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I've been doing iOS and Android for about 6 years. My latest project uses React Native. We just finished an app for both iOS and Android that has over 100 scr

I've been doing iOS and Android for about 6 years. My latest project uses React Native. We just finished an app for both iOS and Android that has over 100 screens and did it in only 3 months with a small team. So I'm a good authority on this subject. I found React Native to be a mix of joy and frustration. I was amazed at how quickly our devs, who came from the web, could build polished screens that performed beautifully. Then I would become baffled at how, for example, you couldn't do a background upload in React Native. Here - it does is upload a file in the background: https://github.com/Vydia/react-native-background-upload https://github.com/Vydia/react-native-background-upload In RN, you have to connect JavaScript to native code with "bridges". If a bridge exists for, say, getting GPS data, you are fine. But if it doesn't, welcome to the club. I finally became relatively adept at writing these bridges, but I would have much rather have spent that time writing code for my app. Their build system is weak. For example, the build scripts hardcode 'dev mode' unless you have a build scheme in iOS and Android called 'release'. It felt like nobody else had built RN apps that have beta and staging environments. Crash reporting sucks and we finally got it working with sentry.io and some custom build scripts to upload source maps so we could get decent JS error reports. But that stuff will go away in time. I was blown away at the progress we made. It was painless for web devs to jump right in an be productive. So for us it's a net positive. If you're starting something new, try it out. Make your platform choice carefully. RN isn't the only game in town. See what works for you. And don't get fooled into thinking that you don't need any native knowledge to make an app. Maybe hello world, but nothing industrial grade.

DenisM 10y ago
>RN isn't the only game in town. What else is there that's similar? NativeScript?
- yellowapple 10y ago
  Cordova comes to mind (in the "write 'native' apps like web apps" sense, at least).
- woogley 10y ago
  I heard about https://weex-project.io/ https://weex-project.io/ by way of the Vue docs. There might be other projects too
- SureshG 10y ago
  Flutter - https://flutter.io/ https://flutter.io/ , but it's in Dart!
- WaxProlix 10y ago
  Not JS/webdev friendly, but things like Xamarin or Kivy (or Qt or whatever) come to mind for cross-platform native-esque user interface building.
- raarts 10y ago
  Turbolinks? https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks-ios https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks-ios
- s369610 10y ago
  Xamarin with Xamarin Forms Xaml
- sheraz 10y ago
  There is Appcelerator Titanium which has been in the javascript native mobile app game for 5+ years. https://www.appcelerator.com https://www.appcelerator.com
  - tqkxzugoaupvwqr 10y ago
    I used Appcelerator Titanium to build a couple of apps a few years ago (2011–2012). The positive: If you know JavaScript, you can get started quickly because they provide a JavaScript API and all your code is in JavaScript. Under the hood the JavaScript connects to native code. So you get a native look and feel on iOS and Android. You have a single codebase. The negative: Back then it was impossibly hard to get an app working and/or looking correctly on both iOS and Android at the same time because Titanium was full of bugs. So many bugs. This is because for each platform they have to provide native code. Sometimes their iOS code had bugs, sometimes their Android code. It was absolutely frustrating. I often had to find workarounds which caused a lot of delay so I had to double down to keep the deadline. Titanium was a reason I quit that job after 1.5 years. On paper it’s nice, but the implementation was terrible. I went back to web apps and have since been happy.
    - ourcat 10y ago
      I've been using Titanium for years. Still do. It can be frustrating at times yes, but through using it so long, I've now learned enough Objective-C and Java to fix things or build modules to add functionality. Not enough to build an app, but it's been an enjoyable learning curve.
    - mgkimsal 10y ago
      It seemed to me Appcelerator sort of abandoned the smaller/hobbyist/indie market for enterprise. I was using it in 2013/2014 and went to one of their conferences in 2014 - activity seemed to really slow to a crawl in public (hyperloop was announced, and the demo looked great, but I never saw much after that). $40/month, but no visual builder. Eclipse-based IDE tooling (which was always flakey ime). $100/month/seat to get hyperloop and visual builder. Still not sure what 'arrow' is exactly. The demos always looked good, but my day to day was... frustrating after a while. Possibly could have stuck with it and justified with "sunk cost" but I started looking more closely at cordova stuff. Yes, it's not pure 'native' (why I liked titanium) but the ecosystem is more flexible (or so it seems).
- whatever_dude 10y ago
  All of those comparisons are missing the point. RN is not perfect, but it's leagues ahead of Cordova, Xamarin, and etc in a combination of performance and easiness of UI development.
- georgefrick 10y ago
  Ionic (2) ? I've been using that with great results.
- crystalPalace 10y ago
  FreePascal compiles to Android and iOS.
- zerr 10y ago
  Embarcadero Firemonkey.
htormey 10y ago
Pretty much agree with everything you said. I'm an iOS/Android dev with about 7 years of mobile development experience and I have shipped two apps using React Native. I think the biggest problem with adopting React Native in a shop that already has a native team is politics. Lots of Native developers don't want to touch it. I think it's a great fit for companies who already have a React front end team and who's mobile teams are at least open to giving it a try.
farm_code 10y ago
How is the maintenance of the app compared to the native code in terms of upgrading?
- dsirola 10y ago
  I just spent whole day yesterday trying to upgrade RN0.40 -> RN0.42. It's a nightmare because there are conflicts in xcodeproj file and you have to manually merge them.
- stevepotter 10y ago
  It sucks. Their default upgrade tool does more harm than good. Currently I start a new RN project then do a diff to see what I have to update on our actual app. Fun, right?
j2kun 10y ago
> Their build system is weak. I feel like this is a huge understatement. Doing anything non-default takes ages to configure, and there's so little documentation to help you out.
- stevepotter 10y ago
  Not only that, the team is resistant to enhancing the build system. Example of one of my struggles: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/11711 https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/11711 On a side note, their build scripts are all js and node is probably my last choice for build scripts. As a result, you have callbacks and promises everywhere. I understand they don't want people installing more dependencies but using something common like Ruby would make it much easier to build great build tools.
the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
> Crash reporting sucks and we finally got it working with sentry.io and some custom build scripts to upload source maps For what it's worth for react-native proper we are investing a lot of time into this now. With latest sentry-cli getting sourcemaps going is a one-line change to your build script. https://docs.sentry.io/clients/react-native/#updating-build-steps https://docs.sentry.io/clients/react-native/#updating-build-... (you only need the line with react-native-xcode)

DenisM 10y ago

>RN isn't the only game in town. What else is there that's similar? NativeScript?

yellowapple 10y ago
Cordova comes to mind (in the "write 'native' apps like web apps" sense, at least).
woogley 10y ago
I heard about https://weex-project.io/ https://weex-project.io/ by way of the Vue docs. There might be other projects too
SureshG 10y ago
Flutter - https://flutter.io/ https://flutter.io/ , but it's in Dart!
WaxProlix 10y ago
Not JS/webdev friendly, but things like Xamarin or Kivy (or Qt or whatever) come to mind for cross-platform native-esque user interface building.
raarts 10y ago
Turbolinks? https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks-ios https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks-ios
s369610 10y ago
Xamarin with Xamarin Forms Xaml
sheraz 10y ago
There is Appcelerator Titanium which has been in the javascript native mobile app game for 5+ years. https://www.appcelerator.com https://www.appcelerator.com
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 10y ago
  I used Appcelerator Titanium to build a couple of apps a few years ago (2011–2012). The positive: If you know JavaScript, you can get started quickly because they provide a JavaScript API and all your code is in JavaScript. Under the hood the JavaScript connects to native code. So you get a native look and feel on iOS and Android. You have a single codebase. The negative: Back then it was impossibly hard to get an app working and/or looking correctly on both iOS and Android at the same time because Titanium was full of bugs. So many bugs. This is because for each platform they have to provide native code. Sometimes their iOS code had bugs, sometimes their Android code. It was absolutely frustrating. I often had to find workarounds which caused a lot of delay so I had to double down to keep the deadline. Titanium was a reason I quit that job after 1.5 years. On paper it’s nice, but the implementation was terrible. I went back to web apps and have since been happy.
  - ourcat 10y ago
    I've been using Titanium for years. Still do. It can be frustrating at times yes, but through using it so long, I've now learned enough Objective-C and Java to fix things or build modules to add functionality. Not enough to build an app, but it's been an enjoyable learning curve.
  - mgkimsal 10y ago
    It seemed to me Appcelerator sort of abandoned the smaller/hobbyist/indie market for enterprise. I was using it in 2013/2014 and went to one of their conferences in 2014 - activity seemed to really slow to a crawl in public (hyperloop was announced, and the demo looked great, but I never saw much after that). $40/month, but no visual builder. Eclipse-based IDE tooling (which was always flakey ime). $100/month/seat to get hyperloop and visual builder. Still not sure what 'arrow' is exactly. The demos always looked good, but my day to day was... frustrating after a while. Possibly could have stuck with it and justified with "sunk cost" but I started looking more closely at cordova stuff. Yes, it's not pure 'native' (why I liked titanium) but the ecosystem is more flexible (or so it seems).
whatever_dude 10y ago
All of those comparisons are missing the point. RN is not perfect, but it's leagues ahead of Cordova, Xamarin, and etc in a combination of performance and easiness of UI development.
georgefrick 10y ago
Ionic (2) ? I've been using that with great results.
crystalPalace 10y ago
FreePascal compiles to Android and iOS.
zerr 10y ago
Embarcadero Firemonkey.

htormey 10y ago

Pretty much agree with everything you said. I'm an iOS/Android dev with about 7 years of mobile development experience and I have shipped two apps using React Native. I think the biggest problem with adopting React Native in a shop that already has a native team is politics. Lots of Native developers don't want to touch it. I think it's a great fit for companies who already have a React front end team and who's mobile teams are at least open to giving it a try.

farm_code 10y ago

How is the maintenance of the app compared to the native code in terms of upgrading?

dsirola 10y ago
I just spent whole day yesterday trying to upgrade RN0.40 -> RN0.42. It's a nightmare because there are conflicts in xcodeproj file and you have to manually merge them.
stevepotter 10y ago
It sucks. Their default upgrade tool does more harm than good. Currently I start a new RN project then do a diff to see what I have to update on our actual app. Fun, right?

j2kun 10y ago

> Their build system is weak. I feel like this is a huge understatement. Doing anything non-default takes ages to configure, and there's so little documentation to help you out.

stevepotter 10y ago
Not only that, the team is resistant to enhancing the build system. Example of one of my struggles: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/11711 https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/11711 On a side note, their build scripts are all js and node is probably my last choice for build scripts. As a result, you have callbacks and promises everywhere. I understand they don't want people installing more dependencies but using something common like Ruby would make it much easier to build great build tools.

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago

> Crash reporting sucks and we finally got it working with sentry.io and some custom build scripts to upload source maps For what it's worth for react-native proper we are investing a lot of time into this now. With latest sentry-cli getting sourcemaps going is a one-line change to your build script. https://docs.sentry.io/clients/react-native/#updating-build-steps https://docs.sentry.io/clients/react-native/#updating-build-... (you only need the line with react-native-xcode)