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Expo vs Framework7: What are the differences?

Introduction: Expo and Framework7 are two popular tools in the world of mobile app development. Both serve as frameworks for building mobile applications, but they have key differences that set them apart from each other.

  1. Development Approach: Expo is a set of tools and services built around React Native, making it easier to start mobile app development without the need for Android Studio or Xcode. On the other hand, Framework7 is a full-featured HTML framework specifically designed for building iOS and Android apps with a native look and feel using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

  2. Ease of Use: Expo is known for its simplicity and ease of use for beginners and experienced developers alike, offering a wide range of features and services out of the box. Framework7, though versatile, requires a deeper understanding of web technologies and may have a steeper learning curve for those new to mobile app development.

  3. Customization Options: Framework7 provides a high level of customization, allowing developers to modify and style every aspect of the application to fit their specific needs and design preferences. Expo, while offering a great starting point, may have limitations in terms of customization options compared to Framework7.

  4. Native API Access: One of the key differences between Expo and Framework7 is the level of access to device features and native APIs. Expo abstracts much of the complexity of dealing with native APIs, making it easier to work with various device functionalities. Framework7, on the other hand, provides direct access to native APIs, offering more control but also requiring a deeper understanding of native development.

  5. Community and Support: Expo has a large and active community of developers, offering extensive documentation, forums, and support resources to help with any issues or questions that may arise during app development. Framework7 also has a supportive community but may not be as large or well-established as Expo's community.

In Summary, Expo simplifies mobile app development using React Native, while Framework7 offers greater customization options and direct access to native APIs for building iOS and Android apps.

Advice on Expo and Framework7
Needs advice
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ExpoExpoReact NativeReact Native
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in

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

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Replies (1)
Javier Silva Ortíz
Senior Full Stack Developer at Aleph Engineering · | 6 upvotes · 294.2K views
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Well, the first resource I would recommend you is my upcoming book by Packt Publishing, "Professional React Native", but it's due late January next year :) . Now jokes aside (the book's real by the way :) ), the easiest way to build a iOS/Android/Web app with React Native is to do: npm install -g expo-cli expo init some-project cd some-project expo eject

You might have heard of Expo, but trust me, stay away from it. Expo highest value is that it's an already pre-configured 3 platforms environment, but if you don't eject then you're vendor-locked to what Expo has to offer in iOS and Android, which is very poor compared to going full React Native on these platforms, they can't even handle Google Sign In properly and by the way, even if your app is 10 lines of code your app size will be over 40 MB if you don't eject, yep it's that bad, plus the performance is regular and the loading times slow, not to mention that you're stuck with their build service which the free tier makes you wait for hours for a free build slot. It's important to note that when ejecting you don't lose the Web, you simply do expo start --web to start your dev environment and expo build:web to build a static website that you can serve with any web server. Regarding state management, don't bother with "lifting state up" philosophies mixed with Context API to manage your state, lifting state is a great pattern and helps your codebase, Context is great to avoid prop-drilling, but NEVER mix them to achieve app-wide state management, for that, simply go for Redux or MobX, the hype is all about Redux, but I consider MobX far better in many aspects. However, as you're getting new into this I would recommend you start with Redux AND PLEASE grab yourself npm install @manaflair/redux-batch so that you can batch updates and don't bring your app to a crawl. Forget that "connect HOC" thing with React-Redux, don't bother for a second with it, go with Hooks and useSelector and useDispatch and the likes, it will make your code SO much cleaner and smaller. Adopt clean and new Hooks philosophy, avoid writing class components as much as possible and write function components augmented with Hooks.

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Decisions about Expo and Framework7

Our stack roughly divides into three major components, the front-end, back-end and the data storage.

For the front-end, we have decided to go with React Native via Expo. This allows us to target both Android and iOS with a single codebase. Expo provides "managed workflows" and an SDK that will simplify development and deployment.

For the back-end, we have decided to use Python. Python is the language of choice for machine learning (ML). It has extensive support for traditional ML algorithms (e.g. random forests) via Scikit-Learn and the SciPy ecosystem. On top of this, our industry partner has provided us their current solution written in Python. We decided to expose the back-end as a REST API using FastAPI. This allows us to nicely separate concerns from the rest of the codebase. FastAPIs use of static type hints, validation with Pydantic, and automated documentation allows us to build better APIs faster.

For data storage we decided to use a MongoDB Atlas, a NoSQL database. We decided to use a NoSQL database because we need to store large amounts of data (e.g data from the wearable IMUs). Moreover, due to the ever changing nature of a startup we require flexibility. NoSQL databases are schema-free which enables us to modify our schema as we see fit.

We plan on using GitHub Actions (GA) to orchestrate our CI/CD. Given GAs broad support of languages and workflows, it's hard to go wrong with this decision. We will also be using GitHub for version control and project management, so having everything in one place is convenient.

The major components of our CI/CD for the backend will consist of black for autoformatting, flake8 for linting, pytest for unit-testing, and mypy for static type checking and codecov for coverage reporting. We plan to use separate Docker containers to package the back-end and front-end components and use Docker Compose to launch the app. This allows us to better separate concerns, manage dependencies, and ensure our app is deployable anywhere.

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Pros of Expo
Pros of Framework7
  • 15
    Free
  • 13
    Hot Reload
  • 9
    Easy to learn
  • 9
    Common ios and android app setup
  • 6
    Open Source
  • 6
    Streamlined
  • 5
    Builds into a React Native app
  • 2
    PWA supported
  • 1
    Plugins for web use with Next.js
  • 21
    Free and open source
  • 20
    Well designed
  • 17
    Material design
  • 15
    Lots of ready-to-use ui elements, easy to customize
  • 12
    Best performance
  • 11
    Amazing documentation
  • 9
    Nice look and best performance
  • 9
    Performance and great features.
  • 9
    Rtl support
  • 7
    Easy To Learn
  • 7
    Free
  • 6
    Basic Web App Development Technique
  • 6
    Nice sample provided
  • 5
    Easy to use , transit from vanilla JS
  • 5
    Doesn't require learning a JS framework
  • 5
    Quick inital time
  • 5
    It's feels light to use
  • 2
    Easy to integrate

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Cons of Expo
Cons of Framework7
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 1
      Not suitable for high performance in PWA. desktop apps

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    What is 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.

    What is 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.

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    What companies use Expo?
    What companies use Framework7?
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    What tools integrate with Expo?
    What tools integrate with Framework7?

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    What are some alternatives to Expo and Framework7?
    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.
    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.
    Create React Native App
    Create React Native App allows you to work with all of the Components and APIs in React Native, as well as most of the JavaScript APIs that the Expo App provides.
    Flutter
    Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
    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.
    See all alternatives