Very simple and friendly with a great team behind
What do you like best?
I was first attracted into getting to the "code once, deploy everywhere" paradigm that is part of their attention grabber.
But I got really in love into the fast development cycle experience that I discovered.
I thought at first that my learning curve would be a lengthy one. But I am really surprised at how fast the development cycle is and how far I have gotten into creating prototypes in just a week after downloading and installing it. It reminds me of the way I was used to creating fast and attractive apps when I developed under Adobe Flash.
The dev cycle is really fast as I can get an almost instantaneous feedback on the changes that I make. And it is refreshing to see how I am able to target several platforms at once.
The javascript plus QML combination made it really easy to pick up for me and I am certain sure that many devs can migrate from Web only into multi-platform in a fast manner.
And there is also the possibility to implement C++ code if the need arises to support and bridge native libraries.
I am also happy with the constant feedback that I am receiving from the team. Although most of it is marketing related, there are some interesting and valuable materials that they have been pushing to ease my learning.
What do you dislike?
I believe that some points that are not so clear to me might be laying in the way that the Qt and QML related licensing models could intertwine with the projects that I am creating.
It is not clear to me if there are additional fees or open-source licensing related constraints that must be taken into account to avoid compliance with the Qt licensing model.
Of course, there are the many contact routes and emails that the team has sent to me and I am right now expecting for a more human-understandable way of approaching to licensing.
There is also the way that the initial Splash Screen and loading phase that make the apps created feel like running in a container and not a real native experience. Although having this container framework seems to be true, I believe that a more sophisticated splash would help to better this odd feeling while the app loads. I am proud of having the Felgo logo starting my apps, but a more elegant solution would be in place. Or maybe there is something I must learn to change the way the app starts. Of course, there is the paid option where you can even remove the splash screen, but I don't think this to be the real solution.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Try it.
As any other framework, it should adapt to your needs or you may better be well looking at some alternatives.
I am really happy to have a framework that helps me make changes on the fly without having to republish into the different app stores.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
I am right now creating internal prototypes to test different ideas.
This is really a game changer on how I was planning to go during the next days, learning.
I am now productive and the Felgo demo apps are real and complete spaces to start from.