Difference Between React Native and React

React is a well-known JavaScript library mostly used to build dynamic and interactive user interface applications for the web. It is a creation of Facebook, which lets developers create reusable UI components and also provides a virtual DOM on which rendering is to be done. React Native is a new concept that applies the logic of React to developing mobile applications.

That means developers can write mobile apps for both iOS and Android operating systems. Using React Native, one would get identical compiling with a single codebase. Using native components instead of elements from the web gives a real mobile experience. Read on to find out the important differences between React and React Native and the different places where they can be used.

Why People Get Confused Between React and React Native?

React and React Native are often terms that create a lot of confusion among developers. Well, even the names are similar, and both have a shared background in JavaScript. React (React.js) is a JavaScript library used to create user interfaces for web applications, while React Native is used to apply the principles of React to build native mobile applications for iOS and Android.

Both JSX for UI design and concepts like components, props, and state management are common to both. Conceptually they are alike. React works with HTML elements in web browsers, while React Native works with native components of mobile platforms. The overlapping concepts and terminology often blur their distinction from one another in the eyes of beginners, so it becomes indispensable to learn their distinct use cases and environments.

ReactJS

React is an open-source declarative JavaScript library that aids developers in crafting interactive user interfaces for web applications. It has its renown because of the virtual domain object model by which performance is improved by updating changed elements in the webpage instead of dialing an entire page of DOM again.

Use Cases of React

• Single-page applications: it is well-suited for SPAs where the content is updated by dynamic modification of the entire page, as exemplified in Gmail or Trello.
• Interactive dashboards: these are applications for real-time application updates, such as analytics dashboard displays.
• E-commerce site: an application for seamless product browsing and cart update activities, as well as searching.
• Social media websites: use what Facebook and Instagram use React to provide an interactive feed and interface.

Example

Here's an example of a simple React component that displays a greeting message and updates it based on user input.

import React, { useState } from 'react';

function GreetingApp() {
  // State to manage user input and greeting message
  const [name, setName] = useState('');
  const [greeting, setGreeting] = useState('Welcome!');

  // Function to handle greeting update
  const updateGreeting = () => {
    setGreeting(`Hello, ${name}!`);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{greeting}</h1>
      <input
        type="text"
        placeholder="Enter your name"
        value={name}
        onChange={(e) => setName(e.target.value)}
        style={{ 
          padding: '10px', 
          fontSize: '16px', 
          marginRight: '10px' 
        }}
      />
      <button 
        onClick={updateGreeting}
        style={{ 
          padding: '10px 20px', 
          fontSize: '16px', 
          backgroundColor: '#007BFF', 
          color: 'white', 
          border: 'none', 
          cursor: 'pointer' 
        }}
      >
        Greet Me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default GreetingApp;

How it works?

• State Management:
  • name stores the user's input.
  • greeting holds the displayed greeting message.
• Input and Button Interaction:
  • The input field lets the user type their name, updating the name state.
  • Clicking the "Greet Me" button updates the greeting message with the user's input.
• Styling:
  • Inline styles are used for quick and simple design adjustments.

Running the Code

• Ensure you have a React environment set up (e.g., using Create React App).
• Save the code in a file, such as GreetingApp.js.
• Import and render <GreetingApp /> in your main application file (App.js).

React Native

React Native is a framework enabling native mobile applications to be built with JavaScript and React. It takes web and mobile by allowing a developer to write a single codebase for use in developing apps for both iOS and Android. It uses native-components such as View, Text and Image, not element types like div or span.

Use Cases of React Native

• Cross-platform Apps: These are applications used on both Android and iOS at the same time, such as in Uber Eats or Airbnb.
• Prototypes: React Native allows fast prototyping using its reusable and hot-reloading components.
• Mobile-first startups: React Native is the choice for such companies as those in charge of developing iOS app-centric companies to save time and cost when developing an app.
• Internet of Things Applications: This is becoming a trend in using React Native to develop mobile interfaces for IoT systems.

Example

Here's an example of a simple React Native app that displays a greeting message and updates it based on user input.

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { 
  SafeAreaView, 
  StyleSheet, 
  Text, 
  TextInput, 
  Button, 
  View 
} from 'react-native';

const GreetingApp = () => {
  const [name, setName] = useState('');
  const [greeting, setGreeting] = useState('Welcome!');

  const updateGreeting = () => {
    setGreeting(`Hello, ${name}!`);
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.greeting}>{greeting}</Text>
      <TextInput
        style={styles.input}
        placeholder="Enter your name"
        value={name}
        onChangeText={setName}
      />
      <View style={styles.buttonContainer}>
        <Button
          title="Greet Me"
          onPress={updateGreeting}
        />
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'center',
    backgroundColor: '#F5F5F5',
    padding: 20,
  },
  greeting: {
    fontSize: 24,
    fontWeight: 'bold',
    marginBottom: 20,
    color: '#333',
  },
  input: {
    height: 40,
    borderColor: '#CCC',
    borderWidth: 1,
    paddingHorizontal: 10,
    borderRadius: 5,
    width: '80%',
    marginBottom: 20,
    backgroundColor: '#FFF',
  },
  buttonContainer: {
    width: '80%',
    marginTop: 10,
  },
});

export default GreetingApp;

How it works?

• State Management:
  • name stores the user's input.
  • greeting holds the displayed greeting message.
• Input and Button Interaction:
  • The TextInput field lets the user type their name, updating the name state.
  • Clicking the "Greet Me" button updates the greeting with the user's input.
• Styling:
  • The StyleSheet API ensures the app looks polished and adjusts styles for a mobile-friendly layout.

Running the Code

• Setup React Native Environment: Ensure you have React Native set up. Follow the official React Native Getting Started Guide.
• Create a Project: Use the following command to create a new project: npx react-native init GreetingApp.
• Replace Code: Replace the contents of App.js with the above code.
• Run Command:

  // For Android
  npx react-native run-android
  
  // For iOS
  npx react-native run-ios
  

Difference Between React vs React Native

Advantages and Disadvantages

Having discussed the definition and application of both React and React Native, we would now look at their pros and cons for going the informed choice route for the project.

Advantages of React

React is mainly a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, which offers an awesome benefit in the following ways.

• Virtual DOM for High Performance: The emergence of a virtual DOM has revolutionized and optimized a lot for the improvements of performance within the React environment. By creating a lightweight copy of the actual DOM, React does whatever it needs to do without needing to perform any duties on the real DOM. This helps do a lot faster rendering and speeds up application performance.
• Component-based Structures: The reuse and maintenance of code in React offers flexible code adaptability, and through component-based structures, developers build small, reusable, self-announcing components. Hence they can be easily combined into more complex compositions within the user interface.
• Rich Ecosystem And Community Support: The other plus point to be counted by a React Developer is the great money they can have in resources available from the huge ecosystems of third-party libraries, tools, and a lot of extensions of React. Furthermore, the big and vibrant community performs continuous improvements and makes available to everyone the benefit of help.
• SEO Friendly: The server-side rendering of React turns into a significant improvement for building SEO-friendly web applications with a great boost in search results.
• Easy Learning Curve: The learning curve is quite easy in React, especially for developers who know JavaScript beforehand. The syntax is quite simple, and there is excellent documentation out there for beginners.
• Effective Updates and Rendering: React reuse is what it does when there are changes in the state of a dynamic application, which indicates better performance in dynamic applications.
• Reusable Components: Increase productivity by eliminating the need to build new UI components from scratch for each project.

Drawbacks of React Platform

While React is well-known for many reasons, it does have its cons.

• Steep Learning Curve: While powerful, its structure and JSX syntax can make it daunting for new developers to learn. Onboarding is also challenging since it assumes knowledge of JavaScript ES6+ features and component-based architecture.
• Rapid Development Speed: Difficult to keep up with the speed of updates and new features, from the best-practice evolution to the very latest discovery. This takes a huge toll on the developer's time because they have to constantly learn to keep up.
• JSX Complexity: Definitely JSX markup is HTML-like in form, but with JavaScript, it is much more readable for writing programs but might confuse some programming geeks who know just JavaScript having a clear demarcation between HTML and JavaScript.
• Tooling Overhead: React projects often come with a heavy dependency on additional tools like Webpack, Babel, or Create React App for setup, which can become a burden for small teams and relative newcomers.
• Binds the UI Line: React makes applications work only on the view layer and now you have to integrate it with some tools such as the Redux state management tool and a back-end framework in order to complete the functionality of the entire application.

Advantages of React Native

• Cross-Platform Application Development: React Native enables building apps for both iOS and Android devices using a single codebase and thus saves a considerable amount of time and cost.
• Native Performance: React Native apps are compiled to native code and so provide near-native performance that can far outperform traditional hybrid mobile applications.
• Code Reusability: Most of the code development for mobile and web applications can be reused in a single cycle.
• Live and Hot Reloading: Live and hot reloading help developers view changes instantly, significantly speeding the pace of development and debugging.
• Access to Native Features: Straightforward access to platform features and APIs with React Native empowers developers to effectively use device capabilities.
• Large Community and Third-Party Libraries: As with React, React Native can utilize a strong ecosystem for third-party libraries and a really active community towards many different needs developers may encounter.

Disadvantages of React Native

• Performance Restrictions: Indeed, React Native is competent in most of the applications but it doesn't pose up to the standards when it comes to highly complex or graphics-centric applications as would have been done with native development.
• Platform-Specific Code: Much like cross-platform applications, some features still might necessitate using platform-specific code and will probably leave confusion in the developers.
• Complicated Debugging: Debugging under React Native could be made harder as with native development due to the issue of native modules or platform-specific issues.
• App Size is Bigger: Files for applications built using React Native usually have more weight than their counterparts developed using the native approach. This is due to the JavaScript runtime inclusion.
• Highly Dependent on Third-Party Libraries: While it has a comprehensive ecosystem benefit, it also comes with a disadvantage of using third-party libraries. Most often, this leads to problems like incompatibility or maintenance issues.