Any feedback for Rhomobile (cross platform to build smartphones using Ruby)?

Question

I've been trying to develop a cross platform mobile app, very simple one (DB driven), so I had to chose between PhoneGap, Appcelerator and Rhomobile.

I'm a big fan of Ruby and ROR, so using the same MVC structure and Ruby syntax is a big advantage for me.

Anyways I would like to ask few questions here if any of you guys used it already as it's a very risky decision specially that it is the least known framework among the mentioned above.

• Do you know any solid smartphone App that used Rhomobile? this could give it more credibility. I don't wanna invest much time developing the solution then to get refused from apple appstore for some reason or to face any major problem in the production.

• Did you notice any performance issues? specially with the UI? as it is not a purely native application (unlike RubyMotion or Objective-C) ?

• Do you have any idea of the pricing? for commercial uses? is there any fees or is it totally free app?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I have been in the trend of developing RhoMobile applications since more than 2 years. In my opinion, i found this more powerful and stable than other frameworks.

Since you are a ROR/Ruby developer, it's will be lightning fast speed for you to catch the flow. you will not believe that most of the concepts of ROR are available in this framework.

Regarding your queries,

Do you know any solid smartphone App that used Rhomobile? this could give it more credibility. I don't wanna invest much time developing the solution then to get refused from apple appstore for some reason or to face any major problem in the production.

• You will find no issue while deploying the app to stores if you just simply follow the basic flow as they have on there documentation. Although it's not as easy to check for the apps based upon the technology used, but this link may help you. https://developer.motorolasolutions.com/thread/1736.

Did you notice any performance issues? specially with the UI? as it is not a purely native application (unlike RubyMotion or Objective-C) ?

• All the Hybrid apps usually have a layer between you coding and the native api, which will any how take some few amount of reaction time, be it Rhomobile, Rhonegap or others. But as per my experience, same performance degradation have been marked by me, than the native one for all the frameworks.

Do you have any idea of the pricing? for commercial uses? is there any fees or is it totally free app?

• If you want to use only RhoMobile. Its free. But if you want to use some advance modules and some core modules, you need to have the RhoElement license for this, which is basically a paid one.

Hope these points help you deciding you best framework.