[WA]

Although unpopular on HN: Cordova-based apps with a good mobile look-alike framework can get you very far for a smallish app.

Advantages:

- truly one code base

- iOS, Android, and web apps

- JavaScript skills are useful

- experience is "good enough" for the average user

Downsides:

- almost no fine-grained control of input controls (like which keyboard to show)

- doesn’t respect users’ accessibility options of the OS

- small differences between the native widgets and the CSS/HTML lookalikes

- not anymore: performance. It’s really good enough on devices of the last 4-5 years

I use Ionic, or more specifically: Stencil with ionic web components.

[raihansaputra]

I agree. With good frontend development practices (state management, caching, etc) it behaves a lot like a native app, it's quick to get up and running and easy to maintain. Not to mention you can deploy as PWA/mobile web if it suits the situation.

What framework are you using? Angular or another framework? I'm interested to explore this approach using Svelte.

[WA]

I use Stencil, made by the ionic team: https://stenciljs.com/

It’s also a compiler for web components like Svelte and a lot like React. You can add the ionic code web components to get animations etc. Try it out, especially if you like TypeScript.

[raihansaputra]

Might have to take a deeper look at it. Thanks!

[lucasverra]

Excellent recap.

Can you link to one app ported on the 3 platforms (Android,iOS,Web) so we can test performance from a UX point of view ?

[WA]

Well, you could try the Ionic Conference App (just a demo app): https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-conference-app

[lucasverra]

any other real life example besides the provider template app ?

[gitgud]

If you want performance Cordova is not going to impress you ...

[pjmlp]

I used them a couple of times, for that kind of user experience I rather use a PWA.

[WA]

Yeah, but the average user doesn't know what a PWA is and they want to install an app through the app store. Furthermore, with Cordova, you can also use plugins such as In-App-Purchases or access to more persistent storage (SQLite) instead of what the browser offers.

[pjmlp]

You can package PWAs via the stores as well, in which case they are able to access native features as if they were browser APIs.

[WA]

Not yet on iOS, or am I mistaken?

[pjmlp]

True, only on Android, Windows and ChromeOS.

[muzani]

Cordova can access native features on phones via plugins - database, camera, sensors, etc. As well as use different designs for Android/iOS with the same code via Ionic/F7.