We are at the beginning of 2023 and React Native remains one of the top cross-platform app development project frameworks worldwide. It offers quick development of attractive apps packed with features – the type of apps businesses are chasing these days.
There has been a sense of urgency among companies to build apps in a bid to improve their reach. If yours is among them, and you are already considering hiring a React Native app development company for your next project, it would be better to learn more about this framework before moving ahead.
Benefits of choosing React Native for your next app development project
Here, we will go over the five biggest advantages of React Native before briefly going through four project examples that can be built using it.
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1. Simple and convenient
Using React Native, developers have the opportunity to utilize both the React framework and native platform features. As the framework uses the Facebook UI library, code creation is facilitated. Furthermore, React JS is simple and easy to understand, making it a great option for mobile app developers.
For instance, it’s ‘Hot Reload’ feature makes it possible to reload components automatically, allowing developers to keep the application state while running new features. It simplifies app development since developers will be able to see the effects of the changes they make to the code in real-time. Code correction and customization are quicker and more effective, as a result.
At the same time, the chances for error are greatly reduced, resulting in ‘bug-free’ code due to far fewer mistakes.
2. Budget-friendly
In today’s market, applications must be developed quickly and last a long time. The advantage of using a React Native development company lies in its ability to provide both of these features. Consequently, cross-platform app development is particularly advantageous for budding startups with limited resources.
Furthermore, you can reach a bigger market and avoid overspending throughout the process as a startup owner if you hire React Native developers.
3. Consistent, seamless updates and debugging
The process of making a small change in a native app can seem quite lengthy and complex. A React Native app, however, can be updated far more easily, allowing you to change anything from typing errors to incorporating additional features.
There is a code push feature that allows automatic runtime updates, which is responsible for this. You can even see the app changing while you’re using it, so you won’t need to relaunch it.
This platform provides the advantage of having one codebase, which is one of the main reasons for choosing it for app development. This helps to simplify the process of detecting bugs on both Android and iOS devices while enhancing code reusability. As a result, both platforms require only one update.
As a result, developers do not have to spend hours searching for code, which simplifies the debugging process considerably. A single codebase requires a single bug resolution for the entire system to function properly.
4. Plenty of resources and community support
React Native enjoys the endorsement of leading market leaders and the support of thousands of global contributors. Developers can easily resolve queries and overcome their issues by exploring different online platforms, such as Code mentor or Stack Overflow.
React Native Facebook Groups are just as helpful, meaning you have access to plenty of support.
5. Excellent UI and performance
Developing an app in React Native gives more freedom to designers, letting them work the way they want. It is all thanks to the presence of countless declarative frameworks that the platform is designed to contain. There are many such components that help developers and designers to create elements specifically according to their needs. They can also tweak the UI to match the preferences of their targeted audience, making it as clean, customized, and clutter-free as possible for the best User Experience.
Because React Native apps perform at par with Native apps, end users are rarely able to distinguish between them. Its excellent performance is due to the fact that React Native apps are mobile applications, and they have nothing to do with HTML5, web apps, or hybrid applications in any way.
Apps built on this framework perform better, and it is important businesses understand this difference. The optimization these apps receive through Native codes contributes to this performance. Moreover, mobile app developers know how to make your app stand out from the crowd.
4 kinds of applications React Native could be ideal for
Let’s look at the different types of apps React Native can help you build for your business.
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1. eCommerce
React Native has many advantages to offer in eCommerce apps where you need a proper structure. Its reusable components and lazy-loaded lists prove very useful features. The FlatList/SectionList components save precious development and testing time and, at the same time, improve performance.
Developing mobile apps is never easy but React Native simplifies some of its most complicated aspects. Walmart, one of the U.S. retail market leaders, is a great example that has developed one of the best mobile applications.
2. Lifestyle and fashion
You don’t necessarily need a native app to be successful; sometimes, a lightweight solution using frameworks like React Native is the better choice. Lifestyle apps like Vogueworld from Vogue, one of the most popular fashion magazines worldwide, are the perfect examples.
The reason behind this is that tasks like watching videos, saving images, receiving news alerts, and sharing articles don’t really need extensive native development. A good moral to this story is to always choose the most suitable solution to your problem.
3. Prototypes
You should consider React Native if you need a quick prototype, proof of concept, or minimum viable product for your idea. Airbnb, for instance, initially had a React website, but as time passed, the growing popularity of mobile apps and a lack of mobile app expertise forced the company to choose React Native. They began with a Minimum Viable Product, maintaining and extending the app as it gained widespread use.
Starting small worked in their favor; they went on to develop two full native apps for Android and iOS once they had a proper understanding of the product’s full form and their users’ requirements.
4. Temporary apps
It is sometimes necessary to develop an app urgently, and maintenance is not as important as speed and agility, since the app will only be needed for a limited period of time. Building such apps on React Native is a brilliant idea because developers can do it quickly and efficiently.
Apps for events, such as conferences and conventions, are excellent use cases for this framework. One clear benefit of this is the environment and all the resources you will save since you won’t have to print countless maps and pamphlets.
After all, a majority of people own smartphones, and the event app will not only offer every necessary detail related to it but will also be able to provide instant updates in case of urgent changes regarding schedules or lineups.
How React Native differs from React?
To begin with, these two are separate, albeit related, frameworks, each fulfilling specific purposes.
React.js, also known as ReactJS or simply React, is an open-source JavaScript library for front-end use. It creates quick and dependable UIs for web applications, largely with the help of reusable components.
In 2011, Facebook launched React as a solution to its scalability problems, just as it did with React Native some years later. In those days, Facebook’s advertising grew exponentially, and its UI was constantly updated, resulting in considerable platform slowdowns. React was the solution, and it also served as the timeline for Instagram when Facebook acquired the app a year later.
On the other hand, native mobile apps are built with React Native, a cross-platform framework, using JavaScript and React concepts. It is a mobile framework allowing to build of near-native apps using JavaScript.
In short, ReactJS is a JavaScript library that lets developers build engaging and well-performing User Interface layers, whereas React Native offers a complete framework to build web, Android, and iOS cross-platform apps.
While both frameworks share some similarities, their purposes are entirely different. A web application is developed using React, and you will hire React Native app developers if you want to build a fast and convenient mobile application.
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To conclude
It should be clear by now why React Native is one of the most popular frameworks today. It brings a host of advantages in many respects, from design and development to performance and maintenance.
Building an app on this framework can help businesses in many ways. This makes it a top choice of technology stack among entrepreneurs regardless of the industry or business sector. Furthermore, not only does it save many work hours, but it also speeds up the development process and is cost-effective overall.
And let’s not forget that it gives businesses access to more users since they only need to build one app for both Android and iOS users to use it.
However, for your next project, it is important to hire a React Native app development company that has experience with the platform.
This article is written by Tom Hardy. Tom has gained extensive experience working on React Native projects at SparxIT. He enjoys staying updated on the latest technology trends and frameworks in his spare time.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
