Telerik on NativeScript

Ionic on Ionic

2016 Mobile Strategy Points to Consider

With React Native and Native Script, the definition of native versus hybrid is also blurred, but the single code-base promise and performance of Ionic 2 make a compelling case for enterprise applications and applications with a strong omnichannel requirement (frequent updates to apps and mobile web across all devices made possible by a single codebase).

Phones keep getting better and it's important to not forget how disruptive technologies work. Almost as good becomes as good, and when you consider the importance of Lean UX and DevOps to effective app development and finding your product/marketing fit, cross-platform hybrid is the right choice for an increasing number of applications, markets and teams.

Conclusion

At Rangle, we work in Ionic, "pure Cordova", React Native and NativeScript and we recommend them all.

Fundamentally, we've seen a further significant closing of remaining gaps compared with native application development with Objective-C, Swift and Java.

Coupled with improving phones and a deeper understanding of the importance of Lean UX and Lean Startup practices to get to market, it's more compelling than ever to use a hybrid application development technology.

But which one?

That can't be answered in a short blog post, but here are some considerations.

If you have a strong web team, want to actively maintain your application yourself, and have a strong omnichannel market demand (e.g. mobile web in addition to applications) we generally recommend Cordova-based solution such as Ionic unless your application requirements have performance, usability, or integration requirements that leverage the hybrid Native mobile frameworks.

If mobile web isn't that important, and your market is all about the app, then a hybrid native application is probably a better choice since 1) you get most of the benefits of hybrid web, 2) it is accessible to web developers and uses JavaScript, and 3) extra learning for development and maintenance is very acceptable since this is your primary focus and product.

Learn More About our Mobile App Development Services

Check out our best practices for mobile projects here

Access one of our case studies here: Sprout At Work: A Health and Wellness Social Media App Built with Ionic Framework and PhoneGap

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