Developed by Meta in 2013 only for internal use, and later released to the public in 2015, React Native has completely changed the frontend development ecosystem for applications – be it iOS or Android. Working on JavaScript and React, the framework’s community support is one of the major reasons why people are moving to it instead of native app development. 

Before the advent of React Native, developers used to natively build apps for each platform. Though in the current era, the speed at which an application can be deployed across the board is an important factor, native app development lets users have complete control over the platform they are building the app for, by utilising Swift for iOS development and JavaScript for Android. This, even today, results in high-performance, highly-responsive, and polished user experience within apps.

The obvious downside of building for each platform individually is that it is time-consuming and also expensive. If a company is building an app, it would have to hire different developers for each platform. This also means that maintaining and updating the apps has to be done separately thereby lengthening the development time even more, while the built app will also not be similar for both platforms. 

On the contrary, React Native allows for cross-platform development, meaning that a single codebase can be used to create apps for multiple operating systems. This can save time and money compared to native app development, as developers only need to write code once, and not multiple times. In addition, React Native apps can be deployed to multiple platforms as essentially they are Web Application (WA), with relative ease, making it easier to keep up with changes and updates to the operating system.

When to build natively

React Native offers all the required tools and features to make an app that can be deployed for all the platforms. However, it also has some disadvantages. Since it is not utilising the device’s hardware, but actually building based on the browser it is running on, the ability to design and create specific interface, navigation patterns, animations, and transitions, etc is limited. Therefore, React Native falls short when matching the standards of both Android and iOS in terms of UI/UX.

On the other hand, when creating natively, developers have complete control over the hardware and each screen is designed individually. Though it takes time, the output of building in such a way is seamless and significantly better UI/UX experience. This makes the natively developed apps faster and more responsive when compared to React Native apps, as they are better optimised for the specific operating system using the native programming language. 

Moreover, using React Native requires the understanding of both JavaScript and React, which creates a barrier to entry. Though if a developer learns both of these, they can also move beyond just creating apps, which is definitely a benefit. But on the other side, JavaScript has a lot of loopholes and also poor documentation, but native programming languages like Java, Swift, or Kotlin are strictly typed and are OOPs (Object Oriented Programming) and can be learnt easily with proper documentation. This also adds more app security in natively built apps. 

Another important factor to consider before using React Native is if individual apps need to be connected to each other for data access. Natively built apps can be connected with each other and interact continuously with each other. This is oftentimes one of the biggest factors why React Native becomes a secondary option for many. Moreover, React Native relies on additional native module support for cross platform use. 

Reacting Natively

In conclusion, it all boils down to the use case. If building a complex application like a messaging application, natively building it gives more flexibility, polish, and security. Moreover, if an app has to utilise the hardware, and is not just an internet accessing app or web-based application, but controls of the device, native application building is the best way to go.

But even then the era of React Native is here. With social media apps like Facebook or Instagram that essentially convert the website into web apps, it is more convenient to code an app once and deploy it for all the platforms, since there is no nitty-gritty or complexity involved. Similarly, apps that have only single-time usage like many ecommerce apps, it is ideal to use React Native, as it is not required to polish the app as much. Ultimately, the best option will depend on your specific project requirements and the goals you want to achieve with your app.