Native and cross-platform applications are two broad categories of applications in the market. As we already know, you can write your native apps in Java or Kotlin for Android and in Objective-C or Swift for iOS. They allow you to take advantage of all the platform features, and everyone can say that the power of native is endless. Not only are the technical capabilities of native superior, but the documentation is too.
But there is a big BUT and an obvious disadvantage of native development. The key problem is that you have to develop two apps in parallel, one for iOS and one for Android. This not only adds a huge amount of additional coding work, but also introduces the problem of having duplicate teams. On the other hand, cross-platform applications are developed with a shared codebase.
One of the pioneers and most prominent cross-development frameworks is React Native. Some of the biggest companies in the world recognize React Native's potential for business. What are the benefits? Is it the right solution for you? Is it better than native development? We will try to explain it here.
React Native is a framework created by Facebook to enable cross-platform mobile development, allowing you to develop fully functional apps on both platforms in less time and using just one coding language. It basically means that you do not have to create separate iOS and Android apps. All you need is one codebase to develop beautiful apps for both platforms, without compromising on the UX and UI experience. What puts React Native above other similar frameworks is that it allows you to develop a UI that is actually a native one. UI definitions are mapped to native components, and your app logic is run by a JavaScript runtime on the mobile device. This gives your app a more native look and feel throughout, and of course, better performance.
Some companies and developers constantly nag about React Native, and they mostly come from a native background (potentially a competitiveness problem). But for somebody like us, who absolutely adore this framework, let us see what hurdles you might encounter on your development track. Here are the major issues critics have with the framework:
This is a strong argument, but we have to point out that React Native comes close to mimicking native apps. Sometimes you will have to get rid of some animations, and some complex calculations can affect performance, but we have not reached a point where it would really take a hit to user experience.
React Native applications are in most cases bigger than native apps, which is an unfortunate side effect. However, this is being actively optimized by the community. As of 2024, the average global mobile network connection speed is approximately 50 Mbps for download and 11.3 Mbps for upload, so there is no problem with downloading the app. And have you seen how much storage today's mobile phones have? It would affect only users with older and economy devices that could not handle it.
One of React Native's weaknesses comes from one of its biggest strengths. If one day Facebook ceases support for React Native, the framework would quickly fall behind its competitors. However, this is highly unlikely, and other large companies and React Native's big community would be happy to take up the torch.
The motto “write once, use anywhere” is not entirely accurate. In some cases, developers have to configure the app for each platform, and they cannot get the codebase fully shared. Although this is true, using React Native still cuts development time. In fact, there is no and cannot exist a perfect platform-agnostic solution.
While React Native is a leading cross-platform framework, Flutter, developed by Google, is another popular choice. Here's a comparison of the two:
It is easy to make an ugly and slow native app too. All you have to do is work with inexperienced designers and developers. Luckily, as already mentioned, you do not have to compromise on UI while using React Native. Applications developed with React Native can have a great look and feel like a real native app. Of course, a lot depends in the end on the abilities of the developers. You need the right partner to work with, and that part will never change.
And what about the distribution on the market? React Native is everywhere, it is widely used by big brands. So if there are so many apps developed with this awesome framework, why should you not use it? Let us mention just some of them: Instagram, Netflix, UberEats, Walmart, Bloomberg, Wix, etc. Impressed?
Biggest advantages of React Native:
Using React Native, you do not have to have two teams, one for each platform. A developer with knowledge of one programming language can create a mobile application that works on both platforms.
React Native apps render their UI using native APIs. Their performance is in most cases very close to native applications. Plus, the JavaScript logic is executed on a separate thread without blocking the UI rendering. For a long time, complex animations were one of the biggest pain points of the framework. But this problem was mostly solved with the introduction of the Animated library.
One more great thing is that this framework is based on ReactJS, so developers can easily transfer their work to web applications.
React Native seems to enjoy the best of both worlds: an open-source project with the backing of a major tech company like Facebook. React Native has strong support from a huge community of developers, and if problems arise, you can probably find a solution somewhere or get help from the community quickly.
Sometimes you need to make more frequent releases, maybe to fix a small spelling bug. But each time you push an update, you have to wait for iOS and Android stores to approve it. With React Native, your updates can bypass this entirely. You can use services such as CodePush and distribute updates at any time, speeding up your release cycle a bit.
With native apps, debugging can be a longer and more tedious process. With React Native, you can save a lot of time with its cool feature, hot reloading. It allows developers to immediately see how changes to the code affect the app while it is running.
Everybody knows that saving time in the development process saves a ton of money. With everything mentioned in this article, we can conclude that if you need to develop an app for both iOS and Android, React Native is the best tool out there. It can reduce the codebase by about 95%, saving you time and money. Additionally, React Native has a number of open-source libraries and components that can further speed up the development process.
How to make a final decision? In fact, there is not much to be added, as it seems to be very obvious. If you are a big company, you are developing a complex game, or you can afford two different developers and a designer at the same time - go native. Others should go with React Native; your business will be very happy with it.
Do you need a mobile application and still have some doubts about whether React Native is right for you? Feel free to contact us; we can help you figure out the best solution based on your business and requirements.
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