The Top 8 (or 14) Native Mobile Frameworks According to Science

The Little Miss Teen Queen Popularity Contest

TL;DR

• Consider Ionic if you like Angular and using HTML and CSS for layout.
• Consider React Native if you can’t stand Angular or CSS or you live in China.
• Consider Kendo UI or Sencha Touch if you want an Enterprise flavor (and price tag).
• Consider Nativescript as an open source alternative to Kendo UI.
• Consider Onsen UI if you’re using a framework with poor or no interface tools.

The Contestants:

1. React Native is an open source product brought to you by the same folks who brought you Facebook.
2. Kendo UI is a closed source, enterprise level product from Telerik. They do provide their core widget library as open source.
3. Ionic Framework is an open source powerhouse and the framework I love the mostest.
4. XDK is a closed source framework made by IBM.
5. Nativescript is also made by Telerik. It’s likely meant to be an open source alternative to Kendo UI.
6. Appcelerator is closed source with open source offerings similar to Kendo UI.
7. Sencha Touch is another enterprise level framework that must be important because Sencha has a conference and a big office.
8. Actually, this is just a collection of honorable mentions that I couldn’t get good data on. They are:

• Famous.co — Nice site, good domain, few searches.
• Framework 7 — Looks great but their search results were blurred by every other framework called “… framework” ever.
• JQuery Mobile — The popularity of jQuery Mobile would put this one on the big list. But jQuery itself has fallen in popularity so I left it off.
• Mobile Angular UI — Barely a blip for search results.
• Monaca — Searches were blurred by Japanese words. “Monaca framework” didn’t help. It looks enterprise level.
• Onsen UI — Few search results and not really a framework. However, this open source project by Monaca looks like a great way to gussy up other frameworks that may not even be geared toward mobile.
• Trigger.io — More low level than most. Few searches found.

The Results:

I checked Google Trends for the popularity of the top 14 Native Mobile Frameworks over the last 5 years. These were my results of the top 7 from most to least popular:

• React Native has been skyrocketing since 2015. React is most popular in China where it’s actually been the year of React Native, not the year of the Monkey as many believe. The high population of China has likely been what’s accelerated React Native’s popularity. Although, it’s more popular in the US than India, the other population giant.
• Kendo UI rose steadily to be quite popular for the first 2 years and has stayed level for the last 3. It’s now holding ground in second place. It’s popular worldwide but most popular in India. This is also likely because of population.
• Ionic Framework has stayed stable in third place for more than a year. It may actually be first place, but the term Ionic is very popular in chemistry, blurring the results. Ionic is popular in India, Brazil, and the US.
• XDK is 5 years old and started seeing popularity in the last 3 years. It’s most favored in Brazil, Indonesia, and India in that order.
• Nativescript is new but on the rise and grappling for fourth with XDK. It’s virtually unheard of outside of the United States.
• Appcelerator and Sencha Touch are The OGs. Appcelerator is ancient at 10 years old and held second place to Sencha Touch for at least the last 5 years. At Their peak they were more popular than React Native is now. They lost their crowns to Kendo UI in 2013 and are now among the less popular frameworks. Sencha Touch is most popular in Asia, Europe, and English speaking countries. Appcelerator gets the most love from India, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Europe.

Author’s Irrational Speculations:

The 2 open source titans are React Native and Ionic. When Ionic came on the scene, Angular was the best JS Framework, hands down. Angular gained popularity despite a very steep learning curve. I believe that the difficulty in learning Angular is what has allowed React to gain so much traction. Most people would rather learn anything else. However, Angular 2 is significantly easier to learn if people can stomach Typescript. I’m hoping this will allow Ionic to become more popular. Regardless, I’m considering spending some time with React Native to give it a fair assessment.