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@dridhone ・ Jan 30,2022 ・ 6 min read ・ 644 views
React and React Native are behind some of the most popular web and mobile applications. They represent different aspects of the React ecosystem and serve different purposes. So, let’s take a dive deep to understand when it’s better to opt for React.js vs React Native.
There was a goal of quickly building scalable interfaces, and React.js came into existence to simplify JavaScript development. Following the success of React.js, Facebook sought to deliver all of its benefits to mobile and developed React Native – a framework for , Android, Windows and other platforms.
The library is based on JavaScript, which means developers can get access to a vivid society of contributors who have created a massive ecosystem of tools to make an engineer’s life easier, including React Developer Tools (inspection of the hierarchies of components in the vDOM), React Sight (visualization of component hierarchy tree). You can stay updated on the trends through React’s official channels.
React (aka React.js or ReactJS) is a JavaScript library for building responsive user interfaces. It was open-sourced at JSConf US in May 2013. According to Google Trends, React has been gathering steam since 2017, and it shows no signs of stopping. React is widely used in web development to build comprehensive apps and software.
What are React’s most widespread usages? Its purpose is to allow building high-performing interfaces. React plays an important role in:
First used for the newsfeed, React is used extensively for the web version of Facebook.com.
React was implemented to roll out the web version of Instagram. API requests with Google Maps, geolocation services, search functionality, and tagging are supported through the framework.
Asana
Asana, a leading project management tool, employed React to address client-side performance problems. The front-end was rewritten in React.
Netflix
Netflix React enabled them to build a tremendous foundation. React was adopted because of its startup speed, runtime performance, and modularity.
Further afield, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Dropbox, Yahoo Mail, Medium, Udemy, Codecademy, and New York Times all use React.
React is a popular choice for web projects due to its mild learning curve, relatively fast development and notable performance, which allows building web applications of various scope and complexity.
Optimized Performance
Virtual DOM is one of the defining features of React. It guarantees a minimum update time to the real DOM, provides higher performance and a better user experience.
Convenient Debugging
The component-based architecture in React eliminates the need for frequent debugging. If you edit one part of the app, it doesn’t affect other parts.
Huge Community
Being one of the first JavaScript libraries, React.js has gathered quite a crowd of followers. It enjoys the support of both Facebook and is blessed to have a huge community of software developers that provides valuable solutions that facilitate the development of the technology.
Today, Facebook’s technology enjoys huge rates of growing popularity. React is the most widely used JS library – it has become a go-to choice for most front-end developers.
Before React Native was invented, developers had to use various tools for different platforms. React Native allows mobile app developers to save a lot of time – your team won’t dissipate efforts on creating one app for iOS, one for Android, one for Windows, etc. Most of the JS code could be reused and enhanced with native modules or code.
In 2012 Mark Zuckerberg commented, “The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML as opposed to native.” He promised that Facebook would deliver a better mobile experience. React Native was developed after React to meet the growing need in high-quality cross-platform development. It was open-sourced in March 2015.
According to the Stack Overflow survey 2020, React Native is one of the most popular technologies – 58% of the respondents said they used React Native for mobile app development.
Code Reusability
The shining achievement of React Native is that developers don’t need to write separate codes for iOS and Android platforms. Also, they can partially share the code for the web, which allows for better teamwork.
Reduced Costs
As there is only one code base for all platforms, React Native can be used to build applications that are compatible with Android and iOS. This means that the team will save on the development, maintenance, and administrative costs. The other cost-saving comes from the fact that React Native is completely license-free.
Responsive UI
React Native is capable of providing users with native-like experience as it utilizes native UI in developing responsible mobile apps. If you are on a budget but need a cost-effective and quality solution that would run on several platforms, React Native is your choice.
Hot & Live Reloading
If the business logic needs to be modified, you can tweak the user interface without any loss of your app’s code.
Declarative UI
The idea behind this feature is pretty simple — it renders content by returning some JSX. Mobile UI is based on a declarative programming paradigm – engineers can focus on what is needed to be implemented rather than how to do this.
Rich Community
React Native was conceived through a Facebook run hackathon, and since then, it has been extensively supported by its community. If you face any issue during the development process, it will be easily solved. A large global developer community continuously contributes with their knowledge, solutions, tools, etc.
NameReactReact NativeTypeJavaScript library used for making User Interface.Framework used for mobile app development.Developed ByFacebookFacebookRelease20132015Open-sourceYesYesUsageReact is used for developing web-based applications.React Native is used in mobile app development.UI RenderingThe Virtual DOM renders the browser code.Uses platform-specific APIs to render code for mobile applications.Platform DependencyReact has no dependency on a particular platform.React Native is platform-dependent (to a degree).NavigationReact NavigationReact Native Navigation
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