Nowadays, starting a start-up is like driving a sports car. It is fun, exciting, and fast, but it requires some wise decisions. You do not have any option for making mistakes as well as the danger is also great. At last, there are chances that you may run out of fuel or the car will crash before reaching the final destination. To avoid such circumstances, you must focus on choosing the correct material that fits best with your needs.
Earlier, developing a mobile application was a difficult task for start-ups. If start-ups want to have a presence on the mobile application, they have to build apps for iOS and Android separately. But then, frameworks for cross-platform application development were introduced in the market.
Cross-platform frameworks allow developers to create an application for multiple platforms with the help of a single codebase. This approach is now being followed by most companies as it enables them to create an application with cost-effectiveness. In simple terms, cross-platform application development enables the companies to invest on react native app development for a single time and then work on it in a single team. These days React Native is in trend, and companies have started to use React Native app development to deliver value-based products to users.
What is React Native?
React Native was launched as an open-source framework for mobile and web app development. It enables the developers to create cross-platform applications for Android, iOS, or Windows using a single codebase. As the same codebase can be used for developing applications for multiple devices, it reduces the resources as well as the time to market. If we talk in technical terms, React Native is an open-source JavaScript framework that is based on JS and has a ReactJS library for creating attractive UI. Most of the developers use React Native for creating robust mobile and web applications as it offers some of the best-in-class features.
As per the latest survey , React Native will dominate the future of mobile app development process. So more and more developers are incorporating React native mobile app development to deliver cross-platform mobile apps to businesses. In the year 2022, mobile apps generated a whooping revenue of more than $120 billion, just with app stores and in-app advertising. Moreover, the demands of users for seamless navigation and aesthetic appeal have forced companies to adopt React native's for mobile application development services.
In this digital competition, the need for developing dedicated applications through React Native has become a priority. Companies now focus on reducing development costs and resources for quick development effort and optimal performance. With hybrid mobile application development through Xamarin, React Native, and Ionic paving their way into the market, developers are looking for ways to create a single application that can operate on multiple platforms with an aesthetic user interface.
Some of the leading React Native mobile app development companies are paving their way ahead of their competitors by adopting React Native app development services for both iOS and Android platforms.
One of the major advantages of using React Native for mobile app development is to offer a native-like feel and experience to users. The same code can be used to create applications for multiple platforms. As React Native is based on JavaScript, it has gained popularity amongst developers.
The Importance of React Native for App Development
In the year 2011, React Native was first deployed in Facebook's News Feed, and later in 2012, it was incorporated into Instagram. As React Native offers flexibility for faster development, most mobile app development firms have started to use React Native in their mobile app development services. Apart from this, as React Native saves a lot of resources and money, and in return it offers massive ROI, developers are becoming founders of React Native. Some of the top applications, such as Instagram, Uber, OneDrive, Skype, and Flipkart, have been using React Native.
Top Companies and Start-ups Using React Native
Airbnb has created a lot of experiences and features in their app using React Native, as more than 74% of their developers insisted on using React Native for developing a new project. Although Microsoft already has its own cross-platform framework tool- Xamarin, it still decided to use React Native for Skype.
Have a look at some of the applications developed with this framework in wide range:
UberEats
As the company struggled with communicating with the restaurants, UberEats rebuilt its dashboard with React Native. By implementing RN on the demo application, developers were able to handle crash reporting libraries. Although React Native is not an important part of Uber, the developers are planning to use React Native framework more in the future.
There is no surprise that Instagram, which now belongs to Facebook, has also leveraged the benefits offered by React Native and is still leveraging it. The developers rolled out the push notifications feature, and a save button feature with React Native so that the developers can save the post which they find inspiring. With React Native, Instagram developers are able to fasten up the start-up time with Native -like feeling. Moreover, they were also able to handle the issues with the Post Promote feature.
Walmart
As the developers of Walmart were not satisfied with the hybrid app performance of the application, and the codebase of the website was also running on React, RN seemed the best choice for their developers. Now because of React Native, developers can use almost 95% of the same code on Android as well as iOS.
Now a major question arises; all the companies mentioned above are tech leaders, so should start-ups also prefer choosing React native for mobile app development? The simple answer is yes. There is no need for a second thought for considering React Native mobile app development by start-ups. Here are some of the top start-ups that use React Native:
Soundcloud Pulse
A Berlin-based start-up founded in 2007 decided to build a new application for creators, so they decided to choose React Native. A team of three developers that were working on the project delivered the first base model of the product two months earlier before the delivery date.
Townske
If you love traveling, you must be familiar with this Australian start-up. The developers appreciated the benefits offered by React Native, and the start-up received positive feedback from users.
Huiseoul
This application is the perfect example that displays how to react native speakers react perfectly with an eCommerce platform. A team of four members, including three developers and one Project manager, delivered the basic version in just 6 weeks.
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Native vs. React Native Development: The differences for Start-Ups
Developers consider native application development as the most classical and proven way of developing mobile applications. Talking about the hybrid mobile app development, it has some significant disadvantages, such as slow performance as compared to native app development.
With React Native, developers can offer a native-like feel and performance with reduced development time and cost. However, if React Native had offered better than Native in every single way, it would have become the main framework for mobile application development. But this hasn't happened till now. But how? Let us have a look at some of the differences.
Native Functionality
Undoubtedly the ecosystem of React Native is not as big as the Native one. This means that developers cannot use some of the third-party APIs and libraries that are only available in the native environment. The same thing goes for the features of native devices. However, the native app developers can integrate some of the features in the application directly, while React Native developers have to wait until the feature is made available for them.
Although if your application depends on any third-party components or APIs that are not officially available for React Native, developers can still use them in their applications. For this, developers have to create some exceptional modules known by the name "bridges" with Kotlin or Java. With this, both the native code and the JS code easily communicate with each other.
Cross-Platform Development
React Native is the leader of this category, as the developers cannot create applications for multiple platforms with a single codebase. With the native app development process, if you want to create applications for iOS and Android, even if they are completely identical to each other, consider it as a process of creating applications for two different platforms.
But with React Native, the developers can create a single codebase, and around 95% of the same code can be used for creating applications for both iOS and Android. However, sometimes the developers may have to write around 20%-25% of native code to integrate features such as native UI components, deep linking, push notifications, and so on. But it will still consume less time than creating an application from scratch.
For start-ups who want to deploy an MVP of their app on both iOS and Android, cross-platform app development is considered as the best choice. Usually, start-ups have limited budgets and resources, so they have to choose one single platform for testing of their product. But with RN, they have the choice to cover both platforms on a limited budget. Moreover, if you want to create the application for a single platform, you can later scale your product with React Native.
UI/UX
With native app development, you have to rely on platform-specific design patterns such as (animations, buttons, date pickers, etc.). Communities of native iOS/Android offer larger relevant libraries. But with RN, is it a disadvantage? Probably yes, if you want to access some specific libraries. However, it is difficult to face such a case in real life when you need to use a specific library and do not need the libraries offered by React Native.
Sometimes for React Native developers, it is difficult to create complicated UI elements such as animations. So React Native is considered as the best choice for creating MVP of projects as they do not require complicated UX/UI design elements or patterns.
As the building blocks used by this framework are similar to those of native apps, React Native apps also offer the same UI experience to the users. In most of the apps, you may have the same feel just as in native applications. Moreover, you should consider it when you want your application to look the same on both iOS and Android platforms. Although it is quite a difficult task for native mobile app developers, the React Native app development team can easily manage the same design consistency between both platforms. So, from a development perspective, who is the winner, undoubtedly React Native? Putting everything in short, here are some of the major differences in terms of UI development:
- The native app development process follows the imperative development approach for programming. The developers have to define the whole action sequence and how the UI of the app will be created.
- The RN developers follow the declarative development approach for programming. The developers only have to tell WHAT should be done without defining a specific flow.
As a result, the RN developers have the choice to create an app with less and simpler code and easily maintain the end product.
Performance
Performance is one of the most crucial factors for any framework or technology. Developers who are not familiar with React native may think that the applications developed with React Native have poor performance as they are not written in JavaScript.
Moreover, rewriting an existing application with React Native helps the developers to work even faster.
Speed
While working with React Native developers, you should have to be a little bit more careful than a native developer. With React Native, it is quite easy to miss some mistakes that will eventually make the app run slower or even freeze. But if you do everything right, it might not be a problem for you. When the applications are small in size, these problems may be unnoticeable, but when the app size increases, this can be a real issue. This then leads to the next pitfall.
Application Size
As the React Native applications rely on third-party APIs, libraries, and native UI components, using too many of these elements may result in making the app quite heavy. When you are creating a React Native application, the native app feature will work as a wrapper. So your React Native app will have the features of the native apps and the React Native engine integrated with JS code. As a result, the logic of React Native application will not weigh lesser than a native application. So what can be done to solve this issue? Here is the solution that may help:
- Transform the bitmap graphics into vector graphics.
- Ensure the compression of images and graphics.
- For Android apps, you can use Android App Bundle.
- Conversion of JSON data into static object IDs.
- Optimization of native libraries.
Navigation Between Lists and Screens
Usually, navigation is not considered as an issue but rather a part of your product in which there are some issues in the JS part. The issue is that JavaScript cannot perform multiple actions simultaneously. Instead, they are executed in a sequence one by one. Hence the navigation between screens is queued in the sequence when there are some other tasks already being going on. For animations, the following process can be used:
User makes an action on the native side ➡️ the request is sent to the React Native side ➡️ here it's translated into a "do this"-kind of instruction and sent back ➡️ the action itself is performed at the native side.
This is the main reason why sometimes the React Native applications face delays while executing operations, especially while running animations or navigations. The issue with the list is the same as with the navigation. So adding too many items in a single list can result in performance delays.
Updates
Even if it is about moving a button to a few pixels, in native apps, the developers have to compile the whole application. It is time-consuming, and the bigger the app, the more time the developers will need.
Moreover, before making the app live on Google or Apple app store, the company has to preview the app to ensure that it doesn't violate the app store rules and regulations. This can also consume several days.
This is not all! Once the app is approved with the new version, some of the users may take more than a few days to update the app. The reason is either they didn't see the update or didn't install it just after the release.
But with React native, there is nothing like that. The updates are rolled out over the air, so when the developers make any changes in the JS code, they are immediately displayed to the developers. The same thing is with the websites.
React Native framework is considered as a perfect option for A/B testing as well as you can also see six bugs even before the users notice them. Suppose you find a bug just a few hours before the project delivery. You can easily fix them with React Native.
Read More: Using React and Node JS for Full Stack Web Development
When React Native App Development Should Be Considered?
Deciding on the technology for mobile application development is not an easy task, but with pre-defined goals, and an estimated budget, this also becomes simple. Hence here are some scenarios in which React Native might be considered as best choice:
Native Apps
If you already have an iOS/Android application for your business, you do not have to write a completely new code with React Native. You can easily migrate your application with the old code base easily.
Quick Scaling
It is easy to hire React native developers, so app development companies can easily scale their teams.
Create MVP
It is not enough to have just an idea of the project. You must do thorough market research to create the MVP as fast as possible.
Tight Deadlines
If you are a start-up, you must move fast. Fast like Need-for-Speed or even faster. Everything not only depends on MVP, but you must also think about releasing regular updates and making constant changes.
Limited Budget
At a minimum, you must have an MVP, but it may happen that you may run out of budget even before finishing it. With React Native, you can minimize the risk of going out of budget.
Benefits of React Native Development for Start-Ups
When making important decisions, you must consider what are the drawbacks and advantages of the decision you are taking. To help you out, we have created a list of some of the major benefits of React native from business and technical perspectives:
Benefits from a Business Perspective:
Excellent User Experience
The success of every digital product depends on its user experience. In technical terms, React Native app is basically not "the app"; however, it feels and looks the same. This is only because it is fully responsive.
Stability and Evolvement
Since its launch, React Native is still evolving and is backed by a huge community support. As it can easily solve most of the problems, there is no risk in using it.
Developers Availability
React Native is not a new technology for developers, and everyone is already familiar with it. Moreover, the marketplace of React Native is robust. You can easily hire freelancer developers from Upwork, or you can hire developers from an agency.
Shortened Time to Market (TTM)
Time is money, and the sky's the limit. You should not invest months in developing an application without showing it to the users or the future customers. As compared to native app development, with React Native, the developers can boost up the development process by up to 50%. This helps the start-ups to create an MVP twice as fast.
Money Savings
This point directly connects with the previous points. Undoubtedly, creating a single hybrid application rather than two different applications for Android and iOS is much more economical and cost-saving for businesses.
Time Savings
With React Native, developers can easily create applications for multiple platforms with a single codebase. This significantly reduces the development process and time for the developers.
Benefits from a Technical Perspective
Compatibility with Back-End Technologies
React Native can be easily integrated with back-end frameworks such as Ruby on Rails or Django.
Declarative Style
it's about WHAT you want to do, in a contrary to imperative style, which is about HOW you want to do it. For example, let's say that you hired a private chef and want to eat a fancy dinner at home. Instead of telling him HOW to do it (imperative style), you just say WHAT you want (declarative style), i.e., "Make me Hawaii pizza, please."
With React Native, it is not about HOW you want to do it, and instead, it is HOW you want to do it in a contrary style. For better understanding, let us take an example. Suppose you hired a private chef to have a fancy dinner at your home. Instead of telling them HOW to do (imperative style), you will only instruct WHAT you want (declarative style).
Dynamic Development
Since its launch, React Native has evolved in both technical as well as community support sectors. This continuous evolution clearly assures two things;
- One, React Native is more future-proof as compared to other frameworks.
- Second, you can easily hire a development team for React Native app development.
Hot Reloading
This feature enables the developers to see changes in the application even when the application is up and is running. The Hot Reloading feature accelerates the development process as the app can be reloaded automatically.
Open-Source Community
If you are stuck during the development process, you can easily get help from Reddit or GitHub. There is a support community that can easily help you out.
Reusable Components
Why waste time in writing code again and again when the same code can be reused? The same code can be used on both iOS and Android, and any particular component can be updated in one view. With this feature, it is easy to make updates to the application.
Third-Party Extensions Support
In simple terms, React Native is all about speeding up the development process. Developers can also use third-party frameworks and plugins such as NativeBase and Galio to create native-like apps as well as the UI of the components.
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Conclusion
So, now you must have become familiar with React Native is an open-source web app development platform with a very big community of developers. You have also seen the benefits start-ups can leverage by React Native mobile app development. So, if you are planning to develop an application for multiple platforms, do not think twice about any framework other than React Native. As React Native has multiple benefits to offer, you should waste one more second, to begin with hiring a React Native app development company and start the development process.
