It seems, from what I can tell, users must go through Trigger.io to do a build to get their app in the store. Their code isn't portable to a non-trigger.io platform, either (mobile web, etc.), and the built binary contains closed-source code (Trigger.io platform stuff).
You can run a PhoneGap build locally without going thru the PhoneGap build service. And you get complete and unrestricted access to the source code.
If your service disappears or starts charging exorbitant amounts of money, users are SOL.
Trigger.io is a commercial entity that is in the business of locking customers into a platform and exploiting it. PhoneGap is the opposite. I place no value judgements on this (I use plenty of licensed code on a daily basis and I work for a commercial entity doing something similar); that may or may not matter to a person, but to me - that seems to be the main difference.
+1. Even if there is perfect trust with a platform vendor, that doesn't mean they won't come under new management tomorrow that rewrites the rules. That's a scary proposition for the backbone of one's business, since porting to a new platform is almost as much work as writing it in the first place.
I can't say I never use closed libraries/platforms/APIs, but when possible, I always choose the option that has a community fork, or some other escape route.
We think the biggest barrier to adoption of a platform like ours or PhoneGap's is complexity. So to keep the API and dev process as simple as possible we decided to keep control of the whole experience for our launch. Now, we're considering opening up more than just our command line tools, and will likely start doing that soon.
But being closed for now, people will hold us to a higher standard of simplicity, performance and customer support to give them a reason to change. We work hard to live up to that.
What you consider the 'main' thing is subjective, just wanted to point out the difference in how we support our customers and the pricing for it in the previous comment.
It seems, from what I can tell, users must go through Trigger.io to do a build to get their app in the store. Their code isn't portable to a non-trigger.io platform, either (mobile web, etc.), and the built binary contains closed-source code (Trigger.io platform stuff).
You can run a PhoneGap build locally without going thru the PhoneGap build service. And you get complete and unrestricted access to the source code.
If your service disappears or starts charging exorbitant amounts of money, users are SOL.
Trigger.io is a commercial entity that is in the business of locking customers into a platform and exploiting it. PhoneGap is the opposite. I place no value judgements on this (I use plenty of licensed code on a daily basis and I work for a commercial entity doing something similar); that may or may not matter to a person, but to me - that seems to be the main difference.