Why choose React Native for mobile app development?

Mobile app development is a complex process because it involves a unique platform with specific requirements. Web development knowledge doesn’t necessarily transition into mobile expertise. On the one hand, mobile apps require a different approach to user interface. On the other hand, they need alternative optimization methods to run on hardware that is weaker by default.

In this post, we want to look at the interface side of the equation. Today, there are multiple ways to build a user interface in a mobile app. For instance, a possibility exists to use native platforms such as Swift (Apple) to create fast interfaces. What’s the issue with this method? It’s impossible to port these interfaces to other platforms in a convenient way. Another major framework is to use containers and insert the web interface of your app into mobile format artificially. This method is cheap, but it leads to a suboptimal user experience.

Lastly, there’s an ultimate solution for modern developers, which comes in the form of React Native. React Native, which is developed by Meta (Facebook creators) is notable for its capability to run across several platforms. Thus, it’s possible to write code once and then use it on several platforms at once. In our opinion, React Native development services are the best option for companies that want to create a high-quality mobile solution at the lowest cost.

Reason 1. Write once, run everywhere

We’ve already mentioned that you can reuse React Native code on multiple platforms. Let’s dive into this feature in-depth to see what React Native is capable of. Traditional mobile development requires you to create UI/UX using the “native” languages of iOS or Android. This means a port of a Swift-based iOS app to Android will require you to write code in Kotlin. React Native removes this problem once and for all by offering platform-agnostic components.

A developer can delineate the look and feel of their app via JavaScript and specific React Native components. When compiled for iOS or Android, the React Native components will use the UI/UX tools of the respective platform. Hence, React Native code is capable of adapting both to iOS and Android in this way.

Obviously, such automatic porting isn’t always sufficient: it’s also possible to write platform-specific code when you need some modifications. Nonetheless, React Native allows moving the core elements of your UI between different platforms more or less effortlessly, requiring only small-scale modifications later. This means React Native is among the best time-saving technologies in modern IT. It provides a Native-like feel for various apps despite requiring much less time than other alternatives regarding development.

Reason 2. Easy-to-learn core language

React Native is notable for its reliance on JavaScript. Why is this so vital? The reasons are twofold. Firstly, JavaScript is relatively easy to learn in comparison to other platforms. As a result, maintaining code written in it is much easier than in all other cases. Secondly, JavaScript is much more widespread than Kotlin or Swift. It’s easier to find developers for this platform in comparison to any other framework on the market. All this highlights that the price of React Native development is typically lower than that of the native Kotlin or Swift approach. More importantly, you don’t even get any big drawbacks during this development. The majority of the involved apps exhibit native-like behavior when using React Native.

Reason 3. One team development

The aforementioned features of React Native are essential because they allow you to develop apps using just one team. Instead of investing in two or even three separate teams for web, Android, and iOS development, you can give all the tasks to one developer group. JavaScript will enable the transferability of code between web and mobile. In turn, React Native is crucial for allowing the interconnection between Android and iOS development. While there may be some need for iOS- and Android-specific developers in the involved teams, it’s much lower than usual. Consequently, you can more or less rely on just one team of developers when creating UI/UX for an app using React Native.

(Image credit) Reason 4. Live reload

A major issue with traditional frameworks for development is that they require you to compile code to see changes. This isn’t a problem during the initial stages of development when you write the biggest components of an app. However, this feature becomes a major challenge once you need to work on the smaller elements. Every edit you make is likely to take significant amounts of time in such conditions because of the need to continuously recompile code. As a result, there’s always pressure to do everything right from the get-go during development due to potential time losses.

With React Native, this challenge ceases to exist. You can add changes to the interface of your app and then reload it in live mode. All that is necessary is to invoke one function. This approach is essential for fast development since it allows developers to focus on the most minute details of their apps. In this way, one can deliver a solution that considers the smallest needs of the customers.

Reason 5. Serious maintainer

React Native is maintained by Meta. What does this mean in practice? This information means the platform gets long-term professional support despite being free. A common issue of the open-source platforms is their reliance on non-professional developers. Often, people offer their additions to some technology in their spare time, greatly raising the possibility of errors. React Native, however, doesn’t face this problem as it has the backing of the largest social media corporation in the world. Of course, the platform also has various volunteer developers, too. Nonetheless, you can always be sure that there’s a guiding organization behind this framework.

Conclusion

To summarize, React Native is undoubtedly one of the best platforms on the market if you want to create UI/UX for your app. It provides a framework that is easy to learn and, more importantly, saves time by being cross-platform. Today, React Native is so potent that, in our opinion, UI/UX development benefits from it in 90% of the cases. Usually, native platforms like Kotlin are essential only in limited situations when you need to push out the smallest benefits in performance.

In the end, we would also like to share some advice on choosing the best React Native development business partner. You should search for organizations that have significant experience in developing Node.js and JavaScript solutions, as well as using React Native for UI/UX creation. In this respect, our recommendation is to focus on companies like Keenethics, which have multiple years of experience on the market and work with many high-value developers.

Featured image credit: Gray StudioPro/Freepik