Rhomobile vs. Phonegap considerations [closed]

Question

I'm debating between Phonegap and RhoMobile for cross platform mobile application development. I'm a web developer with experience in Ruby as well as the traditional web technologies (HTML, CSS, and Javascript). The backend of this application will be accessed via a web browser and built with Rails. What are my chief concerns when choosing between these platforms? Which would you recommend I go with and WHY?

Thank you

Pornocracy

Do you have a Mac you can compile your iPhone application with? – Halvorsen

Did you choose a framework? If so, any comments on why you chose that particular framework? – Otten

Answer 1

I will just add that these are the major differentiators of Rhodes versus PhoneGap (or Titanium):

• Rhodes is the only framework with support for a MVC (Model View Controller) pattern
• Rhodes is the only framework with both synchronization and an Object Relational Manager, making it ideal for data intensive applications
• Rhodes is the only framework with an app generator
• Rhodes has broader OS support (including the only one with support for Windows Mobile)
• Rhodes supports more device capabilities. It is the only framework with Near Field Communications support, realtime hardware-based barcode scanning and signature capture
• Rhodes has true full IDE with an integrated debugger and a device independent simulator (something PhoneGap does not)

If you go to the google group, I think you will see that few bugs are reported there. But make your own judgement after reading the content and executing the RhoStudio tutorial (which should take less than an hour of investment). Also regression testing is executed continuously on all Rhodes checkins.

If you judge the framework by the ability to create a native app with HTML and make some device calls, PhoneGap and Rhodes are both pretty much the same. And both have few issues with bugs, as this low bar is fairly simple.

The differentiators listed above (which I summary as "modern development techniques for information intensive apps") have an inherent complexity to them. With the help of the community and a large dedicated QA staff from our new owner Motorola, these differentiator features are all now quite mature, and do not exist in other products.

Cusk

The first point states only Rhodes supports the MVC pattern. But Phonegap being written in HTML5+JS, any MVC web library can also be used there. – Peavy

Answer 2

Personally, I'd recommend PhoneGap because (at the time of this writing) PhoneGap has a website dedicated to it's development while Rhodes does not, and support for PhoneGap (Documentation, community, etc) is more readily available. Both frameworks can do just about the same thing by providing your phone's Web View with HTML tied to native features with JavaScript APIs. In terms of performance, they are identical because the only indicators of performance are the capabilities of your phone's web view. Plus, PhoneGap's branding is stylish and modern.

Comparing with Adam Blum's answer point by point:

• No one is stopping you from implementing a Model View Controller arrangement of your code in PhoneGap.
• No one is preventing you from using an Object Relation Mapper (or similar) with PhoneGap. Try googling for "backbonejs" or "angularjs".
• PhoneGap has an app generator called "Build" to publish apps to all platforms easily, which is free for open source apps and up to one proprietary app, $9.99/mo for up to 25 commercial apps. http://build.phonegap.com
• PhoneGap supports a large number of devices, including Windows Mobile. http://phonegap.com/about/feature
• PhoneGap has a plugin for Near Field Communication (NFC) that works on Android. iPhone 5 doesn't even have NFC. http://phonegap.com/2011/09/26/building-an-nfc-enabled-android-application-with-phonegap/ This will get you started with barcode scanning in PhoneGap: Phonegap Barcode Scanner
• No IDE for PhoneGap. You'll have to use PhoneGap Build or use platform-dependent IDEs to test apps.

Psychophysiology

PhoneGap does NOT support Windows Mobile (meaning WM 6.5 and prior). It DOES support Windows Phone 7, which is not Windows Mobile. WM, WinCE, Windows Embedded or whatever it's being called this week are older OSes that run on rugged devices from manufacturers like Motorola, Psion (now owned by Motorola), Intermec and Honeywell. Rho's support for generating apps that can run on the older OS is probably a large part of the reason Motorola bought them. – Farmhand

Unfortunately, IE9 on WP 7 sucks compared to the competition. Hardware accelerated CSS3 properties don't compare to Android Browser, Chrome for Android, iOS Webkit, or BlackBerry's webkit browser. I have yet to test WP 8 IE 10 though. – Psychophysiology

- app generation in Rhodes is scaffold generation, not "hosted build" (which both Rhodes and PhoneGap offer) - I think you left out addressing the sync point - if you want to add your own ORM and make up your own MVC conventions sure - Rhodes absolutely DOES have extensive documentation, tutorials, videos and webinars: docs.rhomobile.com. – Cusk

Answer 3

Really just my two cents, I tried both (and also Adobe Flex, Corona SDK, etc), and I prefer PhoneGap, similar to @Stephan Branczyk, I had quality issues with Rhodes.

Doublefaced

Hi Peter, when was your experience with Rhodes? I took out my original answer since my experience was 2 years old (or possibly 2 and a half years old according to the Rhomobile archive). I'd be curious to hear about people with more recent experiences. – Halvorsen

Answer 4

I have also observed that Phonegap applications tend to be slow on Android while Rhodes apps work fine on pretty much all platforms. Also, Rhodes supports Symbian S40 as well, something which Phonegap lacks for now. Although the support for S40 might not be required for modern apps but still if you consider the enterprise scenario then this might be a possible usecase.

Gambit

I think the reason many Android apps made with PhoneGap seem to be slow is because they use UI frameworks where scrolling is achieved by animating the top or left css properties of an element. However, there is a tool called iScroll that animates the scroll position of the element's parent container instead, which works MUCH better. Using iScroll, combined with CSS3 hardware accelerated animations, provides an almost native experience. To see what I mean, try out any app in the PhoneGap showcase and the UI will be slow and clunky when scrolling... Then try out the "Go 2012" app and be amazed. – Psychophysiology

The Go 2012 app is made with PhoneGap. What it really boils down to is a that developers need to have a deeper understanding of HTML technologies and utilize them properly. Don't animate the position of elements for scrolling like most mobile HTML frameworks do. Also, trun on hardware accelerated CSS3 animations whenever possible. Here's a link to the Go 2012 app: go2012app.com It really is simply, fast, and beautiful, unlike most of the clunky sluggish PhoneGap apps out there. Based on this one single app (Go 2012) you'll feel a new confidence in using PhoneGap. – Psychophysiology

So I tried it out & it does seem that its faster than the usual Phonegap apps, however still need to compare this with the performance of Rhodes – Gambit

The performance of Rhodes wouldn't be any different from PhoneGap because both PhoneGap and Rhodes use your device's native Web View for rendering. For example, go to ghz.me/k3, ghz.me/k0, or ghz.me/jT in your mobile device's stock browser and see how those examples perform. The performance you notice will be exactly the same in both Rhodes and PhoneGap because the only thing performance depends on is your device's browser. Both Rhodes and PhoneGap simply send HTML to your phone's built-in browser. – Psychophysiology

Answer 5

I would personally recommend RhoMobile.

1. Rhomobile has a very good documentation.
2. Rhomobile has an IDE(Rhostudio).
3. Rhomobile has multiple components like Rhogallery, Rhoconnect and Rhoelements. Which helps you start from developing mobile apps, synchronization and deploying it.
4. There are no much big difference b/w both the framework architecture, both of them makes use of WebView Component for rendering and native features with JavaScript APIs.
5. Since you are Ruby developer it would be very easy for you to catch up with Rhomobile.

Lingo

Answer 6

I would recommend using Plain Android SDK, if you really want to build good quality apps. It might be a little pain initially to learn Android Platform APIs in Java but its worth the effort :)

Tricyclic