Item: NativeScript
Rating: 2
Author: Balázs Kiss

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 and Cons

Teach the basics of the framework
Integrate to existing Angular project

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

Most Important Features

Opportunity to write cross-platform applications in Angular
Reaching a bigger customer base with our knowledge of the framework

Return on Investment

Although we succeeded in shipping the app, it did not save us any significant amount of time.
We still needed an Android developer to fully implement the application and enhance the capabilities of the Angular app

Alternatives Considered

Flutter, by Google and Ionic

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 not rely on JavaScript and Android knowledge as much as NativeScript.

Key Insights

Do you think NativeScript delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with NativeScript's feature set?

Did NativeScript live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of NativeScript go as expected?

Would you buy NativeScript again?

Other Software Used

Flutter, by Google, Docker, Atlassian Jira Align (formerly AgileCraft)

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.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Product Features

We wanted to utilize our Front-end developers, to build a cross-platform app, so we don't need deep Android knowledge or write a second app. NativeScript sadly failed to deliver this.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Although I am happy that I got the chance to use and learn this framework, it gave me a better perspective to avoid javascript-based cross-platform frameworks, especially if they are backed by a small company and only a tiny community. We found Flutter, and we have used that ever since.

Disappointment in NativeScript for production

Overall Satisfaction with NativeScript