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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. Apache Cordova vs Sencha Touch

Apache Cordova vs Sencha Touch

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Sencha Touch
Sencha Touch
Stacks78
Followers90
Votes28
Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova
Stacks686
Followers892
Votes218
GitHub Stars955
Forks345

Apache Cordova vs Sencha Touch: What are the differences?

# Key Differences Between Apache Cordova and Sencha Touch

Apache Cordova and Sencha Touch are both popular tools for developing mobile applications, but they have key differences that distinguish them from each other. 

1. **Architecture**: Apache Cordova allows developers to build applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while Sencha Touch is a JavaScript framework that provides a complete set of components for building mobile web applications. 
   
2. **Cross-Platform Development**: Apache Cordova is known for its ability to create cross-platform applications that can run on multiple devices and platforms, while Sencha Touch is more focused on building web applications specifically for mobile devices. 

3. **Performance**: Apache Cordova applications are known to have performance limitations due to their reliance on web technologies, while Sencha Touch applications are optimized for high performance on mobile devices.

4. **User Interface**: Sencha Touch offers a rich set of UI components and themes that are specifically designed for mobile devices, making it easier for developers to create visually appealing applications. In contrast, Apache Cordova does not provide as many built-in UI components and developers may need to rely on third-party libraries for UI design.

5. **Integration with Native Features**: Apache Cordova provides access to native device features such as camera, GPS, and contacts through plugins, allowing developers to create more feature-rich applications. Sencha Touch, on the other hand, may require additional steps or custom solutions to integrate with native features.

6. **Community Support**: Apache Cordova has a larger and more active community of developers and contributors, which can provide better support and resources for developers using the tool. Sencha Touch has a dedicated community as well, but it may not be as extensive as the Cordova community.

In Summary, Apache Cordova is more suitable for developers looking to create cross-platform mobile applications with access to native features, while Sencha Touch is better suited for developers focusing on building high-performance web applications specifically for mobile devices.

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Advice on Sencha Touch, Apache Cordova

Gabor
Gabor

CTO at momento.

Aug 23, 2021

Decided

As a startup, we need the maximum flexibility and the ability to reach our customers in a more suitable way. So a hybrid application approach is the best because it allows you to develop a cross-platform application in a unique codebase. The choice behind Ionic is Angular, I think that angular is the best framework to develop a complex application that needs a lot of service interaction, its modularity forces you (the developer) to write the code in the correct way, so it can be maintainable and reusable.

209k views209k
Comments
Jan
Jan

Jan 24, 2022

Decided

I wanted to develop a student app that possibly could be used by many teams (students from other schools)

I chose Ionic, because:

  • single codebase: previously, we used React Native for Android and Angular for web/PWA, which was troublesome

  • portability: runs on PWA (which is important, because iOS license is too expensive for school app), web, Android iOS (+ others, if needed)

  • full use of web technologies: Next.js, Tailwind, React in this example (in oppose to Flutter/Java/Kotlin)

  • stability and maintainability: low-entry level due to basic web technologies without new syntax (in oppose to React Native and Flutter), web is really stable and won't lose support (which doesn't have to be true with Flutter/Dart)

106k views106k
Comments
Jesús
Jesús

Nov 29, 2022

Needs adviceonWordPressWordPressReact NativeReact Native

I would like to evaluate a good option to migrate an existing WordPress portal, where the customer can continue to access the news and also have a private area where they can receive personalised information and can demand or interact with the company and also have mobile support on both iOS and Android.

Currently the whole back system is in SAP and my main doubts are;

  • Best solution for the web portal that can generate content and can render well in the mobile solution.
  • Best option for the mobile implementation of the same portal and its private area ( @{React Native}|tool:2699|?)
20.1k views20.1k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Sencha Touch
Sencha Touch
Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova

Sencha Touch 2, a high-performance HTML5 mobile application framework, is the cornerstone of the Sencha HTML5 platform. Built for enabling world-class user experiences, Sencha Touch 2 is the only framework that enables developers to build fast and impressive apps that work on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, and more.

Apache Cordova is a set of device APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript. Combined with a UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or Dojo Mobile or Sencha Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Built on HTML5 Technology- Sencha Touch 2, a high-performance HTML5 mobile application framework, is the cornerstone of the Sencha HTML5 platform.;Smoother Scrolling and Animations- Sencha Touch 2 provides a user experience unparalleled in HTML5. Fluid Adaptive Layouts- Sencha Touch’s novel layout engine leverages HTML5 in powerful ways to let developers build complex applications that respond, load, and layout in a snap.;Navigation View- The new Navigation View component makes it easy to make applications that feature beautiful animated transitions between screens as well as providing automatic back button management.;Class System- Sencha Touch 2 builds on the class system from Ext JS 4. Developers can take advantage of powerful features like dynamic loading and mixins, all making it easy to create minified custom builds for your application.;Component DataView- The new Component DataView enables you to build beautiful interfaces based on a Model and a Store. It’s easy to create a template that has full featured components instead of simple HTML templates so you can bind, listen, and control components inside of a DataView.;Advanced List Plugins- Lists are one of the most popular components in Sencha Touch, and with 2.0 we’ve updated two of the most powerful plugins: Pull to Refresh and Load More. These plugins, activated with a single line of code, deliver a fantastic List experience out of the box.;Infinite Carousel- Carousels are a great way of showing multiple screens of information in a constrained space. In Sencha Touch 2 they get even more powerful, with a data-bound Carousel supporting an infinite number of items. No need to worry about performance, or memory — Sencha Touch manages it for you, so scrolling is consistently smooth.;Config System- Sencha Touch 2 has a great API thanks largely to its config system. Almost any configuration of any component can be changed at run time, with a consistent and predictable API.;AJAX - Sencha Touch provides full AJAX support, including CORS and JSON-P;DOM manipulation - Full DOM manipulation support available;Feature Detection - Automatically detects the presence of features like geolocation, canvas and orientation support;Geolocation - Provides a simple wrapper around geolocation on devices that support it;Icons - 300 icons included;Example apps - 8 full example apps included;Touch events - Provides a full range of touch events and gestures like tap, swipe and pinch
Cross-platform (CLI) workflow;Platform-centered workflow;Hundreds of plugins
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
955
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
345
Stacks
78
Stacks
686
Followers
90
Followers
892
Votes
28
Votes
218
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 8
    Structured code
  • 5
    PhoneGap intergation
  • 5
    Mvc
  • 3
    Customised Component
  • 2
    Easy Data Binding
Pros
  • 48
    Lots of plugins
  • 35
    JavaScript
  • 26
    Great community
  • 25
    Easy Development
  • 18
    Easy to learn
Cons
  • 2
    No native performance
  • 1
    Hard to install
  • 0
    Hard to install

What are some alternatives to Sencha Touch, Apache Cordova?

Ionic

Ionic

Free and open source, Ionic offers a library of mobile and desktop-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components for building highly interactive apps. Use with Angular, React, Vue, or plain JavaScript.

Flutter

Flutter

Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.

React Native

React Native

React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.

Xamarin

Xamarin

Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

NativeScript

NativeScript

NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms.

Framework7

Framework7

It is a free and open source mobile HTML framework to develop hybrid mobile apps or web apps with iOS native look and feel. All you need to make it work is a simple HTML layout and attached framework's CSS and JS files.

Qt

Qt

Qt, a leading cross-platform application and UI framework. With Qt, you can develop applications once and deploy to leading desktop, embedded & mobile targets.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

Expo

Expo

It is a framework and a platform for universal React applications. It is a set of tools and services built around React Native and native platforms that help you develop, build, deploy, and quickly iterate on iOS, Android, and web apps.

Vue Native

Vue Native

Vue Native is a mobile framework to build truly native mobile app using Vue.js. Its is designed to connect React Native and Vue.js. Vue Native is a wrapper around React Native APIs, which allows you to use Vue.js and compose rich mobile User Interface.

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