When it comes to building mobile apps, two of the most widely used frameworks are Reactjs and React Native. Both apps share similar names, were developed by Facebook, and have remained popular years after their initial releases. Although they share fundamental similarities, React and React, Native is very different. In the realm of app development, it is not uncommon to have a discussion that compares and contrasts ReactJS vs React Native.
However, even experienced developers may be confused by the subtle differences between React and React Native when it comes to the argument. There are significant distinctions between Reactjs and React Native, yet many in the ecosystem are still confused about them. Everything else is a mystery, but it’s not hard to tell that one is meant for building websites and the other for building mobile apps.
Here, we’ll discuss the critical distinctions between React and React Native and highlight the similarities.
An Overview of React Native
Facebook’s JavaScript library for constructing user interfaces aimed at mobile platforms rather than the browser. Simply put, using a standard JavaScript library, web developers can now create native-looking and -feeling mobile applications. In addition, React Native facilitates cross-platform development by allowing you to reuse a large portion of existing code when porting to another platform, such as Android or iOS.
JSX, a hybrid of JavaScript and an XML-like markup language, is used to write React Native applications, which are compiled and run on mobile devices. The “bridge” in React Native then calls the Objective-C (for iOS) or Java (for Android) Native rendering APIs behind the scenes (for Android). As a result, instead of using web views, your app will cause with native UI elements for a native experience. Ensure that your React Native apps have access to platform capabilities like the phone’s camera or the user’s location. There are many pros and cons of react native but the one thing that makes it different from others is its JavaScript interfaces for platform APIs.
React Native includes built-in support for iOS and Android, with the ability to add support for additional platforms in the future. Most of the code developers will be platform-independent. Additionally, React Native may indeed be used to create fully functional, enterprise-grade mobile applications.
Advantages of React Native
Listed below are a few of the advantages of react native development that demonstrate why to React should be your first choice for your next piece of cross-platform code:
1. Outstanding Contribution
Most developers agree that Any other language cannot match native apps’ performance. Surprisingly, react-native functions like native programs use GPUs to speed things up. Apps built with React-native Native’s UI components outperform those built with Phonegap or Ionic in terms of performance and user experience. The user experience is maintained and improved since the apps look and behave like native apps.
2. Performance-driven
There is no denying that React Native is a valuable tool for enhancing performance via native control and modules. With React Native, you can quickly build cross-platform apps since it integrates with native OS components and creates code for native APIs in advance. Performance has improved by moving the optimization work to a separate thread, independent of the UI and the native APIs. You can also use WebView, but keep in mind that its performance will suffer.
3. Reuse Codes Pre-Built Components
The flexibility to reuse parts of your code is a significant perk of using React Native. Since any mobile app may use Facebook’s API, the team considers themselves incredibly fortunate and grateful. In reality, you reuse 90% of the codes across both operating systems thanks to the native framework you integrated.
Developers may save a lot of time and money thanks to this unique functionality, which is why many apps now use it. More pleasantly, React-based web apps can be repurposed to produce native mobile apps. The open-source library’s pre-built components are another way React Native quickens the pace of development.
4. Live Reload
After React, the next logical step in mobile application development is thought to be React Native. It allows you to build robust mobile applications by expanding on the concepts introduced by React. React Native features a fantastic bonus that you won’t find in the native frameworks: the “live reload” function, which lets you immediately see the result of your most recent code modification. This feature is not available in the native frameworks. If you have two windows open—one with the code and the other with a mobile screen that the code makes—you will be able to see the immediate effect of any changes you make to one screen on the other screen.
5. Great Community Support
Since React Native is an open-source framework, the entire community of developers has unrestricted access to all documentation regarding this technology. React Native is a community-driven framework, so you can always ask for help, find what you need, or offer your own assistance to other programmers if they’re having trouble. To get the most out of the community, developers should also reach out to fellow devs for reviews and suggestions.
An Overview of ReactJs
An open-source library that handles the application’s view layer solely is ReactJS. The Facebook staff is responsible for its upkeep. React employs a declarative paradigm that simplifies reasoning about your application to accomplish its efficiency and adaptability goals. It creates detailed views for your app’s states, with React updating and rendering the appropriate component efficiently when data shifts. With a declarative perspective, your code will be more stable and less buggy. An individual element in a React application renders a discrete, reusable chunk of HTML. Applications with inflexible logic can be built from relatively simple components by nesting them inside one another. A member may also keep track of their internal state, such as the tab presently selected in a table component.
Advantages of ReactJs
There are many advantages to using React JS. Let’s examine why React JS is superior to other front-end frameworks by looking at its most notable features.
1 Reusable Component
Each component of a ReactJS web project has its own set of rules and data processing capabilities. These widgets generate a compact, reusable chunk of HTML code that you can use in any project without worrying about breaking anything. The code’s reusability will simplify your app development and upkeep. These Components can be stacked within one another to form more sophisticated applications. To populate the HTML DOM, ReactJS employs a virtual DOM-based approach. The virtual DOM is efficient since it does not reload the entire DOM on every update but rather only the modified items.
2. Intuitive
Working with ReactJS is relatively easy to understand and adds liveliness to any UI’s layout. Additionally, it enables rapid application creation while guaranteeing its high level of quality, which, in turn, saves time for both the customers and the developers.
3. JavaScript Library
This strategy makes the entire process of coding more efficient by consistently mixing the most effective JavaScript and HTML syntax. One of the many features of the JS library is a function that takes the HTML components and translates them into the appropriate elements. This function makes the project more understandable and is one of its many benefits.
4. Code Stability
There is no better example of how modern technologies can complement one another than the combination of JavaScript and HTML. Using React JS in conjunction with HTML, you can generate code that can be reused. React JS takes advantage of downward data flow even more so than up. Therefore, modifying the statuses of the children will not affect the parent.
5. SEO-Friendly
The content must come first. Creating search engine optimization (SEO)-friendly software for today’s smartphones is no easy task. This is especially important now when so many apps are trying to outdo the rest. React JS ensures your project is search engine optimized by preventing common issues with search engines reading huge, heavily-loaded JavaScript applications.
How Do React Native ReactJS Work?
You must be wondering what exactly makes React and React Native function behind the scenes. While React uses the Virtual DOM to design fantastic UI, React Native uses platform-specific APIs to render reusable UI components on Android and iOS.
ReactJs’s Virtual DOM
When it comes to representing a web document and its contents in code, the Document Object Model (DOM) is essential. How libraries and frameworks handle the Document Object Model (DOM) significantly affects how they are utilized and displayed. The introduction of Virtual DOM has revolutionized React. It’s an online duplicate of the original DOM. Thus, Virtual DOM facilitates rapid updates and the development of dynamic user interfaces. Virtual DOM, in contrast to traditional DOM updates, is much faster, more efficient, and provides a more satisfying user experience.
Native APIs for React Native
When rendering UI components, React Native uses Java APIs for Android, the native Application Programming Interface (API), and Objective-C for iOS. After that, the remaining code is built in JavaScript to tailor the program to each platform while maximizing component reuse and code sharing. Whereas ReactJs makes use of CSS and HTML, React Native does not. To apply custom styling to the React Native components, you will need to develop custom JavaScript style sheets. Although it shares some visual similarities with CSS, it is fundamentally different. Similarly, p> is used in place of text> in React Native, whereas div> is used in place of view>.
In a Nutshell
I hope this blog gives you some ideas about how ReactJS differs from React Native. Which should you choose? Well, it depends on what needs to be done. ReactJs is the best framework for building web apps with high-performance, dynamic, and responsive user interfaces. On the other hand, React Native is meant to give you an easier way to work with native code to make your mobile apps feel more like native apps. But if you need help deciding, you can hire a software development company to help you make the best app for your project.
