With around 5 billion smartphones accompanying users daily, mobile phones play a critical role in our routines—whether it’s checking emails, streaming on Netflix, or managing expenses. They have become so integral that going even a day without one seems unthinkable. If you’re considering an investment in software development, prioritizing the mobile platform is essential. PreDevelopment is a vital phase where key decisions about mobile app structure and user engagement are crafted. Due to the platform’s immense popularity, numerous technical terms and options have emerged, such as Hybrid and Native Applications or frameworks like Ionic and React Native.
It allows you to build an application using CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript; all packed together in a container. This container loads all the data available on the page as soon as the user navigates through the application.
A native application has to be coded separately( using varied programming languages) for different operating systems. For example, Java is used for Android, and Objective C is for iOS devices. These applications can avail the benefits of OS features and other such software tools. Usually, the native apps are compiled into machine code.
Now moving ahead in this article, we will talk about the two most important frameworks- Ionic & React Native, their differences, and more.
React Native, a JavaScript library( which is used for developing UI), is managed by a community of React Native developers & leading corporations, including Facebook, Instagram. It is a cross-platform framework for building native apps. It lets mobile app developers reuse the code already used in other Android or iOS apps.
Ionic is an open-source, cross-platform framework used for developing hybrid solutions. It is a mobile App development framework based on HTML5 which operates with the help of Cordova or PhoneGap.
React Native is to leverage “learn once, write anywhere” theory. React Native adopts the native behavior & standards of the platforms, which in result, breeds seamless native experience. Here, the advantage is that it pays more attention to user interfaces by using native UI components.
Ionic offers complete SDK for building hybrid apps; it embraces the power of standard web technologies to build multi-functional, multi-platform apps with the minimum code base. Furthermore, it is established on the top of Angular. So, if you have familiarity with Angular, beginning with Ionic will be easier. Also, it is loaded with many built-in components that make development easier, faster, & smoother.
React Native implements “ learn once, write anywhere” software paradigm. It allows developers to use the elements which best follow the native behavior of a platform.
A typical hybrid application follows “Write once, run everywhere” methodology, and this synchronizes with the core concept of Ionic. Although to have a bit of native look, Ionic does adapt to the behavior of platforms, it is operating on.
React Native leaves the styling for the developer. As it relies on the native
behavior, hence it doesn’t use replication process.
Also,React has a
feature called Hot Reload. This feature allows debugging & updating the
running application without completely rebuilding it.
It consists of a lot of elements that are pre-styled. You wish to display a list of items, and for each, you need a little description & date? No worries, they have a component for that.
React Native is a popular framework on Github. Its community is continuously growing. Members of this community can easily find an answer to any question as well as third-party access libraries, which were created by the developers.
Also, a huge number of plugins are available for React. For instance, there is a plugin for utilizing Cordova/PhoneGap. This plugin helps in accessing too many mature plugins from other communities.
When it comes to Ionic, it doesn’t have such a broad audience. Nevertheless, it has been steadily growing.
React is a more reliable framework & also ideal for large-scale applications. It is intended to provide excellent performance & responsiveness, which requires a comparatively higher budget.
Ionic is all about native apps using HTML, CSS & JS components. It has a hybrid approach for app development. It accomplishes modern needs according to “write once, run anywhere” software rule. Sometimes, there can also be performance issues owing to the callbacks of the native code involved.
See the results of your modifications at the very instant you make them using React. There is no need of rebuilding, recompiling for the same.
During development, it is essential to receive immediate feedback. Using Ionic, one can instantly review all the changes after refreshing the application.
With React native, any third party library that one might use could get outdated or become incompatible with the updated codebase. Therefore, maintainability remains a considerable problem.
Opposite to React Native, you would only require maintaining one single app in Ionic. However, the major challenge with this is that the framework itself is changing with frequent release cycles on Ionic & Cordova.
| Ionic | React Native | |
| Code Reusability | Codes can be reused | Codes need to be rewritten |
| Nature | Hybrid | Cross-platform |
| Performance | Slower | Faster |
| Power Consumption | Around 520mW | Around 473.2 mW |
| Paradigm | Write once, run anywhere | Learn once, Write anywhere |
| Features | Useful features for hybrid app development | Lacks some essential features |
| Code Testing | It can be performed on any browser. | It requires a real mobile device or an emulator. |
| Learning Curve | Has pre-designed and pre-developed elements. | Consist of very few pre-styled elements. |
| Documentation | Simple and consistent. | A very basic manual is available. |
If the requirement is of high performance, native-looking app, then React Native is the best option. However, If your project has a low budget and requires decent performance, then choosing the Ionic framework will be suitable. Honestly, everything depends on the requirements of your project. Hope this post helps, in case of queries, feel free to talk!
