Apache Cordova Is Retired: Alternatives for Cross Platform Mobile Development in 2022

Future trends of cross-platform mobile development are already starting to emerge, and it appears that Apache Cordova won’t be included in the list of frameworks that power hybrid web apps for mobile devices. MobiDev reviewed alternatives that can be used to power up your product in 2022.

Flutter, Xamarin, React Native, Ionic, NativeScript may be a good substitute for Cordova in cross-platform app development. These cutting-edge technologies can be the best option for your hybrid app, though there is no reason to perceive any of them as a silver bullet since all technologies have both pros and cons. We suggest considering the following frameworks as alternatives to Cordova:

• Flutter
• React Native
• Ionic
• NativeScript
• Xamarin

Several criteria could be used to compare technologies competing with Apache Cordova: UI, performance, customizability, native modules and plugins, community, and sustainability. We will focus on the Top-3: Flutter, React Native and Ionic. 

1. CORDOVA VS FLUTTER

Flutter is the most flexible technology to build UI at the moment. It has a full set of material and cupertino widgets that aren’t provided by other frameworks. Flutter architecture enables apps based on it to work with the same performance or even faster than Java or Kotlin Android apps. We can define custom painted views and custom layouts without the need to opt into native platforms. Releases in Flutter are stable and don’t break apps – changes are made by Google and Apple in a timely manner. Developer preview versions for creating web applications and desktop applications are also notable.

2. CORDOVA VS REACT NATIVE

Based on JavaScript, React Native uses bridge architecture for all views, which leads to some issues while implementing animations and working with views that report updates. The customizability of React Native can be assessed in terms of custom paint usage. It’s accessible, yet limited and has poor documentation. There is no way to define custom layouts without opting into a native platform. Functionality that allows building modules and views from native views and reusing of native libraries is the same as in the case of Flutter.

If considering the stability of React Native – it is in Beta. The framework has some breaking changes and issues related to new changes in native platforms from time to time. But overall, it has good stability. In React Native it is possible to share only the logic part of the application with the web.

3. CORDOVA VS IONIC

Ionic is an open-source mobile toolkit for building cross-platform apps, and it’s not Cordova-based anymore since May 2021. In Ionic it is possible to use any UI library for the web, but unfortunately, the patterns for web and mobile devices are different, so these libraries are usually not optimized for mobile devices, which causes a lot of issues with UX & performance.

Based on JavaScript, Ionic uses wrapper architecture for the whole application. JavaScript has a huge community, and the platform enables the reusing of JavaScript libraries. The community of ReactNative also has a huge set of available plugins. The main problems are security restrictions and the huge amount of time required to polish the application for each individual device.

MobiDev’s experience indicates that companies aim to leverage a prospective tech stack for all their products from the same beginning point because switching to a new tech stack results in additional costs. And if you are not intending to rewrite your project in the near future, consider other options instead of Cordova in 2022.

More detailed information about alternatives to Apache Cordova can be found at:
https://mobidev.biz/blog/apache-cordova-alternatives-cross-platform-mobile-app-development

MobiDev is a US/Ukraine software engineering company focused on helping visionaries create their products. The company invests into technology research and has years of experience building AI-powered solutions, implementing machine learning, augmented reality, and IoT.