Pros and Cons of using React Native
Tags: react, reactnative
Published: 2020-01-29 08:21:27

Cross-platform app development is becoming popular as the competition between companies increases. It not only saves time but also saves money and increases productivity.

And without an iota of doubt, React Native has been conferred as the most preferred cross-platform solution for the creation of both Android and iOS applications respectively. Using React Native, you can work on two different Operating Systems using a single platform.

<img src="https://d117h1jjiq768j.cloudfront.net/images/default-source/blogs/2019/2019-10/the-react-native-sdk-for-kinvey-is-now-available_870_450.png?sfvrsn=296e1008_0">

<a href="http://www.reactnative.com/"><b>React Native</b></a> is an open-source framework developed by <b>Facebook</b> used for creating native mobile applications. It was released in May 2015 and is the <i>oldest native app framework</i>. It is programmed in Javascript and has many similarities with React.

React Native's popularity can be determined from the fact that out of all the react customers around the world, 48% of them are from the US. To strengthen my point, below is a graph from Google trends showing React's dominance.

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--lt4RcI-I--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_880/https://recro.io/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Javascript-Native-Google-Trends.png">

<b>Pros</b> of React Native are:

<b>1. Large Community of Developers</b>- React has a large community of developers and users thanks to the backing it gets from Facebook.

<b>2. Cost-effective solution</b>- Because of its cross-platform capability, developers don't need to make different apps for Android and iOS. This makes the project cost affordable and saves time as well.

<b>3. Third-Party Plugins</b>- React Native offers the use of Third-Party libraries which offer many options, including Javascript modules and native modules because of the lack of some components in the main framework.

<b>4. Simple UI</b>- React Native offers simplified UI. This user interface improves React Native's loading time.

<b>5. Stable Apps</b>= It offers stable apps that improve the level of reliability. 

<b>6. Code Reusability</b>- One of the biggest strengths of React Native is its ability to reuse the code, meaning you don't need to create an individual app for each platform. This feature helps the developers in saving a lot of time and reduce the cost of development of the app.

<b>7. Companies</b>- React Native is used by many big companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Airbnb.

After discussing the Pros, let us see the <b>Cons</b> of React Native

<b>1. Memory Management</b>- It is difficult to manage the memory in React Native because of float computations that are dealt with in a disorganized manner. 
 
<b>2. Initialization</b>- It requires a lot of time for its initializing the run-time even for high-end gadgets and devices before it can be rendered initially.

<b>3. Lack of Security Robustness</b>- Since it is an open-source framework, it creates some gap in security robustness. For instance, if you are creating an application for <b>banking</b> or <b>finance</b>, then you would need to provide extra security.

Thanks for reading the article. I hope it answers the question you had regarding React Native.