Apache Cordova vs PhoneGap

Overview

PhoneGap

Stacks578

Followers685

Votes94

GitHub Stars4.0K

Forks889

Apache Cordova

Stacks686

Followers892

Votes218

GitHub Stars955

Forks345

Apache Cordova vs PhoneGap: What are the differences?

Apache Cordova: Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. 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; PhoneGap: Easilily create mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 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.

Apache Cordova and PhoneGap can be primarily classified as "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" tools.

Some of the features offered by Apache Cordova are:

Cross-platform (CLI) workflow
Platform-centered workflow
Hundreds of plugins

On the other hand, PhoneGap provides the following key features:

Android
Blackberry
iOS

"Lots of plugins" is the primary reason why developers consider Apache Cordova over the competitors, whereas "Javascript" was stated as the key factor in picking PhoneGap.

Apache Cordova and PhoneGap are both open source tools. It seems that PhoneGap with 4.15K GitHub stars and 974 forks on GitHub has more adoption than Apache Cordova with 766 GitHub stars and 327 GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, Apache Cordova has a broader approval, being mentioned in 96 company stacks & 45 developers stacks; compared to PhoneGap, which is listed in 86 company stacks and 36 developer stacks.

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Advice on PhoneGap, Apache Cordova

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 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

Alejandro

Aug 20, 2021

Needs adviceon

Java

Python

AngularJS

Looking for some advice: we are planning to create a hybrid app for both iOS and Android; this app will consume a REST API. We are looking for a tool for this development with the following attributes:

Shallow learning curve; easiness to adopt (all team is new into mobile development, with diverse backgrounds: Java, Python & AngularJS),
Easiness to test (we discarded Angular-based tools already: creating a unit test in Angular we considered time-consuming and low value. At this point of the project, we cannot afford UI testing with Selenium/Appium based tools).
So far, we are not considering any specific capability of the device. Still, in the mid/long term, we would require the usage of GPS (geolocalization) and accelerometer (not sure if it's possible to use it from a hybrid app). Suggest any other tool if you wish.

565k views565k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

PhoneGap	Apache Cordova
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.	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.
Android;Blackberry;iOS;Windows Phone;Windows8	Cross-platform (CLI) workflow;Platform-centered workflow;Hundreds of plugins
Statistics
GitHub Stars 4.0K	GitHub Stars 955
GitHub Forks 889	GitHub Forks 345
Stacks 578	Stacks 686
Followers 685	Followers 892
Votes 94	Votes 218
Pros & Cons
Pros 46 Javascript 13 Backed by Adobe 11 Free 9 Easy and developer friendly 6 Support more platforms Cons 2 Never as good as a native app 1 Created for web pages, not for complex Apps 1 Poor user experience 1 Not build for high performance 1 Hard to see	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 PhoneGap, Apache Cordova?

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

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’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 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

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

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 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.

Shoutem UI

Shoutem UI is a set of styleable components that enables you to build beautiful React Native applications for iOS and Android. All of our components are built to be both composable and customizable.

Related Comparisons

Some of the features offered by Apache Cordova are:

Cross-platform (CLI) workflow
Platform-centered workflow
Hundreds of plugins

On the other hand, PhoneGap provides the following key features:

Android
Blackberry
iOS

"Lots of plugins" is the primary reason why developers consider Apache Cordova over the competitors, whereas "Javascript" was stated as the key factor in picking PhoneGap.

Apache Cordova vs PhoneGap