Ionic vs NativeScript vs React Native

Overview

Ionic

Stacks9.5K

Followers8.6K

Votes1.8K

NativeScript

Stacks533

Followers1.1K

Votes516

GitHub Stars25.3K

Forks1.7K

React Native

Stacks34.4K

Followers29.5K

Votes1.2K

GitHub Stars124.4K

Forks24.9K

Ionic vs NativeScript vs React Native: What are the differences?

Introduction

Ionic, NativeScript, and React Native are three popular frameworks used for building cross-platform mobile applications. While all three frameworks allow developers to build apps for iOS and Android using a single codebase, they differ in various aspects. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Ionic, NativeScript, and React Native.

Development Language:

Ionic is based on web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making it easy for web developers to transition into mobile app development. NativeScript, on the other hand, allows developers to build native apps using JavaScript or TypeScript. React Native uses JavaScript and React to build native-like apps.

User Interface:

Ionic uses web technologies to render its user interface, resulting in apps that resemble mobile websites. NativeScript and React Native, on the other hand, allow developers to build apps with truly native user interfaces that closely resemble the look and feel of native apps.

Performance:

Since Ionic uses web technologies to render its UI, it may not be as performant as NativeScript or React Native, especially for complex or graphics-intensive apps. NativeScript and React Native, being closer to native development, can achieve better performance by accessing native device APIs directly.

Third-Party Library Support:

While all three frameworks have a strong ecosystem of community plugins and libraries, Ionic, being based on web technologies, has a wider range of third-party libraries and plugins available. NativeScript and React Native also have substantial libraries, but the options may be more limited compared to Ionic.

Development and Learning Curve:

Ionic provides a low learning curve due to its familiarity with web technologies, making it easier for web developers to start building cross-platform apps. NativeScript and React Native, on the other hand, have a steeper learning curve, especially for developers who are less familiar with native app development.

Development Environment and Tooling:

Ionic and React Native can be developed using any text editor or integrated development environment (IDE) of choice. NativeScript, however, provides its own command-line interface (CLI) that offers additional developer tooling and features for better development experience.

In summary, Ionic is a web-based framework that allows developers to build cross-platform apps with a low learning curve and a wide range of third-party library support. NativeScript and React Native, on the other hand, provide a more native-like user interface and better performance, but with a steeper learning curve and a narrower selection of third-party libraries.

Why do developers choose Ionic vs React Native vs NativeScript?

Ionic is most popular with Angular developers, who list rapid prototyping and its ability to reuse frontend Angular code on mobile as pros.
React Native fans love that you can “learn once, write everywhere.” They cite its native iOS components, cross-platform capabilities, and the fact that it’s “just React” as reasons for choosing React Native.
NativeScript is appreciated by users who enjoy access to the entire native API, support for multiple JavaScript frameworks and libraries, and its open source status.

What are some alternatives to Ionic, React Native, and NativeScript?

Apache Cordova - Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Xamarin - Create iOS, Android and Mac apps in C#
PhoneGap - Easily create mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

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Advice on Ionic, NativeScript, React Native

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

May 26, 2020

Needs adviceon

Vue.js

Vue Native

React

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

Anonymous

CEO at ME!

Jun 7, 2020

Decided

While with Ionic it is possible to make mobile applications with only web technologies, Flutter is more performant and is easy to use if you are willing to learn Dart, which is a fun language. Plus, it has awesome documentation and, while its ecosystem isn't near as big as JavaScript's is, it has a good package manager called Pub and its packages are generally high quality.

403k views403k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Ionic	NativeScript	React Native
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.	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.	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.
Performance obsessed;Utilizes Angular and React;Native focused;Beautifully designed;Based on Web Components;	100% Access to Native Platform API;NativeScript is free of charge as an open source project;Code with JavaScript. Style with CSS;Cross-platform UI abstractions;Shared business logic and data models	Native iOS Components;Asynchronous Execution;Touch Handling;Flexbox and Styling; Polyfills
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 25.3K	GitHub Stars 124.4K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.7K	GitHub Forks 24.9K
Stacks 9.5K	Stacks 533	Stacks 34.4K
Followers 8.6K	Followers 1.1K	Followers 29.5K
Votes 1.8K	Votes 516	Votes 1.2K
Pros & Cons
Pros 248 Allows for rapid prototyping 228 Hybrid mobile 208 It's angularjs 186 Free 179 It's javascript, html, and css Cons 20 Not suitable for high performance or UI intensive apps 15 Not meant for game development 2 Not a native app	Pros 75 Access to the entire native api 47 Support for native ios and android libraries 46 Angular 2.0 support 46 Support for javascript libraries 44 Native ux and performance Cons 5 Lack of promotion 1 Slower Performance compared to competitors	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

What are some alternatives to Ionic, NativeScript, React Native?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch 2, a high-performance HTML5 mobile application framework, is the cornerstone of the Sencha HTML5 platform. Built for enabling world-class user experiences, Sencha Touch 2 is the only framework that enables developers to build fast and impressive apps that work on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, and more.

Related Comparisons

Ionic vs NativeScript vs React Native: What are the differences?

Introduction

Development Language:

User Interface:

Performance:

Third-Party Library Support:

Development and Learning Curve:

Development Environment and Tooling:

Ionic vs NativeScript vs React Native

Overview

Ionic vs NativeScript vs React Native: What are the differences?