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NativeScript

NativeScript

Overview

What is NativeScript?

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​.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

NativeScript has proven to be an invaluable tool for developers across various industries. For a fitness startup, NativeScript enabled …
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Pricing

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What is NativeScript?

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​.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.nativescript.org/nativescri…

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  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

NativeScript Realtime Development

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How to Build Apps with NativeScript

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7 - Optimizing the Startup time of NativeScript Angular Apps

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NativeScript & WordPress REST API Demo LiveSync

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How to Build Enterprise Apps with Kinvey & NativeScript Demo

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Optimizing startup time of NativeScript Angular apps

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Product Details

What is NativeScript?

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​.

NativeScript Features

  • Supported: Reuse web skills (JavaScript, CSS) to create truly native mobile apps for iOS and Android
  • Supported: Deep integration with popular JavaScript frameworks like Angular or Vue to minimize learning curve
  • Supported: Extensive code sharing between mobile platforms (including UI) and web apps (when used with Angular)
  • Supported: Deliver high-quality mobile apps to multiple platforms faster, using web developers you already have

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

NativeScript Video

This spring and summer have been full of new NativeScript features, tooling options, and improvements. NativeScript is evolving into something more than just an open source framework. In this webinar, we'll talk about all the new goodies for you and show you how you can crush it in mobile app development

NativeScript Competitors

NativeScript Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(18)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

NativeScript has proven to be an invaluable tool for developers across various industries. For a fitness startup, NativeScript enabled them to launch their app in just six months, providing a fast and efficient solution for their mobile development needs. Another company in the e-learning education industry is testing NativeScript as a potential alternative to their current app built on Ionic v1, with the goal of achieving an offline-first experience and improved performance.

Customers in the customer service industry have found NativeScript to be particularly useful due to its compatibility with the Angular web framework. This has allowed them to implement mobile and web-based cross-platform applications seamlessly, leveraging their existing knowledge and skills. Additionally, NativeScript's access to system APIs and seamless integration with third-party libraries has empowered developers to have full control over platform-specific functionalities, enabling them to build robust and feature-rich applications.

Countless developers have also turned to NativeScript for its ability to reuse existing frameworks and achieve native performance. It has been successfully used by consulting companies looking for a mobile app development platform that offers native performance, native UI generation, and ease of cross-platform development. These companies have praised NativeScript for allowing them to leverage their existing skills in Angular, TypeScript, and CSS, resulting in faster development cycles and cost savings.

Notably, NativeScript's versatility has made it an excellent fit for organizations that need to develop mobile applications for different platforms. By avoiding the need for separate codebases, they can save significant time and effort while still achieving native performance on both iOS and Android. This has made NativeScript a go-to choice for many developers working on projects at various stages of development.

Overall, NativeScript has garnered positive feedback from its users who appreciate its compatibility with modern web frameworks like Angular, its access to system APIs, and its ability to achieve native performance while maintaining cross-platform capabilities. It is clear that NativeScript offers a powerful solution for mobile app development needs across diverse industries.

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.

Lack of ready-made UI collections: Several users have expressed frustration with the absence of ready-made UI collections in NativeScript. This means that users have to build their applications using default UI elements and then manually style them, which can be time-consuming and require additional effort. Users feel that this limitation hampers the ease and convenience of designing user interfaces for their applications.

Default UI elements not intuitive or user-friendly: Some users have found NativeScript's default UI elements to be less intuitive or user-friendly than they would prefer. This has made it more challenging for them to quickly and efficiently create applications. They believe that a more intuitive interface would greatly enhance the development process.

Lack of built-in support for customizing UI elements: Another concern raised by users is the lack of built-in support or guidance for customizing UI elements in NativeScript. Users feel that they could benefit from more assistance or resources in this area, as it would make customization easier and faster. They believe that having readily available options for customizing UI elements would greatly improve their experience with the software.

Users have provided several recommendations for Native Script based on their experiences. Based on the feedback, the following are the three most common recommendations:

  1. It is advisable to do a few tutorials and check if the desired functionality is supported through plugins or if the user is willing to create them. This implies that there may be cases where certain features are missing in the software, and users should be prepared to address this by exploring plugins or creating their own.

  2. Users recommend trying Native Script to learn something new and explore interesting features. This suggests that Native Script offers a unique learning experience for those interested in expanding their skills and discovering new capabilities.

  3. However, users do not recommend using Native Script for production-ready applications. While the software has its merits, it may not be suitable for developing applications intended for deployment in a live production environment.

These recommendations highlight the importance of familiarizing oneself with Native Script's capabilities through tutorials, being open to exploring plugins or creating custom functionality, and considering the software's limitations when deciding whether it is appropriate for specific use cases.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-13 of 13)
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Balázs Kiss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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!
Eric Bewley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
NativeScript by itself, appears to be a reasonable environment for the development of simple apps between a web app and mobile apps. Do not read their white papers and accomplishments of their development team members, but rather what external developers are saying.

If you are looking to add the use of NativeScript to an existing environment, give your developers several months to work through several significant scenarios individually in full-fledged (not stubbed) proofs-of-concept. Impress upon those developers, the need to delve deep into the construction of NativeScript UI plugins which require interaction with other areas of functionality within the environment. Even if you believe that the out-of-the-box functionality of NativeScript appears sufficient, ask each of your developers to attempt the development of a couple of NativeScript plugins which interact with the native functionality of both Android and iOS.

Once your development has had ample (or excessive) time to provide you with working proofs-of-concept, please listen intently to all of the concerns posed by those developers. Do not accept a summary report of their efforts. I cannot stress this last one enough, because this is often when large development teams fail, and/or end up going way over budget.
Tiago Alves | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I would recommend for building native apps for iOS or Android if 1) the developers come from a web dev background; 2) the company can't afford separate teams for Android and iOS; 3) the team wants to use Vue.js.

I would not recommend if the app needs a web version and is simple enough to be a hybrid app.
Evan Payne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As with any mobile app, the most important decision to make first is whether you really need a mobile app at all. If you are just building a web app with some user data persistence, then perhaps a progressive web app is all you need. Where NativeScript shines is in building apps that use more than the standard web APIs, and really provide value to your users in how they interact with the device APIs.

Additionally, consider what javascript framework your team is most comfortable using before starting your NativeScript project. There are flavours available for standard JS, Angular, and Vue. Angular is often the best documented, and both JS and Angular are quite stable. NativeScript + Vue is new, and there are still many bugs, but for simple apps, you can accomplish a lot without trouble. The best thing is to choose based on what your team already knows, and this will speed up your development process.
Mike Branstein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
NativeScript is great for line of business apps, quick prototypes, and production apps. NativeScript isn't designed for heavy 3D graphics and gaming apps, as other platforms like Unity do this well and are highly optimized.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
NativeScript is well suited for most smartphone applications, I'm using it for a motion sensing application, a Roku remote and a streaming music service application, however, it is not for game development.
Shiva Prasad K | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When you want to target Web and Mobile (iOS + Android), using a single code base. Then you can use NativeScript Angular or NativeScript Vue. If your app is going to do a lot of heavy lifting in the background, requires building widgets that can be added on homescreen, or simply is going to be a service, which doesn't require UI, then NativeScript is not an ideal fit for that project.
Nic Raboy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Brad Martin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you're going to want a mobile app and a web app then NativeScript is the perfect solution, especially if your developers enjoy Angular or VueJS javascript frameworks.

If you're going to do game development or if learning native mobile paradigms are an issue then NativeScript is not the best option and using a web only approach would be best.
victor pease solano | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Dave Coffin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
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