Difference between React and React Native

September 6, 2022
min

React.js was originally developed by Facebook for its own purposes: to have a dynamic and efficient user interface (UI). Two years after the code was made open source, a mobile version, React Native, was launched.

ReactJS is a JavaScript library responsible for building a hierarchical structure of user interface components. It supports both client-side and server-side rendering.

React Native is a framework for building native applications using JavaScript. A native application is a mobile application that is developed specifically for one of the operating systems used by smartphones and tablets (iOS, Android, etc.). The syntax and workflow remain similar, but the components are different.

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Advantages of React

  • React's virtual DOM (Document Object Model) refreshes only certain parts of the page, making it faster than the real DOM.
  • You can reuse code components in React JS, which saves you a lot of time.
  • Even for those unfamiliar with React, it is easily readable. Because it is highly close to an HTML structure.
  • You benefit from all the advances in the JavaScript language and its ecosystem.

Advantages of React Native

  • When you create a web application, you cannot access the user’s files, the camera, the OS or anything outside the browser. But React Native made that possible by allowing to bridge the gap between a webpage and a native device. This means that if you use React Native to build applications, you can then use the phone’s camera and any kind of native APIs that were not accessible before (location, camera, file system, and so on). Not only is it possible, but as it is developed and maintained by professionals, the performance in term of speed is key (animations were once slow on the web, and even slower on mobile).
  • React Native has all the advantages that React.js has given you.
  • You don't have to build the same app for iOS and Android separately, because React Native allows your developers to reuse the common logic layer.
  • React Native's component-based structure allows developers to create apps with a more agile approach to web development than most hybrid frameworks, and without any networking.

Conclusion

React is perfect for building a dynamic, high-performance, and responsive user interface for your web interfaces, while React Native is designed to provide a truly native feel to your mobile applications. And this means that you could use a single codebase for a web app, an iOS app AND an Android one! Wonderful, right?

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