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Onsen UI VS AngularJS

Compare Onsen UI VS AngularJS and see what are their differences

Onsen UI logo Onsen UI

HTML5 Hybrid Mobile App UI Framework - work with Angular, React, Vue, Meteor & pure JavaScript. Material & Flat design.

AngularJS logo AngularJS

AngularJS lets you extend HTML vocabulary for your application. The resulting environment is extraordinarily expressive, readable, and quick to develop.
  • Onsen UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-21
  • AngularJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-15

Onsen UI features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Onsen UI supports iOS, Android, and Windows platforms, allowing developers to create apps that work seamlessly across multiple operating systems using a single codebase.
  • Easy to Learn
    Onsen UI provides clear documentation and an extensive set of components, making it easy for developers, including those who are new to mobile development, to get started quickly.
  • Performance
    Onsen UI is known for its performance, providing smooth animations and transitions on both mobile and desktop devices. It's optimized to work well even on less powerful devices.
  • Integration with Popular Frameworks
    Onsen UI can be seamlessly integrated with popular front-end frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue.js, enhancing its versatility and allowing developers to use their framework of choice.
  • Customizability
    The platform offers a high level of customizability, letting developers create unique and tailored user experiences by extending and modifying existing components.
  • Active Community
    Onsen UI has a robust community and active support, which means developers can readily find solutions to problems, share knowledge, and get updates on new features.
  • Built-in Theme Support
    Onsen UI provides built-in themes that automatically change the look and feel of the application to match the target platform, enhancing user experience by providing a native look and feel.

Possible disadvantages of Onsen UI

  • Dependency on Groovy
    Some features in Onsen UI depend on the Monaca CLI which uses Groovy, adding an additional technology layer that developers might need to learn.
  • Limited Plugin Ecosystem
    Compared to other frameworks like React Native or Flutter, Onsen UI has a relatively limited range of third-party plugins, which can restrict the functionality or require custom development for certain features.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Customization
    While basic usage is straightforward, advanced customization may have a steeper learning curve, particularly for developers not familiar with mobile-first design principles.
  • Less Popularity
    Onsen UI is less popular compared to frameworks like React Native and Flutter, which can result in fewer resources, tutorials, and community support.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging mobile-specific issues can be more involved when using a hybrid framework like Onsen UI compared to using native development tools.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies in a hybrid environment can sometimes be challenging, especially when dealing with different versions of libraries and platform-specific issues.

AngularJS features and specs

  • Two-way data binding
    AngularJS's two-way data binding feature synchronizes data between the model and the view components, reducing the amount of boilerplate code required for data manipulation and improving ease of use.
  • Dependency Injection
    The built-in dependency injection mechanism in AngularJS facilitates better organization and management of services, making the code more modular, testable, and reusable.
  • Modular Development
    AngularJS allows developers to break down applications into modules. This modular approach helps in better code organization, easier maintenance, and parallel development.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Backed by Google, AngularJS has a large and active community. This extensive support system provides a wealth of resources, plugins, and third-party tools that can facilitate the development process.
  • Directives
    Directives in AngularJS allow developers to extend HTML with new attributes and elements, enabling the creation of custom and reusable components with ease.
  • MVVM Architecture
    The Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architecture promotes the separation of concerns, allowing developers to work on different parts of the application without interfering with each other.

Possible disadvantages of AngularJS

  • Performance Issues
    AngularJS's two-way data binding can induce performance issues in large applications due to the constant checking and updating of the binding, which can impact the overall application speed.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    The complexity of AngularJS, with its various concepts such as directives, dependency injection, and MVVM architecture, can present a steep learning curve for new developers.
  • Migration Challenges
    Migrating from AngularJS to newer versions like Angular (2+), which are fundamentally different, poses significant challenges and often requires a complete codebase rewrite.
  • Verbose Code
    AngularJS's syntax can sometimes lead to verbose and complicated code, which can be difficult to read and maintain, especially for large-scale applications.
  • Limited Mobile Support
    Despite its strengths, AngularJS does not offer the same level of performance optimization for mobile applications, making it less ideal for mobile-first development compared to some other frameworks.
  • Legacy Framework
    AngularJS is considered a legacy framework with a focus shifted towards Angular (2+). As a result, it receives fewer updates and less community attention compared to newer frameworks.

Analysis of Onsen UI

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Onsen UI is considered a good choice for developers looking to build mobile applications quickly and efficiently. It offers a robust set of features and adheres to native design guidelines, making it a reliable framework for creating high-quality mobile and web apps.

Why this product is good

  • Onsen UI is a popular open-source framework for developing hybrid and mobile web apps. It is known for its ease of use, comprehensive documentation, and ability to integrate seamlessly with other frameworks like Angular and React. With a strong emphasis on performance and user experience, Onsen UI provides a wide range of components that are specifically optimized for mobile devices.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a framework that supports hybrid app development.
  • Teams looking to build cross-platform mobile applications with a native look and feel.
  • Projects that require integration with popular frameworks like Angular, Vue.js, or React.
  • Developers who value detailed documentation and a supportive community.

Onsen UI videos

Onsen UI - Introduction

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Onsen UI Getting Started Tutorial
  • Review - Masahiro Tanaka - Hybrid Mobile Apps with Vue.js and Onsen UI | VueConf 2017

AngularJS videos

What Is AngularJS

More videos:

  • Review - AngularJS Fundamentals In 60-ish Minutes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Onsen UI and AngularJS)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
11 11%
89% 89
Developer Tools
53 53%
47% 47
JavaScript Framework
19 19%
81% 81

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Onsen UI and AngularJS

Onsen UI Reviews

Top React component libraries (2021 edition)
Originally based on AngularJS with support for jQuery, Onsen UI offers an adapted framework for React. Onsen was developed by Monaca Software which specializes in mobile app development and is based out of Japan. Based on the mobile-first origin, the Onsen UI framework is well suited for building mobile apps.
Source: retool.com
Top JavaScript Frameworks For Mobile App Development
OnSen UI is a powerful, free, opensource mobile application JavaScript framework that is bundled up with ready to implement features with a native nature. It is apt for building hybrid apps with Cordova and progressive web apps.There are 3 layers attached to it — CSS components, framework bindings, and web components.
Source: medium.com
Comparing popular React component libraries
Onsen UI is a bit different from the previous libraries we’ve examined. Because it’s built with a mobile-first design in mind, Onsen UI is mostly used to build cross-platform mobile web apps.
10 React Native Alternatives
Most importantly, the Onsen UI ecosystem has a toolkit known as Monaca that helps in developing hybrid mobile apps.
20 Best Front-End Frameworks For Bootstrap Alternative
Onsen UI is a hybrid framework that works well with PhoneGap and Cordova. With AngularJS, jQuery, Font Awesome and TopCoat as the foundation, Onsen UI can be a promising tools for developing amazing mobile apps. Onsen UI can help you build mobile apps easily using the concept of Web Components.
Source: beebom.com

AngularJS Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
AngularJS is an open-source framework used for developing web applications. Google developed it and made it open-source in 2010. It is one of the top choices of developers when it comes to building web applications using JavaScript. Hire web developers from SolGuruz and allow us to help you build white-label solutions.
Source: solguruz.com
20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
Yes, Angular Universal provides server-side rendering capabilities for Angular applications. This tool allows Angular apps to benefit from SSR, improving performance and SEO by rendering pages on the server before sending them to the client.
The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
NestJS is a Node.js framework that’s inspired by Angular, and guess what? It’s written in TypeScript. Building with Typescript is like you’re navigating with the stars. It’s all about sturdy architecture, a server-side framework that enjoys the scripting superness while piling on extra sturdiness.
Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
9 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023
Angular.js is a powerful JavaScript-based web development framework. It has been designed to make web development more efficient and easy to use. Angular.js is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which makes it easy to develop dynamic web applications. It also provides many features that make web development more efficient, such as data binding, dependency...
Source: ninetailed.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AngularJS seems to be a lot more popular than Onsen UI. While we know about 50 links to AngularJS, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Onsen UI. 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.

Onsen UI mentions (2)

  • 12 Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile Apps
    Onsen UI has quickly grown in adoption since its release in 2013. It is an open-source framework under the Apache v2 license. Onsen UI is framework-agnostic UI components, you can choose and switch among the frameworks: AngularJS, Angular, React, and Vue.js or go pure JavaScript to build your hybrid apps. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Why are HTML attributes set differently into the DOM?
    For one of our web applications, we used the Onsen UI js framework with its React support library. Source: about 3 years ago

AngularJS mentions (50)

  • Between Diapers and Development – How My Blog Came to Life with Eleventy
    To maximize learning, I could choose something new. Normally, I consider that a valid reason. But given my limited time, that wasn't a priority for me. Another criterion could be long-term viability: Is there a large core team and an active community? Well, who still remembers AngularJS? From Google? And didn’t Facebook/Meta start Jest? I wouldn’t rely too much on that. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • 11 Quick and Easy Tips for Optimizing AngularJS Performance
    AngularJS is an open-source JavaScript framework that developers use to build frontend applications. It comes with modular support, an extensive community, and all the tools that help develop and manage dynamic frontend web apps. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Angular Tutorial: Host Element Binding
    Ok, what we'll use now is something that existed back in the day, after we switched from AngularJS to Angular 2 or modern Angular. We'll use the old/new host property on the component decorator. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • ⏰ It’s time to talk about Import Map, Micro Frontend, and Nx Monorepo
    Just to give you more context, I led the migration of several AngularJS applications to the newer Angular Framework. My client finally decided to make that move following the AngularJS deprecation announcement (stay up to date please 🙏)️. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • JS Toolbox 2024: Essential Picks for Modern Developers Series Overview
    The next post in the series provides a thorough comparison of popular frameworks like React, Vue, Angular, and Svelte, focusing on their unique features and suitability for different project types. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Onsen UI and AngularJS, you can also consider the following products

jQuery Mobile - jQuery Mobile

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

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

ember.js - A JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web apps