React Native or iOS Native App-Which is better?

Mobile applications have become a top priority for all major companies. When you decide to build an app for your business, the primary question that arises is whether to go for ios/android or react native platform. To know which one is the best, we make a comparison between the ios and react native which includes their strength and weakness and thus helps you in making a better decision.

In this digital era across the world, mobile apps are ruling the technological world due to its various benefits. Mobile apps render an excellent platform for business, education, banking, reading, social networking and many more.

According to Statistics, Android and iOS are the most popular mobile platforms out there, with Android taking 74% of the mobile OS market share as of 2019.

In the midst of this, if you are someone who is confused about making a choice between native app development and React Native app development, this article is going to be a good read for you.

What is React Native Development?

React Native is a sophisticated framework by Facebook. It allows easy and smooth development of iOS and Android applications simultaneously using Javascript programming language. It provides great UX/UI design in both platforms and it is also cost-effective to be developed.

How React Native differs from Native development?

The idea behind React Native is a framework that will cover all the platforms and this was a dream that has been in the industry for years and seemed impossible to accomplish. Native apps utilize different programming languages for each platform but React Native is based on JavaScript. Sharing of code between various platforms including Android, iOS and web apps is granted to react-native users. It allows sharing 70% of the code between the apps, thus reducing development time in cross-platform mobile app development.

Pros of React Native

Single codebase:

The best advantage of mobile app development with React Native is that it provides developers with an opportunity to write a single codebase that can run on both Android and iOS platforms.

Time-Saving:

Because of the single codebase, it saves a lot of time as well as human resources for the development of the apps. It can boost productivity significantly, reduce development efforts, speed up the development processes and hence app will hit the market sooner.

Hot-Reloading:

Hot reloading is a feature supported by React Native where the developers can view all the changes made by them in real-time on the screen.

Reliable:

React Native, being an open-source application has an advantage of inspecting the code and is found to be compatible with other platforms. Besides being an open-source framework it also allows to add extra features efficiently.

Native performance:

With React Native you can be sure that it will perform at an almost native-like level as these applications render their user interface using native APIs.

Cons of React Native

Native Elements:

React native does not grant the usage of all the native elements of a device like a camera, GPS, voice recorder.

Native code:

React native can be used for developing simple and efficient applications that do not have multiple complex features. Native codes are required in those cases where you have to build a demanding and well-functioning mobile app.

Third-party features:

React Native Development is lagging behind Native development as there is an absence of third-party libraries. Moreover, to make use of the native libraries, the incorporation would have to be made in native modules which raises the development efforts.

What is iOS Native Development?

iOS Native mobile app development involves building apps for particular mobile operating systems(iOS) by using programming languages like Objective-C or swift. Users can access the iOS apps from the App Store.

Pros of iOS Native

• It brings great user experience and platform for implementing sophisticated UI/UX design and animation.

• Native apps are more secure and it guarantees users reliable data protection

• Native apps maintain fast operating speed, smooth work and high performance as they are developed for a specific operating system.

• The native app equips the facility to integrate with hardware devices like camera, GPS, audio devices.

• The native apps can be launched in the app store with ease

• The native apps are more interactive, intuitive and provide users with a sophisticated experience

Cons of iOS Native

• Native iOS projects are considerably more expensive when compared to cross-platform web applications.

• Cost of updating and maintenance are also higher.

• It requires high development time and effort.

Conclusion

React Native and iOS Native seem to have advantages and disadvantages in equal proportions. Hence it is very challenging to decide which one is better and everything depends on which project you are working on. React native is the better option when the project is simple with basic features but its always better to choose iOS native if the project consists of complex functionalities.
Some projects demand a specific platform like iOS and are expecting to adopt platform-specific features and in that case, it’s better not to choose React-native. React native is used on those projects which recommend cross-platform development and some of them include Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Walmart, Skype, Uber Eats. It can boost the speed of development and can reach more users.