PROS AND CONS OF PHONEGAP APP DEVELOPMENT

While PhoneGap isn’t a magic bullet, it could certainly play a role in fixing many app development problems of the day.

PhoneGap is a big deal in the world of app development. Why? It’s really hard and expensive to develop apps that reach most mobile devices – iOS, Android, Windows Phone… various screen sizes and use cases… these are all multiplying by the day. That means it’s harder and harder to develop apps well – and we all know mobile is critical these days.

PhoneGap – the solution
PhoneGap is an open source mobile app development framework. It allows for the developer to build an app using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. This allows apps to be developed for use across multiple platforms at the same time.

App Development Nirvana: One app – many devices
Instead of having to recreate your app multiple times in order for it to function on all the different mobile devices out there, we can devote a majority of our time to a single developmental process. Of course there are still device-specific needs when developing an app, but PhoneGap keeps us from having to start from the ground up for each one. The result is a hybrid app that is neither completely web-based nor truly native to the device. 

In terms of results, this means more time spent improving your app and adding features, and less time making sure it works on a particular device.  That’s a good tradeoff!

Why and how are we using PhoneGap?

We utilize PhoneGap for multiple reasons, but the main one is that it saves us time. Obviously, that’s good for you too – after all, time is money. Although the app may not be 100% native to each device, PhoneGap still allows us to create a top-notch application. Combine that with the fact that it can be made more quickly andfor less money than the alternative options, and using PhoneGap seems like a no-brainer. Being open source is also a plus in our eyes because PhoneGap will constantly be improving, rather than traditional platforms that often receive infrequent and less-than-ideal support.

Pros -

• No need to learn other complicated languages to create mobile apps. All you should know is JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.
• All the PhoneGap apps can be installed much like a native app, and are able to leverage app store discoverability.
• It follows a plug-in architecture, which indirectly means that access to the native device APIs can be extended in a modular way.
• Using PhoneGap would enable you to distribute and integrate payment through the app store.
• Leverage from tons of libraries.

Cons -

• If your mobile app includes too many graphic elements, performance could be a big issue.
• Not so clear information and directions for user-interface and other best practices to make the app better.
• Documentation is also not so descriptive and at times also lack crucial information required for the development.