Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Cordova VS NeutralinoJS

Compare Apache Cordova VS NeutralinoJS and see what are their differences

Apache Cordova logo Apache Cordova

Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript

NeutralinoJS logo NeutralinoJS

Neutralino is a lightweight application development framework.
  • Apache Cordova Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17
  • NeutralinoJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-25

Apache Cordova features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Apache Cordova enables developers to build applications for multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.) using a single codebase, which saves time and resources.
  • Use of Web Technologies
    Cordova allows the use of standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making it accessible for web developers to create mobile applications without needing to learn platform-specific languages.
  • Extensive Plugin Ecosystem
    Cordova provides a wide range of plugins that enable access to native device functionalities (such as the camera, accelerometer, GPS, etc.), allowing for more versatile app development.
  • Cost Effective
    By reducing the need for multiple native developers and leveraging a single web development team, Cordova can significantly cut down the costs of application development.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, Apache Cordova benefits from community support and contributions, leading to continuous improvements and a wealth of shared knowledge and code.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Cordova

  • Performance Issues
    Applications built with Cordova may experience performance issues, especially with complex graphical or computational tasks, as they are essentially web applications wrapped in a native container.
  • Limited Native Functionality
    Although Cordova provides many plugins, accessing the latest native features often requires custom development, which can be complicated and time-consuming.
  • Dependency on Plugins
    Developers often rely heavily on third-party plugins to access native features. If these plugins are not well-maintained, they can introduce compatibility issues and bugs.
  • User Experience
    The user experience of Cordova-based apps may not be as smooth or responsive as fully native applications, potentially leading to lower user satisfaction.
  • Security Concerns
    Using multiple plugins and technologies can increase the surface area for security vulnerabilities. Also, web-based applications can be more susceptible to common web security issues.

NeutralinoJS features and specs

  • Lightweight
    NeutralinoJS is lightweight compared to other desktop development frameworks like Electron. It consumes fewer resources, which leads to better performance.
  • Cross-Platform
    It is designed to work on multiple operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux, allowing developers to create cross-platform applications with a single codebase.
  • No Dependencies Required
    NeutralinoJS does not require Node.js to be installed on the end user's device, simplifying the deployment process and reducing the setup complexity.
  • Native Feel
    Applications built with NeutralinoJS can integrate well with native operating system features, providing a more seamless user experience.
  • Web Technology Stack
    Developers can use familiar web technologies, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which accelerates the development process and makes it more accessible to web developers.

Possible disadvantages of NeutralinoJS

  • Limited Features Compared to Electron
    NeutralinoJS may not have all the advanced features and functionalities that Electron offers, potentially limiting its use for more complex applications.
  • Smaller Community
    NeutralinoJS has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to more established frameworks like Electron, which may result in fewer resources and third-party plugins.
  • Less Documented
    The documentation might not be as extensive or comprehensive as other popular frameworks, making it harder for developers to troubleshoot or learn advanced topics.
  • Newer Technology
    Being a relatively newer framework, it might still be undergoing significant changes and improvements, which could affect the stability of projects.

Apache Cordova videos

Apache Cordova - Hello World from Android and iOS

More videos:

  • Review - What’s Your View on Apache Cordova?

NeutralinoJS videos

neutralinojs building cross platform

More videos:

  • Review - Building your first app with Neutralinojs 1.0.8

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Cordova and NeutralinoJS)
Development Tools
78 78%
22% 22
JavaScript Framework
100 100%
0% 0
Rapid Application Development
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Cordova and NeutralinoJS

Apache Cordova Reviews

Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
Developed by Apache Cordova, PhoneGap is used extensively for developing cross-platform mobile with the use of several web technologies. It lets developers write code by using HTML, CSS & JavaScript and package it as a native app. Being a simple framework, it includes the largest collection of plugins that extend its wide functionality.
Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework that lets you create cross-platform apps using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Like NativeScript, Apache Cordova is more accessible to developers comfortable with web development, especially Angular or VueJS.
Source: www.miquido.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Oracle Mobile Application Framework (MAF) offers cross-platform development using standards like HTML5 and JavaScript containerized via Apache Cordova. Oracle MAF delivers excellent offline support capabilities matching the needs of field service teams and remote inspectors. With tools like Oracle Database and middleware, MAF apps cache relevant data subsets locally while...
Top 10 Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Apache Cordova is used for building mobile applications with the help of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It is an open-source mobile application development framework that was created by Nitobi.
10 Best Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Apache Cordova is a tool to develop Android App Development. It enables software engineers to build apps for Android mobile phones. Using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript instead of relying on platform-specific APIs. Like those in Android, iOS or Windows phones. When you are using Apache Cordova APIs, an app can be developed without any native code (like Java, objective-C, etc.) from...
Source: techdator.net

NeutralinoJS Reviews

  1. A very lightweight alternative to electronJS or NWJS

    I have previously created small desktop apps in electron and NW. These were functionally strong, but extremely large and had long load times. With neutralino JS I was able to create the same tools with less effort (both in creation and compilation). I was able to reduce the size of the tools from >300 MB to under 3 MB. Neutralino JS is clearly the better choice for me.

    🏁 Competitors: Electron, NW.js
    👍 Pros:    Very lightweight|Easy to use
    👎 Cons:    Documentation could be stronger|Limited functionality, at the moment

Electron.js Alternatives For Cross-Platform Development
Neutralino.js is yet another superior alternative to Electron.js. It uses a similar thought line as Tauri to help developers create lightweight and unique digital solutions. However, its installation is pretty easy and it uses JS as its core language which makes it more accessible to the target users.
Source: www.atatus.com
12 Best Frameworks and Toolkits to Build Desktop Applications
If you are looking for an alternative to the Electronjs desktop application development framework, Neutralinojs is a viable option. A few applications may become bulky with Electron, but Neutralinojs can help avoid such problems.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Cordova should be more popular than NeutralinoJS. It has been mentiond 44 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Cordova mentions (44)

  • Show HN: I Made a Web App to Bring Children's Drawings to Life
    This is truly amazing. Is there a 'How it Works' a 'Potentials' section? I work with things that push to inspire creativity and learning to foster the passion behind creativity and authentic works where otherwise we'd see how 'AI copies our work' and now we can see how AI can bring works to life and make them more fun. Over-all would you like to see schools adopting your project? I didn't see a contact form but... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • PWAs wont replace native iOS apps
    Anyone have experience with/opinions on Apache Cordova? [1] It seems like it would solve most of the PWA issues. Although I vaguely recall reading that Apple is not too fond of apps that are basically just wrapped web views. [1] https://cordova.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • What's the latest way of submitting pwas to the app stores?
    Has anyone tried pwa builder?[2] Thank you for any insights! [0]https://cordova.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Why does everyone "suddenly" hate Single Page Apps?
    A little over a decade ago, I worked on the open-source project Apache Cordova/Adobe PhoneGap, first at IBM and later at Adobe. Apache Cordova enables you to build mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript while targeting multiple platforms with one code base. In today’s technology landscape, mobile is dominated by iOS and Android. In the early 2010’s we were awash in mobile platforms from BlackBerry,... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • The right way to build multi platform apps in 2023 using web tech. ?
    There are layers that offer access to native APIs like capacitor, cordova and nativescript. Apparently sometimes multiple of them should be used, but I didn't understand what are the differences even after reading the announcement. These seem to be frontend agnostic technologies and Capacitor is apparently the more modern choice at the moment. Source: over 2 years ago
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NeutralinoJS mentions (21)

  • Electrobun: Cross-platform desktop applications written in TypeScript
    So is it a yet another webview-based framework like NeutralinoJS (https://neutralino.js.org), Electrino (https://github.com/pojala/electrino)? What's their advantage apart from using Bun instead of Node? For relly lightweight cross-platform desktop apps better use a non-webview-based native framework like Qt, GTK, wxWidgets or even recently released FLTK 1.4. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Writing GUI apps for Windows is painful
    I've been eyeing https://neutralino.js.org/ since if I'm going to make the app render right on browsers then relying on the same code via webviews likely isn't (much) more portability effort. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Show HN: Pywebview 5
    We tried using pywebview for a cross-platform desktop app when it was version 3.x and some of the features were limited, especially when it came to systray interactions. Will have to try it out again. In the end, for that specific project, we ended up settling on NeutralinoJS. Wails was another big contender but due to limited GoLang resources in-house, we decided not to use it. Reference: https://neutralino.js.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • This year in Servo: over 1000 pull requests and beyond
    There's always https://neutralino.js.org/ which uses native WebView components to keep itself rather smaller than Electron. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Suggestions for a framework to build a personal desktop or browser app
    I've been drawn to NeutralinoJS as it looks like it will do what I want, but I'm willing to hear some other recommendations and maybe tutorials on how to do the objectively simple things I've outlined above. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Cordova and NeutralinoJS, you can also consider the following products

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Electron - Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

PhoneGap - Easily create apps using the web technologies you know and love: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

NW.js - nwjs

Ionic - Ionic is a cross-platform mobile development stack for building performant apps on all platforms with open web technologies.

Flutter - Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀