PhoneGap

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What is PhoneGap?

PhoneGap is an open source mobile development platform that allows mobile apps to be created using standardized web APIs for the platforms you care about.

Building applications for each device – iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and more – requires different frameworks and languages. PhoneGap solves this by using standards-based web technologies to bridge web applications and mobile devices. Since PhoneGap apps are standards compliant, they’re future-proofed to work with browsers as they evolve.

PhoneGap has been downloaded over 1 million times and is being used by over 400,000 developers. Thousands of apps built using PhoneGap are available in mobile app stores and directories.

The PhoneGap code was contributed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under the name Apache Cordova and graduated to top-level project status in October 2012. Through the ASF, future PhoneGap development will ensure open stewardship of the project. It will always remain free and open source under the Apache License, Version 2.0.



PhoneGap Awards


PhoneGap currently scores 86/100 in the App Builders category. This is based on user satisfaction (80/100), press buzz (63/100), recent user trends (falling), and other relevant information on PhoneGap gathered from around the web.

The score for this software has improved over the past month. What is this?
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PhoneGap Review

Editors' Review by the App Builders Software Review Team

PhoneGap is a free and open-source, cross-platform mobile app development framework that enables users to build hybrid mobile applications by utilizing standardized web APIs for multiple platforms.

PhoneGap is a widely adopted tool in the cross-platform mobile development category of a developer’s toolkit or tech stack. It was developed by Nitobi, which was purchased by Adobe Systems in 2011. Adobe rebranded the original software to PhoneGap, although the company later released an open source version of the software called Apache Cordova. PhoneGap is based on the open-source Cordova framework, which Adobe donated to the Apache Software Foundation in 2011. It was Adobe’s commercial version of Cordova, along with its associated ecosystem.

As an app development software solution, PhoneGap is considered one of the premier mobile app development languages and configuration platforms used for coding, adding design, and development, as well as cross-platform support. It enables users to develop and deploy any application across different mobile devices in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. The cloud-based open-source software works with both desktop and mobile platforms and is compatible with Windows, Android, and iOS systems.

PhoneGap is the ideal solution for users looking to design and develop a simple mobile app with the feel of a native application. It certainly has the capability to access native application programming interfaces (APIs), although it may not be the best option for those who want a robust native app. PhoneGap can be a solid mobile app development framework to work with, but ultimately it all depends on user requirements.

This open-source platform is quite useful, especially for experienced app developers, as it gives them the tools they need to build mobile apps that are more responsive than web applications. It is also highly cost-effective, which is great for users looking to minimize development costs. PhoneGap has a highly intuitive user interface, which means even beginners with little coding experience can easily pick it up.

PhoneGap Features

PhoneGap offers a wide variety of features, tools, and capabilities. They are among the main reasons why most mobile app developers always have the platform in their tech stack. The following are some of the key features that have made this open-source mobile app development framework so widely adopted among the cross-platform mobile development community:

Cross-platform compatibility

The process of designing and developing mobile applications can be time-consuming, which is why it’s crucial for developers to pick the right platform or framework to work with in terms of reliability, functionality, and ease of use. PhoneGap is widely adopted by developers because it is a dependable cross-platform mobile app development solution and is compatible with a wide variety of mobile app development environments, such as Bada, Tizen, Symbian, WebOS, iOS, and Android.

Native API accessibility

PhoneGap is well-known for providing users with better access to native application programming interfaces, or APIs. This results in a custom-built mobile application that has the capability to utilize the native applications of any mobile device, including the camera, accelerometer, geolocation, contacts, and other native functions. It is tailored to help the users obtain a more satisfying experience by leveraging native apps, which have better quality in comparison to most web applications.

Web technologies support and compatibility

Through PhoneGap, mobile apps can be designed and developed using some of the simplest and most commonly used programming languages available, such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. This means that if you’re already familiar with any of these languages, you don’t have to learn a new programming language just to be able to start building a mobile application using PhoneGap. You can just jump right in and start writing programs with relative ease and efficiency.

PhoneGap has been available since 2011. As a result, it has accumulated a plethora of frameworks and libraries to assist newer users and mobile app developers. They have a wide range of options at their disposal to help them build quality mobile applications through better and more efficient programming.

Optimized user interface with UI libraries

UI libraries provide different types of options to help improve the user interface. Viewing a webpage that is mainly designed for computers and tablets with fairly large displays can be aggravating when using a mobile device with a tiny screen. This is a pretty common issue for the majority of smartphone users out there. A webpage that’s compatible only with large displays makes for poor navigation when using a smaller device. It makes the experience of scrolling down the page and browsing through it unappealing, increasing a webpage’s bounce rate.

However, with PhoneGap’s UI libraries, mobile app developers can easily improve the user interface of their web pages and mobile applications by optimizing them to support multiple display sizes. The UI libraries that are available with PhoneGap can help provide a better and more enjoyable viewing and browsing experience for different types of users, no matter their devices.

Strong backend support

PhoneGap offers strong and reliable backend support for mobile app developers, development teams, and other users. It helps speed up the development process while minimizing the developer’s efforts and the cost of resources. The open-source platform has a beginner’s guide available to help novice app developers and guide them through the development process using PhoneGap, so they will get a better understanding of the entire project as they go through every stage of development.

PhoneGap has a lot more noteworthy features and capabilities in store, which makes it arguably one of the best options out there for both novice and experienced mobile app developers. Many of these features have made PhoneGap one of the most widely adopted free and open-source cross-platform frameworks for app development. Even though there are a lot more options available today, a lot of people still prefer PhoneGap as a major part of their tech stack.

PhoneGap Benefits

There are a lot of benefits to using PhoneGap for creating different types of mobile applications, regardless of the level of expertise of the user. The following are just a few of those benefits:

It’s fairly easy to use and doesn’t require an expert

When choosing any application development framework, it’s important to consider ease of use. If the software is too complex or confusing, your team might not be able to adopt it into their workflow very well, especially if they’re mostly novice users. In the end, you might have to hire a professional or at least an experienced developer, which is an added cost that you might not want or be able to afford.

A mobile development platform like PhoneGap is designed to facilitate the app development process and make it easier for developers to adopt the solution by supporting simple and commonly used programming languages like CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. So, if users have a good working knowledge of any of these basic languages, they can easily start developing and building their mobile apps.

Easy application deployment process

PhoneGap is a cross-platform framework for everyone, even those who are fairly new to the app building community. This is one of the biggest advantages of the PhoneGap framework. It allows users to develop any mobile application for a specific platform and then deploy it on other platforms with relative ease.

The entire process of optimizing an application that is designed for a specific platform so that it can be compatible with another doesn’t take much time or effort to accomplish, particularly on the development side. With PhoneGap, you should be able to do more quality work with less time and fewer resources.

It’s a free and open-source platform

The fact that PhoneGap is a free and open-source application development framework is a huge benefit for developers who are looking to cut down on development costs without sacrificing the quality of the end product. Any individual with entry-level application development experience can easily jump into this platform and learn a few things during the process.

PhoneGap is backed by a large community of developers who are willing to help out and guide novice users as they go through the development process. There are also beginner’s guide videos to assist newer users.

PhoneGap Pricing

PhoneGap is completely free to use.

Conclusion

PhoneGap is a free and open-source, cross-platform mobile development framework designed for all types of users, regardless of their programming knowledge and skill level. It allows developers and development teams to create mobile apps using standardized web application programming interfaces (APIs). This lets mobile app builders develop an app that can be made compatible with other platforms with great ease. Apps that are created in PhoneGap are capable of behaving like native applications.

PhoneGap is free, so there’s no reason not to check it out if you’re looking for a user-friendly and highly intuitive app development framework.

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