Adobe AIR vs. Apache Flex

Adobe AIR

Adobe AIR

67 Reviews and Ratings

Apache Flex

Apache Flex

19 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Adobe AIR	Score 6.0 out of 10	N/A	N/A	N/A
Apache Flex	Score 8.0 out of 10	N/A	Apache Flex (formerly Adobe Flex) is an open source application framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and devices. It provides a modern, standards-based language and programming model that supports common design patterns suitable for developers from many backgrounds.	N/A

Pricing

Adobe AIR

Apache Flex

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Adobe AIR	Apache Flex
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

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More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Adobe AIR	Apache Flex
Considered Both Products	Adobe AIR Jon Marr Owner Chose Adobe AIR Originally, Adobe AIR was the only game in town, and its blend of flexibility in platforms it could publish to (PC, Mac, iOS, Android), ease of use, and familiarity made it the clear choice. Now Adobe no longer supports it, and we’ve found the transition to Harmon unworkable … Incentivized Helpful? MR Marilyn Rodriguez Owner/Art Director Chose Adobe AIR We already use all the other Adobe products so it was an easy choice to use AIR for our programming type of programs. As we used it more, we found that it was very simple to learn/the learning curve was not very steep at all. We honestly didn't look at any other options, … Incentivized Helpful? JM John Mihaila Software Manager Chose Adobe AIR Adobe AIR does not support Windows phones but works well on both Android and Apple iOS. It enables developers to build and deploy good quality applications to mobile platforms for a majority of mobile users and allows developers to build working prototypes in a relatively … Incentivized Helpful? YI Yosef Ing Director of Social Media Chose Adobe AIR There are definitely other platforms out there that are awesome but Adobe AIR is just what our other developers were used to using but we do have some success. Incentivized Helpful? Chris Cookson Junior Animator Chose Adobe AIR Generally stacks up fairly negatively, program definitely has its place, I appreciate what it can allow but now most desktop apps are fine enough as browser based experiences or for personal use mobile is the way to go. Air isn't the best environment for that. Incentivized Helpful? William Alvarez Inside Sales Support Associate Chose Adobe AIR Appcelerator is open source and is very good, but my company wanted something more business-oriented and with more formal support. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Adobe AIR Originally, Adobe Air was a great choice for us to build mobile titles from prior web titles when compared to tools such as native iOS with cocos2d. We were able to get games stood up much faster than our competition and out to market to make money. That said, as Unity improved … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Adobe AIR Adobe AIR is more friendly to a serious programmer because it supports core programming methodology in a way that Unity does not. Both AIR and Unity have a hidden underlying layer of event management code that can add performance costs. However, Unity is more friendly to a … Incentivized Helpful? Thomas Gorence Software Developer Chose Adobe AIR Since Adobe AIR can be used with the Flash IDE, there are not many other solutions with such a robust toolset. The ability to import layered photoshop files directly onto the stage, and then ability to animate and create movieclips within that IDE is an extremely valuable … Incentivized Helpful?	Apache Flex Tuhin Sadik Software Engineer Chose Apache Flex Apache Flex is a modern, standards-based programming language that supports common design patterns. It's an open-source SDK used to make rich Internet applications that work on different browsers and platforms. Any flash-based application framework, such as Eclipse or the Flash … Incentivized Helpful? Abraham Madathil Vice President Chose Apache Flex We are replacing adobe flex with Sencha. Incentivized Helpful?

Best Alternatives
	Adobe AIR	Apache Flex
Small Businesses	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10	Visual Studio Score 9.1 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Adobe AIR	Apache Flex
Likelihood to Recommend	5.7 (0 ratings)	8.0 (0 ratings)
Usability	7.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Adobe AIR	Apache Flex
Likelihood to Recommend	Adobe AIR is well-suited for a developer who is already familiar with Flash and AS3. It is well-suited for 2D app development using Starling or another third-party graphics library. However, to be used appropriately and avoid errors and poor performance, a basic understanding of programming principles is needed, so it's not great for a designer who hasn't studied a lot of coding. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	I feel like it was better suited in its role in the early days of the app, as things progressed, it didn't as much. It may have gotten better as Apache took over, but I think they lost some users due to other things taking over on the web a bit more. Incentivized Corey Birkmann Freelance Designer & Developer Read full review
Pros	Runs on Windows, Mac OS, Android and Apple iOS. Allows developers to use tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Flash Professional and even text editor to develop an app. Adobe AIR runtime and AIR SDK are free. Incentivized JM John Mihaila Software Manager Read full review	It is quick and simple to launch the application's user interface. It has powerful functionalities for seamless integration and user-friendliness. Its GUI, standard programming language, and agile model support multiple platforms. Incentivized Tuhin Sadik Software Engineer Read full review
Cons	Adobe Air applications are taxing on a user's CPU, especially considering how simple a lot of the apps are. Updating and installing Air based applications is very user unfriendly, often asks for updates that are aggressively pushed to the front of the user. As HTML 5 has gotten more and more sophisticated, for basic things a lot of times browser-based apps make a lot more sense. Incentivized Chris Cookson Junior Animator Read full review	Relied too much on flash at some times in its history. Not web standard. html5 took over its market. Incentivized Corey Birkmann Freelance Designer & Developer Read full review
Usability	Although Adobe AIR is just an SDK without an actual "UI" it's commonly used within Flash, Flash Builder, or FlashDevelop. Considering the integration with Flash IDE, there are very few tools that can compete with its features. Incentivized Thomas Gorence Software Developer Read full review	No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered	There are definitely other platforms out there that are awesome but Adobe AIR is just what our other developers were used to using but we do have some success. Incentivized YI Yosef Ing Director of Social Media Read full review	Apache Flex is a modern, standards-based programming language that supports common design patterns. It's an open-source SDK used to make rich Internet applications that work on different browsers and platforms. Any flash-based application framework, such as Eclipse or the Flash above Builder, can be used to implement this. So far, in comparison, it's much more crucial, especially for people working in fields like mobile development. Incentivized Tuhin Sadik Software Engineer Read full review
Return on Investment	Using Adobe AIR allows your team to be comprised of Flash/ActionScript 3 developers, which can be easy/cheap to find compared to other disciplines (based on location). This can lower the bottom-line in terms of engineering costs. As the Adobe AIR SDK is free to use, the cost of entry is basically free. Additionally, the Adobe AIR SDK may be used in conjunction with a free IDE, such as FlashDevelop, making the entire stack completely free to use. One negative impact is the stigma against Adobe Flash/AIR. Due to Adobe's less than stellar track record (in terms of support and security) with both Flash and Flash Mobile, there are numerous clients that we've dealt with, that refused to approve Adobe AIR as a tool. Incentivized Thomas Gorence Software Developer Read full review	Our users have a great positive feedback from the UI point of view. The ease of use of the application had doubled our existing user base. Incentivized Abraham Madathil Vice President Read full review
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