React Native, a framework for developing cross-platform apps is in the news for the right reasons. It helps businesses and organizations develop cross-platform apps with great speed and execution, But how will you identify if it is a correct choice of framework for your organization?

On the off-side, there must be chances that you’ve had made a thought to go for the ‘native-way’ instead of evaluating a cross-platform solution because of the wrong kind of buzz that surrounds around them related to the performance, maintainability and what not!

Isn’t it?

Well, with this blog post, I’m going to clear most of your doubts you’ve in your mind regarding React Native development. As you read further, you’ll understand whether you should go for native development or should you bet on a cross-platform solution such as React Native.

Let’s dive in!

React Native - How the framework has evolved since its inception?

Ever since its inception, React Native has been hailed as the next big thing in mobile application development era. However, the framework was only performant and optimal in developing iOS apps. Moreover, many components behaved in a different way in Android and iOS platforms.

There were many missing libraries for integrating important services. Fortunately, as the concept of developing both iOS and Android apps with a single codebase was imitating to many, React Native experienced a great help from the community members. Over the time, it was been adopted by biggest tech unicorns such as Pinterest, Walmart, Instagram etc to name a few.

When to choose React Native over Native Development?

Today as the framework continues to evolve in terms of performance and speed, its demand is exponentially rising from time-to-time. Many companies are now re-writing their existing native apps to React Native.

In addition to speed and performance, React Native offers following advantages to the organizations:

• Time-saving: As mentioned above, React Native makes prototyping native apps with great speed and execution.
• Quicker to make changes: React Native makes the development process more agile and responsive to the changing requirements.
• Cheaper: Native apps require provision of iOS and Android developers which are expensive for hiring than a javascript developer.
• Fewer-developers: In simple app scenarios, a React Native app can be developed by a team of one or-two developers. However, as complexity evolves, it may require inclusion of native developers as well.

Henceforth, if you have a project which requires to be develop within a short period of time and you have disposal of Javascript (React js) developers by your side then you can bet on React Native for application development. 

When to bet on Native development as opposed to React Native?

React Native is no silver bullet when it comes to mobile app development. With advantages come disadvantages and the framework is no exception either. There are some use cases when choosing React Native will be not suitable for your organization such as:

Complex apps

If your app requires a lots of user interaction then React Native is not a good choice for you as native languages such as Android and swift are much better for calculation heavy apps.

Apps that require single OS

There might be some apps use case where React Native might not be a good fit for your organization. Some apps for example gaming apps performs better only when they are build on a suitable platform.

Apps that require maintenance for a longer period of time

Though, a lot has changed over the two years for React Native app development, there are still chances that your app might break if the libraries that are used in it are not maintained for a longer period of time which is actually a major complain that has been surfacing from time to time over various development communities.

Conclusion

React Native has still a long way to go when it comes to native app development. Native app development is and will always continue to stick there for a large number of use cases. However, it does not mean that your organization should not bet upon something which has got a great execution and hype from the community over the two years.