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  1. Stackups
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  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. NativeScript vs Web Starter Kit

NativeScript vs Web Starter Kit

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Web Starter Kit
Web Starter Kit
Stacks176
Followers207
Votes3
GitHub Stars18.4K
Forks3.0K
NativeScript
NativeScript
Stacks533
Followers1.1K
Votes516
GitHub Stars25.3K
Forks1.7K

NativeScript vs Web Starter Kit: What are the differences?

NativeScript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript. 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; Web Starter Kit: Boilerplate & Tooling for Multi-Device Development. Web Starter Kit is a starting point for multi-screen web development. It encompasses opinionated recommendations on boilerplate and tooling for building an experience that works great across multiple devices. We help you stay productive and aligned with the best practices outlined in Google's Web Fundamentals.

NativeScript and Web Starter Kit can be categorized as "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" tools.

Some of the features offered by NativeScript are:

  • 100% Access to Native Platform API
  • NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project
  • Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS

On the other hand, Web Starter Kit provides the following key features:

  • Multi-device responsive boilerplate
  • Living component style guide
  • Cross-device Synchronization

"Access to the entire native api" is the top reason why over 55 developers like NativeScript, while over 2 developers mention "Easy to use" as the leading cause for choosing Web Starter Kit.

NativeScript and Web Starter Kit are both open source tools. Web Starter Kit with 18.6K GitHub stars and 3.21K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than NativeScript with 17.2K GitHub stars and 1.27K GitHub forks.

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Advice on Web Starter Kit, NativeScript

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
Lucas
Lucas

Jan 6, 2023

Needs adviceoniOSiOSVisual Studio CodeVisual Studio CodeTypeScriptTypeScript

Hello,

We're just brainstorming for the moment and we have a few questions.

We have an idea for an app that we want to develop, here are the prerequisites:

  1. cross-platform (iOS, Android, and website);

  2. as easy to maintain as possible / well documented / widely used;

  3. Visual Studio Code and Copilot compatible;

  4. Text to speech;

  5. Speech recognition;

  6. Running in background (screen off with TTS and speech recognition);

  7. could be using TypeScript;

  8. Monetized through ad and in-App payment for premium version;

  9. Display on lock screen (Android only I guess)

So what would you recommend?

I've been trying to review the options available, and I've considered:

  • NativeScript

  • React Native

  • Flutter

  • Any other?

Thanks in advance for your help, and I'm open to any comments.

371k views371k
Comments
audaine
audaine

Feb 16, 2022

Review

As the previous commentor said, Next.js or React Native + Expo may be a better option. There's also the options of AssemblyScript + React/Next.js, or NativeScript and Ionic, both of which give you mature ecosystems of tools and close-to-native experiences. Flutter, you're likely to have the same experiences you had with Swift and Kotlin. Flutter requires higher separation of concerns between platforms, doesn't have nearly the third-party support of any of the other options, and is fairly large in binary size. Still, it's a growing system and in the future it may actually outcompete the other options when it has a large enough ecosystem.

31k views31k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Web Starter Kit
Web Starter Kit
NativeScript
NativeScript

Web Starter Kit is a starting point for multi-screen web development. It encompasses opinionated recommendations on boilerplate and tooling for building an experience that works great across multiple devices. We help you stay productive and aligned with the best practices outlined in Google's Web Fundamentals.

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.

Multi-device responsive boilerplate;Living component style guide;Cross-device Synchronization;Live Browser Reloading;Performance optimization;Built in HTTP Server;PageSpeed Insights Reporting;Sass support
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
Statistics
GitHub Stars
18.4K
GitHub Stars
25.3K
GitHub Forks
3.0K
GitHub Forks
1.7K
Stacks
176
Stacks
533
Followers
207
Followers
1.1K
Votes
3
Votes
516
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 3
    Easy to use
Pros
  • 75
    Access to the entire native api
  • 47
    Support for native ios and android libraries
  • 46
    Support for javascript libraries
  • 46
    Angular 2.0 support
  • 44
    Native ux and performance
Cons
  • 5
    Lack of promotion
  • 1
    Slower Performance compared to competitors
Integrations
gulp
gulp
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Web Starter Kit, NativeScript?

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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