Should You Choose React Native Or Swift For iOS App Development?
Table of Contents ● ● ●
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1) About React Native 2) About Swift 3) The advantages and disadvantages ● Advantages of React Native ● Disadvantages of React Native ● Advantages of Swift ● Disadvantages of Swift 4) 1. Performance aspects ● Performance of React Native ● Performance of Swift 5) 2. The architectural aspects 6) 3. Building complex applications 7) 4. App testing 8) Final considerations
Introduction Have you been thinking about developing a cross-platform application or a native iOS solution for your business? How will you make the right choice regarding technology that’ll yield an interface worth showcasing? This topic will answer these questions and more. This write-up is primarily a comparative study of React Native and Swift – two different technologies preferred for building iOS applications. Before getting into the thick of things, however, you and your preferred swift app development company have to solve this riddle. Is it possible to use Swift, as well as React Native, to build a native app for iOS?
Both frameworks are powerful enough to help developers build apps for iOS devices efficiently. Then again, a few factors determine the language developers should use to create the application. Without further ado, this topic will take you directly into the pool of comparison to help you contemplate both technologies.
About React Native React Native is an exceptionally renowned open-source app development framework that works on JavaScript. It mostly focuses on rendering apps natively, which are primarily compatible with Android and iOS. The creators of React Native wrote it by combining JavaScript and XML –Esque markup language. ● ● ●
Two years ago, about 42% of all developers were using React Native for hybrid app development. About 58.5% of the entire community of developers loves using RN. About 11.5% of all developers prefer using React Native because of the libraries and tools it has to offer.
About Swift Experts describe Swift as a robust programming language with multi-paradigm abilities for building applications for Mac, iOS, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Linux OS. Apple created and released Swift about seven years ago and made it open-source. For developers, Swift is simple enough to read, write, and maintain. They need to use straightforward syntax to do it. ● ● ● ●
Based on the report of the annual survey conducted by StackOverflow in 2020, about 59.5% of all developers enjoy using Swift. In the Tiobe index report that came out in May 2021, Swift held the 11th rank. Another report from PYPL ranked Swift 10th on their list and affiliated it with a market share of 1.91%. On Github, Swift enjoys 56.1k stars and 9k forks.
Advantages of React Native ●
Rendering natively
React Native uses the host platform to render APIs natively without using CSS or HTML markup. ●
Performance level
React Native converts an application’s markup to replicate the authenticity of UI elements without compromising performance. ●
Debugging
React Native offers intelligent tools for debugging and error reporting purposes.
Disadvantages of React Native ●
UI
API native rendering of React Native may fail to support specific native elements of UI. As a result, the UI can become off-putting ●
Plugins and tools
Some of the libraries from third parties may turn out to be obsolete. ●
Performance level
React Native doesn’t facilitate multi-processing and parallel threading. This drawback affects performance.
Advantages of Swift ●
Ease of reading and maintenance
Swift possesses clean syntax and fewer lines of code. Naturally, it reduces the possibilities of mistakes during reading, writing, modification, and maintenance. ●
Hybrid support
Swift enables hybrid support through platforms like Linux OS. It’ll also receive support from Windows soon. Furthermore, the framework has libraries and modules accessible via other supported platforms. ●
App safety
Swift boasts of a structured and robust system of typing with error-management systems. As a result, developers can find and squash bugs within a short time.
Disadvantages of Swift ●
A new entrant
As Swift is a relatively new entrant, only a handful of developers use it. Also, the developer community needs time to grow. ●
Debugging
Swift utilizes clunky LLDB functions and services. It may not be able to debug compiler errors properly. ●
Absence of Hot-Reloading
Developers can’t use the Hot-Reloading feature in Swift. That’s why they need time to make changes to the code.
Performance aspects Performance of React Native The app development community never liked the performance of React Native. It has three elements, including a JavaScript thread, a bridge, and a native thread. The bridge works as the mediator between the two threads. Performance of Swift Swift, on the other hand, can run complicated app logic and the heaviest computations surprisingly fast. There’s the LLVM compiler that converts the code of Swift into optimized native code. As a result, developers get direct access to APIs and device hardware components.
The architectural aspects ●
The architecture supported by React Native
React Native bridges the gap between the JavaScript thread and the Native thread. Based on this functionality, the code of JavaScript communicates the Native API with the platform. React Native utilizes JavaScriptCore separately to make all the codes work on iOS. ●
The architecture supported by Swift
Some of the architectures used in building applications on Swift include MV, Viper, MVVM, and Clean. The architecture of Clean has the templates of Xcode to generate the components. Developers can modify these template components depending on future requirements.
Building complex applications ●
Suitability of React Native
Indeed, it’s perfectly possible to create complicated native applications on React Native. However, you must know that your developers can do it only when you incorporate native development with React Native. ●
Suitability of Swift
Swift is an excellent choice if you want to include native features in your app or any other complicated integrations. Swift works well for apps with the most complex infrastructure in need of features native to iOS.
App testing ●
Ease of testing on React Native
React Native doesn’t receive official support for testing at the UI level. It doesn’t get any integration testing support, either. Additionally, only a few frameworks with unit testing systems are available to developers for inspecting React Native applications. ●
Ease of testing on Swift
To test apps for iOS devices, Swift utilizes Xcode. It facilitates both UI and unit testing. For unit testing, Xcode starts the app first and then runs tests. If it spots one or more bugs, it sends a report to the developers before moving on to the subsequent test case. The UI testing process works just like unit testing, but it leverages XCUITest.
Final considerations Well, there you have it – a comprehensive comparative study of the two most popular frameworks in existence for developing iOS applications. The creators of both frameworks designed them specifically for offering the best UX on native platforms. Also, both frameworks have exclusive advantages and disadvantages. If the information provided above doesn’t help you in making the right decision, then you should hire react native app developers based on the factors mentioned below. ● ● ● ● ●
You want You want You wish You hope You want level.
to to to to to
build an app with complicated UI and high device memory management. create just one platform by leveraging the ecosystem of Apple. create apps with native APIs and features for iOS. build something that’ll need upgrades and maintenance in the future. create banking solutions with extra safety and a high memory management
Conversely, Swift should be your choice if your idea satisfies the following conditions. ● You want to create an app that you can release on Android later. ● You want to reduce your app development expenses. ● You want to create something in need of live reloading and hot reloading. ● You want to create a cross-platform solution. ● You want to build your app as fast as possible. These considerations will aid you in making an informed decision. You can always contact Moon Technolabs if you wish to learn more about the differences between React Native and Swift, as well as their abilities.
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Original Source : https://www.moontechnolabs.com/blog/should-you-choose-react-native-or-swift-for-ios-app-developm ent/