Category: 1. Advantages

React Native is an open-source platform that allows developers to contribute their knowledge to the framework’s development, freely accessible to all. If a developer experiences a problem, they can turn to the community for support. As of November 2022, there were over 120,000 active questions on the React Native tag on Stack Overflow, some with several dozen comments.

We ran a test and compared two versions of a simple application written in both React Native and Swift. The two apps achieved very similar performance results and the differences were almost unnoticeable. Nevertheless, to accomplish as good results as in native, the devs have to put extra attention to the JavaScript code.

Native development requires two separate teams for each mobile platform: one for Android and one for iOS. Having two teams working separately towards the same goal might be difficult, since projects may lack consistency if not managed properly. React Native allows one team to work on multipurpose code, using only devs with detailed native skills for building particular native components.

This feature provides an excellent developer experience: it implements changes in the code in real-time without a need to reload the entire app. Thanks to this, building new features or bug fixing is less time-consuming and improves devs’ work efficiency.

Building apps with RN is convenient, as it allows to reuse the codebase (or parts of it) between multiple platforms. This applies mostly to mobile environments but also to websites and computer or smartTV operating systems.

Developing with JavaScript provides an opportunity to share the codebase with React web applications. As a result, the same devs can work on both web and mobile apps, as the technologies are very similar. Such a solution isn’t ideally stable yet but the possibility of sharing non-UI-dependent code is still beneficial. It not only shortens the development time but can also improve the consistency of the app’s business logic between all supported platforms.

In addition, the same React Native code can be partially used to develop apps in operating systems such as macOS, Windows, tvOs, or AndroidTV. Nevertheless, more complex ones might still have to be written in custom platform code.

Many multi-platform features are already available in npm packages (a set of open-source tools for devs), and sometimes it might be even possible to complete the entire development in RN. However, a number of features will still have to be written from scratch – only projects with a few native modules could be fully developed in JavaScript.

Over-the-air updates are another benefit that comes with React Native app development. They allow you to introduce quick fixes or deliver new, small features directly to users. In such instances, you can deploy them without awaiting for third-party approval (e.g. App Store or Google Play). OTA updates are automatically downloaded on the user’s device during the startup screen. The downsides? These updates work solely with Javascript bundles. Also, more notable changes still have to be examined by digital distribution services before the launch.

Most of the devs with React experience shouldn’t have a difficult time developing RN apps, and vice versa. That’s because many ideas and modules in both systems overlap. Thus, devs who are familiar with one of these two environments will require less initial training when approaching the other one.

Cross-platform apps require less time to develop in React Native than in native technologies. That’s because RN provides numerous ready-to-use components which can accelerate the process. The framework is based on JavaScript and gives access to the largest package ecosystem in the world. As an example, we built the very same app with both React Native and Swift. The latter took as much as 33% more time to build and still was working solely on iOS!Cross-platform apps require less time to develop in React Native than in native technologies. That’s because RN provides numerous ready-to-use components which can accelerate the process. The framework is based on JavaScript and gives access to the largest package ecosystem in the world. As an example, we built the very same app with both React Native and Swift. The latter took as much as 33% more time to build and still was working solely on iOS!