Advantages of React Native Mobile App Development

So you have an idea for a mobile app, have heard that React Native is a good mobile app development framework and want to know what the advantages of React Native are?

React Native is a mobile app development framework that allows mobile app developers to build high-performing cross-platform mobile apps in a reduced time and cost vs. fully native coded mobile apps; this is in terms of both initial app development and, on-going maintenance and updates.

React Native has been used by companies and startups big and small to create incredible mobile app experiences — see the React Native showcase which includes apps by Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft and Tesla.

Key advantages of React Native include:

• Single code base; although this is not fully true as some parts of the app can be unique to each platform (i.e. iOS and Android may have differing navigation design), for the most part you can use the same core code-base across both major mobile OS’s being iOS/iPhone/iPad and Android
• Easier maintenance; as the app is the same code-base maintaining is much more time and cost-effective as the same code will be updated and applicable to both iOS and Android in most cases
• Less developers; the most technical parts of React Native mobile app development are JavaScript development skills, although you need to understand how each platform and their native development IDE’s work (i.e. XCode and Android Studio) you do not need to know the intricacies of more lower-level native programming languages such as Objective-C/Swift or Java/Kotlin (although it can be advantageous especially when native bridging of SDK’s is required)
• Performance; as React Native apps are ported/built down to fully native languages at build time, performance is almost indistinguishable from fully-native coded mobile apps in 99% of cases
• Code re-use; if you also need to build out a web application such a dashboard for an admin user, or would like to have a companion web app you may be able to re-use some of the code from mobile on web or visa-versa
• Faster releases; again as the app is a single code-base adding new features, fixing bugs and releasing new builds can happen in unison.

Don’t underestimate the cost and necessity of maintenance.

Considering the mobile app is usually only 1 part of your app and overall digital platform requirements it is wise to consider other costs, on-going maintenance and future product/feature releases inline with the other considerations and needs for your app to function overall; i.e. back-end and API development, database development, DevOps and cloud/hosting requirements. You may also need web app development as part of your overall app development and digital product strategy.

If you are looking for React Native mobile app development or React developers 👋 contact us today, we’d love to chat.

This article was originally posted on Medium as Advantages of React Native Mobile App Development