Is PhoneGap a good choice for App Development? [closed]

Question

I am a new iOS Developer, but knows nothing about Android development and Java at this moment. I am going to invest time in learning a tool to develop Android version of apps. PhoneGap sounds powerful for its cross-platform ability, but I am not sure if there are any drawbacks. Could anyone tell me the pros and cons of using PhoneGap? Based on your experience, would you suggest me to go for native Android or PhoneGap? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Answer 1

I've been developing with Phonegap quite a while ago.
NOTE: this is all based on my own experience

Pro's:

• You don't need any 'native' experience, only intermediate 'web development skills' will be enough.
• For 95% you don't have to worry if it'll work on both iOS and Android, because Phonegap does all your worries, Just use the Phonegap Libs.
• As for my experience, for iOS it is really easy and fast to test.
  • Another part of my team was building the 'android version'. Don't worry, you don't need to. That was a personal choice. In the end we merged everything together and only needed rechecks on a few things. (e.g. different layouts on different pages. See the Cons for more about this.)

Cons

• You have to think about the buttons you are going to use. Android devices have an own 'back' button. As for iOS you need to develop this in your application. This is a choice of your own, but you might ending up designing two pages.
• Performance wise Phonegap is not the best.. I cannot tell you the exact reason for this, core-wise. Our application didn't need a highly graphical interface, but Phonegap seemed to struggle with 'decent' webpages already. So, when you are planning to build a game or some app that needs high graphical performance, you'd better go native.

Then I did some quick research for you.

• Here I found a nice mobile framework comparison. (via this SO q.)
• Here is a really well-written article comparing Titanium, Phonegap and Native application development.
• Here are pro's and cons listed.

Binding all together, it really depends on the purpose of your application.
When designing a game or other application that needs high graphical performance, you'd better go native programming.
When you are planning to build a light weight application and you already have web development knowledge, I recommend Phonegap.

Answer 2

You're looking for a tool to develop Android version of apps which already exist? So cross-platform ability, which is a key benefit, won't be used?

I'd recommend you to invest some time in native Android development. You are probably familiar with Objective-C, getting into JAVA won't be a tough task. Native apps get better ratings than web apps because of their consistent look (buttons and other layout components) and way better performance. PhoneGap apps run enjoyable on iOS devices but lag even on dual-core Androids like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Getting started:

• Android SDK Download
• Eclipse IDE Download
• Google's Getting Started Training