The decision you make regarding the frame to use in your application can significantly impact your development schedule and even your user experience. React and React Native are the widely known technologies used by Meta which are mistakenly considered similar because of their origin. The use case of the two is totally unlike, even though they share a common building block architecture and script language (JavaScript). This blog post explores the key differences between React vs React Native, enabling you to decide which one to use for your next project.
Understanding the Core Differences
React and React Native appear to be close at first glance, but these frameworks have different functions and features. The two frameworks are compared according to some of their key dimensions, as shown below.
Platform Focus
React is a JavaScript library that is intended to construct interactive user interfaces in the web. It displays UI components as an application of the Document Object Model (DOM) in the browser. It is most applicable to websites, web applications and progressive web apps (PWAs).
However, React Native is a mobile software development framework that enables the development of native applications with iOS and Android using JavaScript. It uses native APIs and user interface components, which allows mobile applications to behave and act like native applications.
Rendering Mechanism
React apps display their react interface in the browser with HTML and CSS, and a virtual DOM manages smooth updates. React Native is not based on HTML and CSS. Rather than this, it renders components into platform-native widgets and uses a bridge to render them, which talks between JavaScript and native mobile code.
Styling
React styling can be performed both with conventional CSS and CSS-in-JS libraries, including styled-components or Emotion. There are browser-specific styling tools, media queries and frameworks such as Tailwind or Bootstrap available to developers.
React Native marks the styling language as JavaScript-based in the form of CSS, however, it cannot go beyond what the mobile supports. The layout is decided with the help of Flexbox, and more in-depth personalizations take the use of platform-specific API.
Navigation
React uses libraries such as react-router to navigate the web which uses URL routing and browser history.
React Native integrates navigation libraries such as React Navigation or react-native-navigation, which are built on stack and gesture-based navigation, prevalent in mobile apps.
Performance
React has superior performance of web applications, particularly when optimized using the technique of lazy loading, memoization, and server-side rendering. Nonetheless, there are still limitations of performance in browsers.
React Native provides close to native performance in mobile devices because it has native components. It is not necessarily as blisteringly quick as something constructed solely in Swift or Kotlin, but in most use cases it is powerful enough to be adequate.
Development Setup
The installation procedure of React is not very complex. Tools such as Create React App and Next.js are fairly common, allowing developers to start a web project and deploy it to common web hosting services.
Because React Native is more integrated, it is necessary to work with mobile development tools like Xcode for iOS or Android Studio for Android. It also needs simulators or physical devices.
Access to Device APIs
React applications are limited to browser APIs. In case you require such access to device hardware such as cameras or geolocation, you are restricted to that which is supported by the browser.
RN apps also have direct access to APIs of mobile devices and thus it becomes possible to add such features as biometric authentication, push notifications, etc. In case of the lack of available native modules, custom modules may be written in Swift or Java/Kotlin.
Code Reusability
React is focused to web development but the code is reusable with different kinds of websites or web applications.
You can reuse a major part of your codebase between Android and iOS using React Native. Although there maybe some platform specific modifications required in the UI components, business logic and state management are often shareable.
When Should You Choose React?
Choose React when your target users will primarily access your product via a web browser. It’s the ideal tool for building:
- Responsive web applications
- SEO-friendly marketing websites
- Admin dashboards
- Content management platforms
- SaaS products with browser-based UIs
- React provides a stable ecosystem with mature libraries and tooling, enabling rapid development and easier maintenance in large-scale web projects.
When Should You Choose React Native?
React Native is best suited for mobile-first projects or applications that require a native feel on both iOS and Android. Consider React Native if you are:
- Building a cross-platform mobile app
- Developing an MVP with limited time and budget
- Looking to maximize code reuse for mobile platforms
- Targeting users who primarily interact via smartphones or tablets
- React Native helps reduce time-to-market while still offering excellent performance and deep integration with native device features.
Can You Use Both Together?
Yes. React is used in the web applications of many companies, and React Native is used in their mobile apps. Having the fundamental logic, utility, and even design systems shared between the two frameworks has the potential to make them more efficient and consistent. This can be leveraged more easily at scale through monorepo environments with tools such as Nx or TurboRepo.
Conclusion
React vs React Native share many similar capabilities and abilities, making them effective and versatile, yet they serve distinct purposes. React is best suited for creating contemporary, user-friendly web applications, and React Native, in turn, enables you to create smartphone software with native features using the same source code logic in JavaScript. You need to rely on your audience, project targets and platform demands, as well as long-term scaling on the basis of choosing between the two. When your project requires the presence of both mobile and web applications, consider using React and React Native in parallel as your most effective option.
