React native vs. Appcelerator: Which One Skyrocket the Cross-platform App Development?

Choosing the right tech stack is one of the most critical decisions you ever make for yourself. Especially when the popularity of Javascript is turning out to be the ultimate environment for any cross-platform application, a wise decision becomes essential. React native and Appcelerator both use Javascript and support free developer SDK for cross-platform apps. Still, it is tough to choose one over the other. Why is it so? Do one lack popularity over the other? Does one have more Github stars and commits over another, or does one have more limitations? The reasons are endless. And it’s for sure you are eagerly waiting to know the in-depth comparison between both of them. Well, we’ll not let you wait anymore and will uncover everything related to React Native Vs. Appcelerator right here in the article.  Just stay here and enjoy reading. 

Let’s start from the very beginning – Basic of React Native & Appcelerator.  

React Native App Development – A Cold Dive

If someone asks you which one is the best open-source mobile app development framework, you would definitely answer – React Native. Wondering why? The incredible features and ultimate pros of React Native would be the reason behind your answer. 

Yes, React Native is the frontrunner in the mobile app development ocean. It is highly preferred to develop apps for Android, Android TV, iOS, macOS, tvOS, Web, Windows, and UWP (Universal Windows Platforms) by allowing developers to use this stunning framework along with native platform capabilities. 

If we look back at its origin, then Mark Zuckerberg in 2012 commented and we quoted: 

“The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML as opposed to native.”  (Source – Wikipedia)

He was using HTML5 for the mobile version of Facebook, a popular social media app, resulting in an unstable app that retrieved data slowly. He promised Facebook would sooner deliver a better mobile experience. And after a few months, in 2015, the results were in front of us. Facebook released the first version for the React JavaScript Configuration. One exciting thing that you would be glad to know is that the working principles of React Native are virtually identical to React (ReactJS) except for one thing: React Native does not manipulate the DOM via the Virtual DOM. 

It runs in a background process directly on the end device and communicates with the native platform via serialized data over an asynchronous and batched bridge. Apart from it, React components also wrap existing native code and interact with native APIs via React’s declarative UI paradigm and JavaScript. Though React Native styling has a similar syntax to CSS, it does not use HTML or CSS. It allows developers to write native code in languages such as Java or Kotlin for Android, Objective-C or Swift for iOS, and C++/WinRT or C# for Windows 10, making it even more dynamic and flexible.

Appcelerator App Development – A Cold Dive

Appcelerator is one of the best mobile app development platforms, perfect for providing a suitable development environment. It is incredible for those looking to create a native, hybrid, mobile web app for multiple platforms using a single code base. Using JavaScript components and APIs has become the most powerful computer language for the modern tech industry. Not just this, it is the only first mobile platform to combine the flexibility of open source development technologies with the power of cloud services.

It runs and develops packages for iOS, Android, and Windows. The app you create using Appcelerator will be written in the native language, but it will work on many platforms without language barriers. 

If we put light on the usage, as of February 2013,  only 10% of all smartphones worldwide ran Appcelerator Titanium-built apps. As of August in the same year, Appcelerator Titanium had surpassed around 500,000 developer registrations.

Main features of React Native App Development

Do you know why React Native is such a hit? Its excellent features are the reason behind its incredible popularity. Let’s put some light on them. 

• UI Focused

Are you one of them who thinks UI is one of the most concerning factors of mobile app development? If you’re, then React Native’s ultimate feature is worth knowing. React Native is a hot favorite and most favorable among developers because this framework gives brief attention to designing the app UI. React Native is responsive and has excellent rendering capabilities. It focuses on UI effectively and thus shines in the development space. 

• Programming Language 

Programming language and its flexibility are another one of the remarkable features of React Native that boosts its popularity. React Native widely practices Javascript as a programming language, which is the most commonly used programming language. Whether you’re a beginner or expert, learning javascript isn’t a big deal for you. This is the reason most developers prefer using React Native for their mobile app development projects. 

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• Strong Community

Another beautiful feature of React Native is its strong community. It opens doors to community support for cross-platform mobile app development. It is the primary reason soon after the launch of React Native; it becomes the top-notch choice among developers and individuals as the best framework for mobile app development. Community support ensures that the universal community will answer any question related to mobile app development. If we put light on its popularity, then its fame has been overwhelming.

• Support for third party libraries

This ultimate feature of React Native allows you to use 3rd party libraries. If you’re a React Native developer, you have the freedom to go out of the box with 3rd party support.

• Boost development Process

React Native boosts the development process. It is mainly developed to speed up the development process to help developers ease their high-quality and high-performance apps. With code sharing and component reusability-like features, it allows developers to boost development and productivity. 

• Reusable components

Another impressive feature of React Native is its ability to reuse components. We can say that some of the components reuse as building blocks in the web development process. If you are about to kickstart your next mobile app development project, this feature is worth knowing and even implementing. Apart from reusable components, React Native also has a components library such as NativeBase that does magic in your mobile app development process. 

• Cost-effective

Building an app using React Native is cost-effective. The reason behind it is pretty simple. It allows you to reuse code for both android and iOS devices. According to the calculations by developers, it is to be analyzed that you can reuse nearly 90% of the code for implementation and practical adjustments. 

• Hot reload

Another fantastic feature that boosts React Native’s popularity extensively is hot reloading. Hot reload is associated with Hot Module Replacement (HMR), which came into existence after the first reloading option. The benefit of this feature is it offers you the same group of elements and actions as were provided before.

• Open-source

This feature of React Native is just incredible. This feature has taken developers’ pain away as most developers struggle with bugs and issues. This open-source feature helps them get the solution quickly with different suggestions and advice. The main benefit of this feature is that with the assistance of multiple developers, you can resolve your bugs quickly and complete your project in the best possible way. 

• Stunning Architecture

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The presence of good infrastructure is significant for mobile applications. When you use React Native in your development project, you can expect the same benefits from the architecture as you expect from ReactJS. Because React Native uses a single Javascript threat and uses web APIs, implemented natively in the browser. It also makes it easier to update mobile apps, tests different software, and understand code logic is much easier. In short, working with React Native architecture can be more accessible. 

React Native App Development – Popularity Curve

According to a survey conducted by Statista in 2021 on cross-platform mobile frameworks, React Native is the second most popular cross-platform mobile framework among developers. 

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According to the StackOverflow survey 2020, React Native is the 10th most loved framework, an essential with 57.9% of developers open-source cross-platform in-winning React Native. 

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Not just this, this survey also concluded that React Native is at the 6th position in the list of other frameworks, libraries, and tools that developers like to use. 

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Appcelerator App Development – Popularity Curve

Appcelerator has 2.5k stars and 35103 commits on Github. 

Between 2011 and 2013, Appcelerator announced the listed acquisitions.

• Aptana, an integrated development environment (IDE) company.
• Nodeable, a big data analytics company.
• Singly, API management company in August 2013.
• Cocoafish, backend as a service.
• Particle Code, HTML5 mobile gaming development platform.

In January 2016, Appcelerator was acquired by Axway a company that helps enterprises handle data flows.

Appcelerator received the following marketing awards.

• 2012 The Wall Street Journal: Technology Innovation Award in Software
• 2012 The Wall Street Journal: The Next Big Thing
• 2012 Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Best Places to Work in the Bay Area
• 2012 Red Hat Innovation Award Winner: Extensive Partner Ecosystem
• 2012 Momentum Index: 100 Open Source Companies
• 2012 Edison Awards Winner

Mind-blowing Pros of React Native App Development

• Learn once write everywhere
• Native ios components
• Easy to learn
• OTA update
• Scalable
• Highly customizable
• It is free and open-source
• Declarative
• Cross-platform
• Win-win solution of hybrid app
• Native android components
• Virtual Dom
• No compile
• Over the air update (Flutter lacks)
• Can be incrementally added to existing native apps
• Web development meets Mobile development
• As good as Native without any performance concerns
• Livereload
• Hot reload
• Easy setup
• Not dependent on anything such as Angular
• Built by Facebook

Mind-blowing Pros of Appcelerator App Development

• Open Source
• Easy to learn
• Android
• Great community
• Javascript
• Vue.js beta
• Write directly to iOS and Android SDK with JavaScript
• MVC-based
• IOS
• Native UI
• Free
• Lots of native modules, components, libraries
• Paid plans available
• Angular.js beta

Cons of React Native 

• Some components not truly native
• 30 FPS Limit
• Can’t use CSS

Cons of Appcelerator 

• No freemium
• Toolkit pain
• Increasing complexity
• Laggy
• Flexibility limitations
• No online IDE

What tools integrate with React Native?

• Atom

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Atom is a free and open-source text and source code editor. It is perfect for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows, with plug-ins written in JavaScript and embedded Git Control. 

• NativeBase

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NativeBase is an accessible library that helps you build a compatible design system across iOS, Web (alpha), and Android.

• Expo

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Exp is the best alternative for React Native to build one project that runs natively on all your users’ devices without any hassle. 

• Redux

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It is an amazing predictable state container for JS Apps. It is known to develop apps that behave consistently, run in different environments efficiently, and are easy to test.

• Adobe XD

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It is a vector-based user experience design tool for mobile and web apps. It is also the best alternative for React Native because it is available for macOS and Windows. 

What tools integrate with Appcelerator?

• New Relic

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It is the ultimate platform that helps engineers and developers create perfect software. By simple signup or login, you can instrument, analyze, troubleshoot, and optimize your entire software stack in one go. What’s interesting about it is it’s free forever and can be easily integrated with Appcelerator.

• Urban Airship

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Another handy tool that can be easily integrated with Appcelerator is Urban Airship. It delivers excellent mobile-first experiences at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

• Red Hat OpenShift

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Let’s meet another awesome tool that can be integrated with Appcelerator is Red Hat OpenShift. This enterprise-ready Kubernetes container platform with full-stack automated operations wonderfully manages hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and edge deployments. It also improves developer productivity and promotes innovation. 

React Native App Development – A Cold Dive

If someone asks you which one is the best open-source mobile app development framework, you would definitely answer – React Native. Wondering why? The incredible features and ultimate pros of React Native would be the reason behind your answer. 

Yes, React Native is the frontrunner in the mobile app development ocean. It is highly preferred to develop apps for Android, Android TV, iOS, macOS, tvOS, Web, Windows, and UWP (Universal Windows Platforms) by allowing developers to use this stunning framework along with native platform capabilities. 

If we look back at its origin, then Mark Zuckerberg in 2012 commented and we quoted: 

“The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML as opposed to native.”  (Source – Wikipedia)

He was using HTML5 for the mobile version of Facebook, a popular social media app, resulting in an unstable app that retrieved data slowly. He promised Facebook would sooner deliver a better mobile experience. And after a few months, in 2015, the results were in front of us. Facebook released the first version for the React JavaScript Configuration. One exciting thing that you would be glad to know is that the working principles of React Native are virtually identical to React (ReactJS) except for one thing: React Native does not manipulate the DOM via the Virtual DOM. 

It runs in a background process directly on the end device and communicates with the native platform via serialized data over an asynchronous and batched bridge. Apart from it, React components also wrap existing native code and interact with native APIs via React’s declarative UI paradigm and JavaScript. Though React Native styling has a similar syntax to CSS, it does not use HTML or CSS. It allows developers to write native code in languages such as Java or Kotlin for Android, Objective-C or Swift for iOS, and C++/WinRT or C# for Windows 10, making it even more dynamic and flexible.

Appcelerator App Development – A Cold Dive

Appcelerator is one of the best mobile app development platforms, perfect for providing a suitable development environment. It is incredible for those looking to create a native, hybrid, mobile web app for multiple platforms using a single code base. Using JavaScript components and APIs has become the most powerful computer language for the modern tech industry. Not just this, it is the only first mobile platform to combine the flexibility of open source development technologies with the power of cloud services.

It runs and develops packages for iOS, Android, and Windows. The app you create using Appcelerator will be written in the native language, but it will work on many platforms without language barriers. 

If we put light on the usage, as of February 2013,  only 10% of all smartphones worldwide ran Appcelerator Titanium-built apps. As of August in the same year, Appcelerator Titanium had surpassed around 500,000 developer registrations.

Best Alternative to React Native App as of 2021

• Ionic Framework
• Flutter
• NativeScript
• Codename One
• Fuse
• Quasar Framework
• Sciter
• GitHub Electron
• Tabris Framework
• Kendo UI
• jQuery Mobile
• Telerik AppBuilder
• Sencha Touch
• B4X
• Onsen UI
• Polymer

Best Alternative to Appcelerator App as of 2021

• Pega Platform
• IntelliJ IDEA
• Google Tag Manager
• Apache Cordova
• Flutter
• Firebase
• Mendix
• Xamarin

Top Apps Build Using React Native

• Facebook
• Skype 
• Facebook Ads 
• Walmart 
• Airbnb 
• SoundCloud Pulse 
• Instagram
• Tesla 

Top Apps Built Using Appcelerator

• PlexusRx
• Geocoder
• Kitchen Sink
• Kitchen Sink 2.0
• RSS ReaderTodo List

Wrapping Remarks

React Native and Appcelerator both shine with respect to their own parameters and factors to use them. React Native is holding good recognition amongst the community of developers. However, Appcelerator will be discontinued, effective from September 1, 2022. So, it doesn’t matter what you have thought for your next development project, make a decision carefully. Your one wrong move can take you away from the success of your business.