Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Expo VS Active Admin

Compare Expo VS Active Admin and see what are their differences

Expo logo Expo

The fastest way to build an iOS and Android app ๐Ÿ“ฑ

Active Admin logo Active Admin

The administration framework for business critical Ruby on Rails applications.
  • Expo Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11
  • Active Admin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30

Expo features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Expo simplifies the development process by providing a managed workflow that handles configuration and builds, allowing developers to focus on coding.
  • Cross-Platform Development
    Expo enables developers to write code once and deploy it on both iOS and Android platforms, ensuring a consistent user experience across devices.
  • Pre-Built Components
    Expo offers a library of pre-built components and APIs that streamline the development process and reduce the time needed to implement common functionalities.
  • Over-the-Air Updates
    Developers can push updates to users in real-time without needing to go through the app store review process, facilitating quick bug fixes and feature releases.
  • Strong Community Support
    Expo has a vibrant and active developer community, offering a wealth of resources, tutorials, and third-party packages to assist developers.
  • Integrated Development Environment
    Expo provides tools like Expo CLI and Expo Go that make it easier to build, test, and debug applications, particularly for newcomers to mobile app development.

Possible disadvantages of Expo

  • Custom Native Code Limitations
    Expo's managed workflow restricts the use of custom native code, limiting developers when they need to integrate with third-party native libraries not supported by Expo.
  • Larger App Size
    Expo includes additional libraries and dependencies by default, which can result in a larger application size compared to custom builds.
  • Performance Overhead
    The abstraction added by Expo can introduce performance overhead, making it less suitable for highly performance-sensitive applications.
  • Dependency on Expo's Updates
    Developers are dependent on Expo's update cycle for bug fixes and new features, which may not always align with their project timelines.
  • Limited Configuration Options
    Expo's managed workflow abstracts many configurations for build processes, which can be a hindrance for developers needing granular control over app settings.
  • Ejection Complexity
    Ejecting from the managed workflow to a bare workflow for more customization can be complex and time-consuming, potentially negating some benefits of using Expo.

Active Admin features and specs

  • Rapid Development
    Active Admin allows for rapid development of back-end administration dashboards without having to code everything from scratch. It provides a default set of controllers, routes, and views that can be easily customized.
  • Rails Integration
    Built specifically for Ruby on Rails applications, Active Admin leverages Rails conventions and integrates seamlessly with its ecosystem, enabling a familiar and efficient development experience for Rails developers.
  • Rich Features
    Active Admin comes with a wide range of features like authentication, authorization, filtering, searching, and custom actions which can be customized to fit business requirements.
  • Community and Documentation
    Active Admin has a strong community and well-maintained documentation which provides support and resources for developers. The community contributes by sharing plugins and solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Active Admin

  • Customization Complexity
    Once you move beyond basic customizations, making extensive changes to the default behavior or appearance can be complex and require a deeper understanding of both Active Admin and Rails.
  • Performance
    Due to the abstraction and additional layers provided by Active Admin, it might not be the best choice for high-performance applications, especially when dealing with large datasets.
  • Dependency on Rails
    Active Admin is tightly coupled with Rails, which means it cannot be used for non-Rails applications, limiting its use for projects not based on this framework.
  • Version Compatibility
    As both Rails and Active Admin evolve, there might be compatibility issues between different versions, which could require upgrades or modifications in your existing codebase.

Analysis of Expo

Overall verdict

  • Expo is a solid choice for developers looking to quickly build and deploy mobile applications using React Native. Its ease of use and comprehensive toolset make it particularly attractive for rapid prototyping and development of small to medium apps. However, some advanced native functionalities might require ejecting from Expo, which can introduce additional complexities.

Why this product is good

  • Ease of use
    Expo is known for its user-friendly interface that allows developers to quickly prototype and build apps with React Native without needing to set up native development environments.
  • Cross platform
    Expo simplifies the process of building cross-platform applications, giving developers tools to deploy apps for both iOS and Android effortlessly.
  • No native code
    With Expo, developers can build applications entirely in JavaScript, which is beneficial for those who may not be familiar with native coding languages.
  • Developer tools
    It provides a suite of tools such as an interactive development environment, error reporting, and debugging services that enhance the development experience.

Recommended for

    {"beginners" => "New developers who are just getting started with app development will find Expo's simplicity and comprehensive documentation helpful.", "rapid_prototyping" => "Teams seeking to quickly prototype and iterate on ideas can benefit from Expo's convenient tools and cross-platform capabilities.", "react_native_developers" => "Developers familiar with React Native who want a streamlined solution to deploy apps without deep diving into native code."}

Expo videos

Scenes from the 2019 National FFA Convention & Expo | Review Video

More videos:

  • Review - Auto Expo 2020 Film | Real-life review
  • Review - Expo Dry Erase Set Unboxing & Review

Active Admin videos

Harry Potter and the Active Admin

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Expo and Active Admin)
Developer Tools
80 80%
20% 20
Mobile App Builder
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
0 0%
100% 100
Application Builder
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Expo should be more popular than Active Admin. It has been mentiond 35 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.

Expo mentions (35)

  • Video player with React Native. Part 1: Expo
    We are going to review it in a series of two articles. This is the first one, where we will touch on Expo. Expo is quite popular and is even recommended in Getting Started guide for React Native. But it differs a lot. Here we will go through the process of building an app with Expo and then make technology comparison based on the results. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • State Management Nx React Native/Expo Apps with TanStack Query and Redux
    This workspace is created using @nx/expo (Nx and Expo). - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • New OAuth Vulnerability (CVE-2023-28131) impacts hundreds of websites and Apps
    Just be clear this isn't an OAuth vulnerability. It's an vulnerability in expo.io. It doesn't even really have anything to do with OAuth. They've just terrible return url handling so it probably impacts a lot more than just stealing OAuth tokens. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Convert Reactjs + Firebase Project to a Mobile apk app. Please help
    I haven't messed with React Native in a hot minute, but it should be rather easy to port your React app to React Native. I recall using expo.io in uni for react native development. Hope that helps. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Form Validation in React (Native) using Formik
    Expo: Expo is a free and open source toolchain built around React Native to help you build native iOS and Android projects using JavaScript and React. Expo is a great way to get started with React Native. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
View more

Active Admin mentions (12)

  • Goravel: A Go framework inspired by Laravel
    Same reason IDEs โ€” when you really know them โ€” allow for quicker development compared to using primitive text editors with a bunch of third-party plugins duck-taped together. When you understand the framework, everything is written to the same standard, behaves in similar ways, and is where you expect it to be. Adding things like background job processing requires changing one line of config. Also, one... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Use Rails
    Rails is absolutely fantastic for projects below 10,000 lines with 1 or 2 contributors, especially if you want a classic forms-based UI. And you can get a huge amount done under those constraints in Rails. But as of couple of years ago, Rails came with a number of drawbacks: 1. There was no really viable system of static typing that a significant number of people were enthusiastic about. See... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Why aren't Django Admin style dashboards popular in other frameworks?
    Can you clarify what's the "tremendous value" you're getting out of the Django admin? At Heii On-Call https://heiioncall.com/ we are using Active Admin https://activeadmin.info/ for Ruby on Rails, which seems quite similar to the Django admin. In my experience, it's mostly useful as a fairly basic read-only view of what's in the database. In Rails, it's so easy to whip together a custom view that we tend to do... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • View code coverage (active_admin and orther .arb file)
    For those who know [https://activeadmin.info/](https://activeadmin.info/) it uses a file format [https://github.com/activeadmin/arbre](https://github.com/activeadmin/arbre). Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Show HN: Build Ruby on Rails apps 10x faster โ€“ Avo
    Very neat! My first thought was that this was a competitor to https://bullettrain.co/. Looking into it a bit more, it seems more aimed at building admin panels than whole apps. I guess it competes against tools like https://activeadmin.info/? - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Expo and Active Admin, you can also consider the following products

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

RailsAdmin - A Rails engine that provides an easy-to-use interface for managing your data

Thunkable - Powerful but easy to use, drag-and-drop mobile app builder.

Slick - A jquery plugin for creating slideshows and carousels into your webpage.

Android Studio - Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA

Sequel Pro - MySQL database management for Mac OS X