. React Native and Native Development for Your Mobile App
Software Development

Selecting Between React Native and Native for Your Mobile App

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16 April 2024
Selecting Between React Native and Native for Your Mobile App

Summary :Globally, company owners have been discussing the pros and cons of React Native versus Native development. While some business owners—particularly those in startup companies—choose React Native for their development projects, others prefer native programming. We will evaluate the two based on a number of strengths and disadvantages in this blog article, allowing you to make an informed decision about which to select for your particular project.

Overview

There has always been intense debate over the superiority of native app development against cross-platform application development. Cross-platform applications are becoming increasingly popular among business owners nowadays, and robust development techniques are becoming increasingly prevalent in the application development industry.

Some, however, have decided to stick with the creation of native applications.

We will compare and contrast React Native and Native development as two technology stacks in this blog article so you can make an informed decision about which is best for your future project.

1. Achievement

When comparing the performance of React Native vs. Native, React Native uses JavaScript, which runs on a single dedicated device thread. React Native can now handle several asynchronous jobs at once thanks to this. Unfortunately, the thread isn’t compatible with a number of popular modules and features, which prevents it from supporting native devices, features, and cutting-edge technologies, much alone handling intricate manipulation and jobs.

By comparison, you may deal with complex features, do complex computations, and combine high-end hardware with native programming using languages like Java and Kotlin. This makes it possible for your mobile app developers to use native technology to easily design any kind of application.

Note: Any application must have optimal speed. You can guarantee this for your business application by optimizing your current codebase and clearing it of errors with our React Native Code Audit Services.

2. Resources and Time for Development

One well-known hybrid framework for creating mobile apps is React Native. Because it uses a single codebase, its effectiveness in developing mobile applications for both the iOS and Android platforms saves development time and resources. Additionally, deployment is made simpler by hot reloading, which makes all edits visible right away as you make changes. This lowers the total cost of developing a mobile app by lowering the development time, effort, and chance of errors.

To make your app available on many platforms, such as iOS and Android, native development necessitates building the entire code individually for multiple platforms in different languages. This requires a distinct team with diverse experience.

Additionally, finding and fixing flaws and problems requires examining both codebases independently, which takes additional time and effort.

3. Security

Because React Native utilizes JavaScript, it is susceptible to security risks much as other frameworks based on JavaScript. When developing mobile apps using React Native, you run the risk of sensitive data leaks or unauthorized access, source code hacking, authentication methods, deep linking, SSL encryption, SSL pinning, and other vulnerabilities. React Native applications are especially vulnerable to these issues.

Security is crucial when it comes to Native development, though. By utilizing the platform-specific security features, you may better secure your application from potential vulnerabilities and have more control over the security mechanisms in place for it. Additionally, because native apps adhere to the platform’s requirements more effectively and streamline the approval process, they receive quicker approval in app stores.

4. Ability to Scale

Building apps with React Native makes it simple to manage massive data sets and provide new features and updates. Your development team will be able to effectively handle the expanding data loads depending on changing requirements thanks to the code reuse functionality and modular architecture of React Native applications.

The process of developing native apps is more complicated and time-consuming because each Android or iOS platform requires its own codebase. Although native programs are more scalable, they also need more work to manage updates for each platform independently and to keep consistency across them. This complicates the scalability of native apps and demands additional time and resources.

5. Language of Programming and Documentation

JavaScript, a computer language well-known for its ease of use and adaptability, powers React Native. Its cross-platform features allow you to develop mobile apps for both iOS and Android. But because its development community is still relatively new, there isn’t much documentation available, which makes it challenging to solve some problems effectively.

On the other hand, programming languages like Kotlin, Java, and Swift—which are regarded as strict-types object-oriented languages and offer a wealth of documentation support—are necessary for native development. As a result, you may use these languages to detect mistakes early and stop crashes or other unexpected behavior in the future. Native development is a great option for large-scale development since it also enables stronger tooling support collectively.

6. User Interface/UX

Up to 90% code reusability is possible with React Native, and platform-specific code can be written independently. However, developing a React Native app requires a complicated user interface with features like animation, smooth transitions, and navigation patterns, among other things. Furthermore, it’s difficult to emulate the development standards of both the iOS and Android platforms.

In this area, native development outperforms react native. It provides better user interface and user experience (UI and UX) since each screen is developed independently, resulting in more sophisticated animations, transitions, custom views, and other features.

7. Support for Native Modules

React Native works well for cross-platform use cases. However, because there is just one codebase for iOS and Android, it does not cover every functionality that is accessible on those platforms. Your development team can write “native modules” to access those functionalities, but doing so requires them to be proficient in the programming languages unique to each platform, such as Objective-C/Swift for iOS or Java/Kotlin for Android.

In this regard, native programming again has the advantage because you are creating an application for a particular platform, such as iOS or Android. There are therefore no restrictions; you can use the functionality of that platform immediately without requiring any more actions.

8. Extended Duration

Over the last few years, there has been a sharp increase in the market for mobile app usage. There are 1.96 million apps available for download from the Apple Store and 2.87 million apps available from the Google Play Store, according to Statista data. The evidence presented here is sufficient to confirm that the market for mobile apps is not about to decline.

Updates are not given priority while using React Native for cross-platform development. Furthermore, the tools that were released are out of sync with the platforms of Apple and Google, which complicates upgrades in the future because the tools that are utilized are not formally announced and may degrade at any time, perhaps causing mistakes.

On the other side, it is clear that support for these platforms will continue because Google and Apple explicitly favor Native development. You can take use of their official availability to acquire extensive functionality and error resolutions. Updates can also be installed without negatively impacting the usage of the program.

9. Interactive Native Apps

In order to communicate with other native applications, React Native usually depends on third-party libraries. As a result, it does not have the same direct access to data as native programs do.

Native development enables direct access to the data of other native applications on the device and allows for seamless interaction with them. This makes it possible for the applications to easily and successfully share features and information, resulting in a seamless and integrated user experience.

10. Third-Party Libraries and APIs

Since they can only utilize a portion of the APIs directly during the development process, React Native only permits restricted access to the APIs. It is necessary to create a connection layer utilizing native technologies for sophisticated APIs that React Native does not handle natively. The layer enables the integration of certain functionalities that React Native does not offer by serving as a bridge between the React Native application and the intended API.

In contrast, your development team can use the API within the application without any additional layers or dependencies when using Native development frameworks because they have direct access to the APIs on the platform they are working with.

11. Application Maintenance

Because React Native employs a single codebase, which is also utilized to identify and fix system faults and bugs, it facilitates an easier app maintenance process. This suggests that once the problems are applicable to both the iOS and Android platforms, your development team can concentrate on fixing them. However, for issues unique to a given platform, further work may need to be done on the native features or components.

Given that native development is intricate and time-consuming, it takes a distinct approach in this regard. It is your responsibility to identify and address problems and issues unique to this platform. The workload and complexity of maintenance will increase since each platform’s fixed issues must be handled separately.

Which To Pick When: Native Development vs. React Native

There are benefits and drawbacks to using both Native and React Native when creating applications for your company. To maximize the potential of your business application, select one of the technologies below based on its use case.

Select the development of React Native apps when:

  • You want to release your app as soon as possible and are searching for affordable solutions.
  • You want a straightforward app with a small number of easy-to-use features.
  • Your goal is to develop for both the Android and iOS platforms with a single codebase or on a tight budget.
  • You want to incorporate Facebook adverts into your app or are anticipating a social media app.
  • There is no requirement for your app to engage in complex interactions with other native apps.
  • You’re working on an online store.

Select the Native App Development option when:

  • Your goal is to create a sophisticated and effective app.
  • Your priority should be excellent UI/UX.
  • You’re excited to develop a mobile application based on IoT.
  • Your app must communicate with other native apps or rely heavily on native device features.
  • Your goal is stability and long-term support.

Businesses That Use Native Development vs. React Native

Talk about React Native for startups and big businesses is a prevalent topic among business owners all around the world. Additionally gaining traction is the inclination of business owners for Native development. React Native and Native development are popular choices made by numerous well-known businesses for their mobile application development. These include the following:

Businesses Using React Native

  • UberEats

Different dashboards are needed for restaurants, customers, and delivery partners on the well-known meal delivery network UberEats. UberEats was first developed with React for the web; however, in order to establish a unified platform, the team switched to React Native. This was a wise decision, especially in terms of scalability as the platform expands.

The UberEats development team was able to integrate features like sound and push notifications into an elegant user interface and seamless user experience by utilizing React Native. The UberEats dashboard was able to be redesigned effectively after switching to React Native.

  • Instagram

In 2016, Instagram, a Meta Platforms product, switched to React Native. Despite having a large amount of media and extensive live-streaming features, the Instagram team was able to produce a high-performing app with an easy-to-use user interface.

Instagram’s development teams were able to provide features more quickly after implementing React Native, despite the initial lengthy development process. Faster feature deployment across the Android and iOS platforms was made possible by code sharing and faster iteration rates, which were made possible by technologies like live reload and hot reloading. The efficiency and velocity of developers were enhanced by this shift.

  • Shopify

Leading e-commerce platform Shopify switched from native programming to React Native in 2019. This was a six-year transition. The Shopify team felt confident that the JavaScript layer bundling could be handled effectively by current devices without requiring a lot of processing resources.

Shopify’s platform was initially developed with React, therefore the switch to React Native went rather well with few delays, bugs, or crashes. This switch enabled Shopify to quickly release an Android app, as 80% of the code was shared between the iOS and Android versions.

  • Pinterest

In 2017, the visual discovery and bookmarking network Pinterest gave consideration to implementing React Native. The Pinterest team successfully completed the development of an iOS app prototype in under ten days at an internal hackathon. Amazingly, they were able to share 100% of the UI code between the iOS and Android platforms in just two days. Due to the application’s outstanding performance, a new version was released in 2018. Ever since, Pinterest has persisted in developing mobile applications using React Native.

Businesses Engaging in Native Development

  • Dropbox

Dropbox is a file hosting and synchronization service. Because C++ is a good code-sharing language for both iOS and Android, Dropbox first developed mobile apps in this language. But maintaining two combined codebases came at a larger overhead cost than expected. Furthermore, Dropbox completely switched to native programming due to the C++ ecosystem’s dearth of native functionality. This change fixed the issues that arose and gave Dropbox’s mobile app a more workable solution.

  • Airbnb

React Native was first used by Airbnb, a well-known online marketplace for travel and experiences, for their mobile application. They had trouble living up to their initial expectations, though. The group had difficulties with debugging and cross-platform functionality, necessitating the use of extra tools and making cross-platform codebase maintenance more difficult. In addition, Airbnb kept spending money on its native interface in addition to React Native. Airbnb discovered that focusing more on native development and abandoning React Native was a better strategy for their mobile app.

In summary

After comparing React Native vs. Native development, we can say that the decision between the two technologies is based on the particulars of your project, the experience of your team, and the time it takes to get the product to market while taking into account things like financial limitations and more. React Native’s cross-platform interoperability is its USP, and it helps with code reuse and quicker development cycles. On the other hand, native development allows you to fully leverage the native features and functions while offering the highest level of control and performance optimization. The choice you make in the end will, however, rely on your demands and specifications, guaranteeing a balance between features, functionality, effectiveness, and user experience. For your upcoming development project, you can select the best option by carefully weighing these factors.

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