Top Cordova Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development

Nowadays, the tendency of people using desktop applications has decreased because of the increasing demand for mobile applications. Many enterprises are implementing effective development strategies to upgrade their businesses to an online environment. Due to this, Entrepreneurs prefer mobile apps to enhance their reach to targeted users.

Working on hybrid mobile applications is not a time-consuming task for developers because the developer has the ease of writing code once and building a mobile app that runs on the main platform without any extra effort.

The developer can also reuse the code for progressive web applications and desktop applications that mainly runs on Android and iOS. Electron is an open-source framework that adapts the code for the desktop environment.

Top Cordova Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development

But we need the best frameworks to design various applications. There are several frameworks available in the market; we have defined the top frameworks that can be used for hybrid mobile applications.

Why use Framework for Cordova application?

Sometimes, Cordova technology is neglected because of some issues that are as follows:

Issues when handling touch events.
Not capable of handling fixed position element targets.
Faces difficulty to follow the native design and animation.
Performance issues on long lists.
Complex transitions animation effects.

So, frameworks are generally used for eliminating these issues and update the design and performance of HTML apps to native apps as possible.

Native and Hybrid mobile app development

Native Apps:

There are two approaches used by the developers to create mobile applications, i.e., Native and hybrid mobile app development. This section gives the introduction of Native apps.

Native App development mainly relies on tools and programming languages that are specifically designed for one platform. When we create native applications, the specific OS requirements are used by the developers to install the app on the computing device.

However, we can face some significant issues while using native app development.

Faced Issues:

Native app development is not preferable for creating an application that runs on multiple platforms.
We also need to develop various apps for each targeted platform, which is a time-consuming and cost-effective task.

Pros & Cons of Native mobile app development:

Pros:

It delivers the best performance as compared to Hybrid apps.
It provides complete support from the app stores.
It enables the developers to access all of the features of a selected operating system.
It provides a better user experience.
It has better speed and performance.
It provides advanced customization.
It is more powerful than web applications because it directly interacts with the hardware.
Native apps are approved by their corresponding operating systems that provide security, quality, and device compatibility.

Cons:

In Native apps, difficult programming languages are used. So, the developers must know the programming languages.
Native apps are more expensive as compared to hybrid apps.
Native apps are not suitable for simple applications.

Hybrid Apps:

The Hybrid App development or cross-platform development is used for combining the native code with the independent code that can run the code on multiple platforms. It allows the developers to create cross-platform mobile apps.

Hybrid software is coded in different languages, like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These languages are not native to the operating systems and the devices. So, the application is packaged into the native container and integrated into multiple platforms. It has the same look and feel as the native application.

Pros & Cons of Hybrid mobile app development:

Now, we will discuss the Pros & Cons of Hybrid Application:

Pros:

It is the best solution for launching the application on multiple platforms.
80% of the code can be shared with another node.
It consumes less time because of code reusability.
It has the same look and feel like native applications.
Hybrid apps eliminate the need for building separate solutions.

Cons:

It takes a larger space on the device.
It has limited animation smoothness.
It consumes time when loading an application.
It cannot share the complete code; some of the native code needs to be written.

Now, it is the time to discuss the top Cordova frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development:

Top Cordova Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile App Development

Xamarin

Xamarin is the best framework for building the Hybrid applications. It is a California-based software company that is owned by Microsoft. It is founded in May 2011, and it is compatible with multiple platforms. It provides efficient performance like native solutions. It mainly relies on the C# programming language with the .NET framework.

The developers can use the Xamarin tools to develop native and Windows apps with native user interfaces by using C# shared codebase. You can download it from its official website: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/xamarin.

Its development toolset consists of the significant components that are listed below:

Xamarin SDK
Xamarin Test Cloud
Visual Studio
Hockeyapp

Pros & Cons of Xamarin

Pros:

It is an open-source platform that has a better user experience.
It provides full hardware support.
Impressive performance as close to native apps.
Single technology compatible with multiple platforms.
Low cost and simplified maintenance.
The developer does not require switching between development environments.

Cons:

Its design applications take a large amount of space in memory.
User has limited access of the open-source libraries.
Developers should know native languages.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is defined as an open-source platform that is distributed by the Cordova. It allows the developer to build an application using a single codebase that is compatible with multiple platforms. It provides an ease to the developer to reuse the old web development skills supported by various languages like HTML, CSS to create the hybrid application.

It is the most popular cross-platform framework that coverts our HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files into an app in minutes using the desktop and developer apps. It provides the native plugins and containers that enable the developers to access mobile resources like camera, compass, etc. After building the app, we can run it in a WebView browser that remains inside the native container on a suitable platform. You can download it from its official website: https://phonegap.com/

Pros & Cons of PhoneGap

Pros:

It is an open-source platform that builds an application using a single codebase.
The plugins used in the PhoneGap allow to access mobile resources like camera, contacts, etc.
Its user interface is similar to all platforms.
It is a developer-friendly platform.

Cons:

A large amount of graphic element affects the performance of an app.
Extensive testing is required to test an application.
The documentation of PhoneGap is not very descriptive.

To learn more about PhoneGap, you can click on the given link: https://www.javatpoint.com/cordova-phonegap

Ionic

Ionic is defined as a free and open-source project that is licensed under MIT. It was developed by Drifty Co.in 2012that is built on top of Angular. It is used for developing hybrid apps by using different web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and SASS,etc. It consists of 120 native features like Bluetooth, Finger Print Auth, HealthKit, etc.

The Command Line Interface(CLI) of Ionic is used to create, build, test, and deploy the application into multiple platforms. These applications can be distributed among different nodes by using the native stores.

It is a front-end SDK that is used for building cross-platform mobile apps. It has a large community of developers where millions of apps have been developed using Ionic. Ionic also provides a platform for integrating services like push notifications and analytics. This framework consists of an icon pack named as Ionicons.

It offers extra capabilities and services like maintainability, scalability that makes interactive web applications. It also provides a collection of web services that helps to enhance the speed of building, testing, debugging, and updating applications. You can download it from its official website: https://ionicframework.com/

Pros& Cons of Ionic

Pros:

It is an open-source platform that is packaged with lists, tabs, header bars, and cards.
Quick implementation of a prototype.
It is easy to use that have great designs.
It is easy to setup.
It has a large community of developers.

Cons:

It is not suitable for game development.
It does not provide high performance.

Framework7

This framework can quickly build a prototype and develop user-friendly mobile apps that provide an interactive user experience. It is an open-source platform that consists of a simple HTML layout. It is not compatible with multiple platforms.

It is an HTML framework that builds hybrid mobile apps and web apps. These apps provide Android and iOS native look and feel.

It was developed by Russian studio iDangero in 2014. For creating iOS and Android apps, this framework mainly uses the iOS and Google material design. You can download it from its official website: https://framework7.io/. Some of the main features of Framework7 are listed below:

Native scrolling
Multiple views support
Page transition animation
Browsing History
Preloading

Pros & Cons of Framework7

Pros:

It is an open-source platform that can be customized easily.
It consists of many ready-to-use UI elements.
It is easy to learn.

Cons:

It is not compatible with multiple platforms.
Must have a built-in F7 MVC framework.

Onsen UI

It is another open-source framework that is licensed by Apache. It is framework-agnostic, which means you can switch between different frameworks like Angular or React to develop hybrid apps.

It is anHTML5 framework that is based on the custom elements and offers a large selection of components and responsive layout support. This framework is new but gives tough competition to Ionic. It is also free for all commercial projects.

It allows the developers to develop multiplatform apps without requiring additional skill set. You can download it from its official website: https://onsen.io/

The features of Onsen UI are as follows:

It is a completely open-source framework.
It is based on Angular JS and jQuery.
Existing templates are available for Login, Profile, etc.
It contains CSS components for Header, Footer, ListView, etc.
Consists JavaScript controller for swipe Pull to refresh.
It enables the developer to write code in HTML, JavaScript through Cordova and PhoneGap.

Pros & Cons of Onsen UI:

Pros:

Predefined Components are used.
Best documentation.

Cons:

It does not include Cordova/PhoneGap builder.

Sencha

This framework is a leader of enterprise-grade application product and is used for building cross-platform apps with HTML5 and JavaScript. It is a better choice for users to provide a native look and feel across multiple platforms. It should be your first choice if you have a big organization. You can use Sencha for creating both mobile and web apps using HTML5 and JavaScript.

A JavaScript framework named ExtJS is the most popular framework based on the Sencha platform. This framework builds high-performance apps with native user experience. It also uses some widgets for all the leading platforms like iOS, Android, Blackberry. You can download it from its official website: https://www.sencha.com/

With the use of Sencha Framework, we can feature a drag and drop function to build HTML5 visual application. Several templates are also available for the easy implementation of an application. Furthermore, it provides a set of themes used for various platforms like Android, Blackberry, iOS, etc.

Pros and Cons of Sencha

Pros:

It is a completely open-source platform that provides a native look and feel across multiple platforms.
It mainly provides a library of UI components and also an extensible API.

Cons:

It is not suitable for a single developer and freelancing.
Performance issues are faced when using Sencha.

Monaca

Monaca is a cloud-powered framework that supports both online and offline developmentof hybrid apps. It can launch your app directly to the app market.

It is a framework-agnostic set of tools and consists of many ready-to-use templates that help to build and deploy the process of an app more easily. This app development tool can be used separately or can be integrated with other tools like Git, Sublime Text, etc.

It was developed in Japan, but its growth was extended across several countries like the US, Mexico, Italy, China, and Venezuela. You can download it from its official website: https://monaca.io/

Pros & Cons of Monaca

Pros:

It supports both online and offline development of hybrid apps.
You can Debug an app with live-reload feature and cloud build experience.
No setup is required because of the complete cloud development environment of Monaca.
You can use your environment because of cloud-synced local development.
It is a Framework Agnostic tool that tightly integrates with Onsen Framework. However, it provides flexibility to choose any JavaScript frameworks.
It provides support for Angular 1, 2+, React, and Vue.js. You can also use your framework.
It relies on the Onsen UI JavaScript framework that helps to develop an HTML 5 based hybrid mobile app faster.
Many templates are available to simplify the process of app development.