Cross Platform App Development Technologies – Comparing React Native

Dedicated, platform independent mobile apps are becoming quite popular with business organizations from around the world. The major reason for this affinity is “Price point”. However, the cross platform app development domain is littered with several tools and technologies. Users and mobile app development agencies typically narrow down their choice depending on several factors such as user interface, performance, and development language, and of course its O.S independence capabilities.

Although multiplatform mobile app development tools are available in several flavors, the five most common and preferred options are – React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Ionic and Cardova. So, let us compare their characteristics, pros and cons and also how they stack against each other. Before that let us first understand their core attributes

React Native –

In 2015, Facebook offered app development community a free, full-featured, open standard and open source framework called “React Native”. Since then its popularity has soared to newer heights with each passing year. Written for and by several intuitive and powerful languages such as Swift, C++ and JavaScript, it is an all in one integrated tool which allows developers to design and build apps for several platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows. Its native like performance is loved by business organizations and adored by developers.

Flutter –

Flutter is synonymous with Google, and everyone knows their products whether open source or commercial offer the same set of quality attributes. Flutter allows developers to build high performance, cross platform, scalable and native-like apps with great ease. And the reason for this hassle-free development process is because of several inbuilt features such as off the shelf widgets, command-line tool and ready-made API’s.

However, what makes it an integrated app development tool is its own rendering engine. Although it leads second, after React Native, its demand and approval with the developer community is rapidly growing.

Ionic –

Introduced in the early second decade of the millennium by Driffy Co, Ionic is the oldest app development framework. It continues to be a popular option with developers due to its cross platform, and open source features. Ionic typically allows developers to use HTML5, CSS and SaaS to build robust and rapid mobile applications. However, in spite of being the oldest framework, it lacks in some high end functionalities and therefore lags behind in popularity chart.

Cordova –

One of the intriguing features of Cardova is its development language/s. It boasts web development tools such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to build cross platform mobile apps. Native languages have a steep learning curve. Cordova framework makes the learning process quite simple. It offers a perfect stepping stone for newbie developers to wet their feet before jumping onto more complex, native language driven SDK’s. Apps are typically encapsulated within a container and then executed via standard API bindings for various actions such as accessing data, network etc.

Xamarin –

With the integration of Xamarin into the .NET platform, Microsoft has enhanced the popularity of its prized flagship product by a huge margin. With the ability to access native platform features, Xamarin framework has catapulted into the big league in app development arena. Some of its essential, popular features include provision for Extensible Markup Language to create dynamic mobile apps, embedded C#, MVM libraries and intuitive editor extensions to speed up coding.

So, how do these frameworks compare with each other, especially React Native? Mentioned below are some of the equations.

Comparison – React Native versus Xamarin

One the most versatile and dynamic web languages ever built is JavaScript. And React Native uses React JS, an extended and vibrant version of its peer, the basic tool in this app development framework. However, it is not limited to a single language. In fact, React Native allows developers to exploit Swift, Object-C or Java, depending on the user demand or developer’s choice. React Native is also loaded with off the shelf modules and libraries for quick integration of various functionalities.

Xamarin on the other hand offers the best of both worlds. It allows developers to build mobile apps using native languages such as Xamarin itself and of course C#. Moreover, its integration with .NET development platform has turned it into an even more powerful tool offering developers to build dynamic Android, iOS apps in tandem with XAML (Extensible Markup Language).  DOT NET libraries are yet another advantage of Xamarin.

Comparison – React Native versus Flutter

It is a well-known fact that C++ and Java are highly advanced languages which are exploited for state of the art application development. It’s usage in mobile app sphere; especially React Native simply means inheriting the same set of robust and dynamic features.

Flutter too offers an impressive set of programming languages such as DART, C and C++. Platform specific logic implementation, embedded rendering engine and reduced code development time are some of its other salient features.

Comparison – React Native versus Cordova

React Native on its parts is an out an out app development framework which exploits native libraries, API’s and components. One of the major differences between React Native applications and Cordova is performance. While the former are excellent on the performance front, the latter tends to lag because of the inherent development tools and components. In short, React Native has a better UX which results in efficient HTML rendering.

Cordova is well known for its HTML, CSS and JavaScript to build native mobile applications which are hybrid in nature. One of Cordova’s core components is WebView. It is an application component that allows display of web content within the native application. Cordova also offers efficient code usability, inbuilt content viewing element and ease of coding.

Here are some important comparisons between other popular app development technologies.

Comparison – Flutter versus Ionic

Dart is a programming language synonymous with Flutter and typically based on C/C++.  What does this mean for developers and businesses … a robust and secure language that allows developers to create state of the art applications? In short, Dart can embed some of the most advanced security and operational functionalities in the apps.

Although Ionic on its own has several limitations in terms of building an efficient app, because of its HTML5 framework, it suitably compensates this restriction through Cordova. The latter allows Ionic to access native platform controllers thereby turning it into a versatile app development tool. The quality of code plays an important role in the long term functionality of app, and therefore TypeScript is used as an alternative in some development projects.

Comparison – Flutter versus Xamarin

The versatility of Flutter is immense. It is not just used to build apps for Android or iOS. It is also used to design and create mobile applications for a host of their O.S’s and systems such as Windows, Linux and even Google. The SDK of Flutter is a joy to exploit, boasting intriguing features such as compiling the code into native machine code, User Interface design library and Widgets and API’s.

Xamarin as mentioned in the earlier comparison is now a part of .NET framework which therefore makes it a tool to reckon with. Xamarin’s features include, MVVM architecture, usage of C# as its core programming language and a plethora of dynamic features and functionalities.

Summary –

The above app development frameworks have their own set of pros and cons. However, React Native and Flutter seem to rule the development domain by a huge margin, signaling its popularity. It doesn’t mean other app development platforms are not “Up to the mark”. Their very existence is the proof of their viability and necessity.