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

Apache Cordova vs Onsen UI

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova
Stacks686
Followers892
Votes218
GitHub Stars955
Forks345
Onsen UI
Onsen UI
Stacks40
Followers136
Votes11
GitHub Stars8.9K
Forks1.0K

Apache Cordova vs Onsen UI: What are the differences?

## Introduction
Apache Cordova and Onsen UI are popular tools in the world of hybrid mobile app development. While both serve the purpose of creating cross-platform mobile applications, there are key differences between them that developers need to consider.

1. **Supported Platforms**: Apache Cordova is a mobile application development framework that allows developers to build apps for various platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the other hand, Onsen UI is a front-end UI framework specifically designed for developing mobile apps with HTML5 and JavaScript, focusing on providing a rich user interface and user experience across different platforms.

2. **Core Functionality**: Apache Cordova primarily focuses on providing access to device-specific features and native APIs through plugins, allowing developers to easily access and utilize device hardware functionalities. In contrast, Onsen UI is more focused on providing a comprehensive set of UI components and patterns for designing visually appealing and interactive user interfaces, regardless of the underlying platform.

3. **Integration with Frameworks**: Apache Cordova can be integrated with various front-end frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue.js to streamline the development process and enhance the overall user experience. Onsen UI, on the other hand, comes with its own set of built-in components and themes that can be easily customized and extended to create visually stunning mobile applications without the need for additional frameworks.

4. **Community Support**: Apache Cordova has a large and active community of developers, contributors, and plugin creators, which leads to frequent updates, bug fixes, and new features being added to the platform. While Onsen UI also has a supportive community, it may not be as extensive as Cordova's community, potentially affecting the availability of resources, tutorials, and support.

5. **Performance Optimization**: Apache Cordova allows developers to optimize the performance of their apps by using plugins and tools to reduce load times, improve caching mechanisms, and enhance overall responsiveness. Onsen UI, on the other hand, focuses more on providing pre-styled UI components that may require additional optimization techniques to achieve optimal performance on different platforms.

6. **Ease of Learning Curve**: Apache Cordova is relatively easier for web developers to learn and adapt to, especially if they are already familiar with web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Onsen UI, while user-friendly in terms of UI design, may have a steeper learning curve for developers who are not well-versed in front-end development, as it requires a good understanding of the framework's components and styling conventions.

In Summary, Apache Cordova and Onsen UI differ in terms of supported platforms, core functionality, integration with frameworks, community support, performance optimization, and ease of learning curve for developers, making each tool suitable for specific mobile app development requirements.

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Advice on Apache Cordova, Onsen UI

b-sts
b-sts

Mar 18, 2021

Needs adviceonSails.jsSails.jsApache CordovaApache CordovaJavaScriptJavaScript

Heya, I'm very new on here! And I hope I can get advice on this matter :

We are working on a new app. The web version is on Sails.js (V1)/node.js/vue.js. Started with the Web App default settings (including login and payments, which we are using use). We started with a web version to give access to the customer to start creating the data while building the mobile version. (iOS and Android)

I heard of Apache Cordova, that using the same JavaScript/css could be used to not re-code the front-end of the app for iPhones and Androids. I've been told that it is end-of-life now (? - I couldn't find this info myself).

I saw that Vue Native might be an alternative and would only need a few adjustments from our web version as we are using Vue.js for the frontend.

I know next to nothing on this, so I would really appreciate it if you guys could point me to possible solutions you've used and why instead of searching through all the existing solutions. (I'm very open to know if there are alternatives to those two too !!)

We will need to be using the GPS functions of the mobiles, which is a big part of the app.

Thank you!

100k views100k
Comments
Aleksandr
Aleksandr

Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft at Microsoft-365

Dec 23, 2019

Review

What is Proguard?

ProGuard is the most popular optimizer for Java bytecode. It makes your Java and Android applications up to 90% smaller and up to 20% faster. ProGuard also provides minimal protection against reverse engineering by obfuscating the names of classes, fields and methods.

How to use it in Cordova app?

I didn't find any plugins for it. So I've implemented it by myself and shared it on GitHub.

Feel free to use!

119k views119k
Comments
Aleksandr
Aleksandr

Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft at Microsoft-365

Dec 23, 2019

Needs advice

I've done some Hybrid Mobile apps with both technologies Apache Cordova and React Native and described my experience in my blog.

In a few words, I would suggest to use each technology in accordance what what is your current code base and what do you want to achieve.

React Native is a great option if you need that extra edge in performance with multi-threading and native UI rendering. Or you already have a web app based on React which you want to port to mobile.

On the other hand, if you have an existing web application code and you want to reuse some or all, including the ability to use web third-party libraries, then Cordova is the best option.

429k views429k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache Cordova
Apache Cordova
Onsen UI
Onsen UI

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.

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).

Cross-platform (CLI) workflow;Platform-centered workflow;Hundreds of plugins
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
955
GitHub Stars
8.9K
GitHub Forks
345
GitHub Forks
1.0K
Stacks
686
Stacks
40
Followers
892
Followers
136
Votes
218
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
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
Pros
  • 3
    Hybrid mobile
  • 3
    Allows for rapid prototyping
  • 3
    Works with any JavaScript framework
  • 2
    Free

What are some alternatives to Apache Cordova, 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.

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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