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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. Apache Flex vs React Native

Apache Flex vs React Native

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

React Native
React Native
Stacks34.4K
Followers29.5K
Votes1.2K
GitHub Stars124.4K
Forks24.9K
Apache Flex
Apache Flex
Stacks14
Followers14
Votes0

Apache Flex vs React Native: What are the differences?

Introduction

Apache Flex and React Native are two popular frameworks used for developing cross-platform mobile applications. While both frameworks aim to provide a seamless development experience, there are key differences that set them apart.

  1. Framework Architecture: Apache Flex is based on Adobe Flash Player, allowing developers to build applications using the Flash platform. On the other hand, React Native is a JavaScript framework that uses native components to render the user interface, resulting in better performance and a more native look and feel.

  2. Programming Language: Apache Flex primarily uses ActionScript, an object-oriented programming language, for application development. React Native, on the other hand, uses JavaScript, a widely adopted programming language, which allows code reuse and simplifies the development process.

  3. Platform Support: Apache Flex primarily focuses on building applications for desktop platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. React Native, on the other hand, is focused on mobile application development and provides support for both iOS and Android platforms, making it suitable for building cross-platform mobile applications.

  4. User Interface: Apache Flex allows developers to create rich and interactive user interfaces using the Flex framework, which includes a powerful set of UI components. React Native, on the other hand, uses native components specific to the platform, resulting in a more native UI experience for users.

  5. Development Workflow: Apache Flex provides a visual design tool called Adobe Animate, which allows developers to design and prototype user interfaces visually. React Native, on the other hand, uses a command-line interface and provides a live-reload feature, allowing developers to see the changes in real-time without rebuilding the entire application.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Apache Flex has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to React Native, which has a larger and more active community. React Native has a wide range of third-party libraries, tools, and resources available, making it easier for developers to find solutions and get support for their development needs.

In Summary, Apache Flex is more focused on desktop application development using the Flash platform and ActionScript, while React Native is primarily used for mobile application development using JavaScript and native components. React Native offers better platform support, a more native user interface, and a larger community and ecosystem compared to Apache Flex.

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Advice on React Native, Apache Flex

Nick
Nick

CTO at Pickio

Jun 2, 2020

Decided

We built the first version of our app with RN and it turned out a mess in a while. A lot of bugs along with poor performance out of the box for a fairly large app. Many things, that native platform has, cannot be done with existing solutions for RN. For instance, large titles on iOS are not fully implemented in any of existing navigations libraries. Also there's painfully slow JSON bridge and many other small, yet annoying things. On the other hand Flutter became a really powerful and easy-to-use tool. A bit of a learning curve, of course, because of Dart, but it worth learning. Flutter offers TONS of built-in features, no JSON-bridge, AOT compilation for iOS.

491k views491k
Comments
Andrea
Andrea

May 26, 2020

Needs adviceonVue.jsVue.jsVue NativeVue NativeReactReact

I'm a huge fan of Vue.js and I'm pretty comfortable with it. I need to build a mobile app for my company and I was now wondering whether I could make use of VueJS with Vue Native instead of switching to React. I know Vue Native builds on top of RN. My question is whether I'd have as much freedom with Vue Native over RN and whether you feel like Vue Native is "production ready" or not. Not sure of which shortcomings I may find using Vue Native... Thanks a lot!!!

336k views336k
Comments
Furqan
Furqan

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceonReact NativeReact Native

Hello guys, I am new here. So, if I posted without specific guidelines, please ignore.

Basically, I am an iOS developer and developing native apps for the last three years. Recently, I started learning React Native to develop apps for both platforms. If anyone out there knows any useful resources that will become a better react native developer.

@{#newbie}|topic:null|

325k views325k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

React Native
React Native
Apache Flex
Apache Flex

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.

It is a software development kit for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform.

Native iOS Components;Asynchronous Execution;Touch Handling;Flexbox and Styling; Polyfills
UI components; Buttons; Forms; Containers; Lists; Data grids
Statistics
GitHub Stars
124.4K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
24.9K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
34.4K
Stacks
14
Followers
29.5K
Followers
14
Votes
1.2K
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 214
    Learn once write everywhere
  • 174
    Cross platform
  • 169
    Javascript
  • 122
    Native ios components
  • 69
    Built by facebook
Cons
  • 23
    Javascript
  • 19
    Built by facebook
  • 12
    Cant use CSS
  • 4
    30 FPS Limit
  • 2
    Slow
No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available
Bootstrap
Bootstrap
Ionic
Ionic
HTML5
HTML5
CSS 3
CSS 3
.NET for Apache Spark
.NET for Apache Spark

What are some alternatives to React Native, Apache Flex?

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.

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.

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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