Xamarin vs PhoneGap (Cordova) Standoff - Who Will Win in 2024

In this fast-paced era of technology, stakeholders understand that mobile application development is the best way to connect with customers. The realm of mobile application development is dominated by three major heavyweights namely iOS, Android, and Windows. Building a dedicated native application for each mobile platform and maintaining & updating separate versions can not only be infuriating and time-consuming but also cost dearly to businesses. This is where the need for cross-platform (hybrid) mobile app development comes in.

Cross-platform application development allows you to build flexible and native-like apps with shareable and reusable codebases that can be transformed to run seamlessly across all the leading mobile platforms. Unlike native mobile application development wherein you need to build a separate version for each mobile platform, in cross-platform application development, you’ve to build only a single version for all the mobile platforms. This not only cuts down the high development cost but also accelerates the mobile app development process since developers can reuse the maximum code.

Key Reasons to Consider Cross-platform Application Development

  • Minimize upfront expenses

  • Wider market reach

  • Support any platform

  • Quick prototyping

  • Reduce development time

  • Easy product maintenance

  • Write source code only once

  • Reusable code across platforms

Besides advantages, cross-platform application development also comes with some drawbacks such as:

  • Integration issues

  • Sluggish coding

  • Lazy new updates

  • Lower performance

Before you go for cross-platform application development, it becomes imperative to choose the right framework for your application development to overcome the drawbacks listed above. The framework you opt for application development should largely depend on your business goals and objectives. Also, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each framework, determining the budget, key components in your technology stack, integrations you’ll require, and how much your mobile application needs to scale up. Though the market is brimming with a slew of cross-platform application development frameworks, Xamarin and PhoneGap (Apache Cordova) have stolen the thunder in the past few years. In this informative piece, we will draw a quick comparison between these two popular frameworks so that you can make an informed business decision quickly. Let’s dive deep into it.

Xamarin

Launched back in 2011, Xamarin is a free, cross-platform mobile application framework that banks on its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called Xamarin Studio, C# programming language, and .NET framework. It compiles UI code and the application code base by accessing native APIs for each mobile platform - iOS, Android, and Windows. Backed by a strong and active community of contributors from 3,700+ companies, this open-source framework is trusted by the world’s leading brands including UPS, HCL, GitHub, Slack, Foursquare, BBC Good Food, Alaska Airlines, Allscripts, The Postage, American Cancer Society, JustGiving, and many more.

Xamarin Basics

  • User Interface: Native

  • Free or paid: Free (open-source)

  • Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry

  • Device API access: Fully access native capabilities

  • Programming language: C#, .NET framework

  • IDE: Xamarin Studio (free). It also allows you to use Visual Studio for development

  • Compatible with: MDM software

  • Design Patterns Supported: MVC, MVVM

  • Xamarin.Android library: Android Wear, Firephone, and also support Google Glass devices

When you partner with a Xamarin app development company, developers can share over 75% of the code across all the mobile platforms, which in turn, accelerates the development giving clients’ a faster time-to-market advantage.

PhoneGap (Apache Cordova)

Apache Cordova, formerly known as PhoneGap, is a free and open-source mobile application development framework that allows you to build mobile apps using JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and Web APIs. The files in Apache Cordova are a collection of HTML pages that are wrapped in a native app shell and then moved to native platforms through native APIs. Similar to website development, Apache Cordova developers create files using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. These files are either stored in the cloud or in a local directory and when these files run on a device, they can easily access device in-built features through plugins. Some of the world’s leading brands that are using Apache Cordova in their tech stack include Adobe, Walmart, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Wikipedia, Logitech, and many more.

Final Words

From the above, it is clear that both frameworks for cross-platform application development are a great choice. However, the choice of selecting the framework will boil down to your business goals and objectives.