Web and software
React Native vs native app development: which one for a business app?
By Javier Fernández. Published
React Native builds iOS and Android apps from one JavaScript/TypeScript codebase; native development builds each app separately in Swift and Kotlin. For most business apps React Native costs less and ships faster with no visible difference to users. Native is worth it for heavy graphics, advanced hardware access or apps where every millisecond of performance matters.
What's the difference?
Native apps are written per platform: Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android, two codebases and often two teams. React Native, maintained by Meta and used in apps from Shopify to Microsoft, renders real native components from a single TypeScript codebase, with native modules when a feature needs them.
Cost and speed
One codebase means one team, one set of features to build and test, and fixes that reach both stores at once. For a typical business app that cuts build and maintenance effort substantially compared with two native apps, and makes it easier to share code with a React web app.
When native is the better choice
Games and graphics-heavy apps, deep integrations with device hardware (advanced Bluetooth, AR, background processing), or products where peak performance is the selling point. For forms, lists, maps, payments, chat and dashboards, which covers most business apps, React Native is the pragmatic default.