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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Mobile Development
  5. PWA vs PhoneGap

PWA vs PhoneGap

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

PhoneGap
PhoneGap
Stacks578
Followers685
Votes94
GitHub Stars4.0K
Forks889
PWA
PWA
Stacks86
Followers132
Votes0

PWA vs PhoneGap: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Progressive Web Apps (PWA) and PhoneGap.

  1. Installation Process: Progressive Web Apps can be installed directly from a web browser, without the need to go through an app store. On the other hand, PhoneGap apps need to be distributed through app stores or as standalone APK files.

  2. Platform Limitations: Progressive Web Apps are not limited to any specific platform and can run on any web browser that supports the necessary technologies. PhoneGap, on the other hand, is built on top of Apache Cordova and relies on platform-specific WebView components, making it limited to specific platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.

  3. Access to Native APIs: Progressive Web Apps have limited access to native device APIs and functionality, as they primarily rely on web technologies. PhoneGap, on the other hand, provides a bridge between web and native code, allowing developers to access a wide range of native APIs and device functionalities.

  4. Performance: Progressive Web Apps can offer fast and responsive user experiences through techniques like service workers, caching, and efficient data management. However, PhoneGap apps may experience slightly lower performance due to the overhead of running a web app inside a WebView.

  5. Offline Support: Progressive Web Apps can work offline or in low-connectivity environments by caching the necessary resources. PhoneGap apps can also support offline functionality by utilizing plugins, but it requires additional development effort.

  6. Updates and Maintenance: Progressive Web Apps can be updated instantly, as changes made to the web server are immediately reflected in the app. PhoneGap apps, on the other hand, require updates to be pushed through app stores, which may cause delays in getting the latest features and bug fixes to the users.

In summary, Progressive Web Apps can be installed directly from a web browser, work across multiple platforms, have limited access to native APIs, offer better performance, provide offline support with built-in capabilities, and allow for instant updates. PhoneGap, on the other hand, needs distribution through app stores, is limited to specific platforms, offers greater access to native APIs, may have slightly lower performance, requires additional effort for offline support, and has delayed update delivery.

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Advice on PhoneGap, PWA

Aleksandr
Aleksandr

Contract Software Engineer - Microsoft at Microsoft-365

Dec 23, 2019

Review

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!

119k views119k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

PhoneGap
PhoneGap
PWA
PWA

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.

Building a high-quality Progressive Web App has incredible benefits, making it easy to delight your users, grow engagement and increase conversions.It is intended to work on any platform that uses a standards-compliant browser.

Android;Blackberry;iOS;Windows Phone;Windows8
offline, performance, speed, app
Statistics
GitHub Stars
4.0K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
889
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
578
Stacks
86
Followers
685
Followers
132
Votes
94
Votes
0
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
    Not build for high performance
  • 1
    Poor user experience
  • 1
    Hard to see
Pros
  • 1
    Doesn't need a native building tools/sdk
  • 1
    Free
  • 1
    It's javascript, html, and css
  • 1
    Allows for rapid prototyping
Cons
  • 1
    Adoption across mobile OSes varies

What are some alternatives to PhoneGap, PWA?

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.

React Native

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

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.

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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