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GeneXus vs Ionic comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

GeneXus
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Low-Code Development Platforms (12th)
Ionic
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of GeneXus is 2.8%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ionic is 7.8%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Ricardo Espinosa L. - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast, stable, and allows us to model a workflow before developing the screens
Documentation is always an issue. In order to develop with GeneXus, there is very little documentation. The documentation is not clear enough in order to develop a great tool. Design, or Unanimo, is an area that GeneXus needs to work on. It's not very smooth. I'd like to see a better chart flow. I use the chart flow quite a lot, but it's not as simple as I wish it to be.
Nakul Kundaliya - PeerSpot reviewer
The best cross-platform solution of its kind, with good performance and live reloading
Ionic is a cross-platform framework, so when we compare Ionic with native Android and iOS, we can see the drawbacks. For example, if you need to work on very high-level aspects of an application such as animation, even if everything else is not putting load on the app, you will still see high load from the server side. You will eventually find yourself getting lots of image, video, and hardware-related work to deal with. This is the main limitation of Ionic because we still have to depend on the native Android and iOS code. However, in other ways we can achieve the same performance with Ionic as we can achieve with native Android code. One feature I would like to see added is the code post. The code post is a very good feature I encountered when using React Native. Inside the code post, you don't need to deploy your application again when you're modifying your code. You just need to run one command, and each and every server will automatically receive the latest modification. A similar feature in Ionic would be appreciated. Another drawback of Ionic has to do with the no-code service that they provide, where you just need to drag and drop your components to build your application. I feel that, coding-wise, it isn't a good feature. And, for instance, if you're making an API call, they would only provide the UI, so you would still need to take some time to modify it. Because of this, I considered simply building our UI from scratch. Apart from that, one other disadvantage is when you're using a type of plugin like AdSense for putting adverts in your application, Ionic would take a percentage of whatever profit you make.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"With GeneXus, we can create logical representations of transactions in the form of objects."
"It is fast in creating systems and connects to the database quickly."
"The most valuable feature is that GeneXus works with several languages. It's possible to develop chatbots and other functionalities."
"This solution works extremely quickly in terms of enabling an application in a production environment."
"I like the testing models, which allow me to create unit or interface tests of my programs. It helps us avoid missed deadlines because we can detect all the errors before deploying the new versions of the solution. And I also like the integration with coding managers like DevOps or Jenkins. It enables us to do versioning."
"The solution provides ease of programming and the speed of delivery of demands."
"I like that it's very compatible with other tools. The most important feature is getting the developer to focus on the project's business case. It's not about focusing on how I can command this or how I can develop a front end, or how I can work with the advantages. The developer should focus on the business case of the project. No need to focus on connecting the database to the server or connecting the server and the front end. The developer can concentrate on the views."
"The front-end features are the most valuable."
"Because it's a hybrid mobile app framework, it is easy for us to develop iOS as well as Android apps for our customers with the same resource skills. We didn't have to have separate iOS teams and Android teams to build the apps. We still have to use the Apple Xcode for iOS, but the main development happens with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. We don't have to write separate code bases in scripts for iOS and Android. We create apps using web-based technology."
"I like that I can place the code and escalate data storage. I also like that it's user-friendly. Nothing is complex in Ionic."
"The solution is secure, reliable, and packed with features so we can easily implement apps even in the most complex situations."
"The most valuable feature is the one code deployed to all solutions, which means you do not need to have multiple teams."
"The main value of this solution for our business, is that it is a hybrid product that allows us to write code that is compatible with IOS, Android, and web documents."
"What I like the most about Ionic is live reloading, which enables us to develop new features without having to build the application again and re-check the functionality."
"Ionic's best features are its hybrid app development, design, and tags."
"The most valuable feature of Ionic is the ease of use and the simple connection of the applications. Additionally, the documentation is good in the Ionic application, and beginners can easily learn and download their own application using Ionic. Everyone can easily switch out, their domain, from native applications to hybrid applications."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful to have additional assisted processing with training."
"It's expensive for a company."
"It would be better if GeneXus had a wiki. The developer needs some experience to work with the tools. It would be better if they could improve the community. If we have some problem, I open a ticket that takes us to a board, and I have to describe my issue in detail. If the tools have a general community for us to explore with some videos or some articles, I think that that may help the developer."
"The graphical interface could be improved. I also notice some performance problems on hardware that should be more than adequate. GeneXus uses a lot of RAM and other computer resources."
"The front-end with GeneXus is not as good as the back-end."
"The tool needs to be tuned before being used. You need some experience to get the best out of the tool."
"Code generation is highly time-consuming for GeneXus"
"Documentation is always an issue. In order to develop with GeneXus, there is very little documentation. The documentation is not clear enough in order to develop a great tool."
"In a future release, we would like to have a little more support for the desktop environment. Currently it is still focused on mobile devices."
"There could be better support for augmented reality and other things. Geolocation and background app activity are some of the things that are a little more clumsy at the moment and could be improved."
"The navigation within this solution could be improved; it is currently quite complicated to move through the different tabs."
"It would be good if the mobile version uses something other than JavaScript and HTML."
"There is a lack of a community environment."
"The documentation could be improved."
"As a developer, I would say one of the improvements is more plugins."
"Ionic's UI component doesn't always look like the native mobile app."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of a GeneXus license is extremely high. At the same time, one person using the solution can do the work of three Java or data developers. I think that's why they charge so much. It's too expensive, which is one reason it isn't widely used."
"I give the cost of the solution a four out of ten."
"People tend to work with GeneXus if it's cheap, but GeneXus does have licensing policies...Moreover, the cost of resourcing work in GeneXus may make it more expensive than other programming languages."
"The solution is very expensive."
"The price is good."
"I know that its licenses are generally per year, and in the past, the license for GeneXus was around $5,000, but I don't know what's the current price of the GeneXus license."
"This solution offers multi-plan licenses, depending on the size of the company and the features required, as opposed to being priced per user/device."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten"
"The starting cost for the enterprise option is around one hundred dollars per month."
"Ionic is an open-source solution, it is free."
"You don't have to pay anything except for certain projects. For example, Appflow has some costs related to it but you don't have to use it. You can also pay for extra support."
"We pay 50,000 dinars per month."
"You can use the free version, but if you still want to buy it, the price starts from $499/month."
"I think most of the plugins for Ionic are open source, and you can do a lot with many of the basic features. However, if you need to use a premium plugin for something like extra scroll list functionality, Ionic will ask for a certain sum of money."
"Ionic is an open source solution, and there are no hidden fees."
"The solution's open source option is free with no licensing fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Educational Organization
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GeneXus?
GeneXus evolves with technology.
What needs improvement with GeneXus?
GeneXus needs to be more consistent in functionality without any errors. Code generation is highly time-consuming for GeneXus, but in some cases, it saves time as well. Some errors will take too lo...
What is your primary use case for GeneXus?
Our company uses the latest version of GeneXus. The solution is used in our company to develop various enterprise systems, and GeneXus is used as an integrator, which further facilitates low-cost d...
What do you like most about Ionic?
Being able to have one set of code is valuable. I don't have to recode for different platforms. I don't have to recode for Xcode, Angular, or Android. So, the biggest feature for me is that it's a ...
What needs improvement with Ionic?
When they jumped from version 3 to version 4, 5, and 6, they introduced something called Capacitor, which is basically the tool that you use to convert your code to Xcode, etc. They have a few plug...
What is your primary use case for Ionic?
We are using it for mobile applications that we are publishing to iOS, Huawei, and Google Play Store. It's a very nice hybrid framework for mobile applications.
 

Comparisons

 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Canal de Panamá, Gerdau, Coca-Cola, Mercado Libre, DHL, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, TECNISA, Mexican Polak Group, Ferrovalle, Canon, Azteca, KPMG, TURBUS, Santander, BBVA
MRA, Napa Group, Sworkit, Airbus, Sense Corp, Interactive Gaming Company, Pacifica, Untapp'd, Diesel, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Find out what your peers are saying about GeneXus vs. Ionic and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.