The debate of native vs cross-platform application has been around for almost as long as the mobile app itself. And while we do not intend to get into that debate for the moment, it is worth mentioning that React Native is a product of the same debate with qualities of both camps but shortfalls of none. Currently seen as the best framework to build native applications, React Native has shot to fame in a relatively less time.

The question is- despite having dozens of frameworks with similar capabilities, what exactly makes it so popular? Short answer- perfect bundling of features. Yes, React Native doesn’t exactly have any unique feature but the fact that it curates a range of features that frameworks lack, remains its secret to success. Let’s take a look at each of them:

See More: Flutter vs. React Native – A Growing Divergence of Opinion

Native apps with cross-platform tools

One of the key challenges of building native applications is that they need expertise over different tools- Java for Android, Swift for iOS, among a host other full-scale native technologies. React Native as a single unifying framework that can be used to develop applications for platforms and thus.

Code sharing

In ideal cases, an application build using React Native for both Android and iOS platforms may have up to 90% of the code common between them. This obviously has benefits on many levels. It cuts down the development time and by extension, cost. Maintenance and updating of any app is much easier and there are fewer chances of bugs creeping in.

Native-like UI & performance

When building apps using React Native, the UI is built using common cross-platform technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS that deliver an interface identical to their native counterparts. For the performance, however, it relies on native components that are insulated from UI and thus deliver similar performance as a native app.

See Also: React Native: Building Native Mobile Apps with JavaScript

Quick development

In a market where the first-mover advantage can be the difference between success and failure, time-to-market remains a major consideration for businesses and React Native, owing to its short development cycle, is quite appealing. Two specific factors contribute to this feature- absence of excessive recompiling and hot reloading. They can simply deploy ready-to-use components without the need of recompiling the application from scratch. Any changes they make are reflected instantly while running the app.

Abundant support

React Native is an enormously growing community and there are abundant resources available for developers. Be it any specific component or challenging procedure, help is always around the corner.

Low cost

If you take all the above factors into consideration, you would clearly understand that React Native mobile app development is quite cost-effective. The use of common web technologies like HTML and JavaScript means that there is no shortage of cheap resources while the quick development cycle means that the development cost would be considered low. Also, the open-source tag means that most of the tools are free and can be customized.

Closing remarks

Overall, React Native delivers exactly what any business aspires while building native apps- low cost and quick development without compromising on performance and user experience. For a technology that’s still relatively new, React Native development has done an exceptionally good job at keeping both developer and business community satisfied. And as it progresses with new features and capabilities, its popularity is only set to rise.