The Dif­fer­ence Between React.js and React Native

Do you ever won­der how to build a dynam­ic, user-friendly app for web and mobile plat­forms? Look no fur­ther than React.js and React Nat­ive! These frame­works offer developers power­ful tools to cre­ate enga­ging inter­faces, but what makes them unique? 

Although React.js and React Nat­ive look the same, sep­ar­ated by a minor change, they are used in two dif­fer­ent aspects. One is used to build web applic­a­tions with the best inter­faces, while the oth­er is used to cre­ate mobile apps. These two plat­forms come with their bene­fits, allow­ing you to become productive. 

This post will guide you through everything about React versus React Nat­ive.

React.js

What is React.js?

React.js is a front-end JavaS­cript frame­work used to con­struct com­pos­able user inter­faces pre­dict­ably and effect­ively. This open-source and com­pon­ent-based frame­work devel­ops the applic­a­tionʼs viewpoint. 

By build­ing reusable com­pon­ents, which you may think of as sep­ar­ate Lego blocks, you design your applic­a­tions with React.js. Com­bined, these pieces are indi­vidu­al com­pon­ents of a final inter­face, form­ing the applic­a­tionʼs user interface.

By offer­ing the best and most effect­ive ren­der­ing exe­cu­tion, React.jsʼs primary func­tion in an applic­a­tion is to man­age the view lay­er of that applic­a­tion, much like the V in a mod­el view con­trol­ler (MVC) paradigm.

React.js encour­ages developers to break down these soph­ist­ic­ated user inter­faces into dis­tinct, reusable com­pon­ents that serve as the found­a­tion for the entire UI rather than treat­ing the whole UI as a single entity.  42.62% of developers use React.js to build their web frameworks.

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This allows the ReactJS frame­work to render web pages more quickly and devel­op highly dynam­ic and respons­ive online applic­a­tions by com­bin­ing the speed and effi­ciency of JavaS­cript with a more effect­ive way to manip­u­late the DOM.

• React.js uses Mod­el View Con­trol­ler (MVC), and the view lay­er takes respons­ib­il­ity for hand­ling both mobile and web applications.

• React is best known for its abil­ity to cre­ate mobile apps and single-page websites.

Advant­ages of React.js

There are many reas­ons why ReactJS should be your first choice for web­site UI devel­op­ment. Here are a few high­lights of the most sig­ni­fic­ant ones and why these par­tic­u­lars are so crucial:

• Faster — Apps designed using React.js are fast, flex­ible, and can man­age com­plic­ated upgrades. 

• Mod­u­lar — This plat­form allows you to write sev­er­al small, reusable code files without pro­du­cing vast and dense files. Reactʼs mod­u­lar­ity is the best rem­edy for JavaS­criptʼs vis­ib­il­ity problems. 

• Scal­able — React.js per­form best in the case of large pro­grams that deliv­er a massive amount of data changes. 

• Flex­ib­il­ity — React dif­fers from oth­er approaches by decom­pos­ing them into com­pon­ents while cre­at­ing user inter­faces, which is cru­cial in com­plic­ated applications.

• Pop­u­lar — ReactJS per­forms bet­ter than oth­er JavaS­cript lan­guages because it imple­ments a vir­tu­al DOM.

• Easy to learn — The learn­ing curve is not com­plic­ated because any­body can learn React.js with the basics of HTML and JavaScript. 

• SEO-friendly and serv­er-side ren­der­ing — ReactJS web­sites are renowned for their serv­er-side ren­der­ing fea­ture, which is also SEO-friendly. Com­pared to goods that use cli­ent-side ren­der­ing, React.js makes apps speedi­er and sig­ni­fic­antly bet­ter for search engine rank­ing. React can even take up more space on the search res­ults page and cre­ate more options for web­site SEO.

• Reusab­il­ity — Reusable UI com­pon­ents by React speed up devel­op­ment and debugging.

• Com­munity — Many exten­sions and tools are avail­able for ReactJS developers. More chances become avail­able along with stun­ning out-of-the-box func­tion­al­ity once you real­ize how enorm­ous the React galaxy is. It has a com­munity sup­por­ted by Meta (Face­book), which helps on the way. 

So, these are a few React.js advant­ages why people prefer it.

Applic­a­tions of React.js

React has grown in pop­ular­ity and sta­bil­ity as a res­ult of its capa­city to build online applic­a­tions that are quick, effect­ive, and scalable.

Sim­il­ar tech

Thou­sands of online applic­a­tions, from estab­lished busi­nesses to fresh star­tups, use React.js to build their applic­a­tions. Among those men­tioned are:

• What­s­App Web
• Red­dit
• Uber
• Airb­nb
• Face­book
• Khan Academy
• Codec­ademy
• Sound­Cloud
• Ins­tagram
• Net­flix
• The New York Times
• Dis­cord 

What is React Native?

An open-source JavaS­cript frame­work, React Nat­ive allows you to cre­ate apps for dif­fer­ent oper­at­ing sys­tems from a single source code, includ­ing iOS, Android, and the web. It is based on React and brings all its splendor to cre­at­ing mobile apps.

Face­book gave birth to React Nat­ive frame­works. The goal of the hack­a­thon pro­ject React Nat­ive was to elim­in­ate the largest pain point for the com­pany — main­tain­ing two code bases for their app. Duplic­a­tion of effort and occa­sion­ally approach­ing the same issue from two sep­ar­ate angles are a few dis­ad­vant­ages you can over­come using React Native. 

React Nat­ive builds the appʼs user inter­face in JavaS­cript while util­iz­ing nat­ive-OS views. This frame­work allows you to imple­ment it in OS-nat­ive lan­guages for more com­plex features.

Also Read: What is ReactJS app devel­op­ment, and its features?

Advant­ages of React Native

There are many reas­ons why you should prefer using React Nat­ive to build mobile apps. Below are a few advantages.

• Reusab­il­ity of code — The sig­ni­fic­ant and most com­pel­ling bene­fit of React Nat­ive is its abil­ity to cre­ate effect­ively for sev­er­al plat­forms at once. Fur­ther advant­ages of using a single code base across vari­ous plat­forms include quick­er app devel­op­ment and time to mar­ket, sim­pler and less expens­ive main­ten­ance (you have to worry about one code base instead of many), and easi­er onboard­ing for new engineers. 

• Hot Reload­ing Cap­ab­il­ity — With hot reload­ing cap­ab­il­ity, you can view changes to your code in real-time without refresh­ing any­thing. Because it gives you imme­di­ate feed­back on any changes made to the code, this ostens­ibly tiny change can sig­ni­fic­antly enhance the devel­op­ment pro­cess and increase productivity. 

• Per­form­ance — React Nat­iveʼs ​“bridge” concept can be ground­break­ing com­pared to exist­ing cross-plat­form devel­op­ment approaches. Due to the pos­sib­il­ity of using nat­ively writ­ten code, React Nat­ive applic­a­tions are quick­er than web-based cross-plat­form solutions.
• Cost Effect­ive­ness — Cross-plat­form pro­gram­ming is primar­ily done to cut down on costs. You often require a small team to com­plete the pro­ject because you can reuse the code across numer­ous platforms.

• Grow­ing Com­munity — The com­munity behind the open-source frame­work React Nat­ive is thriv­ing and grow­ing. Face­bookʼs involve­ment is essen­tial to note because they are always try­ing to expand and improve the framework. 

This means that even if you encounter a prob­lem that React Nat­ive has not yet solved, you may find a group of people eager to help you because they care about strength­en­ing and mak­ing the frame­work more reliable.

• Grow­ing Scope — React Nat­ive is a rel­at­ively young frame­work grow­ing enorm­ously with many users. It indic­ates that this frame­work is con­stantly chan­ging to get bet­ter and that fresh addi­tions and upgrades are fre­quently made. We anti­cip­ate see­ing approaches to cre­ate quick­er and more effect­ive applic­a­tions. Also, read about Which Mobile App Devel­op­ment Frame­work Is Right For You?

Applic­a­tions of React Native

Giv­en all the advant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages, it should be no sur­prise that many busi­nesses design mobile apps using React Nat­ive. It is noted that 38% of soft­ware developers use React Nat­ive Frame­works for their cross-plat­form applications.

From social media to online shop­ping plat­forms, here are a few brands that have React Nat­ive plat­forms. 

• Face­book 
• Ins­tagram
• Sound­Cloud Pulse 
• Town­ske
• Gyro­scope
• Face­book Ads
• Wal­mart
• Bloomberg
• Wix
• Delivery.com

Latest React Nat­ive Release 18

As of March 2022, React 18 is the latest ver­sion of the pop­u­lar JavaS­cript lib­rary for build­ing user inter­faces. This ver­sion brings sev­er­al new fea­tures and enhance­ments that make it even more power­ful and easi­er to use for developers.

1. One of the most sig­ni­fic­ant new fea­tures in React 18 is intro­du­cing the ​“con­cur­rent ren­der­ing” mod­el. This new mod­el improves the per­form­ance of React applic­a­tions by enabling them to execute mul­tiple tasks concurrently. 

This means that React can con­tin­ue ren­der­ing new UI parts even if itʼs wait­ing for oth­er tasks to com­plete, which can res­ult in faster and more respons­ive user interfaces.

1. Anoth­er import­ant fea­ture in React 18 is the intro­duc­tion of the ​“useTrans­ition” hook. This hook allows developers to add anim­a­tions and trans­itions to their applic­a­tions more eas­ily. It does this by enabling developers to defer updates to the UI until an anim­a­tion or trans­ition has been com­pleted. This can make applic­a­tions feel smooth­er and more pol­ished, res­ult­ing in a bet­ter user experience.

React vs. React Nat­ive: Key Dif­fer­ences Between React.js and React Native

While there are sev­er­al dif­fer­ences between React.js and React Nat­ive, below are a few primary and not­able ones. 

1. React.js is a base deriv­at­ive of React DOM for the web plat­form, where­as React Nat­ive is a base deriv­at­ive of React Nat­ive in and of itself.
2. In the end, Reactjs is a JavaS­cript lib­rary that allows pro­gram­mers to build attract­ive and pro­duct­ive UI Lay­ers. In con­trast, React Nat­ive is a com­plete frame­work for devel­op­ing cross-plat­form apps for the web, iOS, and Android oper­at­ing systems. 
3. React Nat­ive uses nat­ive APIs to render com­pon­ents on mobile devices, while React.js uses vir­tu­al DOM to render browser code.
4. React.js pro­grams provide HTML in the user inter­face but React Nat­ive apps use JSX, essen­tially JavaS­cript, to give the user interface.
5. With React.js, CSS plays a role in design­ing styles. How­ever, in React Nat­ive, styl­ing is cre­ated using a stylesheet.
6. Sim­il­ar to web devel­op­ment, anim­a­tion in React.js can be done using CSS. How­ever, using an anim­ated API, many React Nat­ive applic­a­tion com­pon­ents are made to move when using React Native.
7. React.js is the best choice for cre­at­ing a high-per­form­ing, dynam­ic, and respons­ive user inter­face for web inter­faces. The best option for giv­ing mobile apps a com­pletely nat­ive exper­i­ence is React Native.

Get the best of React versus React Nat­ive 

React.js or React and React Nat­ive focus on two essen­tial aspects of todayʼs inter­net world — web­site inter­faces and mobile apps. Developed by Meta (Face­book) to ease their way of devel­op­ing their applic­a­tions, these plat­forms went a long way to assist developers and oth­er busi­nesses. See­ing the fea­tures these plat­forms offer, they are widely adop­ted by the world and are chan­ging how developers function. 

To take advant­age of React Nat­ive JS, you can get in touch with us at React Nat­ive Devel­op­ment Com­pany and help your busi­ness grow with the new trends. also read more about ReactJS app devel­op­ment and its fea­tures. and must know about React Nat­ive Upgrade Help­er: Stream­line Your App Upgrades with Ease.