The name React Native may not be a new word for you. If you are into the mobile app development. This term is been on trend for a while now in the world of technology. Since Facebook announced the release of React Native mobile app framework. Many businesses have started using it for their mobile application development process.
Just like any other mobile app development framework, React Native has its own advantage and disadvantage. However, still many mobile app developers prefer to work with native app tools and frameworks, but there is various number of new and aspiring developers who are considering to work on React Native for their future mobile app projects.
This post is targeted to highlight both advantage and disadvantage of using React Native in comparison with the Native app development. For making this comparison a lot better we have listed both the pros and cons of React Native as well as the Native mobile app.
In this post, our purpose was to keep this comparison nice and simple between both these platforms.
Native Mobile App Development
Here are all the pros and cons of native app development:
Pros
Third Party Libraries
Whenever you are developing a mobile app in the native environment, you can choose to work with various third party libraries. There are lot of resources and the developer community is huge in order to help the developers in improving the app user experience and the mobile application itself.
Good to Know
Even though you can use frameworks for developing a new mobile application, having the proper knowledge about the platform and underlying its architecture is a huge advantage. Some of the functionalities cannot be integrated into your mobile app using these frameworks, and for integrating those important functionalities knowledge of native mobile application development is sometimes necessary.
Long-Term Aspects
If you are going to work on the native mobile application development for the long term than it is one of the safest options. Furthermore, you can also update it and change its existing APIs and programming language, like when Apple migrated from Objective-C to Swift, all these changes made to the mobile app are backward compatible and it provides the guide and tutorials for porting between these changes.
API Access
The APIs and access to other features provided by the mobile platform can be easily accessed if you are working on native app development environment. You are not required to create an extra layer of mapping over the mobile app functionality which is required to be updated. After that, there will be no restrictions and dependencies other than those included in the Native mobile app environment.
Strict Language
iOS and Android are having the native language which is called strict languages which makes it easier for developers to detect the hidden errors. It is quite easy to learn any one language since all of them are strict. Even though it will take time to get into the comfort zone.
Cons
You are Required to Develop Two Applications
One of the biggest disadvantages of native app development is that the apps developed can run on a specific mobile platform only. Meaning that if you are developing a native mobile application, you will have to develop the application for separate mobile platforms. For instance, if you want your app to be available on both iOS and Android you are required to develop two apps for each platform. Unlikely, both these applications will differ a lot, and no source code can be shared between them. Moreover, the backend, which is an important part of any mobile application, can be the same for both the versions.
React Native Mobile Application Development
Here are all the pros and cons of React native mobile application development:
Pros
Single Code Base
As discussed above, there is no need right the separate code for two applications if you are using React Native. Instead, you can use the single code base for both iOS and Android platforms if you are going to work on React Native. The biggest benefit of React Native is that you are not required to learn a different programming language for each mobile platform. Only one language to know is enough.
Web Concepts
Transitioning from web development to mobile application development can be a little trickier for a web developer. With React Native it smoothens the transition as this framework is based on Javascript programming language. Plus, most of the web developers are used to JavaScript which makes the development of mobile apps a lot easy to learn and web developers get more familiar to.
Open Source
React Native is open source and free to use which provide developers the opportunity to analyze and inspect the code. It can be very helpful for the beginners to increase the understanding of the framework. Also, it helps in improving the framework by adding new features or fixing bugs.
Hot Reloading
Whenever you are developing an application on React Native and then a file is saved, all the changes are shown quickly on the device where your mobile app is running. This speeds up the mobile app development process of getting feedback from the users on recent updates and changes.
Time
Whenever you are going develop a simple application on React Native, the time from beginning to having the application on the market is shorter than when developing a native mobile app. It is because you are required to create only one application instead of developing two applications simultaneously.
Cons
Third Party Libraries
React Native has a smaller developer community than native mobile app development and also has less number of libraries as well. In order to use the third party libraries developed for the native mobile app development, these features have to be written in a native module.
React Native Does Not Support All the APIs
All the APIs supported in native mobile application development is not supported by React Native. The most used APIs are supported, but most of them are required to have the access to other APIs or functionality. All this can be done by using the native modules.
Interaction with Other Native Apps
There are situations where one wants to access other native mobile apps, such as the calculator, it is much easier to access it via native app frameworks. However, React Native does not provide the support for it, meaning that it has to be written as native modules or using a third-party library.
Native Modules
Since most of the features and functionality are not included in React Native. All these issues have been solved since the inception of Native Modules. All these modules are the part of the source code which is written in native language and then integrated into the entire source code. This is one of the best ways to solve the problem of not having the support for APIs. However, for that, you need a developer who possesses good knowledge in native mobile app development. Something that the developer always wanted to avoid by working on React Native. Moreover, this thing sometimes results in duplication of the source code since all the native modules for both iOS and Android are written separately.
Long-Term Aspects
There is always an uncertainty when it comes to long-term support for mobile apps developed on React Native. The day will come when the Facebook will stop providing updates for it or there will be changes made to the native mobile application development which is hard to turn around.
Conclusion
If you want to develop your mobile application for both the platforms then there is no better choice than React Native. Moreover, developers who are having experience in web development can develop the application without any issues or complex functionality.
Otherwise, you can prefer to develop your application on Native in most cases. If you are having the knowledge about the APIs and native language than also you can develop your application in React Native. Therefore, if you are a beginner then it is strongly suggested to you to work on Native mobile app development.
Source: AppZure
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