

Ask HN: How reliable is PhoneGap to develop Native Apps? - ashitvora

I am trying to port a desktop web app to native iphone app but wanted to have your opinion, how reliable PhoneGap is for developing full fledge native app.
======
dave783
Phonegap was easy to setup and get going with.

I made the mistake of testing the app out on an iPhone 4 as I was developing
it. Once it was finished, I tried it on my friend's iPhone 3G, and it was
extremely slow and unresponsive to clicks.

I added all the possible optimizations that I could find people recommending
on the web, but using the app on a 3G phone was still a horrible experience.
Be sure to test your app on a 3G phone as you are developing it to test
performance.

In retrospect, I should have taken the time to learn Obj-C and build a native
app.

------
kingofspain
I've used PhoneGap to build an app not so long ago. I had a few early niggles
getting it set up but those were mainly down to myself (I'd never used a Mac
until then).

I did have to leave out a few features I would've liked due to it running too
slow (same app rebuilt in Titanium is much faster) but overall it was a
pleasant experience and the mailing list is very helpful & friendly.

The only things that pushed me to Titanium were the speed issues with the more
complex stuff I was doing (perhaps my fault?) and the fact that Titanium
enables you to use proper native widgets rather than simulating them with
jqtouch or whatever - This was _massive_ for me but no one in the real world
has ever noticed :)

------
nader
We just completed a Titanium-based-App for iOS and Android and are much more
happy with the result than we would have been with PhoneGap, what we used
earlier for apps. Titanium is not only more powerful and speedier but also
makes development cleaner and flexible.

------
sainttex
I started building apps for Android and iPhone simultaneously with a very
early version of PhoneGap. The latest versions require less hacking to get up
and running. It was very straight forward to get solid apps done on both
platforms.

Out of the three apps out for iPhone and Android there have been no crashes
and no complaints from users on bugs or unreliability. The apps make use of
hardware (camera, gps and a few other things) as well as interfacing with a
RoR backend for user systems, data syncing and upload pics taken in-app.

All in all, I've had no problems with it even after digging pretty deep into
it and testing on Android 1.5-2.2 and old iOS through the latest versions.

------
borismus
I just packaged an HTML5 game today. What do you mean by "reliable" though?

