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React Native sounds like a mistimed bet now. Maybe 3-4 years ago, but at this time? There are a number of better alternatives. I spent some time working on a R

React Native sounds like a mistimed bet now. Maybe 3-4 years ago, but at this time? There are a number of better alternatives. I spent some time working on a RN project, and even though the whole idea of declarative interface, state update, etc is interesting, it is not exclusive of RN - and there is the whole rest of the story: RN libraries are a mess and usually buggy, there is virtually very little compatibility between native and web, and.. have anyone ever tried updating a RN codebase? I remember we had to recreate the full project and copy the files manually because everything was broken beyond any hope, this after spending a full week trying to fix the build. For Shopify seem that even a PWA could fit, and would be much more compatible, reliable, etc. By the way, one of their justification is "in-house know-how", which I heard so many times before... This is usually how you justify crappy decisions by using inferior technology and then spending 2x the effort to try to fix it. I hope it doesn't happen with them, but it does like like that's the way they are heading to.

Androider 7y ago
It's interesting how differently you can look at things. I would consider the best time to start a React Native project to be sometime next year, and after 1.0 ideally. It's exactly when you jump on the bleeding edge that you end up with cuts and bruises. For every new shiny thing you'll be trading your current known problems for a set of unknowns and the inability to even Google-search for the solution. Let the tinkerers do the bleeding, and only once they've buffed the sharp parts can you as a company like Shopify start to bet on it. It seems module and library handling was just revamped in React Native (not a user myself yet, perhaps next year), so thank you for your sacrifice. Developers picking up RN today will hopefully have a smoother experience.

Androider 7y ago

It's interesting how differently you can look at things. I would consider the best time to start a React Native project to be sometime next year, and after 1.0 ideally. It's exactly when you jump on the bleeding edge that you end up with cuts and bruises. For every new shiny thing you'll be trading your current known problems for a set of unknowns and the inability to even Google-search for the solution. Let the tinkerers do the bleeding, and only once they've buffed the sharp parts can you as a company like Shopify start to bet on it. It seems module and library handling was just revamped in React Native (not a user myself yet, perhaps next year), so thank you for your sacrifice. Developers picking up RN today will hopefully have a smoother experience.