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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. NativeScript vs Onsen UI

NativeScript vs Onsen UI

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

NativeScript
NativeScript
Stacks533
Followers1.1K
Votes516
GitHub Stars25.3K
Forks1.7K
Onsen UI
Onsen UI
Stacks40
Followers136
Votes11
GitHub Stars8.9K
Forks1.0K

NativeScript vs Onsen UI: What are the differences?

## Introduction
NativeScript and Onsen UI are two popular choices for building cross-platform mobile applications. While both frameworks serve a similar purpose, they differ in several key aspects.

1. **Application Architecture**: NativeScript allows developers to build truly native mobile applications using a single codebase, providing direct access to all native APIs and components. On the other hand, Onsen UI is a hybrid mobile app framework that uses web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create cross-platform apps with a native look and feel.

2. **Performance**: Due to its direct access to native APIs, NativeScript apps typically offer better performance compared to hybrid apps built using Onsen UI. This can be crucial for applications that require a high level of responsiveness and speed.

3. **Community Support**: NativeScript has a larger and more active community compared to Onsen UI, which means developers can easily find resources, plugins, and support when working with the framework. Onsen UI, while still popular, may have slightly fewer resources available.

4. **Development Environment**: NativeScript offers more flexibility in terms of development environment choices, allowing developers to work in their preferred IDEs or editors. On the other hand, Onsen UI has a more structured development environment, which can be preferable for some developers.

5. **Supported Platforms**: NativeScript supports building applications for both iOS and Android, as well as offering support for other platforms like Windows and web. Onsen UI, while primarily focused on iOS and Android, also offers support for Windows and progressive web apps.

6. **Learning Curve**: NativeScript may have a steeper learning curve for developers who are new to mobile app development, especially those unfamiliar with TypeScript. Onsen UI, being a web-focused framework, may be more familiar and easier to grasp for developers with experience in web development.

In Summary, NativeScript offers a more native development experience with better performance and a larger community, while Onsen UI provides a simpler, web-based approach to cross-platform mobile app development with support for additional platforms.

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Detailed Comparison

NativeScript
NativeScript
Onsen UI
Onsen UI

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.

Onsen UI helps you develop both hybrid and web apps. If developing hybrid apps, you can use it with the Cordova / PhoneGap command line, or with Monaca tools (CLI, Monaca IDE - cloud-based IDE for Cordova, Localkit - desktop GUI).

100% Access to Native Platform API;NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project;Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS;Cross-platform UI abstractions;Shared business logic and data models
Open source HTML5 hybrid app framework for PhoneGap & Cordova; JavaScript framework agnostic; Mobile-optimized HTML5, CSS and JavaScript with Web components; UI framework; Responsive layout; Material and Flat design; Comprehensive toolset (CLI, IDE, debugger, remote build etc.) provided as Monaca
Statistics
GitHub Stars
25.3K
GitHub Stars
8.9K
GitHub Forks
1.7K
GitHub Forks
1.0K
Stacks
533
Stacks
40
Followers
1.1K
Followers
136
Votes
516
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 75
    Access to the entire native api
  • 47
    Support for native ios and android libraries
  • 46
    Angular 2.0 support
  • 46
    Support for javascript libraries
  • 44
    Native ux and performance
Cons
  • 5
    Lack of promotion
  • 1
    Slower Performance compared to competitors
Pros
  • 3
    Works with any JavaScript framework
  • 3
    Allows for rapid prototyping
  • 3
    Hybrid mobile
  • 2
    Free

What are some alternatives to NativeScript, Onsen UI?

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.

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova

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.

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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