Home
Application and Data
Languages & Frameworks
Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Apache Cordova vs Qt

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Apache Cordova
706
893
+ 1
218
Qt
453
633
+ 1
138
Add tool

Apache Cordova vs Qt: What are the differences?

What is 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.

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

Apache Cordova and Qt belong to "Cross-Platform Mobile Development" category of the tech stack.

Apache Cordova is an open source tool with 766 GitHub stars and 327 GitHub forks. Here's a link to Apache Cordova's open source repository on GitHub.

According to the StackShare community, Apache Cordova has a broader approval, being mentioned in 96 company stacks & 45 developers stacks; compared to Qt, which is listed in 10 company stacks and 17 developer stacks.

Decisions about Apache Cordova and Qt
Aleksandr Filatov
Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft · | 2 upvotes · 414.9K views
Shared insights
on
Apache CordovaApache CordovaProGuardProGuardReact NativeReact Native
at
()

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.

See more
Aleksandr Filatov
Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft · | 2 upvotes · 114.1K views
Shared a protip
on
Apache CordovaApache CordovaPhoneGapPhoneGapProGuardProGuard
at
()
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!

See more
Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More
Pros of Apache Cordova
Pros of Qt
  • 48
    Lots of plugins
  • 35
    JavaScript
  • 26
    Great community
  • 25
    Easy Development
  • 18
    Easy to learn
  • 15
    Cross platform
  • 7
    Open Source
  • 6
    Easy, fast, not buggy in my experience with my code
  • 6
    Lots of descendants; PhoneGap, Ionic, Intel XDA etc
  • 4
    Can use CSS3
  • 4
    Rich HTML 5
  • 4
    Easy debugging
  • 3
    HTML, CSS and JS
  • 3
    Fast and hot reload
  • 3
    Rich css ui
  • 3
    Use what you code in your browser
  • 2
    Need a light system
  • 2
    Native Web Technologies
  • 2
    Without extra tooling needed
  • 2
    One code base everywhere
  • 17
    High Performance
  • 13
    Declarative, easy and flexible UI
  • 12
    Cross platform
  • 12
    Performance
  • 9
    Fast prototyping
  • 8
    Easiest integration with C++
  • 8
    Up to date framework
  • 7
    Python
  • 6
    Multiple license including Open Source and Commercial
  • 6
    Safe 2D Renderer
  • 5
    Great Community Support
  • 4
    HW Accelerated UI
  • 4
    Game Engine like UI system
  • 3
    No history of broken compatibility with a major version
  • 3
    JIT and QML Compiler
  • 3
    True cross-platform framework with native code compile
  • 3
    Reliable for industrial use
  • 3
    Pure C++
  • 3
    Been using it since the 90s - runs anywhere does it all
  • 2
    Open source
  • 2
    Easy Integrating to DX and OpenGL and Vulkan
  • 2
    From high to low level coding
  • 1
    Learning Curve
  • 1
    Great mobile support with Felgo add-on
  • 1
    Native looking GUI

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Apache Cordova
Cons of Qt
  • 2
    No native performance
  • 1
    Hard to install
  • 0
    Hard to install
  • 5
    Paid
  • 4
    C++ is not so productive
  • 2
    Lack of community support
  • 1
    Lack of libraries
  • 1
    Not detailed documentation

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

- No public GitHub repository available -

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 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.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

What companies use Apache Cordova?
What companies use Qt?
Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More

Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

What tools integrate with Apache Cordova?
What tools integrate with Qt?

Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

Blog Posts

Building Realtime Apps in 2019 with PubNub
Sep 6 2019 at 8:42PM

PubNub

Vue.jsSpring BootUnity+7
2
1265
What are some alternatives to Apache Cordova and Qt?
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.
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.
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.
Electron
With Electron, creating a desktop application for your company or idea is easy. Initially developed for GitHub's Atom editor, Electron has since been used to create applications by companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Slack, and Docker. The Electron framework lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It is based on io.js and Chromium and is used in the Atom editor.
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.
See all alternatives

Related Comparisons

Apache Cordova vs IonicApache Cordova vs Ionic vs PhoneGapApache Cordova vs Ionic vs XamarinApache Cordova vs NativeScript vs React NativeApache Cordova vs Xamarin

Trending Comparisons

Django vs Laravel vs Node.jsBootstrap vs Foundation vs Material-UINode.js vs Spring BootFlyway vs LiquibaseAWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Top Comparisons

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLabBootstrap vs MaterializePostman vs Swagger UIHipChat vs Mattermost vs Slack