Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Appsmith VS NativeScript

Compare Appsmith VS NativeScript and see what are their differences

Appsmith logo Appsmith

Appsmith is an open source web framework for building internal tools, admin panels, dashboards, and workflows.

NativeScript logo NativeScript

Build truly native apps with JavaScript
  • Appsmith Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-17

Turn any datasource into an internal app in minutes. Appsmith lets you drag-and-drop UI components to build pages, connect to any API, database or GraphQL source and write logic with JavaScript objects.

  • NativeScript Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

Appsmith features and specs

  • Open Source
    Appsmith is an open-source platform, which means it's free to use. Developers can also contribute to its development and customize the platform according to their needs.
  • Easy Integration
    Appsmith allows easy integration with a variety of data sources including REST APIs, databases, and third-party services, making it highly versatile for different applications.
  • Drag-and-Drop Interface
    The platform offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for building dashboards and admin panels, which reduces the time required for development.
  • Pre-built Widgets
    Appsmith comes with a collection of pre-built widgets like tables, charts, and forms, which can be directly used in applications for rapid development.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source project, Appsmith has a strong community that can provide support, share solutions, and contribute to the platform's growth.

Possible disadvantages of Appsmith

  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there is still a learning curve involved, especially for developers who are new to the low-code/no-code paradigm.
  • Performance
    Performance can be an issue with more complex applications or very high data loads, and it may require optimization to ensure smooth functioning.
  • Customization Limitations
    While it offers various customization options, it may not be as flexible or powerful as fully custom-built applications for highly specific requirements.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    The platform may lack some advanced features found in more mature enterprise-level tools, potentially limiting its use for very complex or specific business needs.
  • Hosting and Maintenance
    As an open-source tool, hosting and maintenance are the user's responsibility, which can be a disadvantage for those who prefer a fully managed solution.

NativeScript features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    NativeScript allows developers to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android, which saves time and resources.
  • Native Performance
    Since NativeScript directly uses native components, it delivers high performance comparable to native applications, unlike some other cross-platform solutions.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    NativeScript offers a rich ecosystem of plugins and modules, making it easy to extend functionalities and integrate with various services.
  • Single Codebase
    Maintaining a single codebase for both iOS and Android reduces development and debugging efforts.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, NativeScript has strong community support and continuous improvements driven by developers around the world.
  • Access to Native APIs
    NativeScript allows direct access to native APIs, giving developers more flexibility and control over platform-specific features.

Possible disadvantages of NativeScript

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The framework requires an understanding of native development concepts, which can be complex for new developers or those not familiar with mobile development.
  • Lack of Third-Party Components
    Compared to more mature frameworks, NativeScript has a limited number of third-party libraries and UI components available.
  • Performance Overhead
    Despite high performance, there is still some overhead compared to fully native applications due to the abstraction layer.
  • Limited Community Support
    Although the community is growing, it is still smaller compared to mainstream frameworks like React Native or Flutter, which might result in slower issue resolution and fewer resources.
  • Maintenance and Updates
    Keeping the framework and its plugins up to date with the latest iOS and Android releases can be challenging and resource-intensive.

Appsmith videos

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NativeScript videos

NativeScript VS React Native 2019 | performance | community | plugins

More videos:

  • Review - Which one is best for you? Flutter, React Native, Ionic or NativeScript?
  • Review - 7 Things to Know When Learning NativeScript

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Appsmith and NativeScript)
No Code
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
65 65%
35% 35
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Appsmith and NativeScript

Appsmith Reviews

Top 9 Low-Code Tools for 2023 for low-code development
Appsmith is a low-code platform that empowers users to build business applications and workflows without writing extensive code. It offers a visual interface for designing UIs, integrating data sources, and creating custom logic. With Appsmith, users can connect to databases, APIs, and third-party services, and build dynamic and interactive applications. Its collaborative...
Appsmith vs ILLA Cloud: Comparing Two Low-Code Platforms
Deployment Options: Appsmith offers two deployment options: Appsmith Cloud and self-hosting. Appsmith Cloud is a free hosted service that lets developers start building their apps on any device without any installation or configuration. Self-hosting is a free option that lets developers host Appsmith on their own servers or cloud providers for more control and security.
Appsmith vs. Tooljet: Which Low-Code Platform is Better for You?
In this blog post, we will compare two popular LCDPs for building internal tools: Appsmith and Tooljet. We will also introduce ILLA Cloud, a new and innovative LCDP that offers a viable alternative to Appsmith and Tooljet.

NativeScript Reviews

Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
With the framework, developers get the option to craft a completely native experience even without interfering with the user interface. Those who are familiar with JavaScript can leverage NativeScript to its fullest.
Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
NativeScript is a powerful framework that empowers developers to build Web, iOS, Android, and Vision Pro apps on a single codebase. If you’re comfortable with web development, especially Angular or VueJS, you’ll find NativeScript accessible.
Source: www.miquido.com
10 Best Open Source Firebase Alternatives
The native apps you develop use the richness of the mobile platform and offer the performance you need for mobile devices. NativeScript uses native APIs and controls to render, allowing you to create more sophisticated apps compared to using a hybrid approach.
10 Best Tools to Develop Cross-Platform Desktop Apps 
NativeScript doesn’t require Angular or Vue.js but works better when used together for cross-platform app development. This runtime framework implements JavaScript, its superset TypeScript and Angular Native, and can render a variety of apps, be they gaming, streaming, geolocation, or chat apps. The user interface is in XML and CSS. A single, reusable codebase can be applied...
Top JavaScript Frameworks For Mobile App Development
NativeScript is an open-source, cross-platform, free mobile framework that assists in the creation of a truly native Android and iOS mobile apps. These apps can be built with JavaScript, Angular, Vue.js or TypeScript. Programming using NativeScript reduces the development time and lines of code, to a large extent. Many organizations globally have been implementing it because...
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, NativeScript should be more popular than Appsmith. It has been mentiond 20 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.

Appsmith mentions (6)

  • Airplane acquired by Airtable and is shutting down
    Founder of Appsmith (https://appsmith.com) here. This is very unfortunate news. I have a lot of respect for the founders & the product. In fact I even used Airplane for a few side projects in the past. It's sad to see the product die. IMO, most folks alluding to them running out money is incorrect. I think they simply ran out of energy or the will to go on. This is very common among early stage companies. But, as... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Web no-code/low-code tool recommendation? Backend+frontend+analytics and simple to learn
    As well as Appsmith & Retool. They all have generous free tiers, in my opinion. Each can be self-hosted too. Source: over 2 years ago
  • No code platform that can be self-hosted on AWS
    Hello, you can check out Appsmith. It's an open-source platform with all the features you mentioned and it's great for building business apps! Source: over 2 years ago
  • Affordable low code platform for internal tools?
    Appsmith is self hosted right now. It’s as customizable as Retool, easy as Internal, and less glitchy than Budibase. Tooljet also offers a self hosted version, but Appsmiths dev team updates improvements so much faster. Source: over 2 years ago
  • February Round-up: New Helm Charts, Product Updates, and Collabs
    If you’ve followed Appsmith for a while, you know that we can do a lot in 30 days! In the second month of 2022, we cleared a few bugs and created an all-new event called How Do I Do X, where many frequently asked questions live. Source: about 3 years ago
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NativeScript mentions (20)

  • What are JavaScript Engines?
    NativeScript is a good example of a runtime built specifically for cross-platform native mobile application development built using JavaScript. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Gio UI – Cross-Platform GUI for Go
    A long time ago, nativescript[1] seemed to be a strong alternative to reactnative. Is that still the case? [1] https://nativescript.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Flutter or React Native?
    I'm curious about this topic as well. I would also add NativeScript[1] in the comparison. [1] https://nativescript.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Svelte Native: The Svelte Mobile Development Experience
    This is not so much the Svelte equivalent of React Native as it is just NativeScript (https://nativescript.org). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Mobile App Development for both iOS and Andriod
    There is also https://nativescript.org/ which would allow you to use Vue (or several other frameworks) to build a mobile app. Used it myself a while back for an iPad app using Vue 2 and it was pretty straightforward. It seems like there have been quite a few improvements since then so might be worth a look. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Appsmith and NativeScript, you can also consider the following products

Retool - Build custom internal tools in minutes.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

ToolJet - Open-source alternative for Retool

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

Budibase - What Wordpress is to websites, Budibase is to web apps. Budibase is a free and open source web app builder for creating, launching and growing web applications. Budibase eliminates repetition and dramatically reduces development time. Check it out.

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