Now I thank you for clicking on this article because after reading the title most people will chuckle with a smug look over their face and wouldn’t want to read this article and go on to be a better programmers than me. Believe me, I also like to build secondary apps for my products and know that Kotlin is way better than React Native to build Android apps although knowing this most people choose to still use Java and I also know that Swift will always be better than React Native to build iOS apps because Swift is the holy text of the Apple. So why do I still choose React Native over the Native option? Well here’s why….
The Time Crunch and resources:
Although the apps that you build with Kotlin and Swift will have been be better optimized and have better performance, they will be 3 months slower because you spent 3 months learning Java and another 3 for Swift. As an individual a common programming language for both platforms clearly seems to be the more optimized solution as it means more time, resources and my energy which can be put in to better the product.
Code sharing:
This is probably the best argument for my case, your React Native app uses JavaScript and your web sites uses JavaScript, now put two and two together like a Smart Developer and look at the code sharing possibilities. Npm Libraries? Shared. Data fetching? Shared. Constants? Shared. Custom Hooks? Shared and once the most of the code is shared around it makes maintenance way easier for all platforms.
User Interface:
React Native’s approach to structuring UI is Flexbox, which if you have ever done web development make it very easy to create a responsive UI. As such, it is a technology which rivals Android’s XML / Constraint layout approach, or iOS’s Storyboard / XIB / Coding with UI libraries such as Neon approach.
Everyone is already using it:
While Facebook using React Native does not make a big statement as they are the one who made it but when Shopify, Tesla, Walmart, Uber Eats and aha whole of other big names are using it, it makes you think that money is probably not the main reason here. All of the companies above have more money than they know what to do with, so probably them slowly replacing the their whole code base with React Native is a statement to how useful and ergonomic a shared codebase really is .
Conclusion:
At the end I would just say that rather than going with the popular opinion online you should think critically as to what your and your apps’ needs are? Do you want a complex apps utilizing platform specific code, don’t want to code under the fear of Facebook ditching the React native project or do you simply want your app to support new OS, updated features asap? Then go Native. But if you an individual with a small team with limited resources, already have a good grasp over React and JS and want to streamline the app building process then React Native just might be the best option.
