Hybrid framework suggestions
I'm almost finished with a Web app built with React frontend. Now I need to develop a quick-and-dirty mobile app to get my first users. I don't know Java, Swift etc, and I don't have funding to hire a dev. So, my closest options are:
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Progressive Web App
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Hybrid (Cordova etc)
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React Native.
What do you suggest?
If #2, which framework? Somebody told me that PhoneGap is dead, is that true?
If #3, will I have to rewrite most of my code, or just a small part of it?
I don't need them gyroscope, contact list, etc. The main purpose is to let the users have an icon of my app on their screen so that they don't have to browse to my website. And push notifications would be pretty nice, too. Performance is not that important on that stage, I don't have any animations anyway.
Thanks a lot for any suggestions!
P.S. I'm building an app for learning languages -- quickly and without effort. But that's foranother post.
I've just started learning flutter (flutter.io), it's pretty cool. You write your apps in dart, and it compiles down to native code for iOS and android. It's very new, but in-spite of that there are many resources. I think that given the move to cross platform > native, it's a good skill set to have for any consulting gigs that you might come across.
Thanks, but learning another language and rewriting everything means I'd have to spend yet another year on it.
In the spirit of indie hacking and validation, I would say PWA. Spend less time coding and more time on the important business stuff :)
I used React Native for an app that was React-based and I had a blast using it. I had sloppy code, so had to rewrite most of it. The UI part has to be changed from HTML els to native widgets, but I think you can reuse most of your underlying libraries (make sure you use fetch for API calls). I never quite got my login working well. It couldn't quite keep user login in the correct state (probably my fault :)).
My next choice will be Native Script. I fell in love with VueJS and would love to use it in a phone app.
Someone needs to build the next-generation framework where you can write responsive UIs once, and it can build for phones, web, and desktop natively! :) PWAs are the closest to that, sadly.
Thanks, just what I needed!
Native script would be a terrible choice for someone coming from React . I am an angular dev but I think he should stick to React Native , yes it gets some issues but you need to be smart about it to hack on performance plus there lots of resources out there. I started playing with Flutter 2days back its really powerful and fast .
Do I understand correctly that switching to React native would mean having to rewrite all of my HTML but keep most of the js code?
Hi Artem, I was referring to the typescript overhead plus Nativescript framework as it would keep you in the learning the framework as opposed to quickly building something with the skills you already know in Js and React.
Got it, thanks!