
Shoutem – A platform to build, publish, and manage React Native apps - anatolinicolae
https://shoutem.github.io/
======
ryannevius
Just my two cents: I'm currently building an app on the Shoutem platform, and
have been required to extend one of the Shoutem extensions to do so. I have
been in direct communication with the Shoutem team throughout this proces, and
have gotten to know the platform intimately.

A month into it, I can honestly say I can't recommend using the platform
(yet). While the idea is an interesting one, it's bloated, buggy, slow, and
doesn't offer much over optimizing a website for mobile devices. That said,
the team behind the platform is great, and I'm confident they'll work out the
kinks over the coming months to make it more user/developer friendly.

~~~
bschwindHN
> it's bloated, buggy, slow

But they said "Shoutem apps are slick and fast", how could this be???

~~~
anatolinicolae
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

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usaphp
It’s weird that the app they decided to showcase [1] using their product - has
one stars as majority of ratings with a main reason of it crashing all the
time. If that’s the best what they could have shown, I wonder how bad it can
get then

[1] - [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brides-wedding-
genius-5-1/id...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brides-wedding-
genius-5-1/id426415850)

~~~
anatolinicolae
To be honest, I had some issues on a fresh app with only shoutem-ui which
seems to fail in some parts on latest React + RN.

[https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/327](https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/327)
[https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/328](https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/328)

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truetuna
I've used Shoutem's standalone UI library[1] for my last project but haven't
used their platform as a whole. During that time, I found it painful to get it
working.

Their documentation[2] wasn't great. It was out of date (missing component
attributes, icons etc.) and lacked good examples. Often I would have to dig
into the source to figure out obscure errors. When I first starting using
@shoutem/ui, I couldn't use the latest version of React Native because they
locked themselves into an experimental feature[3] which even until now, seems
like it hasn't properly resolved.

Again. I can't comment on their platform but I didn't have a good time using
their UI library. Had I known this, I would have just gone with NativeBase[4].

[1] - [https://github.com/shoutem/ui](https://github.com/shoutem/ui)

[2] - [https://shoutem.github.io/docs/ui-
toolkit/components/typogra...](https://shoutem.github.io/docs/ui-
toolkit/components/typography)

[3] -
[https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/241](https://github.com/shoutem/ui/issues/241)

[4] - [https://nativebase.io/](https://nativebase.io/)

------
mobitar
In case you’re curious about React Native in general, I wrote about my
positive experience with it when shipping a cross-platform (encrypted) notes
app: [https://listed.standardnotes.org/@mo/235/i-ve-seen-heaven-
an...](https://listed.standardnotes.org/@mo/235/i-ve-seen-heaven-and-it-s-
written-in-javascript)

------
k__
Looks good.

Currently I'm using Expo, which is rather nice, but I have to detach rather
often, because of stuff like PDF annotations or binary file storage.

How does Shoutem compare to Expo?

~~~
anatolinicolae
Expo is used to run/preview a React Native app where Shoutem is both a CMS
that you can use to manage your app's data and a UI library that you can use
to build your app.

~~~
k__
Ah, so a bit like Firebase+Bootstrap? Or Meteor?

~~~
anatolinicolae
Yeah, kind of a Firebase + Bootstrap which are respectively Shoutem CMS and
Shoutem UI.

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TeeWEE
While I like react and react native, i still think requireing to run a JS
interpreter in order to run a native "like" app is still not good engineering
practice. I'm betting on multi-platform-projects (MPP) with Kotlin and Kotlin-
Native. Engineering wise much more sound, however the iOS and Android platform
should have some more support for Reactive like UI's. Without needing
JavaScript.

~~~
gman83
Flutter is a reactive framework that uses Dart, not JavaScript, if that's more
to your liking.

~~~
4lch3m1st
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't Flutter a little immature too? I remember
playing with it and Dart a while ago, still didn't seem to have everything
necessary to ship something to production.

With that said, I think Dart isn't really a language popular enough to replace
JS in big projects right now.

------
emersonrsantos
Looks very interesting, however you risk being rejected on the Apple app store
because of this guideline:

“4.2.2 Other than catalogs, apps shouldn’t primarily be marketing materials,
advertisements, web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links”.

~~~
mlevental
how so?

~~~
emersonrsantos
Because this doesn't differ from a mobile web browsing experience - content
aggregated from the Web.

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spiderfarmer
$149 / month is a bit too high for most apps.

~~~
SwellJoe
There are other options. It took me a bit of clicking around to find the
pricing information:
[https://new.shoutem.com/pricing/](https://new.shoutem.com/pricing/)

~~~
spiderfarmer
Those are options with less functionality, it's not a tiered price, so you'll
have to be sure your app will be a financial succes before you start
developing.

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amelius
I'm not sure why I should have myself forced into another framework, when I
could have just imported those components if I wanted them. Also, aren't many
such components not available as open source already?

~~~
anatolinicolae
It's not a framework, the UI library has React Native components that help you
build your app. You can use their Builder to integrate the CMS, but that's
another thing.

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vitalychernobyl
We tried working with it and this isn't really a thing - the support is non-
existent, the documentation is lacking.

When contacted, they admitted that the only apps published using the Shoutem
platform are ones that the company custom-built for some clients (their
services are $10k+ a pop).

It sounds like this is just a marketing ploy and a way to get around Apple's
new rules about app-builders.

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techaddict009
Seems good. Is it free or how? If its not free can you add pricing page
properly visible?

And also can you fix "40+ full-featured extensions" section css/jquery on
hover its moving in speed I am unable to check all list.

~~~
anatolinicolae
The UI component collection is free, their CMS is paid.
[https://new.shoutem.com/pricing/](https://new.shoutem.com/pricing/)

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stemuk
Looks pretty great, are there any demo apps available to play with?

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j45
Has anyone used Shoutem and Appery? I am on a grandfathered plan of the latter
but Shoutem looks quite interesting.

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jeffehobbs
This is a great team. Hats off for this release and I can’t wait to play with
it.

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mlevental
how does the component library compare to nativebase?

~~~
thawab
this is their UI kit:
[https://github.com/shoutem/ui](https://github.com/shoutem/ui)

most of the extensions in their platform are open source:
[https://github.com/shoutem/extensions](https://github.com/shoutem/extensions)

~~~
homarp
the UI is BSD.

The extension is a bit different:
[https://github.com/shoutem/extensions/blob/master/LICENSE](https://github.com/shoutem/extensions/blob/master/LICENSE)

------
oldboyFX
Folks at Shoutem poured years of effort into building this platform and it
definately shows. The product is really solid and I recommend taking a better
look at it if you're planning to build a mobile app.

