having to build everything from scratch.

Flexibility of architectural choices: The flexibility of NativeScript's four architectural choices - JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, and Vue - is highly valued by users. This flexibility has been mentioned by a significant number of reviewers who appreciate being able to choose the framework they are most comfortable with and easily transition from prototype to final product.

Native API access and performance: The fact that NativeScript offers 100-day zero Native API access is seen as a major advantage by many users. Multiple reviewers mention this feature as it allows them to leverage the full power of native UI and achieve better performance compared to other frameworks like Ionic or PhoneGap. This capability gives developers more flexibility and control over their app's performance.

NativeScript Reviews

6 Reviews

Engineering

Disappointment in NativeScript for production

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

May 28, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used NativeScript as per customer requests to implement mobile and web-based cross-platform applications used in the customer service industry. The customer wanted to implement the application in the Angular web framework and then port it to Android. We chose NativeScript as one of its main selling points was the cross-compatibility with writing the code in an Angular web app.

Pros

Teach the basics of the framework
Integrate to existing Angular project

Cons

Lots of bugs in the android build, visual and interface wise as well.
Android functions were missing which was crucial
Poor plugin support, buggy plugins
Low response time to new android features

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Balázs Kiss

IT Consultant in Engineering at Webvalto Ltd. (Banking, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

The unknown beast - NativeScript

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 13, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

NativeScript (NS) is JavaScript that runs on a system-specific JSVM (V8 for Android, WebKit iOS). And everything would be sad if not for one thing - NS provides access to all system APIs. Moreover, NS has full support for the Angular framework. Mobile apps that we built with NS have full access to the platform APIs as if they were developed in XCode or Android Studio. Also with the help of NS we can also include third-party libraries from resources such as Cocoapods, Android Arsenal, Maven, and npm.js into applications without creating additional layers.

Pros

Access to the entire native API
Support for native iOS and Android libraries
Cross-platform declarative UI and source code
Powerful data visualization with native UI tools provided

Cons

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

Likelihood to Recommend

NativeScript allows to easily integrate with native APIs by threading models. Moreover, the framework itself can be integrated with Angular, VueJS and JavaScript due to the fact that it was built on based on these frameworks. It allows you to easily maintain if you projects are based on these frameworks. Therefore, for the development of cross-platform applications it can be very handy!

Sabit Shaiholla

Head Research Assistant in Engineering at Nazarbayev University JSC (Research, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Mobile Performance with NativeScript

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 10, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a very small development shop, NativeScript allows us to create cross platform "native" mobile applications for Android and iOS while using a single web skillset rather than needing to learn Java, Objective-C, or Swift. NativeScript with Angular is being used and the single skillset for development helps to reduce the cost and barrier to entry for mobile application development.

Pros

Native mobile applications built with NativeScript that do not rely on a WebView component result in extremely fast performance and a happy user experience.
Being able to use JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, or Vue.js gives the developers options when it comes to development.
NativeScript has a lot of plugins for features such as charting that would otherwise be very complicated to implement in iOS and Android if not using NativeScript.

Cons

The documentation could be improved to be more consistent across all supported frameworks like Angular, Vue.js, and Core.
The application binary size could be reduced to be more in line with pure native and other similar frameworks.

Likelihood to Recommend

NativeScript is well suited for most mobile development. Being that it supports Android and iOS with either Angular, Vue.js, and TypeScript or JavaScript, it covers a lot of developer possibilities. If the developer has prior experience with React, it may be more logical to explore React Native to meet an already existing skill set. Likewise if the developer has prior C# experience it might be better to choose Xamarin.

Nic Raboy

Application Developer in Engineering at Couchbase (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

NativeScript, the fast way to build robust mobile applications

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 10, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization uses NativeScript to build different mobile applications for clients with different needs. NativeScript has been a great fit for us for the last couple of years, as it allows us to move forward quickly delivering high-quality applications in a lot less time than it would take if we had to develop two separate codebases for the two main platforms.

Pros

Easy to use abstactions for common elements such as action bars, tab views etc.
Allows accessing native APIs within JavaScript, so if anything is missing from the core framework, we don't have to wait for an update, we can just implement it straight away.
The choices when choosing a framework (or no framework) to be used. NativeScript works with plain JavaScript, plain Typescript, Angular and a recent additon of VueJs.

Cons

There is no real hot module replacement, where changes made to the source code reflect on the device instantly.
There is a slight overhead by having to run a JavaScript VM, so if performance is really critical NativeScript might not be the right choice. Worth noting that in most cases the performance is very comparable to truly native applications.
There are no ready-made UI collections, so applications have to be built using the default UI elements, and then styled manually.

Likelihood to Recommend

If the goal is to ease future maintenance by not having to develop two separate codebases for the two main platforms then NativeScript might be a great fit. NativeScript is not a good fit for games because of the added overhead of having to run a JavaScript VM that proxies calls to the underlying native layer.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (Computer Software company, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

NativeScript: Good for mobile performance.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 16, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

NativeScript is the main tool to develop mobile apps for internal and external projects. The main feature is the capacity to develop one source code to address ios and android using the actual experience the dev team has with javascript and angular. Because of their active community, we can reuse our experience and others' in order to speed up every project. Using the extensive library of components already available and the one we have built with the time, we reuse a lot of code saving time.

Pros

The fastest transition from prototype to final product
Javascript with angular allow us to use the actual experience. No need for native development
Native performance, you can exploit the hardware better than hybrid tools

Cons

If you come from the nodejs world, you will have to sacrifice some ways to deal with data. For example, we had to sacrifice PouchDB for offline data
The final size for Android could be huge compared with hybrid tools or the sameNativeScriptt for iOS
Some native development is required in order to exploit all the components
Sometimes web development experience is not enough. Even with Angular you need to learn some new concepts. Once dominated, you can rock native mobile apps

Likelihood to Recommend

When you need to exploit all the hardware capabilities and the communication with the backend is critical, you better go with NativeScript. If your main feature is offline access then you better sacrifice some performance going with something hybrid like Ionic. The criteria to choose better is if the final application could work more like a web page, or you already have a web app and you want almost the same features in your mobile app, you will go for a hybrid, but if you want to go from scratch thinking on a completely mobile experience with performance where the connectivity is not an issue you will go for NativeScript.

victor pease solano

General Manager in Engineering at Supermio (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

NativeScript - Cross platform app development for n00bs

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 15, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use NativeScript as the primary platform for developing native mobile applications. We have a native mobile app called Daily Nanny (dailynannyapp.com) used by thousands of parents and nannies, and the Android and iOS applications were built using NativeScript. I had no experience building native mobile applications, but I was able to apply my expertise in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to build and release a cross-platform application in a fraction of the time it would have taken to build two different apps on two different platforms.

Pros

Native Performance: NativeScript apps are entirely Native. They are not hybrid apps, each UI element is from each platform's UI library, so the performance is that of an application developed in Java for Android or Xcode/Swift for iOS.
Framework Support: The NativeScript team and community have put a lot of emphasis on being able to use javascript frameworks within NativeScript. There is an angular implementation that lets you develop using Angular 2 and even share code among web applications.
Plugins: The NativeScript community is a vibrant contributor to the plugin marketplace. You can find a plugin for almost any functionality.
Access to Native APIs: With the way the NativeScript is built, you have access to all Native APIs as soon as they are available on the device, NativeScript does not need to expose access. So as soon as a new feature comes out in the OS, you can utilize it in your NativeScript app.

Cons

Documentation Clarity: Due to the many different ways you can write NativeScript apps (Vanilla JS, TypeScript, Angular, Vue, Webpack), the documentation is not always accurate.

Likelihood to Recommend

If your team has accomplished web developers but no Native developers, NativeScript will allow them to use their current skills to create Native Mobile Apps.
If you need device-specific functionality, it's easy to tap into Native APIs.
If you have web apps built using Angular 2, you can create a NativeScript application and even share some code.

Dave Coffin

Cofounder in Engineering at Cubby Notes (Education Management, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Loading Reviews List....

NativeScript - Cross platform app development for n00bs

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 15, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Native Performance: NativeScript apps are entirely Native. They are not hybrid apps, each UI element is from each platform's UI library, so the performance is that of an application developed in Java for Android or Xcode/Swift for iOS.
Framework Support: The NativeScript team and community have put a lot of emphasis on being able to use javascript frameworks within NativeScript. There is an angular implementation that lets you develop using Angular 2 and even share code among web applications.
Plugins: The NativeScript community is a vibrant contributor to the plugin marketplace. You can find a plugin for almost any functionality.
Access to Native APIs: With the way the NativeScript is built, you have access to all Native APIs as soon as they are available on the device, NativeScript does not need to expose access. So as soon as a new feature comes out in the OS, you can utilize it in your NativeScript app.

Cons

Documentation Clarity: Due to the many different ways you can write NativeScript apps (Vanilla JS, TypeScript, Angular, Vue, Webpack), the documentation is not always accurate.

Likelihood to Recommend

If your team has accomplished web developers but no Native developers, NativeScript will allow them to use their current skills to create Native Mobile Apps.
If you need device-specific functionality, it's easy to tap into Native APIs.
If you have web apps built using Angular 2, you can create a NativeScript application and even share some code.

Dave Coffin

Cofounder in Engineering at Cubby Notes (Education Management, 1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile