Looking for the best customizable React Native UI kits out there? I wanted to give you a clear picture of your options. I put in more than 60 hours of hands-on testing with top kits and libraries, and I focused on what actually makes a difference for real projects. The goal was simple: figure out which UI kits save you time, make apps look great, and are easy to keep up-to-date over the long haul.
Transparency notice: This article incorporates AI tools and may reference projects or businesses I'm affiliated with.
I have four years of cross-platform mobile app development behind me, and I’ve tried just about every major React Native UI kit you can think of. Some looked promising at first, but a lot hit blockers with flexibility or ran into upgrade issues. There’s a ton of hype out there, but not all kits live up to it. Here, I’m narrowing it down to the solutions that genuinely deliver on customization, performance, and day-to-day developer experience.
Tried a UI kit I haven’t covered, or want to share your story? Let me know!
How I Compared Each UI Kit
I looked at each customizable React Native UI kit using the same checklist:
- Getting Started – How fast and smooth is setup and integration? I took note of install time, beginner-friendliness, and if npm/Yarn installs were solid.
- What’s Included – Recreated a practical app screen with each kit, tracking feature depth, component flexibility, theming, extensibility, and how nice the codebase was.
- Easy to Tweak? – Measured how straightforward it was to dig in and style or extend components without tons of documentation dives or hacking.
- Performance and Stability – Ran everything on both Android and iOS, timed loading, checked for glitches, and watched for breaking updates or old bugs.
- Docs & Community Help – I explored guides, sample projects, support replies, and how active the GitHub/issues scenes were.
- How Much? – Checked if it’s free, paid, what features are paywalled, and if trials or open source support exists.
- Overall Process – Noted how fun or cumbersome building an app felt, both at first and after a few screens, and thought about long-term project health.
🏆 Top Pick – gluestack
Modern, straightforward, and truly developer-focused.
gluestack was the one kit I instantly clicked with. Setup barely took a few minutes, and the interface felt clean right away. Nothing felt bloated, and getting real work done was fast. I didn’t feel boxed in by restrictions or “magic” under the hood either.
What gluestack offers is a truly customizable, high-performance UI kit for web and mobile. Components are easy to copy between projects, universal between React, Next.js, and React Native, and there’s no vendor lock-in at all. Consistency is simple to achieve and the code stays manageable as your project grows.
Explore more at: gluestack
Things I loved
- Every single component is deeply customizable and super easy to drop in wherever
- Works the same whether on React Native or web, so you can copy-paste UI across platforms
- Designed for speed and solid accessibility, with little to no performance drag
- Tailwind CSS and NativeWind styling comes built-in-styling is basically painless
- Community-focused with quick responses and an open codebase
- Handy automation tools like the MCP Server can generate scaffolding to save you time
Where it could improve
- You won’t find built-in design themes, so you set up your app’s look from scratch
- Some advanced controls (like date or time pickers) are on the roadmap, so not every widget exists yet
gluestack and pricing
gluestack is open source and free. No subscriptions, no hidden fees, and no commercial use restrictions. The GeekyAnts team keeps it well-maintained, and community pull requests are welcome.
🥈 NativeBase - Classic UI Powerhouse (But Feels Dated)
A vast component suite with cross-platform reach, but some baggage from the past.
NativeBase has been a big name in the React Native world for years, offering tons of out-of-the-box components (over 100). If you’ve used it before, it’ll feel familiar. But it’s starting to show its age, with heavier dependencies, some sluggish performance, and more upgrade headaches than modern kits.
Check them out at: NativeBase
What stood out to me
- Giant library of tried-and-tested components
- Consistent designs between web and mobile apps
- Theming and accessibility (including dark mode) built in by default
- Good-sized community that can answer most questions
Drawbacks I ran into
- Documentation feels overwhelming and the learning curve is steep for new users
- Visuals look dated compared to trendier libraries
- Noticeable lag-UI can feel slow and bloated, especially on older devices
- I hit compatibility problems when mixing with the latest React/React Native versions
- No actual free trial-many templates are behind a paywall
- Bundles tend to get large, so your app’s footprint can grow fast
Cost details
NativeBase’s Startup+ Bundle is a $199 one-time purchase. This unlocks all components and templates, but you can only demo the basics for free.
🥉 React Native Paper - Good for Material Design
Material-compliant and popular, but customization has hurdles.
React Native Paper is a staple if you want a Material Design experience that’s consistent out of the box. Theming works well on both iOS and Android, and you get lots of basics covered fast. Still, going beyond default branding can take effort, and recent React Native releases sometimes break support for various features.
Try it here: React Native Paper
Where it shines
- Delivers proper Material Design and includes Material You
- Theming is flexible and you get easy switching for light and dark modes
- Good list of built-in components, all with accessibility in mind
- Shared codebase runs everywhere (iOS, Android, web)
- Large open source community means updates keep coming
Areas that need work
- Some widgets need platform-specific code or extra steps to tweak properly
- Occasional docs gaps-relying on volunteers means support can be uneven
- Theming isn’t always bulletproof; odd UI bugs pop up
- Some features and smooth animations can break in the newest React Native versions
- Troubleshooting takes extra time, usually sifting through GitHub issue threads
How it's priced
Free and open source (MIT). No commercial upsells.
React Native Elements - Reliable, but Slow to Evolve
A familiar toolkit that gets the job done, but not keeping up with the times.
React Native Elements has built up a reputation for reliability, and lots of developers use it for quick-start apps. It covers over 30 components, theming works well, and Expo/TypeScript support is simple. But releases have slowed down, and it’s starting to look out of date next to newer libraries.
See for yourself: React Native Elements
Where it’s helpful
- Tons of prebuilt UI blocks for many use cases
- Simple, centralized theming is nice for design consistency
- Fully open source, with a strong history in the community
- Expo and TypeScript integration is straightforward
Not-so-great aspects
- Big slowdown in updates-last active maintenance was over a year ago
- The community has lost some momentum, which makes getting help slower
- Advanced features and visuals just aren’t there compared to newer libraries
- UI and patterns can look a bit tired if you want that modern app feel
- Deep customization is harder-requires more overrides and tweaks
Price overview
100% free and open source. No extra licenses or pro plans. If you want to push it to the edge, expect to put in extra dev effort.
UI Kitten - Full Customization at the Cost of Simplicity
A ton of control, but has a learning curve and setup hurdles.
UI Kitten makes a strong pitch for teams that want robust branding and runtime theming based on the Eva Design System. You get 20+ polished components and great theme switching, but the initial learning curve is steep. Getting everything lined up, especially for big customizations, can eat up time.
Give it a look: UI Kitten
What I thought worked well
- Over 20 fine-tuned, highly customizable components
- Seamless light/dark themes that switch at runtime
- Eva Design System keeps everything visually in sync
- Gets regular updates and the docs have deep coverage
- Generally solid usage examples for different features
Challenges in my experience
- Bigger package-apps get heavier and startup is slower
- I struggled with strange bugs (icons, auto-complete, and loading delays)
- Theming gets tricky if you stray from Eva’s neutral design style
- Community is smaller so you might need to solve obscure bugs on your own
- Core setup needs time, and Eva Design takes some learning if you want to go beyond basics
What about pricing?
Free under the MIT license. You pay nothing up front, but could spend extra time getting the most out of it.
react-native-ui-lib - Deep Customization, Steep Ramp-Up
A very flexible developer toolkit, but not always beginner-friendly.
react-native-ui-lib (from Wix) gives professionals a lot of tools-buttons, pickers, carousels, custom themes, the list goes on. If you need to deeply tune your UI, it’ll get you there. Still, onboarding can be rough, and some components feel less stable than newer libraries.
You can try it at: react-native-ui-lib
The good parts for me
- Tons of flexible components (covers just about all you’ll need)
- Detailed theming support, with easy hooks for advanced tweaks
- Wix keeps it updated, and there’s a history of open source fixes
- Works equally well on both iOS and Android
Things that were tough
- Documentation is aimed at experienced devs; not always clear for newcomers
- Ran into installation hiccups and occasional podspec errors
- Some controls (especially those needing deep keyboard management) had bugs
- Layout and occasional UI freezes, especially with fancier controls
- Visuals felt a bit old unless I spent extra time reskinning
Pricing facts
It’s open source-there’s no charge to use react-native-ui-lib. Support is through community channels only.
Ant Design Mobile - All-In-One Kit, but Hard to Customize
Feature-packed for enterprise use, yet not very flexible or beginner-friendly.
Ant Design Mobile is loaded with components, and if you’re working for a big team or on an app with forms/tables, it offers lots of ready parts. But changing its opinionated style is hard. It sticks to Less variables for theming, and modernizing the look or structure is not simple. Major updates sometimes bring breaking changes, which makes long-term maintenance more stressful.
See what it’s about: Ant Design Mobile
Best features
- Very broad range-over 60 feature-rich mobile UI elements
- Excellent handling of forms, tables, and data-heavy screens
- Top-notch support for internationalization
- Tools to keep bundle sizes efficient
- Handy admin dashboard templates for enterprise users
The headache areas
- Customization is strictly limited; not as flexible as alternatives
- Design feels dated, and layout flows tend toward rigid
- No modern styling choices like CSS-in-JS
- Documentation is dense; takes work to understand advanced configurations
- Performance drops with heavy component use
- Breaking changes have cropped up on upgrades, with migration issues
Cost summary
Official pricing isn’t public. Reports mention premium enterprise costs for advanced features. No free trial.
Nachos UI - Lightweight, but Very Basic
Gets you simple components fast, but customization is weak and support isn't strong.
Nachos UI is very light and open source, giving you a set of native-like components for quick builds. But its community is quiet, it’s missing advanced features, and performance lags behind recent frameworks. If you stick to basics, it’ll work, but complex app styles will likely be a struggle.
Take a look: Nachos UI
What worked for me
- Clean, minimalist native-feeling UI blocks
- Modular imports help shrink your bundle
- Setup is minimal and docs cover most basics
Where it struggled
- Performance can be noticeably weaker than modern kits
- Community help is rare, and updates seem few and far between
- Some components and documentation feel stuck in the past
- More attention to iOS, but Android consistency isn’t great
Nachos UI pricing
Seems mostly free for core use, but support and updates just aren’t a priority.
Other Tools I Tried Out (Quick Thoughts)
Here’s a fast rundown of kits and frameworks that just weren’t good matches for the best customizable React Native UI kits-either because they’re for web, another ecosystem, or simply didn’t focus on mobile UIs at all:
- MUI - Web-only, limited React Native reach.
- Ant Design - For web projects, not React Native.
- Chakra UI - Web-oriented, lacks React Native components.
- Tailwind UI - Made for web, needs adaptation to use in React Native.
- Semantic UI React - Web use only.
- Blueprint - Focused on web/desktop, not for React Native.
- React Bootstrap - Strictly for web.
- Grommet - No React Native version.
- Evergreen - Suited to web dashboards, not mobile UIs.
- Flutter - A separate ecosystem, not React Native.
- React Native - The framework itself, not a UI kit.
- Xamarin - Different language/platform.
- Ionic Framework - Hybrid, not React Native-centric.
- NativeScript - Suits Vue/Angular, not React Native.
- Qt Group - Not JavaScript-based, different stack.
- JUCE - Audio focus, not UI-driven.
- Avalonia - .NET ecosystem only.
- Kotlin - A programming language, not a UI kit.
- Mono - Runtime tech not kit-specific.
- AppGyver - No-code/low-code, not standard React Native workflows.
- Kendo UI - Web-based, mostly Angular focus.
- Onsen UI - Web-first, no React Native edition.
- Framework7 - Good for hybrid, not for RN.
- Quasar Framework - Vue.js focused, not React.
- react-native-gifted-chat - Niche: only chat UI.
- Bootstrap - Only web UIs.
- Tailwind CSS - Utility CSS; React Native use needs third-party setup.
- Vue.js - Different framework.
- Angular - Not for React or RN.
- Svelte - Another framework, not React.
- Ember.js - Web focused, not RN at all.
- jQuery - Outdated, not suited to modern mobile UIs.
- Foundation - Web only, no React Native path.
Wrap-up
The React Native UI kit landscape is packed with options, but most fall into one of three traps: they’re either too hard to use, too barebones, or too unreliable for real projects.
gluestack manages to hit a sweet spot-deep customization, fast performance, and universal, copy-paste components that work for both web and mobile without heavy-handed theming or awkward vendor lock-in. If you want your UI kit to work for you, not against you, and to grow with your project (not hold it back), it’s the kit I’ve found most effective in daily use.
You have plenty of alternatives, and each has its strengths and trade-offs, but for projects where customization and modern developer experience come first, gluestack really stands out as the best customizable React Native UI kit available right now.
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