Cross-Platform War — Which Side are you on Ionic or React Native?
The businesses generally find no middle ground other than building the apps that support both platforms- Android and iOS, because declaring a winner in this tug-of-the-war is beyond the bounds of possibility. Building a native app for the two different platforms is not a viable option for entrepreneurs with less deep pocket. That’s where cross-platform app development is a panacea.
The cross-platform app development approach enables the businesses to get the app developed for the multiple platforms just at the dollars, efforts and time investment of building one app. However, the plethora of cross-platform frameworks offer no paucity of choices, which makes the decision of selecting one framework to build the app difficult.
Among a slew of options- Flutter, PhoneGap(Cordova), Ionic, React Native, it’s tough to pick up the best. Again, the cross-platform war erupts, where passing the judgment is a hard nut to crack in. It’s prudent to not get into the debate of all the frameworks and discuss a handful of frameworks that help in engineering the application better than the rest.
Based on the popularity, usability, comprehensibility, and community support, there are two frameworks- Ionic and React Native that is highly favoured by the enterprises to get built their app for the multitude of platforms. But, the question is how you can be biased towards one framework. Once more, there is the same story- choose the one that fits the best.
Don’t get in a fluster! We have ironed out the issue with the one-to-one comparison of the two frameworks against distinct elements.
Before hopping onto the assessment bandwagon, take a quick glance at the brief of Ionic and React Native:
Ionic: The app development framework built using HTML5 and wrapped with native-styled UI elements is famous for building hybrid applications. The successor of Apache Cordova is also famous for the powerful command line interface and improved documentation, and the tools like- CSS and Saas which makes the app development a breeze.
React Native: The JavaScript framework is launched and backed by the leading Facebook mobile app. Packed with a bundle of pros, the framework allows the developers to reuse the code and port the application on different platforms. Plus, the framework can access the phone’s basic features to exploit the full potential of the apps.
Let’s begin with Ionic Vs. React Native battle:
Native feel
Ionic provides a complete SDK to develop multi-functional hybrid apps embracing the power of web technologies. The myriad of the in-built components enables app development faster, easier, and smoother with the minimum codebase. But, Ionic runs the same code irrespective of the platform, which makes it challenging to adapt the complete behaviour of the target platform.
The React Native provides native experiences by perfectly espousing the native behaviour and standard of the target platform. The framework is not based on ‘write once and run everywhere’ approach, it means the developers have the liberty to use the components that follow the native behaviour of the platforms. It makes it easier to adapt to the features of distinct platforms.
Verdict: React Native is a winner.
Development time
The simple, clean, and consistent documentation, the availability of pre-developed and pre-styles components, and the ‘write once and execute anywhere’ approach of the Ionic framework have reduced the development time by a large fraction.
On the other hand, the basic documentation, the presence of too fewer pre-developed components, and the ‘learn once and write anywhere’ approach of the React Native framework extends the app development time. This is why it’s considered as ideal for the rapid prototyping.
Verdict: Ionic is a winner.
Performance
React Native is a stable framework that enables offering native-like experiences by modifying some of the platform-specific components. React Native render the app across platforms using native components. It implies the app built using React Native follow the patterns of the target OS that makes the app responsive and offers good performance. The excellent code performance makes React Native an ideal solution for building comprehensive applications.
Ionic leverages WebView to write and render the applications. Later, Cordova bridges or various plugins download is required to access the native features. The process involves a lot of repetitive callbacks to the native code, which raises some performance issues.
Verdict: React Native is a winner.
Learning curve
When we look at the language stack, Ionic is a JavaScript framework that’s based on Angular language and uses HTML templates for the views. Plus, following the MVC patterns, the logic and views are entirely separated. Moreover, the coding language is TypeScript which is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to simple JavaScript on any browser. The developers who are familiar with Angular development find a low learning curve involved with Ionic development.
React Native is also based on JavaScript framework and use JavaScript code- JSX, that’s a syntax extension which optimizes the code during the code compilation to JavaScript. The developers find it easier to develop the native-like app using UI components, but when the app goes into the designing, the issues pop-up.
Remember JSX is not HTML and CSS cannot be used directly by the designers. Although the designs created using JSX resembles a CSS style, they are more platform-specific following a different set of rules other than CSS. Therefore, the engineers working with React Native don’t feel the familiar ground as it involves much work, collaboration, and steep learning curve.
Verdict: Ionic is a winner.
Rich Community
The community offers excellent support to the developers who are seeking the advice or assistance of the experienced players for fixing the bugs or creating a complex feature. React Native has a rich community of JavaScript professionals who readily support, give information, provides updates, and resolve the issues. The community boasts of having nearly 76,554 stars on Github for React Native and 44,000 questions asked on StackOverflow about React Native.
The community of Ionic framework also supports and guide the novice developers to start and build the mobile application quickly. The community enjoys the virtue of having about 36,000 stars on Github for Ionic, and 36,680 questions asked on StackOverflow about Ionic.
Verdict: React Native is a winner.
Code testing
The app developed using Ionic can be tested in any browser or mobile device. Besides, the app preview can be instantly tested after making a few changes in the application, which enables getting immediate feedback for the app and the changes made (If any).
As we have discussed above React Native renders the app features using native components. Thanks to Live Reload, which enable real-time rendering eliminating the need to rebuild and recompile the app again. In this way when the app is tested on the emulator on any device, you get the results as the changes made to the application.
Verdict: It’s neutral.
Third party libraries and plug-ins support
There is no point in building the functionalities from scratch when we have already inbuilt functions that are generally known as third-party libraries and plug-ins. Both cross-platform frameworks support access and seamless integration of the plug-ins.
React Native already has built-in plug-ins to integrate the functionalities directly and also PhoneGap/Cordova plug-ins can be used to get instant access to other hundreds of the plugins from other communities.
Ionic has an additional feature termed as Ionic Native or ngCordova which enable the developers to utilize the plug-ins of Cordova (PhoneGap) in order to uncover the native features in WebView.
Also Read: 5 Important Factors to Consider Before Developing a Hybrid App
Epilogue
At the end of the blog, you are definitely expecting the name of the champion of the cross-platform frameworks. It cannot be fair to declare one framework as the best fit for different types of applications. The project requirements, target users, and business needs would help in deciding which framework excellently suits the cross-platform app development.
At first, figure out what is your priority- performance, native feel, development time, budget, community support, third-party integration, learning curve, or ease of development and then identify how the pros and cons of the specific framework work for you in order to narrow down a choice to one platform and build a full-fledged solution that works on every platform impeccably.
