Why I’ve switched from Appcelerator Titanium to Smartface.io?
“a story about choosing right cross-platform IDE”
If you want to develop mobile apps for both worlds of iOS and Android, you have to choose one of those:
- Develop apps separately for iOS using Xcode, Objective C (Swift nowadays) and for Android using Java.
- Develop apps using one of the “Cross Platform development studios” like Appcelerator Titanium, Xamarin, Smartface.io etc…
First option requires deep development skills on each platforms’ native langs which are objective C and java. You also need to manage 2 separate codebases.
Second one requires only one language (usually JavaScript, or C# if you want to use Xamarin). You don’t need to manage separate codebases ‘cause one code works on two platforms natively.
I was fell in love with Appcelerator when I first use it back at late 2010. After initial tests, developed Turkey’s first B2B mobile app which accepts credit card payments; iBayikanali. Also created some other customer projects using it. It was so easy to write powerful apps using same techniques as I used in web development for years. Just simple javascript rules nothing more…
The reason I choose Appcelerator Titanium as cross-platform solution was “simplicity”. But after years of evolving, the studio and the framework lost it is key element “write codes using javascript as you write your web apps”. Now they force you to use their own principles to write code. (e.g. commonJS) If you don’t want to use their methods you’ll most likely not able to get appropriate support or a working app.
On the other hand, I think Appcelerator losing their community users due to lack of community support. If you’re using a community driven product, you often use Q&A sites for solutions. Now, check Appcelearator Titanium’s Q&A site to see tons of open or not solved questions are waiting there. There are critical questions waiting to be answered for years now.
The awfull truth is “Appcelerator lost its soul”…
Today I’m switching from Appcelerator to Smartface.io. They’re relatively small to Appcelerator, but their app studio is promising. Smarface.io also uses JavaScript to develop apps, got a WYSIWYG editor and their Q&A site is alive. You can get answers from real engineers work there.
Sorry Appcelerator, I found a new “soul”…
