5 REASONS TO PICK REACT NATIVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
In a previous post, I wrote about why we should use Flutter for my next project. In this post, I will be switching to React Native with Expo for the same reasons plus one important one.
1. DEVELOPMENT COST USING REACT NATIVE
ONE CODEBASE – ONE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
"single codebase" is essential. With one codebase, one development team, and one design team, you can get a native app that works on iOS, Android, Desktop, and the Web.
Usually, when a company wants to develop a mobile application, they have to hire a team of developers and designers for iOS that will design and code the app specifically to run on iOS devices. After the iOS development is done, another team with experience in Android design and development has to do the same thing.
You might have to double the cost and deal with two different teams of people. Shortly, that team can also develop the app for the web and desktop.
There are other ways of making multi-platform apps, but they use web layers like PhoneGap or Ionic that significantly impact speed, battery, and UI/UX. With React Native, we use Native platform modules.
There are also other popular cross-platform development SDKs like Flutter and Xamarin. They also do not rely on a web browser to display UI.
2. SOFTWARE QUALITY USING REACT NATIVE
Having one team, one codebase, and one design paradigm that gets adapted to different platforms drastically decreases the chance of crashes and bugs. This provides a significant increase in the quality and stability of the final product.
Because of the vas popularity of React.js, it is very easy to find developers that are familiar with React.js and can easily adapt to React Native.
By having fewer lines of code to maintain, the app can iterate not only faster but better. The chance of something breaking is smaller. The team can focus on details to make the apps better instead of worrying about compatibility problems for each platform.
Your business gets access to a bigger user base in all parts of the world, especially to those users that do not have the latest and greatest devices.
3. UPDATES AND SPEED OF DEVELOPMENT
React Native lets you add new features for your users fast. Instead of getting one team to implement a new feature in the iOS app and the other team for Android and waiting for feature parity before launching the new feature, React Native lets you do all of this at once, with one team and one codebase.
Bug fixes and UI/UX fixes can be done only once for all platforms. This is huge and makes the long term cost of the app much smaller and the launching of updates much quicker.
React Native lets you develop better apps faster. With features like Hot Reload, the speed of development is a lot faster. This is an essential feature in a world where users spect new features all the time, and you need to distance yourself from your competitors by getting to your users faster.
4. FUTURE OF REACT NATIVE
Because of the popularity of React.js, it will likely be used in the future.
React.js and React Native are on a trend to become more aligned. This means that React Native will benefit from the huge popularity of React.js in the future.
With new platforms supported like macOS, Windows and AR/VR devices, React Native will be a much more popular choice for your next the future.
5. EXPO
Expo brings simplicity to mobile development and it's a great way to get your app to the top of the app store.
I've been using Expo for years and it has been a great experience. Deployment to app stores is very easy and will be even better and easier with Expo Application Services (EAS).
I'm seeing a trend from Expo where they want to make cross-platform mobile development as easy as web development, specifically with features such as:
- EAS Build: Compile and sign Android/iOS apps with custom native code in the cloud.
- EAS Submit: Upload your app to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store from the cloud with one CLI command.
- EAS Update: Address small bugs and push quick fixes directly to end-users.