Why and Why not to Use React Native?

When it comes to mobile app development, React Native always finds itself on the top of the framework's list. One can narrate plenty of success stories of React Native framework, and that's true by the way. React Native has come up solving all pain points that entrepreneurs and developers were struggling for -developing native applications for cross-platforms. 

Coming to the core points, despite all the goodies, entrepreneurs including developers across the globe keep asking me if they should use React Native for a new project or look for other alternatives. React Native developers worldwide have mixed opinions regarding the frameworks.

"React Native, like every technology has some limitations and that will continue to happen. This is right that the React Native is working hard to solve the issue, but it is giving birth to another new issue as well. This is not the fault of Facebook or RN, but it happens due to the rising needs of applications and evolution of technology. That, I think, never gonna stop," Saurabh Barot, CTO Aglowid.

Is React Native Worth Using?

The question remains if React Native is worth using. The suitable answer to this question would be "It depends." React Native is a fantastic framework. You can utilize the framework and develop applications for cross platforms such as iOS and Android devices. But, this is also a fact that you are bound with some limitations and you need additional support or look for an alternative to get comprehensive solutions.

In this article, I have tried my level best to describe every unsolved question to developers and entrepreneurs worldwide. The entire article is focused on the benefits and limitations of React Native. Based on the detailed analysis, you could be able to take a better decision whether you should or shouldn't use React Native for your next project.

Note: I assume that all the readers here know the basic of React Native (at least understand what React Native is). So, I will be focusing upon more on what actually the article is meant for.

Why Should You Consider React Native for Your Next Project

React Native framework was developed by Facebook in 2013 and made the framework open source for public use in 2015. React Native comes up with robust solutions for clients looking for an application to run across cross vary platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows. It lets the user create interactive mobile applications while it composes interactive UI using JavaScript. Here're some of the reasons you should use React Native.

Reasons Why Native React Became So Popular

React Native became popular not because it came with the best solutions, but for the alternate solutions for cross-platforms. Besides, there are no other frameworks so far have been able to beat the performance of React Native. Flutter is a possible competitor to React Native as it is giving a tough fight to the framework. In fact, you will find developers having warm discussions on Flutter vs. React Native. However, there are some other reasons why React Native grabbed so much attention in the tech arena. Let's take a look;  

Development Speed

React Native supports cross-platform development, therefore, it is apparent that it will save development time. Developers can save up to 30 to 35% development time. No all, but a considerable chunk of codebase is shareable between the platforms. Besides, if it is your web application, then much of its codes can be utilized by React Native that also trims development time.

Developer Productivity

React Native enhances developer productivity by offering them multiple productive features. Features like integrated components, hot reloading, reuse of codebase and to name just a few. These features play a significant role in React Native development speed, and that results in the productiveness of developers.

Cost

React Native makes some clear savings on both cost and time. One app, with a little modification, can run across all devices. Besides, it reduces maintenance expenses when one codebase is shared across multiple platforms.

React Native Features in Question

Among all these goodies, there are some aspects such as its claimed features, functionalities, etc. are questionable. Here are some of the top issues that its critics and users have to say about.

"To me, React Native is the best among all other cross-platform frameworks, but that doesn't mean that it has everything that we as developers expect to have. It is still far lagging in terms of performance, speed, and reliability as compared to Native application. The good things about the framework are that it is working on all the drawbacks concurrently and coming out with valuable solutions. Let's see what we get next,"

Performance

As we have already mentioned that React Native is better than the other hybrid tools and frameworks, but the performance of the application under question when one compares this to that of native apps. More than that, you cannot use React Native for all types of apps as it may impact on the performance of the application.

Code Reusability

As the slogan of React Native goes, "write once, use everywhere" that does not seem to be right at its place, though even React Native does not call it the goal. React Native applications go through configurations to work across cross-platforms. Practically, developers can share around 60-90% off codes across platforms.

React Native is best for Certain Types of Applications

One of the biggest drawbacks of React Native is that it is not comprehensive development solutions. You cannot just pick React Native and go on developing any types of applications. However, it is suitable for specific tasks of the app as follows.

E-commerce Apps

When you want to create E-commerce applications, then React Native can be the best choice. It shares most codes across platforms.

Social Media Apps

As the tech giant, Facebook has developed React Native, it will work faster and gives native fill to the users.

Small Games for Cross-Platform

Though React Native is not good for creating Games application, developers can create small games based on JavaScript.

In short, React Native can be an excellent choice for creating small applications. At this point, I can tell you that Flutter is one of the rising frameworks which be used for creating heavy industry applications, but that too depends on the need of the project.

"No doubt, React Native is the best framework and has everything that we wanted for a long time. More than that, RN gives us the freedom to explore ourselves and utilize all the creativity that we have. But, the framework also has some limitations that, I think, React Native is working to improve this. This will come over time.", says Yatin Desai, Front End Developer.

React Native is not best for Certain Types of Applications

One hand, developers like working with React Native for creating small applications, they also don't find the framework good choice for building applications that deal in or use complex background processes and customized settings. They are as follows.

Messengers App

React Native does not go well with creating messenger type applications. Such application requires heavy background process support that React Native does not provide.

Media Player Apps

React Native is not useful in multitasking applications, for example, media player application goes through many processes including GPU processing, background processing, multi-threaded programming, device controlling capabilities, OpenGL and to name just a few. That's where developers don't suggest going with React Native in this case.

So, you will find plenty of reasons not to use React Native for a certain place. However, the good thing about the React Native is that it is taking every drawback very seriously and trying to get rid of the issues as quick as possible.

Drawbacks of React Native

In fact, React Native's development community keeps asking users if they face any problem or issues or want any new things to be included in the framework. In the following paragraphs, we will be talking about its drawback, and you will definitely successfully be able to pick the framework wisely.

Upgrading Issue

Upgrading from one version to another takes a lot of efforts. The problem starts with the developers who are still using couple versions behind. And, if they want to upgrade to the latest version, then it becomes very problematic.

Finding Debugging Exceptions

React Native does not find the root cause of an exception, easily. One of React Native developer in the React Native community on GitHub said that stack trace in Chrome debugger console takes to the original place but to Exception Manager that obviously consumes a lot of time. The issue at first place seems to be a related bug, but it has been with many other developers as well and it has to be given serious attention.

Crashing

Yes, it does crashes. React Native is not resilient to crashes. It happens when developers mistakenly do something wrong. However, these are an issue that the React Native community itself has asked people using React Native framework to tell the issue they are facing.

Hot Reloading

Hot reloading, this is one of the most talked features of React Native, is having an issue when developers use it with Stateless Functional Components (SFC).

These are some of the minor issues that developers across the tech arena are facing currently. However, there some big issues as that React Native needs to work seriously.

Tough for Fresher Developers

React Native is not easy for fresher developers due to the JSX aligning with JS syntax extension. Learning HTML and JavaScript combination can stiff task for average developers.

Does not Provide Robust Security

Standard security features are there, but at times when you need to develop highly sensitive apps for banking or finance, then you need to find some robust security solutions. That, I think, missing in React Native.

Conclusion

The bottom line of the story is that React Native is suitable for certain types of application development and when it comes to choosing the framework for heavy industry application, you need to wait and think for the right solutions. React Native has created a sense that it provides a native app, but the fact matter is you get to create a hybrid application and it does rendering using native components. More than that, you need to use native frameworks for certain features.

I have shared almost all the issues that React Native is having and there more that you can explore from the React Native community.