Apache Cordova vs Ionic vs NativeScript | What are the differences?

Apache Cordova

Stacks659

Followers789

+ 1

Votes188

Ionic

Stacks6.6K

Followers5.9K

+ 1

Votes1.7K

NativeScript

Stacks490

Followers940

+ 1

Votes497

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Pros of Apache Cordova

Pros of Ionic

Pros of NativeScript

40
Lots of plugins
33
JavaScript
25
Great community
22
Easy Development
17
Easy to learn
14
Cross platform
6
Open Source
5
Easy, fast, not buggy in my experience with my code
5
Lots of descendants; PhoneGap, Ionic, Intel XDA etc
3
Rich HTML 5
3
Can use CSS3
2
Fast and hot reload
2
Easy debugging
2
Rich css ui
2
Need a light system
2
HTML, CSS and JS
2
Use what you code in your browser
1
One code base everywhere
1
Native Web Technologies
1
Without extra tooling needed

246
Allows for rapid prototyping
226
Hybrid mobile
208
It's angularjs
184
Free
178
It's javascript, html, and css
108
Ui and theming
76
Great designs
74
Mv* pattern
70
Reuse frontend devs on mobile
64
Extensibility
31
Great community
28
Open source
22
Responsive design
20
Good cli
13
Angularjs-based
13
Beautifully designed
13
So easy to use
12
Widgets
11
Allows for rapid prototyping, hybrid mobile
11
Typescript
10
Quick prototyping, amazing community
10
Easy setup
8
Angular2 support
7
Fast, easy, free
7
Because of the productivity and easy for development
7
So much thought behind what developers actually need
7
Base on angular
6
Super fast, their dev team is amazingly passionate
6
Easy to use
6
It's Angular
4
UI is awesome
4
Hot deploy
3
Material design support using theme
3
Amazing support
3
It's the future
3
Angular
3
Allow for rapid prototyping
3
Easy setup, development and testing
3
Ionic creator
2
User Friendly
2
It's angular js
2
Complete package
2
Simple & Fast
2
Fastest growing mobile app framework
2
Best Support and Community
2
Material Design By Default
2
Cross platform
2
Documentation
2
Because I can use my existing web devloper skills
2
Removes 300ms delay in mobile browsers
1
1
1
Native access
1
Typescript support
1
Ionic conect codeigniter
1
Fast Prototyping
1
All Trending Stack

74
Access to the entire native api
46
Support for native ios and android libraries
45
Support for javascript libraries
45
Angular 2.0 support
43
Native ux and performance
36
Typescript support
34
Backed up by google and telerik
29
Css support
26
Cross-platform declarative ui and code
24
Fully open source under apache 2.0 license
11
Vuejs support
8
60fps performance
5
Powerful data visualization with native UI
5
VS Code integration
4
Extended CLI support
4
Cloud builds as part of Telerik PLatform
4
No need for Mac to build iOS apps in Telerik Platform
4
Angular, typescript and javascript support
3
Extensibility
3
0 day support for new OS updates
3
On-device debugging
3
Publishing modules to NPM
3
Easiest of all other frameworks
3
Backed by google
3
Truly Object-Oriented with Typescript
2
Access to entire native api
2
VueJS support
2
Svelte support
2
Powerfull mobile services as part of Telerik Platform
2
Live reload
2
Native ui with angular
2
Easy to learn
2
Vue.js support out of the box
2
Vue support
1
HMR via webpack
1
It works with Angular
1
Easy to use, support for almost all npm packages
1
Very small app size
1
Write once, use anywhere
1
Compile to Apple/Google Stores via CloudCompiler
1
Hot Reload
1
Code reuse with your website
1
Rich ecosystem
1
Playground
1
Has CSS ;-)
0
Dart

Cons of Apache Cordova

Cons of Ionic

Cons of NativeScript

2
No native performance
1
Hard to install
0
Hard to install

20
Not suitable for high performance or UI intensive apps
15
Not meant for game development
2
Not a native app

5
Lack of promotion
1
Slower Performance compared to competitors

What is 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.

What is 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.

What is 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.

What companies use Apache Cordova?

What companies use Ionic?

What companies use NativeScript?