Are you looking to build an app that would work on both the Android and iOS platforms without writing two separate codebases for the two platforms and at a reduced cost? If yes, React Native is the best platform in the market to build your next app.
React Native was designed, developed and released by Facebook in 2015, and it is being maintained by Facebook ever since. Facebook itself is built on React Native along with other big applications like Uber Eats, Instagram, Airbnb and many more. But what is React Native? Let’s see.
What is React Native?
React Native is a popular open-source Javascript based framework for building applications for Android, iOS, macOS, Android TV, tvOS, web, and windows by using React, a best-in-market javascript library for building User Interfaces along with Native platform capabilities.
In short, with react native, you can develop applications that work efficiently on both platforms. Additionally, the development cost and time are reduced significantly with react native development compared to developing separate apps for both platforms.
There are many react native app development companies providing the react native app development services for mobile app development but before diving into react native developer to develop apps, let’s look into the pros and cons of React Native.
Pros of React Native
- Fast Refresh Feature of React Native
This feature provides a great experience to the developers as it speeds up the development of new features and bug fixing. Fast Refresh is enabled by default. With Fast Refresh enabled, most of the edits are visible in a couple of seconds. It helps in getting near-instant feedback for the changes done in react components.
- Optimized Performance of React Native Applications
React Native improves the performance of the application through native controls and modules. The React Native gets connected to the native components and generates a code to the native API. The performance increases as it makes use of a different thread from UI and the native APIs.
- Pre-developed Codes and Components can be reused.
Code reusability is the most significant advantage a developer can get from using react native developer to develop apps. Because of this feature, the developers can save a lot of development time, and businesses can build apps at a lower cost than building apps for both platforms separately. With React Native, the development speed is also accelerated due to pre-developed components available in the open-source library.
- Provides Excellent Support for Third-Party Plugins
React Native provides support for third-party plugins giving options that include native and javascript modules. For example, if you want to implement a maps API in your app, React Native lets you do it by connecting the plugin with a native or third-party module.
- React Native Provides Simple User Interface
React Native provides a simple mobile user interface and provides a more responsive UI design, reducing the loading times.
- Supported by a Large Community of Developers
React Native is an open-source platform supported by many developers across the world by allowing developers to contribute to the framework’s development with their knowledge. React Native is freely accessible to everyone. If a developer in any corner of the world experiences an issue, they can turn to the community for support.
Cons of React Native
- Performance is Not Better As Native Apps
React Native cannot use all the components of the native platforms, and hence, the system’s performance suffers by not being able to provide the best user experience as native apps.
- Not Meant for Advanced and Complicated Designs
If the mobile application requires advanced animations like designs such as many screen transitions, interactions, etc., React Native app development is not for your use case. Mobile apps with complex structures are built on Native platforms only.
- Debugging is quite a Challenge.
Mobile applications developed with react native is hard to debug. Since they are built using Javascript, testing becomes very tedious, and hence, the developers should know the native language of the platform.
- Need for Native Developers.
There is a need to implement some native features and modules that demand detailed knowledge on a particular platform. The lack of a native developer arises, which becomes a challenge for small startups and companies where the developers do not have native app development experience.
- App Updation Issues are Often There
Updating react-native versions is a highly complex process in the apps, and hence, it’s tough to keep the mobile app updated with the latest react native version.
Conclusion
Before diving into app development with react native, the most popular cross-platform mobile app development framework, the discussed pros and cons are worth looking into.