Phonegap vs MonoTouch/Droid

Question

We have an upcoming [big] project, involving a series of mobile apps. Unfortunately we're still new to this market. Our biggest problem is not learning something new, but rather having to develop the same app twice which means approx ~ twice the cost and Hence we're trying to find a cross platform solution.

Since our expertise is in C# and .NET we are very interested in MonoDroid/Touch, and from what I've read that it is a mature framework. However it is not exactly cross-platform (or am I wrong ?) and so we turned to Phonegap, which lets you build mobile apps with js, css and html which are technologies which we feel comfortable using.

Our apps are going to be very data intensive and might also require to be "invoked" by the server, i.e. there might be 2-way communication between the server and the app.

and so my question, given these kind of apps would you suggest phonegap or monoTouch/Droid?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It depends.

I agree that going native gives you the best possible performance and user experience. It's certainly the only feasible option if the app has a demanding UI. But if the app is more informational (perhaps displays news feeds for example) then a hybrid HTML5 app could be the go. The support of HTML5 within a UIWebView on iOS has some quirks in the older iOS versions so tread with caution. And on Android and other platforms, HTML5 isn't quite there yet. Certainly not on older hardware that doesn't have the grunt or browsers with suboptimal javascript engines.

With your .NET background, I suggest you have a look at http://www.vsnomad.com and evaluate it for yourself. Throw a quick demo together and see how it holds up. Otherwise, yeah, go the native route.

Answer 2

With PhoneGap you will create a web application. It can look like a native app, but it's really a web app running inside a browser object.

You'll be programming the client HTML and javascript, just like any other client side web app. You can create ajax calls to the server to get your data and do all your usual C#/.Net stuff there.

With Mono, you will create a clients side application, and you can program that client in C#/.Net.

PhoneGap will be more or less free and can be used for other platforms than Windows, iOS and Android as well, though you'll have to setup environments for each version. You can compile for all platforms in the cloud, but that'll cost you money.

MonoTouch/Droid will set you back a few hundred dollars.

For each platform, you will have to do some extra tweaking. Probably giving it a native look and feel, call different API's, etc.

I would personally advise the Mono route, since you know C#/.Net already. It'll give you results faster. Make use of the free trial for MonoTouch and see if it's something for you and if it's worth buying ($698 for both 'touch and 'droid).

Answer 3

1. Monotouch is NOT cross platform. It allows you to create reusable elements, but you can't build once and deploy to all platforms, especially if your project is really as complex as you are making it sound.

2. I don't know much about phonegap. I've always steered clear of it. It might have changed since I looked at it last, but as I gather its not very robust and doesn't create very good apps, especially (again) for a complex app.

3. There is another cross platform framework called Titanium, but similarly to the both above its not great. There is more support for it every day, but it is missing some key components and you tend to get so far into a project and realise that you're not able to get any further.

My answer, which you're not going to want to hear, is that you should do it for each platform separately, and charge your client as such.

Creating a mobile app cross platform is like creating a t-shirt that will fit everyone. Ok, so you can make it stretchy, and you can design it in a way that will "suit" everyone, but what you'll end up with is something that is going to be too big or too small, and no-one will enjoy.

iPhone, android, iPad, blackberry, windows phone 7, bada etc etc they're all VERY different platforms. Just because they're both mobile phones doesn't make them similar at all. The way that the UI is designed and displayed is varyingly different, and the way you interact with the hardware (and ultimately the user) is also different. Case and point - iPhone as you go down views you create a navigation stack which you navigate using a back button in the title bar (which has the title of the current view in it). Android you navigate with the back button on the device and the action bar is used for the app title and other "action buttons".

To this end I would suggest, if you REALLY don't want to do everything natively (which is definitely the best option) then I would suggest looking at Monotouch and creating two apps with reusable components.