NativeScript VS Apache Cordova

Compare NativeScript VS Apache Cordova and see what are their differences

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NativeScript

Build truly native apps with JavaScript

Apache Cordova

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

Landing page //
2023-10-21

Landing page //
2023-01-17

NativeScript

Website: nativescript.org
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Apache Cordova

Website: cordova.apache.org
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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.

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.

Analysis of NativeScript

Overall verdict

NativeScript is considered a good choice for developers seeking to create cross-platform mobile applications with a native look and feel while using web technologies they are already familiar with. It balances the flexibility of web development with the performance and capability of native apps.

Why this product is good

NativeScript is a popular open-source framework for building native mobile applications using JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, Vue.js, or Svelte. It allows developers to write and maintain a single codebase for both iOS and Android, which can significantly reduce development time and effort. NativeScript provides access to native APIs, ensuring that apps can leverage device capabilities to deliver a truly native user experience. Additionally, the community and plugin ecosystem offer resources and tools to enhance app functionality and streamline development processes.

Recommended for

Web developers looking to leverage their existing skills to build mobile apps.
Teams that need to maintain a single codebase for multiple platforms.
Projects that require deep integration with native device features.
Developers familiar with frameworks like Angular, Vue.js, or Svelte who want to build mobile applications.

NativeScript videos

+ Add

NativeScript VS React Native 2019 | performance | community | plugins

Apache Cordova videos

+ Add

Apache Cordova - Hello World from Android and iOS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NativeScript and Apache Cordova)

NativeScript

Apache Cordova

Development Tools

42 42%

Development Tools

58% 58

JavaScript Framework

43 43%

JavaScript Framework

57% 57

Developer Tools

46 46%

Developer Tools

54% 54

Javascript UI Libraries

44 44%

Javascript UI Libraries

56% 56

User comments

Share your experience with using NativeScript and Apache Cordova. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Reviews

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

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.

Source: www.moontechnolabs.com

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.

Source: rigorousthemes.com

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...

Source: www.westagilelabs.com

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

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.

Source: www.moontechnolabs.com

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...

Source: positiwise.medium.com

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.

Source: www.geeksforgeeks.org

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Cordova should be more popular than NativeScript. 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.

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 / 6 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

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 / 6 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 / over 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 / over 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 / over 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