Why Would You Build An App On React Native Over Swift?

In the era of dig­i­tal­iza­tion, where the num­ber of mobile appli­ca­tion users is increas­ing con­tin­u­ous­ly, and as per Sta­tista, by 2026, there will be 143 bil­lion mobile appli­ca­tion users.

From the total down­loads, Android caters to 73% of the mar­ket, while only the IOS share is only 26%. 

Sta­tista

To cater to the whole audi­ence, busi­ness­es require an extra­or­di­nary mobile appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment plat­form that helps in cre­at­ing and design­ing an advanced appli­ca­tion that can run across mul­ti­ple platforms. 

There are a num­ber of mobile devel­op­ment frame­works avail­able for both plat­forms. Such as React Native which is a cross-plat­form mobile appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment while Swift is specif­i­cal­ly for IOS devices. 

React Native is an open-source frame­work that works on JavaScript and Swift, a pro­gram­ming lan­guage that allows the cre­ation of IOS applications. 

Here­by, we will have a clos­er look at swift and React Native and dis­cuss var­i­ous advan­tages offered by React Native as com­pared to Swift app devel­op­ment for your app design and ser­vice offers by React Native to pro­vide solu­tions for your every need. 

Intro­duc­ing to Cross-Plat­form Framework

Before hav­ing a clos­er look at both frame­works, first­ly, let us know about the cross-plat­form framework

The cross-plat­form frame­work is used by react native devel­op­ers to cre­ate apps on mul­ti­ple plat­forms. It means that the appli­ca­tion devel­oped with the sin­gle code frame­work can work for Android and IOS devices. This helps devel­op­ers work faster, more effi­cient­ly, and with sup­port­able apps across dif­fer­ent platforms.

Below are some of the fea­tures of the cross-plat­form framework

1. Code reusabil­i­ty: With the help of the code reusabil­i­ty fea­ture, devel­op­ers can cre­ate a sin­gle code base and can use it to build apps for mul­ti­ple oper­at­ing systems. 
2. Less time: As the devel­op­ers can use a sin­gle code base frame­work across mul­ti­ple oper­at­ing sys­tems, it takes less time for the devel­op­ers to launch the appli­ca­tion in the market.
3. Reduce Cost: A cross-plat­form frame­work reduces the cost of appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment, as a sin­gle devel­op­er can cre­ate an appli­ca­tion for mul­ti­ple oper­at­ing sys­tems and sim­pli­fies the devel­op­ment process.
4. Native Feel: The look and feel of cross-plat­form apps are sim­i­lar to that of native apps. So that the user does not have to com­pro­mise on per­for­mance while using the cross-plat­form application

What is React Native? Does React Native have a future?

Reac­tive Native is an open-source Face­book-sup­port frame­work for design­ing and devel­op­ing a mobile appli­ca­tion for both android and IOS devices. 

Com­pared to the Swift frame­work, React Native has more com­po­nents and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port. It is based on the JavaScript pro­gram­ming lan­guage, which allows the devel­op­ers to reuse the code across var­i­ous plat­forms such as Android and IOS and web apps. 

Devel­op­ers can reuse up to 70% of the code for build­ing appli­ca­tions across var­i­ous plat­forms, which reduces the time and cost of build­ing mobile applications.

What Are Native Devel­op­ment Apps?

Native devel­op­ment apps mean cre­at­ing a frame­work for a spe­cif­ic oper­at­ing sys­tem. Devel­op­ers use native inter­face ele­ments tools to cre­ate apps. For instance, to cre­ate an apple appli­ca­tion, devel­op­ers use Swift or Object C, on the oth­er hand, android apps are made with Java or Kotlin apps.

Below are some of the fea­tures of native appli­ca­tion development

1. Fast Per­for­mance: As a native appli­ca­tion uses spe­cif­ic native tools for appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment, it enhances the per­for­mance of the application
2. Smooth hard­ware Inte­gra­tion: The native appli­ca­tion uses spe­cif­ic react native tools, so they can eas­i­ly inte­grate with device hard­ware fea­tures such as cam­era, GPS, Blue­tooth, etc
3. Quick Launch: Since the native appli­ca­tion is cre­at­ed using a plat­form that uses sys­tem-spe­cif­ic tools, it makes it easy to launch apps with­out any bottleneck
4. Smooth UI and UX: As devel­op­ers use attrac­tive tools and design to devel­op a native appli­ca­tion, it enhances the user inter­face and user experience.

What is Swift? When should I use swift?

Swift is a gen­er­al-pur­pose pro­gram­ming lan­guage cre­at­ed by Apple to build apps for IOS-pow­ered ecosys­tems. With the help of this frame­work, apps can run on Watch IOS for apple watch­es, macOS for Apple com­put­ers, and many more. 

The frame­work is cur­rent­ly using Apache License, which is just 8 years old. Before Apache, the com­pa­ny was using Object‑C for its app development.

The main goal of cre­at­ing swift is to attract more devel­op­ers to cre­ate appli­ca­tions for IOS devices. Lever­ag­ing the capa­bil­i­ties of the swift frame­work allows the devel­op­ers to build more fea­ture-rich and high-qual­i­ty applications.

Why Are We Com­par­ing React Native With Swift?

As we saw in the above fig­ures the usage of mobile appli­ca­tions is increas­ing con­stant­ly, so now the mobile appli­ca­tion is not mere­ly a tool to solve prob­lems, it has become more about cre­at­ing a bond with the users. 

If the brand appli­ca­tion is installed in the user’s smart­phone, then the brand will con­stant­ly stay under the user’s hand. 

As per the IOC report, 80% of the users check their smart­phones with­in 15 min­utes after get­ting up. So for any busi­ness hav­ing a mobile appli­ca­tion is a must.

For any busi­ness, some­times the cost of devel­op­ing appli­ca­tions across cross-plat­forms is too high. 

If the cost of the appli­ca­tion is reduced with­out los­ing the qual­i­ty can be a huge advan­tage for companies. 

In addi­tion to that, busi­ness­es always look to cater to the audi­ence of both plat­forms i.e. Android and IOS, so the com­pa­ny has to devel­op two sep­a­rate plat­forms to per­form the same task, which can be solved with the help of React Native app development. 

Why React Native Is A Bet­ter Option For Mobile Appli­ca­tion Development?

There are many fac­tors that make React Native a bet­ter option to choose over Swift. Let us know about them

1. 1. Per­for­mance

When we com­pare the per­for­mance of React Native to Swift, per­for­mance para­me­ters come into con­sid­er­a­tion to decide which one is bet­ter. The para­me­ters are based on mem­o­ry usage, CPU con­sump­tion, and GPU speed.

Below are the per­for­mance com­par­i­son based on the fol­low­ing parameters.

From the above result, we can see that Reac­tive Native devel­op­ment ser­vice per­for­mance is bet­ter than that of Swift, so per­for­mance-wise React Native is a bet­ter choice

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Devel­op­ment

While devel­op­ing an appli­ca­tion, React Native takes less time to devel­op an appli­ca­tion as com­pared to Swift, and also the devel­op­ment cycle is short­er. On the oth­er hand, Swift has a slow process in devel­op­ing an appli­ca­tion and has a longer dura­tion cycle. 

Sec­ond­ly, look­ing from the update point-of-view, the Swift frame­work does not pro­vide OTA (Over-the-Air) updates and hence apple users will not get updates. While with React Native, you can see reg­u­lar changes and enhance­ments in the appli­ca­tion through reg­u­lar updates

Main­te­nance of appli­ca­tions built with React Native can be eas­i­ly done as com­pared to Swift because of the reg­u­lar updates pro­vid­ed by React Native, so the project libraries and com­po­nents are work­ing with the lat­est ver­sion of the framework. 

While from Swift’s per­spec­tive, as no updates are avail­able, with no updates avail­able, some­times you may see a lag in the appli­ca­tion so it becomes dif­fi­cult to main­tain the application.

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Learn­ing Curve

It is easy to learn and under­stand React Native if you know JavaScript. There are var­i­ous fun­da­men­tal cours­es avail­able to under­stand JavaScript, so it becomes easy to devel­op a frame­work for mobile and web applications

Swift is a new pro­gram­ming lan­guage, so it becomes rel­a­tive­ly dif­fi­cult to under­stand Swift pro­gram­ming lan­guage as com­pared to React Native.

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Devel­op­ment Cost

When we com­pare React Native vs Swift for the cost of devel­op­ing an appli­ca­tion, React Native app takes rel­a­tive­ly less cost­ly to cre­ate an appli­ca­tion than Swift devel­op­ment cost

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Devel­op­ment Time

When it comes to devel­op­ment time, React Native devel­op­ment devel­ops an appli­ca­tion in less time for mul­ti­ple plat­forms as com­pared to Swift. This is because of the com­plex­i­ty and takes more time to under­stand the pro­gram­ming lan­guage. So React Native is faster and easy.

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Matu­ri­ty

Both the pro­gram­ming lan­guages are new, as React Native was launched in 2015 ( direct descen­dent of React. Js which has been used inside Face­book since 2011) and Swift was launched in 2014. 

Swift is used instead of Object — C pro­gram­ming lan­guage, which is always a thorny process. It is the back­bone of every piece of soft­ware. On the oth­er hand, React Native frame­work on JavaScript, so it becomes easy to check the code and detect the prob­lems, and this frame­work makes it easy to spot the bugs and resolve them. 

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. Com­mu­ni­ty Sup­port and Documentation

React Native is an open-source frame­work that allows huge sup­port from devel­op­ers world­wide and on the oth­er hand, Swift does not get that much sup­port as com­pared to React Native Devel­op­ment. React Native has accu­rate, con­cise, and con­stant doc­u­men­ta­tion sup­port. Also, con­stant doc­u­men­ta­tion update from Swift is helpful.

Read also: How does react native work?

Win­ner: React Native

1. 1. User Inter­face

Swift pro­vides an advanced option when you want to devel­op graph­ic-inten­sive appli­ca­tions than React Native when using the appli­ca­tion for IOS devices. While React Native inter­face per­forms bet­ter with android devices.

Win­ner: Tied

What Are Some Of The Pop­u­lar Uses Cas­es: React Native Vs Swift

React Native — Uses Cases

1. 1. 1. The frame­work is sup­port­ed for almost each and every application
      2. Faster to devel­op and strong com­mu­ni­ty sup­port to build a sta­ble application
      3. Easy to build appli­ca­tions with a reusable code system

Swift — Use Cases

1. 1. 1. Suit­able for pre­mi­um apps with advanced secu­ri­ty features
      2. The appli­ca­tion con­tin­u­ous­ly requires main­te­nance and pro­vides updates in the long-term interval

Wrap­ping Up

Final­ly, from our com­par­i­son, you saw that React Native is a bet­ter pick. It is a cross-plat­form appli­ca­tion, so you devel­op appli­ca­tions for both Android and IOS at the same time. With the help of React Native devel­op­ment ser­vices, you can build appli­ca­tions faster and cheap­er than native apps.

Read also: What Will Be The Future Of React Native Devel­op­ers In 2023?

As com­pared to Swift which does not pro­vide updates, React Native will pro­vide you with reg­u­lar updates, which makes it eas­i­er for fix­ing bugs and errors across all platforms.

So if you are won­der­ing if React Native suits best for your project, then get in touch with React Native app devel­op­ment com­pa­ny to build the best-per­form­ing mobile apps.