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What is React Native? What is the difference between React Native and React? React Native is a widely used open-source framework for building mobile applications that was developed by Facebook. It leverages the use of JavaScript to enable the development of cross-platform mobile applications that exhibit true native functionalities. This implies that with a single codebase, you can create mobile applications that are natively rendered for both iOS and Android platforms at the same time. React.js, or simply React, is a JavaScript library for building web user interfaces. But as a part of the React Native framework, React.js is used to create mobile user interfaces. While React is basically a library for the web apps' front-ends, React Native extends React, aimed at producing front-ends for iOS and Android mobile apps. ‘React Native brings what developers are used to from React on the web — declarative self-contained UI components and fast development cycles — to the mobile platform while retaining the speed, fidelity, and feel of native applications.’ Philipp von Weitershausen, Ex-Software Engineer at Facebook For simple functionality apps, React Native and its community libraries are sufficient. However, unsupported features require native module writing. In such instances, you may find it beneficial to hire dedicated mobile app developers from our team. You can also rely on open-source projects to provide native bridges for you if you can find a viable solution. Can React Native work with an existing app coded in Java/Kotlin for Android and Objective-C/Swift for iOS? Suppose you have an Android app built on Java/Kotlin. You want to create a version that works for iOS too, but you are low on funds and/or time. Streamline the process by writing one version for both platforms with React Native. The very first challenge is almost a complete project rewrite to JavaScript. React Native is the best solution for future multi-platform mobile app development. When you are lacking native developers, you can choose React Native and spend fewer resources than on separate iOS and Android apps. Native modules are a way of bridging native programming and React Native code. These modules need to be written in Java/Kotlin or Swift/Objective-C, depending on the mobile platform. They can’t be reused across two platforms, but they aim at improving performance in computationally heavy operations like image editing or video playback. React Native may not be suitable for the next mobile Photoshop, however, it is adequate for tasks that do not require a high level of resources. How React Native Works React Native relies on three threads: The UI Thread can access the application's user interface. The Shadow Thread uses React for layout calculations. The JavaScript Thread is an execution thread of React code. To begin with, the JavaScript thread creates a layout by utilizing the provided code. After that, the shadow thread handles the layout computation and builds its tree with the help of the Yoga layout engine. Communication between the two threads occurs via a React Native bridge, which serializes the data in JSON format and transfers it to the main UI thread upon receiving the rendered markup from Yoga. After deserialization, the main thread renders the UI and completes the mapping from the browser to React Native. Advantages of React Native #1 Boasts of Lower Development Cost and Faster Delivery React Native saves time on developing the apps and makes maintenance leaner because your developers don’t do the same job twice. ‘Native implementation is great in theory, but practically, we need to think about productivity/code sharing/time-to-market, which is where a cross-platform framework like React Native comes in.’ Keertimaan Tenneti, Senior Engineering Manager at Walmart Global eCommerce For businesses that build and maintain their own apps, this approach effectively cuts the development cost. Our offshore software development company has a React Native development expertise, and we can conclude that it can cause a cost reduction of at least 30% compared to native technologies. Savings vary the number and complexity of platform-specific features. Updating and adding features becomes much faster because of mostly the same code base for all software versions. Further speeding up development is the existence of an open-source library of pre-built components. No need to write code for extra features since someone has likely shared that functionality. As a result, experienced developers can get a basic React Native app up and running in just a matter of hours using pre-built components. If you need a React Native development team, let us know. #2 Feels like native and is as fast as native React Native utilizes the React JavaScript library to design app interfaces that are quick and reactive. It boasts excellent rendering capabilities and follows a component-based method, which simplifies the creation of both uncomplicated and intricate UI designs. React Native performs as well as native apps do. John Calderaio, a software developer, carried out research to compare the performance of the same app built in Swift and React Native. He was curious about the applications of basic functionalities and explored CPU, GPU, and memory usage differences. The result? The mobile apps in Swift and React Native were almost identical in their physical appearance and speed. CPU usage was over 10% lower with React Native app. However, it had the edge over Swift in GPU employment and in memory consumption. React native was superior to Swift in two of the three categories. The user won't see any difference between React Native and other apps. With JavaScript's interaction with the native environment, React Native offers a UI that appears and operates in a manner that is native to its platform. Additionally, as constructing an app from scratch can be costly, React Native provides an array of third-party plugin options, including JavaScript-based and native modules. These third-party plugins negate the necessity for particular web view functions and aid in improving the app’s functionality and performance. Extensive libraries also favor faster development. React Native already provides pre-developed UI components and multiple libraries, meaning developers just have to implement the written codes. Libraries such as Enzyme, Jest, Mocha, and Chai help in writing code free of bugs. #3 Written in the most popular programming language in the world React Native coded using JavaScript, which remains the world's top language for 5 years, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017 (36,625 responses primarily from the USA). #4 Considered the most popular cross-platform framework for mobile development React Native originated as a response to the demands of the developer community, resulting in over 50,000 active contributors shaping it. Facebook engineers continuously develop and update the platform, and the availability of such enthusiasts makes it easier to get expert support. As a result, the developer experience is exceptional. React developers get significantly faster feedback during development than compared to traditional approaches because they don't need to restart their packager to see every little change. With React Native, they can develop a mobile app simultaneously for Android and iOS. Source: blog.behrends.io/wege-mit-react-native-zu-arbeiten-5c9f5bbcd85f React is used much more than similar technologies like Cordova, Ionic and Xamarin, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017 (36,625 responses primarily from the USA). The immense popularity of React and React Native means that there are substantial communities behind them and several sources to get support and speed up development. #5 Is highly flexible and moveable The high productivity and speed of the React Native-based software development doesn’t slow down, even in case of any changes within your engineers' team. React Native's modular and intuitive interface enables developers to start from where someone else left off and keep working, resulting in increased team flexibility and facilitating updates and upgrades of the mobile app. By using this approach, testers can have the ability to generate test scenarios with more ease. These benefits ultimately save time and money. Programmers don't need to start from scratch if the framework changes. Instead, they can transfer the app from React Native to either Android Studio or Xcode, and then continue the process. This makes up a significant advantage of utilizing React Native for mobile app development and bolsters its versatility. Besides, because of a feature known as "live reloading" or "hot reloading", React Native allows engineers to visualize code modifications in a separate live preview window concurrently. This feature furnishes an excellent benefit to developers because of its real-time feedback. #6 Requires a smaller team compared to native development While a React Native development team still requires iOS/Android developers, most of the effort is focused on Javascript. In contrast, for native app development, a company typically needs two teams, each specializing in either iOS or Android. This division can cause communication gaps and hinder the engineering process, as the two teams may have different procedures and speeds, leading to inconsistencies in the app's appearance, functionality, and features. By choosing React Native, a JavaScript developer with experience coding for both platforms can handle the development of the app. However, if the app requires high native features, it becomes crucial to have a programmer with native skills. Nevertheless, the team size is typically smaller and more easily manageable in most cases. #7 Better runtime due to Hermes engine Facebook has developed Hermes, an open-source JavaScript engine that can enhance the performance of React Native (RN) apps by enabling them to run faster. This feature offers a quicker start-up time, reduces memory usage, and lowers the download size for RN projects. Although this quality was initially available for Android only, it is now on hand for iOS as well in the latest React version, 0.64. Implementing Hermes on iOS apps will result in a 40% quicker start-up time, and using the same engine for both platforms makes cross-platform app development easier. #8 Used by the largest companies globally Facebook itself developed React Native back in 2015. Three years later, the tool has already gained recognition from some of the world’s leading companies, like Instagram, Tesla, Skype, Pinterest, and many more. Facebook shows a great commitment to the project and invests considerable time and resources in enhancing the framework and releasing updates regularly. Facebook’s support makes React Native a stable and future-proof choice. Disadvantages of React Native #1 Difficult to debug Debugging mobile apps developed with React Native can be challenging. The development of these apps requires different programming languages, including Java, C/C++, and JavaScript. To debug successfully, programmers must have a sound comprehension of the language of the platform. Constant switching between JavaScript and native environments is an issue with React Native apps. And integrating Flipper can help with the debugging process. #2 Need for the use of native languages Accessing platform-specific features requires so called "native bridges" for React Native. These bridges are written in - you guessed it - native languages. Yang Mou, a software developer at Oscar Health, mentions this issue in this presentation. #3 Defects of React Native libraries Open-source libraries for RN aren't always well-tested. Having a great number of solutions to typical problems is definitely an advantage. These solutions can also bring their own unexpected difficulties. Mou speaks about them in his speech. #4 Not apt for complex mobile apps If your mobile app needs complex gestures, transitions, and animations, using React Native may not be suitable. It has a system for managing gestures in the app. Difficulties may arise with complex gestures due to API differences. #5 Too frequent updates impair the framework React Native framework experiences rapid updates and advancements. However, the constant updates often create challenges for developers. They make significant changes with every new release, granting little time to adjust prior to the next update. This fast pace can be difficult for some developers to keep up with. #6 Constructing an effective cross-platform team is challenging React Native is a cross-platform app development technology that requires developers to have expertise in both web and native technologies. This includes knowledge of JavaScript, project configuration, CI, and UX guidelines. Finding developers with an extensive comprehension of both is difficult, as a result, selecting a competent app development company is essential. Top eLearning Apps Built with React Native React Native is a suitable choice for most applications, except for fast-paced, graphically intensive games that may benefit from using a native code for Android or IOS. Look how EdTech mobile startups built their apps on React Native reducing costs and time. Canvas teacher Canvas LMS by Instructure edtech company provides infrastructure and resources for institutions of K-12 and higher learning. The Network offers 300+ courses from 150 institutional partners, including USC, UNLV, Berkeley, etc. The company guarantees automatic updates of security patches and stores info on Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers. They ensure material privacy and security by using HTTPS for all communications and encrypting traffic with 128-bit TLS/SSL. ‘Canvas is a trusted name in learning management because, among other reasons, we take privacy seriously as a technical, ethical and practical requirement of educational data.’ Mitch Benson, senior vice president of product at Instructure The Teacher app allows educators to promote their courses on the fly, both inside and outside the classroom. Currently, it is compatible with iOS and Android devices, but the React Native version of the app is only available on iOS. Canvas Teacher is free to download and provides the following feature set: Update course content and publish an assignment. Communicate with students, sending announcements and messages, taking part in course discussions. Browse submissions and grade student assignments. The team, headed by Layne Moseley, Lead iOS Engineer at Instructure, refused Apple tools and used React Native because of its faster development cycle. ‘I will note Artsy moving to RN was one of the main reasons I considered it. I’d followed them for years. Just in general because they were such a big name in the community, and had some heavy hitters. So yeah, naturally I followed them because they document what they are doing so well. [...] When they made the switch to RN I was like “Oh, now I can take this seriously.’ Layne Moseley Instructure started a new project and developed an iOS app from scratch with React Native. They hired two React developers to help build the basic architecture of the new program. Since then, they have used some of their React components in other apps. ‘The transition was great for most of us. There was a feeling though that things are so loose in the JavaScript world. With Apple, you do it their way. With RN, you have the entire JavaScript community and ecosystem at your disposal. And that can be a little overwhelming for some people; developer experience in general is better for us.’ Layne Moseley Before choosing React Native, Instructure engineering tried PhoneGap. However, the performance showed insufficient results because of the HTML rendering, unlike React Native that offers native experience. The team used the RN documentation to learn React Native and consulted with dedicated React devs. The framework allowed developers to boost their productivity by applying features like Hot Reloading. During the development process, they also used VSCode as an editor, Redux as the major library, Flow ESLint, and Danger npm module. The navigation for React Native needs improvement, so Instructure built their own. ‘I think all native devs, regardless of experience, should at least give it a try. I believe that the React paradigm for building UIs is vastly superior to anything else out there. It’s simple to understand and it's powerful.’ Layne Moseley Learn how we created an e-learning app for a Boston educational startup. Want a better solution? Get a free quote! Math warriors Math Warriors app is a multiplayer real-time 1vs1 game designed to support all ages and all levels. The software allows answering math questions of different difficulty and enhances mental and cognitive skills. They made the math game with React Native and available on Android only. Before working with React Native, the Math Warriors team developed many hybrid web apps with Cordova and AngularJS. They were deciding between a web or React Native solution for the math app. The developers finally created an initial prototype in React Native, showcasing impressive performance and requiring minimal effort. ‘The experience revealed that React Native is a game changer and we decided to go with it. It was a decision that our team is still very happy with!’ Tasos Maroudas, creator of Math Warriors Maroudas mentioned they encountered some performance issues when developing but usually they could solve the problem. Compared to what they tried before, productivity has increased. React Native allowed writing less code compared to AngularJS and provided direct access to native behavior. ‘As soon as you start getting involved in a real project, you will unavoidably find yourself in some problematic situations while coding. For me, it started while trying to convert visual designs to application views.’ Maroudas Initially, Maroudas had an introductory session with a friend specialized in React development. Then he explored RN official documentation that turned out to be “pretty decent” and constantly improved it. Its support and availability of packages developed and contributed by other programmers impressed the community. ZeeMee ZeeMee is a social media platform enabling students to create personal multimedia profiles to be viewed by college admissions. Users on ZeeMee can record short videos to fully express themselves in their apps. They can connect with each other through ZeeMee’s college communities and get acquainted before arriving on campus.   ZeeMee provides a professional social media experience, where applicants can connect with colleges via software used in over 150 countries. The platform is completely free for students. However, colleges pay ZeeMee for creating specific communities and communication tools that help share unique stories via video. The company used React Native to create an iOS app from scratch. For the last couple of months, the engineering team has been deploying the framework in a production environment in order to add features to the app. The developers said it was tough, but they had a great experience. They could see changes by simply refreshing the app without having to recompile and return. ZeeMee was impressed with the results, so they integrated React Native to the existing Android app. ‘Facebook claims that React Native is “learn once, write anywhere” instead of “write once, run anywhere”. But, in practice, our iOS React Native code mostly “just worked” on Android.’ Pete Huitsing, the former Vice President of Engineering at ZeeMee Thus, ZeeMee engineering had to find and fix the components and styles that were inconsistent between iOS and Android. ‘Using React Native to create a great, consistent UX across Android and iOS might feel painful initially, but at the end of the day its still drastically less work and more maintainable than having two separate apps in Objective C/Swift/Java. As time goes on, you’ll start getting the feel for how to do things in React Native, which will in turn allow your app work consistently on the first try for both Android and iOS’ Alek Hurst, Ex Full Stack Engineer at ZeeMee Socky Socky is a virtual intelligent helper that accompanies the child with Autism/ASD and stimulates social communication. The app has different interfaces for the kids and adults, allowing sending one-tap messages in vocal and visual multiple-choice manner. ‘Our story started when Ofir Harel (one of my best friends today) got the A verdict — his son Adam was diagnosed with Autism when he was only 2 years old. For the first time in my life, I felt that ‘making the world a better place’ is not a cliché [...] We decided that, from now on, our mission would be to — Help children with Autism to create meaningful conversations, become independent and take an active part in the society.’ Alex Pavtoulov, CEO of Socky Widespread deviations of social interactions and communications characterize autism. For a kid that doesn’t speak, read or write, the only way to communicate is to draw on objects or pictures. Taking it into account, the team developed an autism communication app using the most advanced technologies, UX practices, and latest research. The Socky team picked React Native because the framework allows for reusing most of the code both for Android and iOS. However, this was one of the toughest decisions: they had an enormous number of graphics, animations, and text-to-speech to implement. Equally important, an app had to be highly productive to avoid possible glitches. Otherwise, kids with autism would lose their attention in a blink of an eye. ‘One of the events that strongly tilted us towards using RN was the growing amount of developers that were actually onboard with RN and advocate for it.’ One of the companies which facilitated the choise of React Native, was Wix.com. Inspired by their example, Socky engineering built their app with RN from scratch. They experimented with the built-in animation libraries, including Airbnb’s react-native-lottie. The toolkit allowed developers to achieve better performance, lower asset weight, and scalable UI. Moreover, they could save 25% of the R&D costs. ‘Bottom line — React Native rocks. As surprising as it may sound, we didn’t write any native custom views for it. Socky is purely JavaScript and we’re proud of it! We managed to pull it off with 2 developers (Michael Harari as mobile ninja and David Borohov the backend dragon) without any previous background in JS or Ruby. For us, React Native is an enabler and we love it.’ Learnium Learnium is a social education platform for universities, colleges and secondary schools. The platform started as a web product, enabling students and teachers to communicate with each other. About a year after launching, Learnium user base had comprised over 2 billion mobile web users worldwide. ‘Picture this. Your small development team has built a great web app. Traction is good and your users are now asking for mobile apps. The big question is, “How do you deliver a great user experience on the web, iOS and Android with a small dev team?”. This was our dilemma at Learnium [...]’ Dale Bradley, former CTO at Learnium, said The engineering team found that native mobile apps offer the best user experience possible and gave it a try. They also relied on data that smartphone users spend over 85 percent of their time running native apps. Moreover, 25 percent of mobile web users in the USA are mobile-only. The development process had several phases. First, they outsourced the project, since the company has had a small engineering team inexperienced in mobile development. Thus, Learnium saves time and money by outsourcing the project instead of hiring and training in-house staff. This approach enabled them to keep their mind off creating a mobile app from scratch and focus on improving the web solution. Looking for a reliable offshore team to hire? Contact us! Second, the team wanted to make Learnium responsive to different screen sizes and devices. They reached the decision to use cross-platform development tools, however, didn’t know what framework to choose. Bradley thought PhoneGap/Cordova would be the best way to create a web app with an authentic user experience. Even though this solution can speed up software release, it does not provide relevant capacity. Another option was to use a cross-platform framework that builds native apps. Learnium engineering examined Xamarin, Titanium, and FireMonkey but they are missing essential native API access. ‘Finally, we looked at React Native. A young technology from Facebook that enables developers to build world-class mobile applications.’ Dale Bradley Learnium used React Native in 2015. The choice was based on previous experience coding on JavaScript and rapid app development of both iOS and Android versions. Since then, they have built two pieces of software that contain the core functionality of the Learnium web app. Thus, mobile users can: Start discussions and communicate with like-minded users. Store information in personal Boards, share material with specific communities and get feedback. Collaborate in teams within course communities, starting real-time chats and sharing resources. ‘We believe that choosing React Native was the right choice when taking into account our resources. The developer experience has been generally issue-free and has given us the opportunity to work with an exciting new technology,” Bradley said. “If you find yourself in similar circumstances to Learnium, we recommend React Native.’ Top Healthcare Mobile Apps using React Native React Native continues to rise triumphantly through the ranks of mobile development technologies. Look at some examples of successful healthcare companies utilizing its benefits. Healthcare industry might be a little slow to take advantage of the new technologies. But some entrepreneurs see the opportunities that the innovations offer and embrace them. ALAN Alan is a French startup, aiming to disrupt the health insurance business. The market they wanted to work on was pretty packed - they were the first new French insurer in over 20 years. But, the founders could persuade the investors and have received about $13m in funding. They wanted to speed up the insurance claims process dramatically. It would allow them to stand out and attract more customers. And according to Alan's website, they usually reply within a minute from the moment they’ve got the request. Their React Native mobile app contributed to their success. It allows their customers to communicate with the insurance agents, send the photos of the documents and track their claims. According to developer Robert Zyskowski, React Native enabled quick app release, easy access to new features and was simple to learn. ‘While investing in building classic native apps has proven to be highly flexible and scalable, they are costly to develop and have a steep learning curve for engineers who don’t have mobile experience.’ Robert Zyskowski Moreover, React Native had turned out to have some additional benefits. Code sharing was one of the key advantages, allowing the development team to reuse the same snippets in both Android and iOS mobile apps, as well as their web application. ‘Within a month or so, we had two beautiful apps available in the App Store and on Google play.’ Robert Zyskowski At the moment, Alan's team continues to develop their mobile application and is eager to contribute to the community. IODINE Iodine has made a name for themselves as a provider of plentiful and relevant information about various medicines. They use FDA (Food and Drug Administration) data to help people make informed drug decisions, as well as aggregating user reviews. It also provides information about side effects. They’ve received $2.5M as their seed funding and have been developing their initial offering ever since. In 2015, Iodine released Start – a mobile app for people taking antidepressants to track their condition and effectiveness of medicines. That’s when the Iodine development team has first tried React Native. ‘In retrospect, choosing to use React Native back in the spring of 2015 was risky. It had only been available for about a month at the time. We were placing a bet on a nascent, unproven, and frankly, ambitious technology.’ Iodine stated in the dedicated blog post However, it was a calculated gamble. React Native has Facebook behind it, which gave the Iodine team reason to believe that this technology is going to be improved further. Moreover, the team was already familiar with React.js, having developed their website frontend with it. The gamble has paid off. First, React Native turned out to produce high levels of quality and performance. It allows using the native functions of each device – hence the “native” in the name. ‘And when the framework doesn’t provide a component you need, it bends to your will, allowing you to build native components at just the right level of granularity.’ The team built the app without sacrificing quality, vital for building trust with the user. Second, the developers cited the speed of React Native, meaning both app performance and time to deliver a complete project. The framework allows seeing the results of your code changes in seconds. So making minute adjustments and tweaking important logic becomes much faster. ‘Feedback that a native developer might get in minutes, a React Native developer realizes in seconds.’ Sending JavaScript bundles from the local server allows for quick RN code testing. This has another unexpected benefit for iOS devices. Native code changes need App Store approval, but if your logic is in JavaScript. Updates can be released quickly without delay. Iodine developers mentioned this feature allows them to respond to user feedback in record time, which is especially important for a startup. Another advantage of React Native, which Iodine made use of, is its vibrant community. ‘If you encounter a bug in the framework, more likely than not somebody has already opened an issue in the repo or posed a question on Stack Overflow. If you can’t find built-in support for a certain native functionality like push notifications or a tab view, somebody has probably already built it.’ Also, if there are no existing modules for your problem, you can write one yourself and contribute to the open source community. React Native is not perfect, and Iodine mentioned several pitfalls to watch out for. Developers need to take special precautions to avoid runtime errors, and the documentation for this framework is not comprehensive. It could make programmers research extra the inner workings of RN. In the end, the development team could release Start for iOS in three months. And later (in about a year’s time) they made an Android version in another three months. GYROSCOPE Gyroscope specializes in health analytics. Their online personal dashboard helps users learn more about their daily activities and achieve their health-related goals – be they 6-pack abs, weight loss or peace of mind. Gyroscope can integrate with popular fitness trackers like FitBit. It also uses AI to help teach people healthier behavior. The company has received $1.3M in investment and their iPhone and Android apps rank 4,5 and 3,5 stars in their respective marketplaces. The apps were built using React Native. It was no surprise – Eric Florenzano, one of the original co-founders, was a big fan of React.js. So he decided to try RN for their mobile app. Anand Sharma, the other co-founder, also found it easy to use. ‘Within a few hours, I was able to edit elements on the page and style them with a Flexbox/CSS-like syntax. It was magical.’ Anand Sharma Apparently, the experience was successful, as in April 2017 Gyroscope hired a custom software development company to create an Android version of their app also using React Native. And now it has over 100.000 downloads on Play Market. Send us a message to get your own dedicated team! OSCAR Oscar is a New York-based health insurance startup. It leverages modern technologies to improve customer experience. Their mobile app offers easy communication with the concierge team and doctors available 24/7. There is even a motivation to stay fit – step tracker which rewards achieving goals with Amazon gift cards. Since their founding three years ago, they’ve received a hefty $727.5M investment and are expected to generate $1B in revenue in 2018. Oscar mobile app According to Yang Mou, one of the Oscar programmers, their engineering team currently has about 80 people, which is not that big, taking the company size into account. But thanks to their streamlined approach to the development process, it is easy for them to be full-stack developers. One team can make the same features both on mobile and on web apps, saving money for the company. Oscar technology stack revolves around React and React Native for frontend and Python (Flask framework) for the backend. It means the developers only need to learn these few technologies to stay effective. According to Mou, React Native allows for over 80% of code reuse, especially in typical tasks like pulling information from API. Not having to do the same job twice speeds up the development. When they announced React Native, Facebook representatives stated the framework’s principle of “Learn once – write anywhere”. Oscar developers have already known React, which they used for their web app frontend. Although they couldn’t always just copy and paste their code, learning React Native was quick and easy for them. It was another major benefit to the Oscar team. ‘In our experience, it takes more time for native engineer to learn React Native, than it is for web engineer.’ Yang Mou Like their Iodine counterparts, Oscar devs have fully used of the active community that has grown around React Native and improved their speed. ‘They [the community – A.K.] are very good at opensourcing. Anything you want to do, someone tried to opensource that already.’ Yang Mou Another benefit of React Native, which provides “an unbelievable developer experience”, was the fast feedback that the programmers were able to receive. Thanks to the Hot Reloading feature, the Oscar team was able to see the results of their code changes in seconds rather than in minutes it usually takes for native developers. Finally, Mou said that React Native and the surrounding libraries make testing the software much easier than on native technologies. Despite the positive impression that this framework has made on them, Oscar developers mention some drawbacks of React Native. The other teams should consider them when choosing the right technology stack. The framework develops rapidly, which means the applications built with it will always be behind the latest version and accumulate technical debt. The APIs used in the app are always under threat of breaking. And every once in a while, the project would need extra work to make sure everything stays operational despite the updates. ‘And if you fall behind, someone’s got to take a week to just get you caught up,.’ Yang Mou A vibrant and productive community has its drawbacks as well. There are many libraries teams can use, but those libraries aren’t that well-tested, potentially giving the developers unpleasant surprises. As much as it allows to decrease the need for native code, React Native doesn’t erase it. Some knowledge of the native Android development is still required for the app to function properly. ‘‘You cannot do it with just JavaScript engineers and then spend a lot of time figuring out why your activity disappeared.’ Yang Mou The performance of React Native applications is also falling behind when compared to native technologies. It was acceptable for the Oscar team, but developers working on more resource-intensive applications might see it differently. Finally, this framework still “feels like an iOS-first project”, because the Android side of it is lagging to get updates and bug fixes. Although, according to Mou, the situation has been improving lately. Conclusion With each passing day, more healthcare companies are turning towards promising modern technologies like React Native. Although it is not a one size fits all solution, it could be very beneficial when used properly. Looking for React Native developers? Send us a message and get a free quote on your project! Migrating To React Native: Top Case Studies From Well-Known Companies There are many examples of how world-known companies migrated to React Native. Artsy engineering, for example, chose the approach to update their 3 years old iOS app that was created in Objective-C / Swift. The framework was useful for the company, intending to support other platforms in the future without creating more teams. Bloomberg rebuilt the company’s consumer app for iOS and Android with React Native. The framework was considered as a first-rate tool to build native apps simultaneously for both iOS and Android platforms in comparison with other free software projects available in the modern market. By using React Native, developers modified the interactive animation by adding a parallax of images in the news feed, introduced a feature to swipe a headline to share or bookmark an article and allowed access to live TV or event feeds for on-demand viewing. ‘React Native is the best out there. Expect it to appear in other Bloomberg mobile apps in the future.’ Gabriel Lew, Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg Airbnb engineering introduced React Native into an iOS and Android code base in 2016. They developed, for example, Lottie - an open-source library that facilitates adding animation to native apps. The tool allows engineers to build richer animation without rewriting the code. Delivery.com used React Native when integrating into the existing iOS app and built new views using JavaScript. The management was so satisfied with React Native outputs that they approved the development of a full-on Android version with the framework. Case studies are a great way to know the experience of how other successful companies implemented React Native in their software development processes. Do you need React Native developers? We are here to help you. Get a Free Quote. React Native vs Other Frameworks Flutter vs React Native Flutter is a popular alternative to React Native for cross-platform app development. It uses the Skia graphics library to create views following platform-specific design, and renders them using its C++ engine. Unlike RN, Flutter uses the Dart language that compiles directly to native libraries, which provides faster start-up time and better performance. However, Flutter has its downsides. It doesn't provide an easy switch from web to mobile development, has a smaller community, and fewer third-party libraries to choose from compared to React Native. Xamarin vs React Native Xamarin is a toolset supported by Microsoft that enables developers to create cross-platform apps using C# and the .NET framework. Like React Native, it offers near-native performance and allows sharing up to 90 percent of the codebase between iOS and Android. Visual Studio tightly integrates with Xamarin, unlike React Native which offers the flexibility of choosing code editors. Xamarin is particularly well-suited for developers who are already working within the Microsoft environment and are comfortable using C#. Ionic vs React Native Ionic takes a unique approach to mobile development, as it is a hybrid platform that uses web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript UI frameworks to create mobile apps. Developers can use Angular, React, or Vue.js to build apps, and Ionic uses WebViews to render the code on native platforms. One advantages of Ionic is that developers do not need expertise in native languages, making it a cost-effective way to create two apps simultaneously. However, compared to RN, Ionic may not perform as well and may not have as sophisticated UI/UX design. React Native vs Native development Native app development is still the preferred choice over cross-platform technologies like React Native owing to its superior performance and ability to utilize platform-specific features of Android and iOS. It's advisable to choose native development because: When developing an Android or iOS-only app. When creating an app with resource-intensive features like augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR) and heavy animations. When requiring access to all the native capabilities related to hardware, sensors, platform-specific functionality, and SDKs. When wanting to support new mobile features immediately after they are released. For simpler projects, the difference in speed between React Native (RN) and native apps is often negligible for users. As a result, opting for RN can result in tremendous savings in time and cost, making it the preferred choice for: Teams with a strong background in JavaScript and React Projects with limited resources MVPs, demos, proof-of-concepts, or simple apps that don't require extensive processing However, the eventual choice between RN and native development is often influenced by many other factors. It's advisable to consult tech experts before investing in a particular technology, even if it's highly praised like RN. Migrating Cross-platform apps to React Native at Walmart Walmart is made of many brands, such as Walmart Grocery, Sam’s Club, ASDA, Walmart.com, etc. — each with its own IT needs, requirements, and dev teams. Things get even more complex on the mobile side. Each brand has two teams of mobile developers, building apps for each OS, that are similar in functionality, but different in execution. This was not by choice, but necessity as it is very difficult to find highly skilled developers who are adept at writing native apps in both iOS/Android. For associate tools, they mostly wrap web apps using ionic or similar solutions. They felt that React Native could really change the paradigm. ‘Solutions in the open source world similar to what we accomplished are ‘PhoneGap’ or ‘Cordova.’ Going down this route led to a noticeable difference in performance compared to other parts of our native app. This was validated when we re-wrote those parts in React Native or mobile app technologies and saw metrics which showcased more engagement from our customers.’ Alexander Grigoryan, the senior director for software engineering, application platform and online grocery for Walmart Global eCommerce The team also looked at Microsoft’s Xamarin tools, but decided that it wouldn’t give it benefits like reusable UI components , shared JavaScript modules and over-the-air updates as React Native. ‘Our front-end for web is also React, so it all just made sense for us to invest in React Native as the solution.’ Alexander Grigoryan, the senior director for software engineering, application platform and online grocery for Walmart Global eCommerce So, they already have mobile apps in production that have lots of features powered by tons of code. Typically, developers who want to move their apps to React Native would have to either rewrite their app from the ground, build a quick and dirty integration that’ll cost them later, or build a new platform and tooling for integrating React Native into their apps. Rewriting everything would be a massive investment of time, hiring, and training (translation: money). And a complete rewrite is prone to failure compared to an incremental migration approach. Walmart went with the last option. They created the Electrode Native Platform. The basic idea here is that Electrode Native allows large companies like Walmart to take their existing apps and slowly migrate parts of their code to React Native. Alex Grigoryan, Sr Director of Software Engineering at WalmartLabs, says, "Electrode Native offers a streamlined integration of React Native into existing mobile applications. With Electrode Native, there will no longer be a need for an engineer who specializes in both mobile and React Native technology in order to put the two technologies together. For your existing mobile application, there is no heavy infrastructure, code, or development lifecycle changes. When considering their approach to using React Native, WalmartLabs developers decided that building features into production applications incrementally would be the solution with the highest chances of success. As of February 2017, they migrated one of the webviews to RN. As of August 2017, they were migrating a few more webviews and building new features in RN. Walmart developers reported no scaling issues. Native iOS and Native Android to React Native at Bloomberg Bloomberg is a financial software, data, and media company headquartered in New York City with 9.4 billion USD revenue (2014). Bloomberg’s mobile app for iOS and Android, launched in January 2016, offers users personalized content, videos and live feeds. To develop the app, an engineering team at Bloomberg’s New York City headquarters developed the app using React Native. With React, Bloomberg engineers were able “to more easily and quickly rebuild the company’s consumer app for both mobile platforms”. ‘While other free software projects like Titanium and PhoneGap promise to offer developers a native look and feel, Bloomberg found that React Native was the best tool available in the market today to create native apps simultaneously for both iOS and Android platforms.’ Before React Native, Bloomberg teams would have developed the iOS and Android versions in parallel without being able to share most of the code they wrote, leading to delays and repetition. By comparison, the React Native platform’s unified development capabilities made for a seamless process that allowed each developer to focus on one feature at a time. ‘That helped speed things along. It took the team of developers in New York just five months to develop the app—roughly half the time it would have taken had they not used React Native.’ Another benefit of React Native is that it automates code refreshes, accelerating the release of new product features. Instead of recompiling, your app reloads instantly. Once users open the app, they get the latest update. That same feature lets coders experiment, iterate and quickly push out upgrades with A/B testing. For example, before the app’s launch, the team tested user preferences by placing images on the left and right sides within the app, collecting data and metrics to identify what internal beta users favored. This was just one of the many experiments the team conducted to validate this tech and workflow. Source: itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloomberg/id281941097 React Native made it easy for Bloomberg engineers to “sprinkle in interactive animation,” such as a parallax of images in the news feed or the ability to swipe a headline to share or bookmark an article. It also enabled the team to ensure the continual updating of the app with market-moving news, data, and analysis, all of which is accessible via personalized widgets. There is no performance impact on media features like animation because the JavaScript is running on a separate thread. ‘React Native is the best out there. Expect it to appear in other Bloomberg mobile apps in the future.’ Gabriel Lew, a senior software engineer at Bloomberg Native iOS (Swift) to React Native at Artsy Artsy is a New-York based startup with a total funding amount of $100.9M. It is a marketplace for buying and selling visual art online. Artsy’s database contains over 270,000 pieces for sale from the top galleries and auction houses. Artsy’s iOS app was first developed in Swift, but soon “a small team of iOS developers with decades of native experience switched to React Native”. In the series of blog posts Artsy Engineering team covers the reasons they made that choice, including “support other future platforms such as Android without creating more teams”, enabling “different business teams to work on the app without disrupting each other”, developing “our architecture in order to increase programmer efficiency”. As they concluded, “new apps going forward we will default to React Native apps”. Source: github.com/artsy/eigen Other Case Studies Wix.com is a cloud-based web development platform enabling users to create HTML5 web and mobile sites through the use of online drag-and-drop tools. The video-study “Building a React Native App for 80 Million Users” explains why the team chose React Native for their official app, what challenges they resolved, what methodologies they applied and what gaps they are still trying to solve. Presented by Tal Kol (Head of Mobile Engineering at Wix.com). Popularity: 49,330 views; 547 likes. Date: October 1, 2016. Instagram is a social networking app developed for sharing media content (photos and videos). The study “React Native at Instagram” describes how React Native was integrated into an existing Instagram native app: the major challenges and results. React Native allowed product teams to ship features faster to both their iOS and Android apps. Written by Martin Bigio, Don Yu, Brian Rosenfeld and Grace Ku (Software Engineers on the Core Client team at Instagram New York). Popularity: 3.9 K likes. Date: February 6, 2016. UberEATS is an online platform for ordering food from restaurants. The study “Powering UberEATS with React Native and Uber Engineering” describes how Uber’s engineering team rebuilt their app’s Restaurant Dashboard with React Native. Written by Christopher Lewis (SR Software Engineer at Uber). Popularity: 855 shares. Date: March 28, 2017. SoundCloud is an online music and podcast streaming platform that enables its customers to upload, record, promote, and share their originally created sounds. The study “React Native at SoundCloud” outlines how the SoundCloud engineering team constructed SoundCloud Pulse (an app for creators) with React Native, detailing their process, the lessons they learned, the features they opted for, and their plans for future React Native implementation. Written by Jan Monschke (Frontend Engineer at SoundCloud) and Peter Minarik (Engineer at SoundCloud). Date: August 3, 2016. Skype is a telecommunication app software product that focuses on providing video chat, voice calls and instant message communication between computers and mobile devices via the Internet. The study “Introducing the next generation of Skype” informs how the programming team rebuilt the Skype app and what new features were introduced. Popularity: 2K shares. Date: June 1, 2017. Facebook Ads let users who advertise on Facebook manage their accounts and create new ads on the go. The study “React Native for Android: How we built the first cross-platform React Native app” describes the way Facebook software engineers developed the Ads Manager app. The team shares how they built this Facebook’s first fully React Native app and the lessons they learned. Written by Daniel Witte (?) and Philipp von Weitershausen (Ex-Software Engineer at Facebook and Firefox, Software Engineer at Silk Labs). Popularity: 1,3 K likes. Date: September 14, 2015. Mapbox is a location data platform for mobile and web apps. The company provides building blocks to add location features like maps, search, and navigation into any experience its customers create. The study “Our React Native GL library is in alpha” describes the way the Mapbox mobile team rewrote their current experimental React Native library and released an alpha. Written by Nicholas Italiano (Software Engineer at Mapbox). Popularity: 352 likes. Date: September 28, 2017. Airbnb hosts an online marketplace and hospitality service allowing its customers to rent short-term lodging including vacation and apartment rentals, homestays, hotel rooms, and hostel beds. In the talk “Hybrid React Native Apps” the speaker focuses on how the engineering team introduced React Native into an iOS and Android code base and what fundamental challenges they faced. Presented by Leland Richardson (Software Engineer at Airbnb). Popularity: 396 likes, 71,812 views. Date: September 13, 2016. Glitch app allows users to buy Adidas Glitch customizable boots that can be combined with differently colored uppers and inner-shoes for more personal football cleat experience. The study “How we have been breaking patterns with the adidas GLITCH” describes how the POSSIBLE development team created the app from scratch by using React Native framework. Written by Istvan Makary (UI Developer at POSSIBLE). Popularity: 301 likes. Date: December 12, 2017. Clubhouse is a software development company aimed at building intuitive project management tools. The study “Going Mobile with React Native” describes what best practices the company’s development team used when building and alpha testing the Clubhouse iOS app. Written by Camille Emefa Acey (VP at Clubhouse Software). Popularity: 67 likes OR 195 shares. Date: July 6, 2017. Made by Many is a digital product design company specialized in product innovation and digital transformation. The study “A Year of React Native: Styling Part 2” describes how React styling concepts provided flexible ways of creating apps for iOS and Android. The developers team explained why they had chosen React Native and what best practices they had learned along the way of using the technology. Written by Sam Murray (Developer at Made by Many). Popularity: 11 shares. Date: September 21, 2017. Yeti Smart Home was developed to control all the home’s devices from a single app. The study “Developing beyond the screen” describes the methods how React Native and Firebase helped the team to release Yeti. Written by Jesús Darío (CTO and Co-Founder of Netbeast, today’s Yeti) . Popularity: 32 likes. Date: January 13, 2017. Delivery.com makes it possible to order products and services online from the local restaurants, wine and spirits shops, grocery stores, laundry and dry cleaning providers. The study “React Native in an Existing iOS App: Getting Started” brings up to speed on why the programming team used React Native to develop a new iOS app and how they built new views using JavaScript. Written by Jesse Sessler (Front End and Mobile Developer at Delivery.com). Popularity: 118 likes. Date: January 8, 2016. Discord is a freeware VoIP app designed for gaming communities. The developer preferred React Native features when building an iOS app from scratch in the study “Using React Native: One Year Later”. He shares his doubts about React Native usage and explains why he revised his opinion. Written by Fanghao Chen (iOS Developer at Discord). Popularity: 1,4 K likes. Date: June 7, 2016. Gyroscope checks the user's health aspects such as mental health, weight, physical activity, and heart rate. The study “Building the Gyroscope App with React Native” describes how the team developed and released their new iOS app on React Native and how it should deliver the best results. Written by Anand Sharma (Founder and CEO at Gyroscope). Popularity: 1 K likes. Date: June 16, 2016. Huiseoul is an e-commerce company that provides personalized skin care counseling and Korean skincare products exclusively to China. In the study “Building a conversational E-commerce app in 6 weeks with React Native” listed the tools that helped the developers build a mobile app for a conversational e-commerce service. Written by Johnwook Choi (Software Engineer at Huiseoul). Popularity: 50 likes. Date: September 8, 2016. The li.st app is a way to create lists where users can share their personal experiences, opinions and discover lists from the leading voices in TV & film, music, food, sports, news, fashion and more. The video-study “Building li.st for Android with Exponent and React Native” develops the topic about what knowledge developers should have when building large apps on React Native. Presented by Brent Vatne (Software Developer at Expo). Popularity: 18,743 views; 116 likes. Date: June 7, 2016. Townske is a travel publishing platform focused on sharing and discovering visual city guides to help people easily explore any city in the world. The study “Townske app in react native” is based on the experience of a web developer who built a Townske iOS app on React Native: why he chose React Native, what challenges he faced, and what benefits he discovered. Written by Dean McPherson (Co-Founder of Paperform). Popularity: 100 likes. Date: December 15, 2015.

Although both React and React Native are utilized for UI development, they are distinct technologies suitable for different use cases. React is specifically focused on creating user interfaces in web development, while React Native is tailored for building native mobile applications. Statistics React is the 2nd most popular web development technology with 50.58% worldwide using it according to Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023. It's gaining popularity with frequent updates and advancements. React Native ranks in the top 10 technologies for professional developers with 9.13% of votes in 2023. Famous applications using React and React Native What Is React? React, also known as ReactJS, is an open-source front-end JavaScript library that allows building user interfaces and native UI components. Facebook's dedicated team maintains React, which displays dynamic data declaratively using a component-based architecture. React views are pure functions that render data as markup. React components return markup, with a parent component extending the React Component class and calling the render function that holds state. This allows for direct manipulation of Document Object Model (DOM) elements. Its functionality relies on JSX preprocessing. JSX extends ECMAScript to pass attributes down a component tree, making data rendering simple with unidirectional flow. By treating views as functions, React enhances testability, including automated testing for client-side code. Example platform-specific code featuring React syntax. When to Choose React? React is great for building high-performance, interactive user interfaces for web applications. Use React when: You want to create a dynamic website with high-traffic. You are building a large-scale or fast-growing application. SEO is important for your application. Advantages of React Cost-effective development and faster time-to-market. React's component-based structure allows for code reuse, speeding up development and reducing costs. Improved performance. React utilizes a virtual DOM to optimize performance. It efficiently updates and renders processes, resulting in faster and more responsive applications. This leads to increased user engagement and retention. SEO benefits. Traditional web applications that use server-side rendering, such as React with frameworks like Next.js, offer distinct advantages in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). They tend to be more SEO-friendly compared to single-page applications or mobile apps. Future-proof technology. React is actively maintained by Meta, ensuring continuous development and its relevance in the future. Disadvantages of React Dependence on frameworks. While React is a robust library on its own, Real-world applications need more functionalities than React provides. Your team may need to invest extra time in identifying, learning, and integrating frameworks. Popular frameworks like Next.js, Remix, Gatsby, and Expo offer essential features like routing, data fetching, and HTML generation. They help manage complex issues such as code splitting and server-client network waterfalls, and generate HTML for faster load times. What Is React Native? Developed by Meta, React Native is a JavaScript framework for creating mobile apps that can run natively on iOS and Android. Using React components, which are reusable code bundles, React Native accesses platform APIs and describes the UI. These components correspond to views, the fundamental building blocks of the user interface in mobile development. At runtime, React Native creates Android and iOS views that closely resemble the look and feel of native apps. These views are known as Native Components. React Native provides a set of pre-built Core Components and also allows for the creation of custom components. Example code featuring React-Native syntax. When to Choose React Native? React Native creates native mobile apps with JS and React. Use React Native when: You're building mobile apps for iOS, Android, or both. You may need to use native device features that web apps cannot access. You are considering the MVP development rapidly for quick results. Advantages of React Native Cost-effective development and faster time-to-market. A single codebase in React Native eliminates the need for separate development teams and reduces costs. Simultaneous development for multiple platforms accelerates the process and speeds up your product launch. Native-like mobile UX/UI design. Platform-specific components in React Native create a smooth and immersive user experience on all devices and operating systems. Efficient maintenance and updates. Simultaneous updates with React Native ensure consistent functionality and efficient bug/security fixing across platforms. Disadvantages of React Native Dependency on JavaScript. React heavily relies on JavaScript, limiting options for interactive or multi-language projects. React Vs React Native: When to use which? The "React Native for Web" library allows for a single codebase for React and React Native apps. React Native for Web renders compatible JavaScript code using React DOM in a browser. This enables integration and rendering consistency on multiple platforms. Project requirements determine whether to use React or React Native, as both have their unique strengths and suitability depending on the project. Evaluate your needs and compare the platforms to make an informed decision. Should I start with React or React Native App: 3 Business Scenarios Choosing between React and React Native development for web and mobile apps requires a skilled and proficient team. At Belitsoft, React developers are experts in both React and React Native mobile app development. By leveraging their technical expertise and domain knowledge, you can save time and costs when expanding from web to mobile and vice versa. No need for additional hiring and onboarding of new specialists. Let's explore various scenarios your business might encounter: 1. Scalable, Dynamic Web App Technology Choice: React How we do it: A client approached Belitsoft to develop an educational social network for children. We selected React to create a scalable and dynamic web platform with interactive user interfaces. The web development process involved the following steps: We prepare the necessary environment for React development, including the installation of Node.js and npm. We select the appropriate framework based on the client's requirements. Our team crafts custom React web components tailored to the application's needs, ensuring a dynamic and interactive user interface. Then we manage component states and lifecycles to ensure smooth UX and optimal performance. We handle data passing, fetch data, and ensure smooth integration with APIs and backend services. We implement routing for multi-view applications using standard libraries like react-router-dom or use the capabilities of the previously selected framework. The developers use styling using the client's preferred method, usually traditional CSS, CSS Modules, or styled-components. We conduct thorough testing using frameworks like Jest and utilities like the react-testing-library. Finally, we handle the build and deployment of the React application, delivering a production-ready application that can be deployed to a static server. CASE STUDY: React-based web educational and social platform for children 2. Building a Mobile App for Android and iOS Technology Choice: React Native How we do it: A US startup founder hired Belitsoft to develop a sports mobile app with limited time and budget. To meet the client's needs for both Android and iOS apps, we selected React Native as the technology choice. We set up the development environment for React Native, including the installation of Node.js, npm, and the Expo CLI. We use the Expo CLI to initiate your project, setting up a robust foundation for your mobile application. Our React team develops custom React Native components to ensure a dynamic and interactive user interface. We handle data passing with props and fetch data as required, integrating with APIs or backend services as needed. We use react-navigation (or other standard libraries) to implement routing for multi-view applications. Our team applies styling using the StyleSheet component provided by React Native. We use libraries like Jest and utilities like the react-native-testing-library to ensure your application works as expected. Finally, we deploy the React Native application, ensuring the delivery of a standalone application that can be easily distributed through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. CASE STUDY: React Native sports mobile app 3. Expanding an existing web app to a mobile version through React to React Native migration Technology Choice: ReactJS and React Native How we do it: A US startup founder requested Belitsoft’s expertise to create a groundbreaking marketplace app that connects farmers and laborers. The client's requirement was to initially develop a web platform and then transition to a mobile version within a short timeframe. To meet these needs, we chose React for web development and React Native for the mobile version. Our approach allows the client to save both the budget and time through the following strategies: Develop both solutions involving the same developers If you have a React app, use React Native to build your new product. In case of React to React Native migration, we boost time-to-market and reduce costs by using the expertise of the existing developers. Build a new software product separately, even if you already have a React app. Belitsoft creates new architecture for each software product to ensure functionality, scalability, and clean code. We don't reuse native code, components, or styling. However, we apply some best practices like reusing business logic or applying WebView component. Reuse business logic We often reuse business logic from your existing app in a new app, including state management (with Redux or MobX) and utility functions, and any other non-UI JavaScript code. Reusing business logic for React to React Native migration involves the following steps: Identifying the reusable business logic components Extracting the business logic into separate modules or files Creating a shared codebase or library for the logic Building platform-specific UI components in the React Native app Implementing platform-specific APIs for the business logic Testing and verifying the shared logic in the React Native app Launch a mobile version urgently using Web View Component. Suppose you have a web application and urgently need to launch a mobile version. Our React web development team implements the WebView component, which is essentially a mini-browser that you can insert right into your React Native application. It's a fitting solution for buying time for full-scale native mobile app development. For that, we adhere to the following flow: Setting up the project structure. We establish a project structure that includes specific directories for React Native components and WebView HTML files and scripts. Creating an HTML file. We create separate HTML files for iOS and Android to cater to the differences in script loading. Developing a JS script. We develop a JavaScript script to manage communication between WebView and React Native, ensuring seamless data transfer. Loading WebView. Utilizing the react-native-webview-bridge component, we load the WebView in your React Native component, enabling it to send and receive messages from the WebView. Adapting production environment. We adapt the process for a production environment, adding the WebView directory to the project bundle in Xcode and loading HTML files using a filesystem URI. Simplify code sharing using MonoRepo as a development strategy Monorepo (monolithic repository) is a strategy that stores code for mobile and web apps in one repository for simplified code sharing, dependency management, and development workflow. In short, the React to React Native migration using MonoRepo looks the following way: The developers create a single repository for all projects, with a directory structure for individual and shared code. We set up development tools, including a monorepo-supporting package manager, build tools, and testing tools. The React team develops features, making cross-project changes as needed in a single commit. And leverage the monorepo to share code, creating shared libraries or components. Then, we run tests, build, and deploy web and mobile apps, using monorepo tools. Finally, we use the monorepo for comprehensive code reviews, viewing all changes in the same commit history. CASE STUDY: Web and mobile apps built on React and React Native for the US agricultural startup Difference between React and React Native Feature React React Native Platform Web Android, IOS, Web Open Source Yes Yes User Interface HTML + CSS Native Components(iOS, Android, Web) Architecture Virtual DOM Virtual DOM + Bridge + Native implementation Animations CSS Animations Native Animations Styling CSS JS Stylesheets Installation Process React React Native React can be easily integrated into an HTML page using the script tag. Simply add the React library and React DOM library to your HTML file. To work with larger projects, it is recommended to use a bundler like Next.js, create-react-app, or Gatsby. These tools often come pre-configured with Webpack, which bundles your application into a single file. To develop native apps using React Native, you'll need a development environment such as Android Studio for Android or Xcode for iOS. Additionally, you'll need to install tools like Node, the React Native CLI, and JSDK Watchman. Once installed, you can create a new project using the React Native Command Line Interface and run it on a mobile emulator or your own devices. Efficiency React React Native React JS is ideal to create an exceptional user interface. One of its standout features is the ability to execute code on the client-side while rendering on the server-side. React Native provides reusable native iOS and Android components, ensuring a consistent look, feel, functionality, and speed of a native application. React Native developers can also seamlessly integrate native code, such as Java, Swift, and Objective-C, into the framework to achieve a customized appearance and enhance the app's unique features. Technology Background React React Native To become proficient in React, all you need is a solid understanding of JavaScript. By gaining knowledge of JavaScript and familiarizing yourself with React's technical documentation, you can quickly become a skilled React developer. React Native utilizes the power of React.js. However, it's important to note that React Native combines Java, Objective-C, Objective-C++, and C++ code. To successfully develop React Native apps, proficiency in these languages is essential. Feasibility React React Native React combines HTML and JavaScript technologies to address challenges associated with CSS development. By integrating CSS within React, issues like global namespace and variable/scope isolation are effectively eliminated. This approach simplifies CSS development and enhances code organization for improved efficiency. With React Native, you can seamlessly incorporate iOS and Android native app components into your existing app code. If your hybrid app is built using frameworks like Ionic and Cordova, you can efficiently reuse the Ionic-based code by integrating it as a plugin. Navigation React React Native When developing an application with React.js, it's important to be familiar with the react-router library, which enables navigation based on click events. With the release of React Router v5, the useHistory hook has become a valuable feature in the framework. This hook allows easy access to the history instance, facilitating seamless navigation within your application. React Native does not support the use of react-router. However, React Native provides its own unique library called Navigator to handle transitions between different screens within an app. Additionally, there is another library called React Native Navigation available, which offers precise native platform navigation for both Android and iOS platforms. These libraries ensure smooth and seamless navigation experiences in React Native mobile applications. Storage React React Native In React, data can be stored and managed using local storage. The data stored in local storage has no expiry date, meaning it remains persistent even if the browser window is closed. The default data storage solution is AsyncStorage. This allows for storing data locally within the app. On the iOS platform, AsyncStorage is supported by native code, storing small values in a specific format and larger values in individual files. On the Android platform, AsyncStorage utilizes either RocksDB or SQLite, depending on their availability. Search Engine-friendly React React Native React JS offers a range of tools and libraries specifically designed to optimize your app for SEO purposes. These tools enable you to enhance the visibility of your app and improve its discoverability by search engines. When it comes to React Native, SEO is not directly impacted by the framework itself. The responsibility for optimizing SEO lies with the developers when building native user interfaces. How are React and React Native similar? ReactJS and React Native share several similarities as popular choices for building user interfaces. Declarative syntax. ReactJS and React Native employ declarative syntax, enabling developers to write code that is easy to read and understand. Component reusability. Both frameworks facilitate the creation of reusable components, which can be utilized throughout an application, enhancing code efficiency and maintainability. Virtual DOM. ReactJS and React Native utilize a virtual DOM, a lightweight copy of the actual DOM, to optimize performance by batching updates and minimizing unnecessary rendering. Open-source nature. ReactJS and React Native are open-source frameworks, meaning they can be used freely without incurring licensing costs, making them accessible options for developers. Rich ecosystems. Both frameworks boast extensive ecosystems with a wide range of plugins and tools, offering developers ample resources to enhance their development workflow and add desired functionalities. React vs. React Native depends on your project's specifics. Using both technologies results in scalable web and native mobile apps for iOS and Android. Our React developers possess the technical expertise and domain knowledge to efficiently build your product within your desired timeline and budget. Let's discuss your project. Frequently Asked Questions

Angular, React, and Vue.js are the popular front-end frameworks for companies of any size and domain. Each brings valuable features to the table, making the task of choosing one a complex one. How then can you determine the most fitting framework for your application? Often, it's not a mere technological choice, it's rather a mixture of factors including: Team experience. Evaluate if your in-house team is familiar and proficient with the new technology. Talent availability. In case you have no in-house team or need to augment your staff, assess the availability of skilled developers who are well-versed in the chosen frontend framework to ensure that you can hire the necessary resources for your project. Project complexity and specifics. Even though all the frameworks are great, each of them is ideal for certain cases: React is the best fit for highly customizable web apps with complex, interactive UIs, Vue.js is the perfect match for creating single-page, dynamic web applications that take the best of both React and Angular, Angular is an ideal solution for enterprise-level, easily scalable web apps with a rich feature set. Need help in identifying which framework aligns best with your business objectives? Talk to Belitsoft's front-end development experts. React is the Best for Cross-Platform Development React is a front-end JavaScript framework, the best suitable for designing cross-platform web applications that are highly customizable, replete with complex and interactive user interfaces. React is maintained by Meta and a vast community. This is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks used by many industry-leading companies, such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Netflix, PayPal, DropBox, Airbnb, Uber, and BBC. ✅ High scalability and customization. The modular structure of React allows developers to swiftly assemble various pre-built components, fostering convenient customization and scalability. This results in substantial time and cost savings throughout the web application development process. ✅ Flexibility in choosing development tools. React is more of a library than a framework, which means it gives you more flexibility to choose the tools, libraries, and architecture for your project. This is different from Angular or Vue.js, which come with a defined set of rules and patterns. ✅ Code reusability. When developing React applications, the presence of reusable components significantly reduces complexity and coding effort. ✅ Efficient performance. React uses a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) that helps to handle large databases. This eliminates the reliance on traditional DOM methods, optimizing performance and resulting in faster and more efficient operations. ✅ Simplified creation of mobile apps. You can benefit from using the same React-based approach to build native mobile applications with React Native. The seamless migration of components from React to React Native allows validating the UI on mobile devices and making the necessary adjustments to optimize mobile-friendliness. This simplifies the development process and accelerates time-to-market. ✅ Predictability and ease of debugging. Since the data flows in one direction (one-way binding), it's easier to track the changes happening in your application. This also provides a clear understanding of the data flow and decreases data corruption risk. ❌ Fast-paced updates. The React ecosystem is evolving too rapidly. This means developers need to constantly learn and adapt to new ways of doing familiar things, which might decrease productivity. ❌ Requires more expertise from developers. The flexibility of React can also be a disadvantage for some teams. It requires you to make more architectural decisions, which might not be ideal for less experienced developers. Besides, React uses JSX (JavaScript XML) which is a syntax extension for JavaScript. It might require more expertise from developers. Denis V. , React developer at Belitsoft (3+ years of experience with React): "React is the best option if a client requires both web and mobile applications. These are completely different types of applications, however, they can be developed by hiring just one development team instead of two. That significantly reduces the development time and cost. React is ideal for cross-platform development thanks to React Native or even for building VR apps using React-VR.One of the main advantages of React is the performance of React-based apps thanks to the virtual DOM. DOM manipulations are the core of modern interactive web pages. They are extremely resource-intensive JavaScript operations, but React speeds them up using the virtual DOM. Facebook team is working on async rendering to make React-based apps even faster.When comparing React vs Vue vs Angular, it's important to remember that React is a library, while the other two are frameworks. It means that React as a library offers the opportunity to choose what architecture and additional libraries to use, for example, Redux or Mobx, while frameworks force you to use a certain structure in your code, making you use things the way this framework intends. Yes, React developers need to write a large amount of the boilerplate code to follow best practices for building highly scalable and reusable apps. However, there are many professional boilerplates for React, for example, this one. OUR CASE STUDY: React-based web app for the US startup Looking to boost your web app? Our skilled React developers are ready to help! We'll turn your vision into a robust, user-friendly application. Contact us today! Vue.js is the Best for Lightweight, Intuitive Apps Vue.js is an open-source JavaScript Framework used mainly for building dynamic Single Page Applications (SPA). Vue.js features two crucial aspects of its rivals: Angular's two-way data binding and React's virtual DOM. Vue stands out with its flexibility and lightweight nature, making it a unique framework in its own right. ✅ Swiftness and simplicity. Vue's code is concise and straightforward, significantly reducing the lines of code. This makes Vue.js a lightweight framework, ensuring swift download and startup times. This efficiency enables developers to create applications and templates in a time-efficient manner. ✅ Impressive performance. Third-party simulations indicate that Vue.js outperforms Angular and performs on par with React when it comes to manipulating rows and columns in tables. This advantage stems from Vue's utilization of a virtual DOM, enabling efficient operations. Vue's DOM is also lighter compared to the one used by React, contributing to its impressive performance in this context. ✅ Intuitive debugging. In Vue, debugging runs parallel to the coding process, allowing developers, including juniors, to easily debug their code by visualizing the UI as they write it. This feature enhances the debugging experience and facilitates error resolution. ❌ Ecosystem. Vue.js has a limited ecosystem, which means it may not function effectively in older versions of operating systems and web browsers. ❌ Support and trust. Frameworks like Angular and React benefit from the backing of industry giants Google and Facebook, which inherently instills trust among users. However, Vue generally lacks the same level of trust and credibility among audiences. OUR CASE STUDY: Vue.js-based enterprise software for global technology company Our Vue.js developers, armed with comprehensive knowledge and vast experience in frontend development, stands ready to turn your concepts into a dynamic, user-friendly application. Reach out to us today to discuss details! Angular is the Best for Large, Scalable Apps Angular is a TypeScript-based framework, that has replaced a former Angular JS version. Angular JS to Angular migration became vital due to the end of its life and brought multiple benefits. Angular is often preferred by enterprises that require high scalability for their large and constantly growing software. Major companies such as Google, Microsoft Office, Samsung, PayPal, Wix, and Forbes place their reliance on Angular. ✅ Rich functionality. Angular offers a plethora of well-integrated libraries and a suite of developer tools that facilitate the development and scalability of projects. With these resources at their disposal, front-end developers can create robust and powerful applications to meet your requirements effectively and reduce app development costs. ✅ Enterprise-level security. The Angular front-end development framework incorporates built-in safety measures to protect against common vulnerabilities and attacks, including cross-site scripting attacks, malware, and viruses. ✅ Ease to maintain and debug. Maintaining Angular code is typically a straightforward task, thanks to its use of TypeScript. TypeScript aids developers in identifying faulty code during the typing phase itself, facilitating an efficient debugging process. Additionally, Angular imports dependencies, including external code repositories, to streamline app testing. ✅ Smooth scalability and customization. Working on an Angular project as a team offers excellent scalability and customization possibilities, as minor changes made by any team member do not require updating the entire project structure. Furthermore, the code base in Angular maintains high consistency and readability, enhancing project efficiency. ✅ Code reusability. The clean and consistent code of Angular significantly aids in reducing both costs and time-to-market. The code can be reused multiple times without causing any confusion. ❌ Performance. Angular may underperform when dealing with complex and dynamic applications due to its real DOM usage and heavy reliance on third-party libraries. ❌ Verbosity and complexity. Angular is often considered verbose and complex, requiring a lot of code even for simple applications, which can increase development time. ❌ Migration issues. Major updates in Angular often come with breaking changes, making it hard for developers to migrate their existing applications. OUR CASE STUDY: Angular-based BI project for the US hospitality domain Use the over 17 years of front-end development expertise of our Angular developers. Utilizing industry best practices, our team is committed to building a web application that prioritizes customer engagement and satisfaction. Let's work together to create an exceptional web experience for your users. React vs Angular vs Vue: Architecture React React has a simple architecture based on components. These components are like building blocks that you use to create your website or app. Each component represents a part of the user interface (UI), like a button or a form. Each component has its own logic and controls its own rendering, or how it appears on the screen. You can reuse these components wherever you want in your app, which makes your code more organized and easier to manage. React also uses a "virtual DOM" to keep your app running fast. When a component changes, React first updates a virtual representation of the webpage, figures out the most efficient way to make these changes in the real webpage, and then makes those changes. This smart way of updating the webpage is a big part of why React apps feel so smooth and responsive. Vue.js The structure of Vue.js is simple, with all elements designed as self-contained and reusable components. One neat thing about Vue.js is that it keeps your data (the info your app handles) tied to your components. When the data changes, the component knows it needs to update how it looks on the screen. This feature is called "reactive", and it's part of what makes Vue.js easy to use. Vue.js also uses a virtual DOM, just like React. This means that when a component needs to update, Vue.js first figures out the most efficient way to make the change on a virtual model of the webpage, and then it updates the real webpage. This smart process helps keep your app running quickly and smoothly. Angular Angular uses a structure based on modules, components, and services. In Angular, you bundle these components into modules, which help you organize your code better. Each module can be a feature of your app, like a user profile or a shopping cart. Services are where you put code that you want to share across different components. Lastly, Angular uses "directives" to let you add special behavior to elements in your webpage, and "dependency injection" to make it easier to share code and data between different parts of your app. In a nutshell, Angular provides a well-organized structure for creating complex web applications by dividing them into manageable and reusable components, modules, and services. React vs Angular vs Vue: Popularity React, Angular, and Vue.js are often referred to as the "Big Three" frameworks and libraries because they have come to dominate the field in terms of popularity, community support, and adoption by major companies. The search trends tend to favor Angular and React over their younger competitor. Google Trends Results All three frameworks are widely represented on GitHub, with React leading the pack. React: GitHub Stars 181K / Fork 36.9k / Contributors 1538/ Used By 8.8 Million Users Angular: GitHub Stars 79.2K / Fork 20.8k / Contributors 1528 / Used By 2.1 Million Users Vue.js: GitHub Stars 193K / Fork 31.3k / Contributors 404 According to the StackOverflow survey, React and Angular are among the most popular frameworks professional developers use.  React vs Angular vs Vue: Performance In terms of speed, the members of the Big Three are very close. Source: https://www.stefankrause.net/js-frameworks-benchmark7/table.html Source: https://www.stefankrause.net/js-frameworks-benchmark7/table.html As they are technically similar, the actual speed of your project will depend on the skill of the developers. Rever Case Study: Migrating Angular app to Vue.js Luis Elizondo is the Director of Engineering at REVER SaaS Company that develops Idea Management Software, named Rever Score. He does back-end and front-end Web development in this Silicon Valley-based company, founded in 2015 by people that blended their experiences in Toyota, Google, Airbus, Apple, Eurocopter, Rackspace, Procter & Gamble, and a handful of tech startups. They are using Node.js / Express on the backend, vanilla Node.js with no framework for some microservices, and Python for other microservices. Everything runs inside a Docker container. In August 2017, Rever released a new version of their web client using Vue.js. Before that, they were using Angular 2 beta 9. Why did they use beta technology in their products? It was a decision recommended and implemented by the outsourcing company. Their line of thought was something along the lines of "the final Angular version will be ready by the time we finish the product, and we will update every time there's a new beta release"", and they did, for a time, until they realized it was time-consuming and added no real value. In the end, it took them 8 weeks to write the project with the Vue.js JavaScript framework. This was a medium size project from Elizondo's point of view. During that process, they were also rewriting the whole API because there were architectural mistakes on the first version. Elizondo says that he has done extensive research before making a decision to switch their technology stack. ReactJS vs AngularJS vs VueJS. Source: medium.com/reverdev/why-we-moved-from-angular-2-to-vue-js-and-why-we-didnt-choose-react-ef807d9f416 Why we ditched Angular: "I want to focus on the points, the upgrade process, and Typescript. Upgrade to Angular 2. This was not easy because there were many versions we needed to upgrade, doing this while having critical bugs was not an option since we didn’t know what things were broken because of the upgrade and what things were broken because they were already broken. Solve the critical bugs first and then upgrade. Again, not easy because I didn't have all the necessary experience in Angular 2 and the documentation was upgraded. Try solving a bug that is happening on beta9 but you don't know when it was solved or even reported with documentation that refers to Angular 2.0.0 and you´ll know what I mean. This is not Angular's fault, this was just our context. Rewrite the whole thing and redesign the UI in the process. This is the road we took, it was the easiest solution for us, too many things were failing for us to attempt to fix them. We could have done it in Angular 2 as well, or we could experiment if we had other options. We did and I do not regret it. Typescript is good, however, it was not adding real value to our medium size project. It avoids some kinds of bugs, but not all, and we had plenty, probably because of the lack of experience from the outsourcing company. We wanted to avoid that as our team grows, there's something beautiful in watching a new team member being productive after a few hours with Vuej.js, something we felt that we would not achieve with Typescript. Vue.js solves the problems that we had, I'm not saying it will solve yours, and that's why we moved, with our context, the business needs, the timing, and the available resources, I would make the same decision again because it solved our problems. The reason why we ended up using Vue was coding speed and a small learning curve, but those things pay off later, when new developers come to the project they can start being productive in a matter of hours, not days. Why we're not using Angular 4 is because it didn't exist when we made the decision to move to Vue.js". This article accepted some critics in the comments section. Francesco Belladonna, a web developer with Full-Stack experience (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, AngularJS, Redux Ruby on Rails) at Predictable Revenue (Canada) writes: "I feel like we are missing some very important points here. We are comparing a framework (again) with a view library. Not only that, but you are also comparing the speed of prototyping between the two. I could tell you that based on that comparison, you would choose Vue without writing a single line of code. A framework is meant to give you a speed boost at the start of your new product and give consistency later on. However, when developing any kind of SaaS what you really care about is how hard is to maintain such software, as in speed on fixing bugs, implement new features, refactor. React comes with just the view layer, and you are "forced" to take decisions by yourself. I'm surprised people keep listing this as a downside: it is probably the most valuable thing React delivers: freedom of choice. Feel like React setup is complex? Cool, grab one of the many available boilerplates and use one of those, Vue is just doing the same for you. While I like the overall article, I think the author failed on checking the long-term gains of one lib over the other. The more you grow, the less you want a framework, and the more you want freedom of choice. And a bigger community. That being said, this article does one thing really well: scared me a lot regarding Angular2 (or 4 for what is worth), confirming my feeling that it's a framework that came with a lot of issues (I come from Angular1 1 background)". Dennis Brandt, a Senior Programmer / Team leader (Angular, AngularJS, NodeJS, Socket.io) at MyBit BV (the Netherlands) writes: "My team and I use Angular since August 2016, we waited until there was a stable release before even looking at it. We also compared Vue, React, Angular, and even AngularJS (the first version of Angular). Took into account what we needed from the web development frameworks/libraries and the project itself, the scale, and the intended lifespan. "For us, Angular was the clear winner as it provides what we needed, but this doesn't mean we will use Angular for every project. We look at it from the scope and requirements perspective." Learning the syntax of a specific template or language is a breeze for any developer worth his/her paycheck and for me and my team has never been a reason to do or not do something. For us Typescript actually made things easier, the compiler already checks for mistakes, unit testing is simple and as it's a superset of JavaScript (ES6/7) it was almost too easy to pick up. Good that you did the research to figure out what was best for you, the team and the project, but if I can say one thing that I hope you'll keep in mind; Never choose a progressive framework or library because it's familiar or easier. Choose what best fits the requirement of the project at hand." Alex Jover Morales, a Full Stack Engineer (VueJS; Redux; Webpack; Karma, mocha, chai; NodeJS; PHP, Lumen, etc.) at Coosto (The Netherlands) writes: "I worked with the three last year (Angular, Vue, React, in that order), and although my preference goes as well for Vue.js. I'd like to clarify some things in an objective way: What I see about TypeScript in this article usually comes from people that never got into it. Creating an object in TypeScript is as easy as in JavaScript. And it offers lots of stuff, but you need to give it a bit of time (not much really). Once you get there, you don't want to go back, and that's applicable to Vue as well. In fact, I love to combine Vue and TypeScript, even recorded a course. People that come from Angular (especially 1.x) find easier to get into Vue.js, since it shares most of DSL. What takes a while is to learn new practices and patterns of Component architecture. Once you know them, it's really easy to get into both Vue or React. Of course, Angular 2+ takes much more. Personally, the easiest for me was React due to knowing already all the stuff, just needed to go to another syntax, and JSX is literally JS and HTML. Vuex or Redux - they're almost the same. I agree Vuex seems easier, especially because it doesn't need to be immutable (what it's less clean on the other hand), but they're almost the same thing with different names. What is true, lots of things are easier in Vue, for example, lazy loading + code splitting, and the DSL itself. Although, React makes composition easier since it's just JS with almost no framework context. I'm not making an opposite statement, just clarifying there is no silver bullet. They all offer mostly the same, and some find it easy/better with one, others with the other. The best thing is always to analyze and choose what's best for the project/team." 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React Native: Key Advantages and Development Tools If you are considering a cross-platform mobile app that offers a native-like experience on both iOS and Android, React Native might be your ideal choice. Originating as an open-source mobile application framework from Meta, React Native harnesses the capabilities of the React library, enabling the creation of impressive native mobile applications. What's more, its compatibility with most major IDEs makes developers' lives easier. Utilizing JavaScript, CSS-style layouts, and the React Library, React Native equips developers to build well-structured apps with captivating interfaces. Notably, it delivers a seamless, native experience while effectively managing platform-specific elements. React Native Strong Suits Native-like performance delivers an experience closely resembling that of native applications. Reusable UI components speed up mobile app development starting from scratch is less necessary. Hot and live reloading speeds up development, especially for UI changes or bug fixes Modular architecture is flexible for updates and promotes team collaboration. Data binding amplifies the app's stability and reliability by instantly mirroring model changes in the UI. Active community support provides rapid troubleshooting, continuous updates, and a plethora of resources, ensuring the platform remains adaptive and robust. Cost-effectiveness with a single codebase for both iOS and Android platforms streamlines development time and resources, offering a more economical approach to app development. React Native Cross-Platform App Development Tools IDEs and Text Editors Visual Studio Code, Android Studio, Xcode for iOS and macOS, WebStorm SDK Expo platform facilitating quick mobile app development and testing Testing and Inspecting Enzyme, Detox, React Native Testing Library, Reactotron Beyond these, React Native provides numerous boilerplates, UI frameworks, libraries, and components available for navigation, animation, state management, and more, such as React Navigation and MobX. When to Use React Native for Your App Development 1. You start with MVP development React Native is particularly valuable for those launching MVPs or startup apps. Its feature of hot reloading speeds up the development process, reducing wait times for recompilation, especially when developers are tweaking the UI or fixing minor bugs. Plus, with a wide array of pre-built components at our disposal, from buttons, lists, maps to more complex components like navigation, modals, we can avoid building basic elements from scratch. CASE STUDY: An example of an MVP built on React Native, allowing our client, the US business, to launch the MVP fast and fit into the budget 2. You plan to extend your mobile app to a web version React Native can save both time and money when developing mobile apps alongside web apps. Extending your React Native app to the web with the help of existing developers will expedite launch and minimize costs. A hallmark of React Native's efficiency is its emphasis on reusing of business logic. At the outset, components primed for reuse are identified. Subsequently, these components are organized into distinct modules or files, forming a cohesive shared codebase or library. Taking it a step further, we can segment the application into Microfrontends, with the core logic isolated within Microservices. This modular approach empowers development teams to operate on different parts independently. Beyond the inherent advantages of React Native, tools such as Storybook come into play, enabling the creation of a shared UI library. This is especially beneficial when creating multiple applications with similar UI elements, which leads to a more efficient development process. CASE STUDY: An example of quick mobile and web apps development through to code reuse between React Native and React for the US startup 3. You build an app with real-time activities and updates For applications that rely on real-time data updates, like chat apps or live score updates, React Native's capabilities are indispensable as they can benefit from its efficient data handling and UI updates. We take advantage of React Native's Virtual DOM, which optimizes rendering and improves app performance. When data changes, only specific parts of the DOM get updated, ensuring efficiency. Then, we use a diffing algorithm to identify what has changed in the Virtual DOM and selectively update those parts of the actual DOM. This results in faster and more efficient updates, which is crucial for real-time data updates. One advantage of React, which we also leverage in React Native, is its use of state and props for data management. While the state is dynamic and can change over time, props remain consistent when passed from parent to child components. This system allows efficient data flow and updates in the application, benefitting real-time data handling. What's no less important, our developers apply numerous third-party libraries helping with real-time data handling, such as socket.io-client for WebSocket communication, or Firebase for real-time databases. CASE STUDY: A mobile banking app built on React Native with the support of instant, real-time payments for the EU startup Xamarin: Key Advantages and Development Tools If you are planning a top-notch mobile app for iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS with ease, Xamarin might be your answer. An open-source platform for native mobile app development, Xamarin provides: Xamarin.Forms: A cross-platform UI toolkit for creating native user interfaces on mobile and desktop with a unified codebase. This streamlines development and eases deployment across various platforms. Xamarin Native: Including Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.Mac libraries, it lets developers craft platform-tailored UIs, ensuring optimal performance and access to unique platform features .NET MAUI: Evolving from Xamarin in 2022, .NET MAUI integrates the robustness of Xamarin.Forms with enhanced features, offering low-code solutions. It simplifies the task of developing both native mobile and desktop apps using C# and XAML. Stregths of Xamarin Near-native performance achieves standards almost identical to native for both Android and iOS applications. Comprehensive testing tools provide a vast array, including the Xamarin Test Cloud and Test Recorder. Microsoft support with Xamarin translates to savings in development costs and time, thanks to its ability to utilize a unified codebase for multiple platforms. Cost-effectiveness with Xamarin translates to savings in development costs and time, thanks to its ability to utilize a unified codebase for multiple platforms. Xamarin Cross-Platform App Development Tools IDEs Visual Studio, Rider SDK NuGet, Xamarin Inspector debugging tool, Prism framework for XAML, MFractor tool for code writing in Xamarin.Forms Design Adobe XD, InVision, Sketch, Balsamiq, etc Testing NUnit, xUnit.net, and Visual Studio Unit Testing Framework for unit testing, Instabug for beta testing When to Use Xamarin for Your App Development 1. You're developing enterprise-level apps We recommend Xamarin for enterprise-level apps because it's robust, compatible with .NET, and backed by Microsoft. If your enterprise already utilizes .NET-based applications, Xamarin facilitates the transition. The development team can craft the new app in C#, leveraging the expansive .NET ecosystem, from libraries and tools to APIs. Moreover, as a Microsoft product, Xamarin boasts consistent updates, thorough documentation, and dedicated support. Our developers find it seamless to integrate apps with services like Azure for cloud functionalities, Microsoft Graph for cloud data access, and even Office 365 for enhanced productivity features. With Xamarin, we take advantage of secure storage and encryption to protect sensitive business data at the enterprise-level. CASE STUDY: Crafting a Xamarin-based mobile app for a corporate learning management system 2. Your app demands extensive use of native APIs Xamarin offers full access to a vast array of NuGet packages, facilitating seamless integration with native APIs and UI controls on both iOS and Android. This equips your app with native features and controls, ensuring an experience that feels genuinely native to users. Moreover, Xamarin ensures uninterrupted access to platform-specific features, such as the camera, GPS, sensors, file system, and more. APIs like CLLocationManager for iOS and LocationManager for Android Android are readily accessible, enabling developers to harness the full potential of device-specific functionalities without restrictions. For example, we built a mobile app for a delivery marketplace that involved multiple APIs, including chat functionality integration with Google Maps tracking analytics barcode image processing, and more CASE STUDY: Crafting a Xamarin-based mobile app with native APIs and real-time functionality 3. You build an app with complex UIs If your app requires a complex yet consistent UI across different platforms, Xamarin emerges as a formidable choice. Xamarin.Forms empowers our development team to sculpt intricate user interfaces. These UIs may encompass diverse user interactions, advanced navigation mechanisms, dynamic content display, bespoke animations, multimedia integrations, vast data management, custom components, and responsive designs. While these elements amplify the user experience, they also compound the UI's complexity. Crafting such UIs demands meticulous planning, design, and testing for best usability and performance. However, when skillfully executed, they offer a robust and adaptable user experience. A salient feature of Xamarin.Forms is its ability to map shared UI components to their native counterparts on each platform. This ensures that every UI element not only appears native but also behaves as users anticipate on their specific device. To facilitate the integration with respective platform-specific features, our specialists use Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS separate implementations for Android and iOS platforms. This allows developers to fine-tune the behavior and appearance of the app for each platform. Moreover, a plethora of third-party libraries exist to supplement Xamarin.Forms, furnishing additional UI controls and design patterns. Such resources can further refine and bolster the UI's complexity and utility. CASE STUDY: An advanced mobile app for drone data management in real time React Native vs Xamarin: The Differences that Matter React Native and Xamarin have long been contenders for the top spot in cross-platform mobile development. We've conducted comprehensive research to determine the current leading framework. React Native Xamarin Release 2015 2011 Owner Facebook Microsoft Programming languages TypeScript >NET, C# Development costs free free UI/UX simple simple Performance near-native near-native App memory consumption lower higher Maintainability instant updates updating lags Let's explore some independent analyses to understand how React Native and Xamarin fare against native app development. React Native vs Xamarin: Popularity and Community React Native As of now, the React Native developer community boasts over 2.5K contributors who commit code to the framework's codebase. "With so many people from the community contributing to React Native, we've seen as many as 266 new pull requests per month (up to 10 pull requests per day). Many of these are high-quality and implement widely used features." Martin Konichek, Ex-Software Engineer at Facebook, React Native team Increasing interest in React Native can be also observed on Google Trends. React Native employs JavaScript, which is currently among the most dynamic programming languages. The number of developers working with JavaScript is over 63 percent according to the Stack Overflow survey 2023. Thus, it's relatively easy to hire a professional developer for your app. Airbnb, Walmart, Skype, and Tesla are among the top users of React Native. Furthermore, Facebook's Showcase lists over 100 apps developed with this framework. We have also described some case studies of migrating to React Native in our blog. React Native has new releases every two weeks, which means the developers get the latest features quickly. The project has over 112K stars, which makes it one of the most starred repos on GitHub. Xamarin Founded in 2011, the Xamarin community has grown to 1.4M developers across 120 countries. The project was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 and became part of its Visual Studio IDE. This is one of the key reasons why large companies such as Slack, Siemens, and Pinterest rely on Xamarin development services. Overall, Xamarin is used by over 15.000 companies in fields like energy, transport, healthcare and others. Xamarin vs React Native: Comparison with Native Platforms React Native and Xamarin apps are developed to be compatible with any selected mobile platform. The native components built into the frameworks allow them to essentially “feel” native. Thus, everything a user can see in the React Native/Xamarin cross-platform apps will be displayed in a manner as close as possible to the native one depending on the specific requirements of each mobile platform. React Native (JavaScript) vs Native (Swift) John Calderaio, a Full-Stack Software Engineer, compared the performance of apps developed in native iOS (Swift) and React Native. His analysis considered the implementation of basic app elements in both hybrid and native development while also measuring CPU, GPU, and memory usage. The mobile apps John built with React Native and Swift have an almost identical physical appearance. In terms of performance, the React Native app utilized the CPU less efficiently (over 10% more) but was better in GPU usage and consumed less memory compared to the Swift version. Xamarin (C#) vs Native (Objective-C and Java) Mobile developer Kevin E. Ford compared the performance of apps developed using Native, Cordova, Classic Xamarin, and Xamarin.Forms. He evaluated apps on both iOS and Android and shared his findings on his blog. App Size. App size affects both deployment bandwidth and load time. Kevin found that Xamarin had additional size due to the .Net framework overhead. Load Time. Native technologies demonstrated the quickest load times. However, apps developed with Classic Xamarin were nearly as fast as those built with native languages. "I wanted to see how long it took the application to load into memory. While the initial load time is important, many mobile applications tend to stay in memory so it tends to have a limited impact. For this test I made sure to close all applications before each timing." Kevin Ford Data Load Time. Kevin tested the speed of loading 1,000 records from Azure Mobile Services. Remarkably, Xamarin outperformed the rest. CPU-Intensive Operation. In a test focusing on CPU-intensive operations, Xamarin again showcased superior performance. Objective-C lagged significantly, while Java was just a 0.2-second margin behind. Xamarin vs React Native: Code Sharing A primary advantage of cross-platform development is the potential to share most code between iOS and Android apps. Developers can write the code in JavaScript (React Native) or C# (Xamarin) without diving deep into Swift, Objective-C, or Java. This efficiency eliminates the redundancy of coding the same feature multiple times. React Native While the frameworks employ native components scripted in Objective-C, Swift, or Java, developers can incorporate native ( platform-specific) code. This feature allows developers to integrate platform-specific optimizations and leverage native functionalities in their mobile applications. By creating native modules that bridge JavaScript with platform-specific code (Objective-C/Swift for iOS or Java/Kotlin for Android), developers can fine-tune their app's performance and access platform-specific features while maintaining a single codebase. This not only speeds development up but also offers several advantages, including enhanced performance, access to device features, improved user experiences, efficient development, and cross-platform consistency. However, roughly 90% of the remaining codebase can be shared. Xamarin In this case, developers used C# complemented with .Net framework to build mobile apps for different mobile platforms. Notably, Xamarin consolidates the development environment, allowing all app builds within Visual Studio. Remarkably, Xamarin.Forms enables reuse of up to 96 percent of source code, expediting the development process. Xamarin vs React Native: Licensing Companies aiming for commercial app development must be circumspect about employing open-source code. Although cost-effective compared to proprietary libraries, open-source doesn't guarantee complete code protection. Both React Native and Xamarin function under the MIT license, a highly favored and flexible certification ensuring developer legal protection. The key features of MIT licensing are: no obligation to publicize the source code upon software distribution freedom to introduce modifications under any licensing absence of mandatory change documentation in the source code an implicit stance on patent usage Xamarin vs React Native: Supported Platforms Xamarin vs React Native: Developer Experience Taylor Milliman, a software engineer, built his first food blog app using React Native. The app allows accessing a database of over 1.000 recipes with necessary ingredients, bookmarking and sharing them with other customers. The developer found React Native to be a powerful tool and the future of mobile development. Taylor used the Udemy course and Facebook tutorials to get started. He encountered initial challenges with some components like the CSS flexbox. Still, after acquainting himself with React Native and its resources, Taylor now confidently handles these components. Besides, he noted the ability to share code between Android and iOS mobile apps and to reload immediately. Taylor admitted that he used Android Studio before and had to deal with 30-60 second build times as usual. Hot Reloading saves development time and makes it easier to get into the flow state avoiding time-wasting interruptions. "React Native is a perfect example of what can happen when we apply ideas that have proven successful in one area of software (web), to a seemingly separate area (mobile)." Taylor Milliman Xamarin Contrastingly, .NET Developer Nicu Maxian's 6 months experience with Xamarin presented challenges. He had to create an Android app with Xamarin by reusing Data and Domain layers belonging to the existing iOS app. From problematic updates to adapting to a new IDE, the journey was arduous: every update resulted in a "broken" environment, so the team had to spend hours to find a solution. Secondly, they ran behind schedule because they tried to adapt to working in a new IDE. Thirdly, a notable drawback was the Xamarin community's limited size compared to native developers. However, Nicu appreciated Xamarin's cross-platform solution and its shared code feature. "I still don't believe in Cross Platforms and I would probably stick to native development. I would say that the price for developing Xamarin app is bigger than native application. So, it's not worthy!" Nicu Maxian Both React Native and Xamarin have carved their own niches in cross-platform app development. However, the consensus among developers as of 2023 leans heavily towards React Native. With a developer community almost three times larger than Xamarin's, it's evident that React Native has gained considerable traction and preference. Trends and Forecasts React Native's Momentum: Since its introduction, React Native has consistently grown and has a strong, active community backing it. Its open-source nature ensures continuous improvement through community contributions. The Cross-Platform Future: Predictions point to a rising demand for cross-platform apps, with React Native as a favored choice. Business Adoption Rate: Several notable businesses have already adopted React Native, a testament to its scalability and adaptability. In conclusion, while both frameworks provide valuable tools, React Native's impressive growth underscores its dominant position in the industry. For businesses planning their mobile app development trajectory, aligning with React Native emerges as a forward-thinking and promising direction. Looking for professional mobile app developers? 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What is a React Component Example of components. Each of the 'Login' link, 'Profile' link, and 'Logout' button may be built as tiny individual components. There might be a box for logging in. This box may be built out of even smaller components. One tiny component might just be the field where users type their 'Email' address. Another little component might be the field for their 'Password.' There could be yet another small component for the button one clicks to log in after typing those credentials. And if that website lets new users create an account, that 'Create a new account' button could also be a separate component. Structure of React Components A React component is a JavaScript function that defines part of the user interface. It returns JSX to describe what to render and uses imports and exports to interact with other components. Absolutely necessary parts Function One can make a component by writing a JavaScript function. But such functions should return something that can be shown on the screen. If a function returns anything React can't display, like a plain JavaScript object, React doesn't know what to do with it. Nothing will be displayed on the screen. That's why you need to convert it into a format that React can visually render: either JSX code, strings, numbers, or arrays that contain a mix of JSX elements, strings, and numbers. Our React development company has teams of experts that create modern, interactive user interfaces with optimal performance and scalability. Ask Us a Question. JSX A React component must ultimately return a JSX syntax extension to JavaScript that describes the UI it represents. Without this, there's nothing to render. React transforms HTML-like JSX code to React.createElement calls under the hood.   You can write React components entirely using React.createElement calls, but JSX is generally preferred for its readability and natural feel when defining UI structures. Direct function calls may be used in rare cases if you need something that is difficult to achieve with JSX. JSX is not directly sent to the browser. React, as an interpreter, transforms the JSX into browser-friendly instructions to change the actual web page (the DOM). That's why what works with standard HTML may not always apply to JSX. Knowing this can prevent bugs and confusion. You might think: "I have a CSS class called my-section, this should style the div." In reality, the class attribute won't work in JSX. It needs to be className. The reason for using className instead of class in React is because class is a reserved keyword in JavaScript. Since React uses JSX, which is an extension of JavaScript, we must use className instead of the class attribute. Moreover, it's easy to assume you're writing regular HTML tags. However, div, h1, p, etc., are actually stand-ins for React components that come built-in with the React library (specifically, the react-dom package). JSX isn't a standard part of JavaScript. Your React project setup includes tools (like Babel) to transform it during development or the build process. JSX also lets you embed JavaScript logic and expressions within your UI definitions. Curly braces { } within JSX mark places where you can directly insert JavaScript expressions. You can include variables, function calls, calculations – anything that results in a single value when evaluated. Variables and function calls inside the curly braces can be tied to your application's state or incoming data. Since JSX elements are like any other JavaScript value, you have flexibility: Store JSX elements in variables for later use. Pass JSX elements as arguments to other functions or components. JSX requires self-closing tags, even for elements that are traditionally "void" in HTML. Optional (but extremely common and powerful) parts Exports Components in React can be exported and imported for other parts of your application. If a component is only used within the same file, it doesn't need to be exported. State Management (using Hooks) Components can be purely presentational and not manage their own state. Event Handler Function Events can be handled inline within JSX, but a separate function can help with organization, especially for more complex event logic. Conditional Rendering Conditional element rendering is not required for a component to be dynamic. Other Features of Components Components are reusable Components are like LEGO bricks for your webpage. They are independent pieces of code that define how a specific section of your user interface (UI) should look and function. The great thing about components is that you can reuse them throughout your application. For example, a button or form component can be created once and used in multiple places. Components can nest within other components This allows you to break down complex UIs into smaller, more manageable units. For example, a navigation bar component could contain individual button components for each link. Think of your React application as a tree of components. At the very top is the root component (often named App), and other components branching out from it.  React's role is to traverse this component tree, call each component's function, and translate the returned JSX into instructions that the browser can understand to creating or updating elements in the browser's DOM (Document Object Model, which is the actual structure of the webpage). Naming conventions in React To distinguish React components from regular JavaScript functions, it is a convention to use capitalized component names. Using PascalCase (e.g., SubmitButton, UserProfile) for your custom React component names is a strongly recommended practice. When using your custom components within JSX, you must use an uppercase starting letter. While using a components folder is common, the specific placement within your src folder is customizable. These are the two most common file naming approaches: PascalCase. Mirrors the component name (SubmitButton.js). Kebab-case. All lowercase, hyphen-separated (submit-button.js) Class-based Components vs Functional Components React expects components to be functions or classes. The modern approach in React development is to use functional components and Hooks to build React components.   The addition of Hooks in React 16.8 allows functional components to do everything that class-based components can do, such as managing state and accessing lifecycle events.  Class-based components are becoming less common as functional components provide a cleaner way to build React applications. React Component Splitting There's no perfect formula for determining when to split components.  It's a bit of an art that you'll develop with experience.  However, here are some guiding principles. Reusability Can a portion of your UI be used in multiple places within your application? If so, creating a standalone component makes it easier to reuse the same UI structure with different data. Single Responsibility Principle Does the component have a clear, focused purpose? Components become easier to understand and maintain when they each are responsible for one primary aspect of your UI. Manageability Is the component's code becoming too large or complex to easily read and reason about? Breaking it down into smaller, more focused components can improve maintainability. Component-Driven Development In component-based development, we create small, self-contained pieces of interface to build UIs. These components handle visuals, interaction, and functionality for specific use cases in the app. Extracting components establishes a common language between designers and developers, improving collaboration and communication. This leads to smaller, maintainable code with reusable components for consistency and a better user experience. The component-driven approach has benefits such as improved communication, predictable development timelines, and easier UI redesigns. By encapsulating code in small, reusable modules, we separate concerns and maintain a clean code organization. Components also lead to a consistent user experience throughout the app, simplifying UI redesigns and enhancements. Switching to component-based development requires commitment from developers and designers, as it involves a shift in workflow and mindset. However, with a good component gallery, teams can quickly create new screens and maintain a maintainable codebase. See how React.js helped us build a tailored LXP for corporate training. Our solution resolves key learning challenges, including personalized learning paths, real-time progress tracking, and gamification. Gain insights in our case study. Components and Props Splitting components introduces the need to make them configurable. This is where props come in. Props are React's way of passing data from a parent component into a child component, allowing customization without hardcoding values. Props are like "attributes" for your custom components. You define what props a component expects to receive. With props, parent components can pass data to a child component, customizing how it looks or behaves. Instead of embedding values directly in your components, you can use props to make the output dynamic by using variables. Let's unpack how props work in React components. Passing props to components Think of passing props as similar to setting attributes on HTML elements. You add attribute-like key-value pairs to your custom components in JSX. You can also pass data as content between the opening and closing tags of a component, just like you would with HTML. Consuming props in a component React automatically provides a special props object as an argument to your component functions. It doesn't matter how you name this argument, but the convention is to use props. The props object holds the key-value configuration data you passed in when using the component. You access the individual values using dot notation (e.g., props.title, props.id). Use props when you want to configure a component from the outside, for instance from its parent component.  Use props.children when you want to pass content directly inside your component's tags. This is useful for components that act as wrappers or containers. Everything between and JSX code in this example becomes props.children When components need props in React You don't have to use props in every component. The primary reason to use props is to make components more flexible and reusable by passing in different data. You can use the same component multiple times, customizing how it looks or behaves by changing the props you give it. Example of a component that needs props A "Button" component that can have different labels (Login, Submit, etc.) would need a prop to pass in the button text. A "WelcomeMessage" component that displays a user's name would need a prop to receive the name. Example of a component that might not need props A "Logo" component that always displays the same image. A "Timer" component that manages its own timing without external input. How to handle multiple props in React components You can add attributes directly to the component's opening tag, with each attribute representing a single prop. This is useful when you have a small number of well-defined props. An example, where title, price, and id are individual props passed to the Product component You also can create a JavaScript object that holds all the data (properties) you want to pass to the component. This object is then passed as a single prop. The best use case for this is when  you have a large number of props, or when the props are logically related and make sense to group together. In this example, the productData object contains the props and is passed to the Product component via the product prop Direct access using props.propertyName is the most straightforward way to access a specific prop's value within your component, where propertyName is the name of the prop you want to use. Object destructuring JavaScript feature allows you to unpack properties from an object and assign them to individual variables. In the context of React components, you're destructuring the props object. Spreading props in React Sometimes you want to create a custom component that wraps another component (built-in or third-party) to add custom styling, logic, or behavior. By creating a wrapper component, you lose the ability to directly pass props to the wrapped component. The wrapper component acts as an intermediary and has to explicitly define and handle all the props that should be passed down to the wrapped component. Instead of manually listing all the props your component should accept, you can use the spread operator  {...object}. Prop drilling or Prop chains in React applications As React applications grow more complex, components often end up being nested within other components. Sometimes, data (in the form of props) needs to be passed from a parent component down to a nested child component several levels deep. This process of passing props from a higher-level component through multiple intermediate components (that don't need those props themselves) to a deeply nested component is known as "prop drilling" or "prop chains". As the application grows, prop drilling can become tedious, make the code harder to maintain, and cause performance issues. Components that don't need certain props still have to accept and forward them, cluttering the code. React provides alternative solutions to avoid excessive prop drilling, such as using context or state management libraries. Enhance your application's advantages with personalized React development solutions. Contact us to hire offshore dedicated development team for expert React guidance.

Parent and Child Components in React React's component re-rendering logic, while necessary for reactivity, has potential performance implications in complex applications due to cascading re-renders. The goal of React is to automatically keep the UI in sync with application data, so it re-renders components when state or props change, even if only a small part of the UI is affected. The chance of causing cascading re-renders originates from the hierarchical structure of React components, where updates to a parent component can ripple down the entire component tree. Excessive re-renders triggered by even minor state changes higher in the component tree can significantly impact performance, especially in large applications. React introduces the virtual DOM as a lightweight representation of the actual DOM. Before making real DOM changes, React compares the new virtual DOM to the previous version and identifies only the specific changes that need updating in the real DOM. This allows React to apply only the necessary changes, minimizing redundant and expensive manipulations. To enhance your web app speed, responsiveness, and user engagement, we offer customized React development services. Contact us for expert guidance on using React for high-quality development outcomes. Virtual Dom in React The virtual DOM is a simplified version of the real DOM, stored in memory as JavaScript objects. Think of it as a blueprint for how the UI should look. Manipulating these lightweight objects is faster than directly altering the complex real DOM. When a component is triggered to re-render (state update, parent re-render), React generates a new virtual DOM that reflects the desired UI state. This new virtual DOM is then compared to the previous virtual DOM snapshot using React's diffing algorithm. The diffing algorithm doesn't just do a blind comparison. It cleverly pinpoints the exact differences between the old and new virtual DOMs. This granularity is where the magic happens – only the parts of the real DOM that correspond to these differences actually need adjusting. Reading and writing to the real DOM is a slow operation for the browser, but the virtual DOM is an in-memory process, which makes comparisons and calculations lightning-fast. With the granular changes identified by the diffing process, React can surgically update just those necessary portions of the real DOM. This optimization significantly reduces unnecessary work, resulting in a smoother user experience. Avoiding redundant DOM manipulations, especially in large-scale React applications, dramatically improves performance. In summary, the virtual DOM is the key to React's ability to provide fast and seamless reactive updates. To create a custom Learning Experience Platform (LXP) for corporate training, we incorporated React into the development process. This allowed us to deliver a user experience that is both scalable and interactive. Read our case study for more on using React for client-specific requirements. React State Batching State batching prevents unnecessary UI flickering and visual glitches that can occur when a component re-renderes multiple times in a row due to closely-spaced state updates.  It condenses multiple React calculations into one, making interactions more efficient, especially in complex apps. When multiple state updates happen within a single event handler or a synchronous code block triggered by React (e.g., within lifecycle methods), they are intelligently batched together. Instead of triggering sequential re-renders, React combines the changes and triggers a single re-render cycle. This minimizes redundant calculations and virtual DOM comparisons. While state batching is incredibly helpful, it has its boundaries. It primarily optimizes state updates within the same event handler or synchronous block. Updates triggered by asynchronous operations (like promises, timeouts, etc.) may not be batched. State batching does not directly solve the problem of cascading re-renders. Even if React updates a parent component only once, it can still trickle down, causing multiple child components to re-render if they are not properly optimized. Memo Function React React's memo() function prevents unnecessary component re-renders. How memo() Works You wrap your function component with memo(). Before a parent component's re-render triggers a potential re-render of a memoized child component, React compares the child's current props with the previous props. Should memo() Be Used Everywhere? Even the act of comparing props has a performance cost. If the props are complex or the comparison logic is custom, this overhead can become noticeable. Even for simple components, the cost of re-rendering may be so minuscule that the overhead of memo() outweighs any actual benefit. memo() Shines in These Situations When a component has intricate logic or generates heavy JSX output, preventing unnecessary re-renders improves performance. Memoizing a component closer to the top of a component branch prevents the cascading re-renders of its numerous descendants.  If a component's props rarely change when its parent's state updates, memo() can greatly reduce re-renders. Using memo at the start of a component tree branch React usememo Function useMemo() helps with optimizing computationally heavy operations within your React components. useMemo() offers finer-grained control by memoizing the result of expensive calculations, specifically within the component. In contrast to memo(), which aims to prevent unnecessary re-renders of the entire component by comparing props. However, useMemo() also has overhead associated with checking dependencies and storing results. Overusing it can negatively affect performance rather than improving it. When to Use useMemo() Costly Calculations Ideal for operations that take a noticeable amount of time to compute – sorting, complex transformations, heavy data filtering. Stable Dependencies It works best when the dependencies change infrequently compared to how often the component re-renders. How useMemo() Works Memoizing a Value useMemo() takes two arguments: A function with an expensive calculation you want to optimize. An array of dependencies. This array tells React when to re-run the calculation. Caching the Result The first time your component renders, useMemo() runs the provided function and stores the returned result, like a calculated value or a transformed array. Dependency-Based Re-runs On subsequent re-renders, React checks the dependency array. If nothing in the array has changed, it returns the cached result from the previous run, skipping the expensive calculation. Only when a dependency changes will the function be re-executed and the new result stored. React usecallback Function useCallback() works in harmony with memo() and useMemo()  to enhance React component optimization. In JavaScript, functions are considered objects and are typically compared by reference, similar to comparing their unique ID tag in memory. React's optimization mechanisms rely on reference comparisons internally to determine if things like props have actually changed. Whenever a React component renders, imagine it as capturing a new picture. The JavaScript code in that component restarts completely. This means that each render function inside the component is essentially recreated with a new ID tag, making React think it's a different function. The creation of a fresh object with each function definition is an inherent aspect of JavaScript, not something specific to React. In other JavaScript applications, this may not have noticeable performance issues. However, in React, it can cause problems with tools like memo(). React's tools like memo() and useMemo() rely on comparing values to determine if updates are necessary. Since functions are objects, the comparison focuses on whether they are the same object in memory, not just on whether they perform the same task. This is where useCallback() comes in.  Caching a function provides secure storage for your function, similar to a safe deposit box. Instead of creating a new function object each time, across re-renders, it returns the same instance. React's optimization tools recognize the same function object with useCallback() and make memo() and useMemo() effective again. In other words, useCallback() "freezes" the function, allowing React to correctly prevent unnecessary updates of the component. Avoiding Unnecessary Code Large amounts of JavaScript code can significantly slow down a webpage's initial load time, especially on slower connections. This includes the download time and the time it takes the browser to process the code. Write clear, efficient code using the least amount of characters necessary. This keeps the overall file size smaller. If you only need a few small functions, consider writing your own code or using built-in browser functions to avoid bloating your project. One technique to improve initial load times is to use code-splitting, which allows you to break your JavaScript into smaller, more manageable chunks. These chunks are loaded only when needed, improving initial load times. React offers tools that make it easy to implement code-splitting. Minification and Compression are standard processes that further shrink JavaScript files. React Code Splitting (Lazy Loading) Large JavaScript bundles can slow down initial page loads because all the code needs to be downloaded and processed before the page becomes interactive. This is especially problematic if parts of your application contain code that's not immediately needed Code-Splitting with lazy() lazy() function lets you dynamically import a component as a separate bundle. This tells React, "Don't load this component right away, only load it when it's actually needed." Using Suspense for Fallback UI When using a lazily loaded component, it is important to show something to the user while the component is being fetched. Suspense component allows you to define fallback content. The main JavaScript bundle becomes smaller, so users will be able to see your core content sooner. When to Use Code-Splitting For components that aren't immediately shown on the initial page load, such as modals or less frequently used features. If a component relies on heavy external libraries, code-splitting can isolate that extra code. Don't overuse code-splitting. Minor components may not benefit significantly and having too many extra requests can actually hurt performance. React Developer Tools The React Developer Tools are great for debugging and optimization, especially compared to using a console.log().  Why Choose React Developer Tools? Ditch the manual console.log() approach and get a comprehensive overview of your app's behavior. Visual timelines and component hierarchies are far easier to interpret than text-heavy console output, especially in large applications. See exactly where optimizations like memo() make a difference in preventing unnecessary re-renders. Key Features The Components tab reveals the nesting of your React components, along with their props and state. This aids in understanding complex relationships and simplifies debugging. The Profiler tab allows you to record render cycles, highlighting unnecessary re-rendering, and the time taken for each render. You can optimize your code by targeting the exact components causing slowdowns. How to Get Started Install the React Developer Tools extension for your browser (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge are all supported). Open your browser's developer tools panel. Explore the Components tab for analyzing your app's structure, and the Profiler tab for identifying performance issues. Using React, Belitsoft developed an educational, social network designed to enhance children's learning through financial rewards. We created a dynamic, scalable, and interactive user experience, integrating complex features like custom web components, state management, testing frameworks, and rigorous API integration. Check the full case study for details on performance-optimized web applications tailored to client needs and user engagement strategies. Get in touch with us for tailored React development solutions to maximize your application's benefits.