Why Should Startups Choose React Native Over Hybrid Applications?

Steve Johnson
The Fresh Writes
Published in
6 min readJan 30, 2023

Do you know why React native is famous among developers? Statistics say that the React Native framework has a 38% market share and is the second-best cross-platform framework for developing mobile applications. So, today in this blog, we discuss reasons why startups choose React Native framework over hybrid applications.

React Native and Hybrid App

Let us start our discussion with hybrid applications and React Native frameworks.

What are Hybrid Applications?

Hybrid applications are developed with web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The overall cost of creating a hybrid application is less than that of native applications. Hybrid applications also support native application features and run offline.

What is React Native?

React Native is a framework based on JavaScript developed by Meta platforms. This framework is written in JavaScript, java, c++, and objective c and was released in the year 2015.

How does React Native Work?

The basic working of this framework depends on three threads.

  • UI (User Interface) thread (main thread): This thread is directly connected to the user interface of the application.
  • Shadow Thread (background thread): This thread helps to calculate the layout of the application by using React Native libraries.
  • JavaScript Thread (execution thread): It contains JavaScript code.

Working of React Native Framework:

The layout calculation has been done using the JavaScript code. Then this layout has been given to the Shadow thread. This thread creates the tree for this layout using a layout engine called Yoga. The communication between the JavaScript thread and the Shadow thread has been established via a bridge. This bridge serializes the data in JSON format and transfers this data to the UI thread.

Then after deserialization, the main thread renders the interface and completes the mapping from the browser to React Native.

Reasons why startups choose React Native over Hybrid Apps

Some of the developers may find Hybrid applications to be the best because of the following reasons:

Hybrid applications are platform specific so with them it is a great chance to reach your target audience easily. But at what cost? We cannot deny the cost of building platform-specific applications as a startup, right?

Let us help you to understand the reasons why startups are inclined towards React Native framework to build their applications.

1. Low Performance:

Hybrid applications do not have high performance. Hybrid applications may not run smoothly on your mobile phones as the application created by using React Native framework would run.

2. High Complexity:

User experience: Hybrid applications do not have a seamless user interface. Hybrid applications might not be for every operating system. For example, if any hybrid application has been primarily developed for android users, then it may not work at the same performance for iOS users.

3. Quality Issues:

Hybrid applications do have quality issues. For example, a hybrid application might not deliver quality and high graphics images. They are not even good when it comes to rendering any 3D graphics. Other native applications are much better than hybrid applications in terms of quality.

4. Capabilities are Limited:

Hybrid applications have limited integrations with other third-party libraries. This limitation is the main reason hybrid applications are not rich in functionalities. However, React Native framework can be integrated with other third-party libraries easily.

5. Hardware compatibility:

For hybrid applications, developers need to write different codes for operating systems such as iOS and Android. So, it becomes a little difficult for developers to ensure that their applications are compatible with device hardware.

Advantages of React Native Framework over Hybrid Apps

If your company is the best mobile app development company, then you must be aware of a few of the advantages of React Native frameworks. Let us discuss the reasons behind the adoption of React Native in detail.

  1. The Framework is User-Friendly:

The react native framework is user-friendly. It helps developers to develop web pages more creatively. React Native uses JavaScript to create the user interface. JavaScript is more responsive and possesses less load time.

2. Option for Code Reusability:

React native framework gives you the option to reuse your code for iPhone and android applications. In this framework, you can reuse up to 90% of the code for both platforms. It makes the application’s development and maintenance process easy.

3. Cost Efficiency:

React Native framework offers a code reusability option for developers. Hence it helps you to save up to 40% on development costs. It comes with great rendering techniques and that is why it is good for creating both simple and complex user interface designs.

4. Efficient Integration with Third-party libraries and Plugins:

You can integrate this framework with third-party libraries very easily. Some of the third-party libraries that have high compatibility with React Native are AntDesign, Entypo, EvilIcons, Feather, FontAwesome, and FontAwesome 5.

5. Testing:

React Native testing is one of the crucial processes. React Native applications provide tools that offer you the tools to test the code for your applications. With these tools instead of checking the entire code we can test the code in chunks to optimize the functionality of the overall system.

6. Large Community Support:

React Native has great community support. Developers at Facebook always update the framework to make it even more advanced. You can easily get expert support if you want to learn about this framework in detail.

7. Compatibility with Hardware:

For frameworks, hardware compatibility is one of the major concerns. Since React native has been created to develop cross-platform applications, it can easily access the in-built hardware components of the mobile application such as Bluetooth and GPS, etc. whether it is an android operating system or an iOS operating system.

React Native vs Hybrid Application: The Comparative Chart

React Native and Hybrid Application

Conclusion:

In this blog post, we discussed the top advantages and reasons why React Native becomes the first choice of startups to build any application rather than hybrid applications. Are you looking for the best react native app development company to develop your application? You can contact the best iOS or Android app development company.

Thanks for reading.Happy learning 😄

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Steve Johnson
The Fresh Writes

Hi, My name is Steve Johnson. I am a Digital Marketing Executive working at Jumpgrowth. JumpGrowth is leading global web & mobile app development company.