Startup Dilemma for React Native

The right fit for a startup — React Native or Native App?

Startups always look to increase their customer base and tend to lean towards Mobile devices, which have now grown as ubiquitous. Mobile internet usage has increased to 222% in last 7 years. It alone contributes to 52% of the world’s web traffic, & mobile search has already surpassed desktop search since 2015. This makes it evident that mobile offers more customers, hence it is hard to ignore mobile apps. On the other side, the mobile framework domain is so fragmented between Android and iOS, leading to a dilemma. The fragmentation makes it costly to maintain two different teams for two separate client applications, which could be expensive and resource-draining. This could be a deal-breaker for a startup that is financially strapped and tends to prefer a low run rate. It also creates unnecessary friction for MVP & Shortened time to market (TTM).

Not to worry, there are tools or frameworks that fit the bill and provide the added advantage.

React Native

React Native is an open-source, JavaScript based framework that is developed by Facebook. It allows you to build applications for different platforms (Android, Android TV, iOS, macOS, tvOS, Web, Windows & UWP). Lately, its usage has also skyrocketed.

Faster Iteration & Lower Cost

You don’t have to go through the regular approval process, thereby shortening the time to release a new version to your customers. Generally, startups like to push out changes fast to test their hypothesis and gather data to further refine the product. React Native provides a live update to push the changes to customers without going through Google Play or AppStore. This shortens the development cycle and time to market.
It builds faster and also provides hot and live reloading. The live reloading mechanism reloads the app every time the code is changed, without having to build and load it again and again. This tremendously saves development time. Also, the test team has to spend less time testing it because there is only one application to test for different platforms.

Small Team

You develop it once and release it to different platforms. There’s no need to have separate teams for the separate platforms. React Native is based on javascript, so any web-developer can easily pick it up faster. The same developer can work on both web-app and client apps. This keeps the development cost low.

Look & Feel

If you are looking at a consistent user experience, this is your tool. This also frees up visual designer’s time, as they don’t need to design for two different platforms and they can utilize their time on something of higher value.

Community & Support

Looking at the trend, more and more people are developing their apps in React Native. There are giant companies (like Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft, Shopify, Tesla, Walmart, Zynga etc) that already use React Native, which implies that the community is getting stronger and you will have better features and bug fixes sooner.

Source: Google Trends

However, before you finalize any framework, it is always good to think thoroughly about its pros-cons.

Native Framework

Native functionality

If you are looking for performance and native functionality, then you should consider the Native framework. You will not get good performance with React Native if you are doing the heavy lifting on the client side. For example, if you want to use multi-threading, heavy graphics, custom animations, or tight hardware integration (GPS, FaceID, etc), then use Native framework instead.

Native User Experience

It is generally advised to stick with the Native User experience because it is more intuitive for a user who has been with this platform for a longer time.

Strong Support

Android and iOS frameworks have a strong community, so getting any support or features on the framework, will be much faster than React Native. On the other hand, if you are going for React Native, you are at mercy of a third-party library provider to implement the same feature.

Summary

React Native can be really useful if you are looking for faster iteration, a smaller client team, and not too intensive native requirements. If there are native requirements, then you better off using a native framework to develop your application.

As seasoned developers in the startup environment, StackMyBiz team has worked on native and React Native applications. We have the right skill sets and experience to guide you in this tricky water. We have helped startups to build their client apps. Feel free to connect with us in case you are looking for consultancy or helping hand to build your application.