Know about Ionic

Being certain that HTML 5 will run on mobile over time, Ionic was built. One of the HTML 5 framework wrapped with Cordova or PhoneGap, it is mobile app development framework that lays the foundation for more advanced development frameworks. Providing tools and services for SAAS, CSS, it is optimized for Angular JS. Creating Android and iOS applications on the same platform was never so easy.

Characteristics:

• Being platform independent, it can be combined with any of the scripting platforms be it HTML, CSS, JavaScript or Angular JS
• Creating default mobile App UI functionalities is easy and efficient with Ionic
• Uses Android’s WebView and IOS’s UIWebView
• Supports Typescript
• Wrapped with Cordova or PhoneGap, it makes it easy to access hardware functionality

Few that does not go in its favor:

Slow performance, non-impressive UI, not suitable for complicated applications like game development, one has to value all pros and cons before considering it as the best option for cross-platform app development.

Find out what is React Native

Create indistinguishable mobile apps that are one step ahead of apps built in objective c or Java. These are very different from a normal mobile web app, a hybrid one or than those of HTML 5. If you want to experience true native experience that is based on JavaScript and React, React Native is the platform you can try out. You will have to deploy your Android and IOS applications on separate systems, whereas if you choose to work upon the Ionic platform, you can try your hands on both platforms working your way out on a single system with the same code. It brings declarative self-contained UI components and fast development cycles besides retaining the speed, quality, accuracy and actual feel of native applications.

Features that make it attractive:

• No compilation required/Hot Reloading

Reload your application instantly, without recompiling. In addition to this, it’s magical to see how hot reloading will even help you to run new code while retaining your application state.

• Use when you need

It will gel up well with Objective-C, Swift or Java and you can trim your code down to native code in order to optimize few aspects of your application. Also, you get the liberty to sketch out part of your application in React Native and other part using Native Code directly. This is the working principle behind Facebook app as well.

• Rich native UI Experience
• Virtual Dom for UI
• Much better overall experience as compared to ionic and Native Script

 

Some that do not go in favor:

• Works well with IOS than in Android
• More memory Allocation
• More CPU usage is required

 

Here comes NativeScript

Built using JavaScript, Native Script supports Angular Framework directly. Furthermore, making use of the same API as if they were developed in Xcode or Android Studio, The mobile applications that come out, as a result, are fully native.

By simply sharing the application code across platforms, Native Script enables you to build native apps for IOS, Android, and Windows Universal simultaneously.

An ordered array of features that distinguish Native Script from other technologies:

• Native UI

Define the script once and you can use it anywhere within your code. It is easy to define, very accessible and is devoid of any web-views. You can customize the user interface according to specific devices and screens. This is the reason why SAP has chosen Native Script to fuel their Enterprise Mobile Applications.

• Open Source

With Apache 2 license, Native Script is open source

• Extensible

Native Script allows making use of all the existing plugins from npm, CocoaPods from IOS and Gradle from Android etc., directly in NativeScript projects along with all the other available Native Script specific plugins.

• Quick to Learn

If you aren't naïve with JavaScript and CSS, you can learn it in 60 seconds.

• Cross-Platform App Development

Native mobile applications from Android and IOS can be created with a single codebase.

• Strong Backing

You will get all the Enterprise support from the development community.

Few that does not go in favor:

• Tough debugging process
• Long development time
• Larger app size as compared to Android Apps

 

Closure: Which Cross App Development Platform is better?

Here React Native App Development wins the game. We cannot deny the popularity of Ionic or Native Script either. Github has given 190 and 65 stars to Ionic and Native Script respectively, but it also depends upon user preferences. Easy learning curve, development community support, app requirements are all essential factors that help in considering React Native as the favorite cross-app development platform.