Since the release of the app store in 2008, iOS apps have taken a significant market share. With time iOS app market became a market of premium customers, who are spending billions on the apps collectively. Entrepreneurs prefer iOS app development over Android to target premium customers and increase their overall revenue.
Despite of availability of so many languages in the market, React Native holds a prominent choice for building iOS apps. In this article, we will see the necessary information about React Native, look at React Native pros, React Native cons, and when to use React Native for iOS development. Let us start by looking at the stats in the iOS industry before we move towards learning more about React Native in detail.
Stats in the iOS industry
Apple has a strong share in America, and most entrepreneurs want to target American consumers by solving their day-to-day problems and building a profitable business. · In America, Apple reported $51,496 million of revenue in December 2021 (Source)
- In America, Apple reported $51,496 million of revenue in December 2021.
- The iOS app store has nearly 100,000 games and 3.59 million apps as of July 2022.
- Business and education apps are the most popular category with 2nd and 3rd positions on the app store, revealing the majority of the educated and premium customer base.
- The average price of games and apps on the app store is 4.9$.
- More than 20 million developers are registered as iOS developers.
The stats above reveal the excellency of apple and the popularity of the app store as a premium customer market. This is also the reason why entrepreneurs want to target the iOS app store for their app development process.
React Native for iOS development
React Native is created by Meta Platforms Inc. (earlier known as Facebook). With the power of React Framework and its open-source nature, it has become popular among developers to build iOS, macOS, and Android apps.
What is React Native, and how does it work?
From Beginner to Advance levels, React Native is highly used by developers. Meta has used the tagline of learning once and writing anywhere for React Native, which explains the framework’s motive. It has combined React, a best-in-class JavaScript library, with native development in React to produce industry-leading iOS apps.
If you are wondering how a JavaScript framework renders native code, then the answer is its architecture. JavaScript code is converted to a package, and native code converts the modules
and handles, delivering robust communication between Native and Cross-platform technology.
Read Also: What is React Native and why it is Useful?
The latest release- React Native 0.69
The current version of react native is 0.69, announced in June 2022, where the framework has upgraded some of its dependencies. React Native now supports, React 18. It also supports Bundled Hermes, presents a new architecture for both iOS and Android, better support for M1 chips on Mac and iPad, and much more (Source).
Stats speaking the glory of React Native for iOS development
Finally, the stats about React Native for iOS development looks promising.
- As of August 2022, the market share of React Native apps is 4.84%.
- Microsoft one drive, Netflix, Instagram, Uber eats, and Flipkart is a few of the apps built with React Native, speaking of the glory of the framework (Source).
- And more than 42% of developers have chosen React Native to build iOS and other operating systems apps.
How does a React Native code look?
By that time, you must be wondering how React Native code looks. It does look the same as any other JavaScript code with the added power of Native technology. Below is an example of HelloWorld in React Native to demonstrate how the code looks.
React Native for iOS app development is an example
React Native Pros and Cons
React Native packs multiple advantages for entrepreneurs and developers, which is why it is widely popular in the market as an iOS development language. Let us see a few of the pros and cons of React Native.
React Native pros for entrepreneurs and developers
The popularity of React Native in the iOS development market is due to the pros it packs for developers and entrepreneurs. Check out the pros of React Native.
- Speedy development and reduced cost: Writing code is a complex task, and it takes time for developers to write code for iOS and Android. But with React Native, they can reuse the code written earlier for any platform they want. So, a code written for iOS app development can be reused on Android, bringing a faster development process. And, when the time is reduced, the overall cost of the project also reduces.
- Enhanced UI: Have you seen Netflix or One Drive app from Microsoft? We do not think there are any flaws in the beautiful design of these apps. And they have used React Native to build their app. Enhanced UI and user experience are one of the key pros of React Native.
- Reduced Maintenance cost: When developers have to maintain separate codes for iOS and Android, the overall maintenance cost increases for the clients. With React Native, developers have to maintain only a single code line, bringing the maintenance cost down for entrepreneurs.
- A large community: Developers can communicate with millions of other developers when they are stuck on a query or need to know something. Hence, React Native benefits users with massive community support.
React Native Cons for entrepreneurs and developers
Despite of major pros of using React Native, there are React Native cons. Let us list a few of them for you.
- Does not perform exactly like Native: You can build cloud-based and light to medium-powered apps with React Native. But, when it comes to real performance or games, you have to opt for programming languages that are dedicated to iOS.
- Design-Flaws: Although the major part of UI/UX is fulfilled with React Native when you integrate very complex tasks, you have to avoid using React Native.
- Discarded earlier versions: React Native integrates with React. So, when the company fully integrates the framework with a specific version of React, then previous integrations see a downfall.
There are not so many cons of using React Native because development is dependent upon logic. And, there is always a logic to performing even impossible activities in different ways.
When to use React Native for iOS development and alternatives?
Choose React Native when you want to go with a cross-platform approach. For example, if you are building an app for iOS, but in the future, you may also deploy it to Android, then React Native is a great choice. Also, if you do not require complex animations and integrations, you can go with the React Native framework.
Talking about alternatives, if you are planning cross-platform development, Flutter is a great choice. And, for the react native app development, you can go with Swift.
Wrapping up
The above piece of the article explains everything about React Native. With the pros, we can be sure about the power of React Native for iOS development. At the same time, the cons might confuse you to drop the idea of using React Native. However, the decision is simple. For a very complex app development process, you can choose native development. Else, React Native is capable of handling most of your requirements.
