Which Is The Better Framework – Ionic or React Native?

As more people enjoy the comparative ease of using mobile apps, more businesses are turning to have their mobile apps. Companies have understood the need to have a mobile app. They are easy to use and give a better personal experience. They are much simpler. They make life a lot easier for us.

The need for mobile apps is on the rise. So is the requirement of mobile app developers. The performance of an app depends on ist way of building. There are many frameworks to create a mobile app. Ionic and React Native are two frameworks. While hybrid apps use Ionic, React Native helps to build native apps.

The flow of the article

• The Importance Of Mobile Apps
• How Mobile Apps Score Over Web Apps
• Challenges Of App Development
• Native And Hybrid Apps
• Cross-Platform App Development
• React Native
• Ionic
• Key Differences Between React Native And Ionic
• React Native Vs. Ionic – A Direct Comparison
• Conclusion

1. The Importance Of Mobile Apps

The number of people having smartphones is around 5 billion. All the people carry it with them wherever they go. It has made it the device of choice for many activities. Today people use the mobile more than laptops for purchasing things or getting services.

The rampant use of mobiles has woken up the business community. More and more companies want to be easily accessible by mobile. Companies have today realized that they have to be on mobiles before they launch a website.
Apps are more comfortable and more personalized. People are moving away from websites to apps. Mobile apps are the hot favorite as they can be accessed anywhere. It has prompted more and more companies to launch their apps.

Companies have also started to communicate with employees over mobile phones. Mobile phone apps help companies to improve their communication with employees and customers. There is a sudden need for more apps.

2. How Mobile Apps Score Over Web Apps

• People are always carrying their mobile phones with them. A mobile app is easy to access.
• People always search for new apps in app stores. Being there can help your company.
• Mobile apps help you to send a push notification to remind customers of your product.
• The latest trend is to share apps or its contents with their friends. It can be done quickly with mobile apps.
• Users can share the app contents easily to any app like Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc. It makes it more convenient than sharing from a web app.
• Users spend many hours on mobile apps. The time spent is much more than that spent on mobile websites.
• You can earn additional revenue from ads. It is not possible to block ads in a mobile app.

3. Challenges Of App Development

With increased demand for apps, developers are also facing pressure. Companies want the apps to give the best performance for their customers. There is a need to make them more appealing and easier to use.

One of the main challenges that app developers face is the number of mobile platforms. Some mobiles run on iOS, Android and Windows platforms. As these are all different platforms, there is a need to make apps for all these platforms. It is where the question of native or hybrid apps arise.

4. Native And Hybrid Apps

Native apps are those which are built to work only on a particular platform. These apps work only on either iOS, Android or Windows platforms. Hybrid apps are developed to function on all mobile platforms.

NATIVE APPS

• You can create it inappropriate coding language – Swift/Objective-C for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android.
• Native apps provide for fast, responsive and reliable experience to users.
• It is easy to use the device functions as a camera or microphone using native apps
• Native apps can send a push notification when user attention is required.
• Users are used to the UI/UX of the device. Native apps help to match these.
• They are difficult to build as you have to use different codes for each platform.
• Native apps take longer to build and cost more.
• You may need separate teams to build apps for different platforms.

HYBRID APPS

• Hybrid apps are web apps installed like a native app
• They are built like web apps using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
• They use WebView to run on your mobiles.
• The hybrid app is built like one but can work on all mobile platforms
• As there is only one codebase to manage you need less time and human resources
• It is also less expensive to build a hybrid app
• They can access native features using bridges like PhoneGap
• You will not get the same performance that native apps give.
• It is challenging to make hybrid give the same native experience.
• The user experience will not be the same as native apps.

5. Cross-Platform App Development

We have seen that native apps have to be created separately for each mobile platform. Hybrid apps do not give the same experience as native apps. So, if you want to build apps that will perform on all mobile platforms, the solution is to create a cross-platform app.

Several tools allow you to build cross-platform apps which will use the native features and give similar performance. React Native and Ionic are two cross-platform frameworks that are very popular.

More and more developers are using these two design patterns for building their apps. The ultimate aim is to satisfy the customer by giving their users a good experience. Every developer makes the apps for companies who aim to increase the interaction with their customers using these apps.

You can Hire React Native Developer for developing a cross-platform mobile application for your business.

We will see the features of these two frameworks and how they benefit the developer.

6. React Native

Facebook developed this framework. It is a cross-platform framework. It uses JavaScript technology. Developers use a single code base to create apps. These apps have native-like characteristics. They use JavaScript and React to give users a near-native experience.

You can apply the UI changes in the background. It gives a very responsive UI, and users get a better experience. As it uses the native UI elements, this offers a better experience to the user. It is also faster to run as this is not a browser-based app.

React Native is a cross-platform development framework. You can use the same code-base for both iOS and Android applications. However, you have to alter certain codes specific to the platform. It gives a near-native experience.

There are pluses and minuses to React Native.

PROS

• You can use the same code base for iOS, Android and Windows platforms.
• Specific platforms process the hardware functionalities quicker, and it gives a better performance.
• It is easier to maintain in large projects because it follows stricter designer patterns.
• The framework becomes stable. It gives a better native feel.
• There is a robust community of developers who can help new developers learn the use of the framework very fast.
• You can reuse the codes across platforms. It can saves money and time.
• You can watch the changes you make on a real-time basis.

CONS

• Conversion of HTML to native code can be difficult. You must be good in Object C or Swift to solve this problem
• React Native was specifically designed for iOS. So certain Android elements may require more work.
• It follows the “learn once write anywhere” motto. You must maintain separate codes for different platforms.
• Building an app using React Native can be more expensive.
• You have to follow Facebook licensing rules.

7. Ionic

Ionic is used to develop hybrid apps. It is a cross-platform framework based on HTML5. The framework can work only with the help of Cordova or PhoneGap. Developers familiar with AngularJS can create apps easily using Ionic.

This framework makes it easy for developers to create the UI of an app. Ionic uses WebView to access mobile functions like camera and contact. To write in the Android platform, developers use HTML code. It could make the app slow.

If you want to use native functionality, you must download plugins. The TypeScript elements can make tasks slower. It will not be as fast as directly working with native API. Ionic comes with its pros and cons.

PROS

• Apps can be built faster with Ionic. It is easier to earn revenue with more apps.
• It is easy to learn Ionic and work with it.
• It follows the “write once run anywhere” motto and hence faster to develop for different platforms.
• If you know AngularJS you can quickly write the codes in TypeScript.
• You can use TypeScript to write applications for all platforms
• Ionic has good community support.
• Plugins allow you to access native functionalities of the device.
• Ionic is suitable for small projects.
• Ionic is an open-source and free-of-cost framework.

CONS

• Performance can be slow if there are many callbacks to the native code.
• The UI won’t be the same as the native UI. Some users may not like this.
• It is challenging to develop advanced graphics or interactive transition with Ionic.

8. Critical Differences Between React Native And Ionic

TECHNOLOGY STACK

• Ionic offers complete SDK to build hybrid apps
• React Native makes developers learn once and use the codes everywhere
• Ionic uses web technologies to develop hybrid apps with minimum codes
• React Native uses native technologies to give native experience.
• React Native offers better UI experience using native elements.
• You can work efficiently with Ionic if you know Angular. App development is fast and easy.

PERFORMANCE

• React Native give the users an experience closest to Native.
• React Native is a more stable framework. It is better for large applications
• Performance and response are much better with React Native. Hence it is costlier to build.
• Ionic takes a hybrid route and so is ideal for creating apps at a faster pace.
• It achieves the modern needs of an app.
• Performance could suffer if there are many callbacks to the native code.
• You need to download a lot of plugins to gain access to native features

PLUGINS AND COMMUNITY

• A lot of plugins are available for React Native
• React Native has a vast community of developers to solve various issues.
• There is a plugin in React Native which allows you to use PhoneGap / Cordova plugins.
• Ionic also boasts of a large community of developers that can help you in difficult situations.
• There are a lot of PhoneGap and Cordova plugins for Ionic to use native features.

PLATFORMS

• Both Ionic and React Native are cross-platform frameworks. Both support iOS and Android.
• Ionic also supports Universal Windows Platform.

9. React Native Vs. Ionic – A Direct Comparison

The below tabular comparison will illustrate the differences and features in React Native App Development & Ionic App Development.

	REACT NATIVE	IONIC
Motto	Learn Once, Write Anywhere	Write Once, Run Anywhere
Language Stack	React, JavaScript	Web Technologies – HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Angular JS, TypeScript
Nature of App	Cross Platform	Hybrid Apps
Developers	Facebook community	Drifty.co
Popular Because	Near-native and elegant UI across different platforms	Use single code to build apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Web, Desktop, and PWA
Code Reusability	Need to change platform-specific codes	Optimum code reusability
Performance	Near-native look and faster	Slower because of WebView
Code Testing	Need mobile device or emulator for testing codes	Codes can be tested using any browser
Learning Difficulty	Difficult to learn	Easy to learn
Community & Support	Strong and stable	Strong and stable
Supported Platforms	Android, iOS, and UWP	Android, iOS, UWP, and PWA
Major Clients	Facebook, Instagram, UberEats, Airbnb	JustWatch, Untapped, Cryptochange, Pacifica, Nationwide, etc.

10. Conclusion

We cannot arrive at a definite conclusion on this. For performance and near-native experience, Web Development Company should use React Native. If the priority is developing an app fast at a low budget, then you should use Ionic.
You should also consider other factors.

You should see which languages you know well. The app size and the features required will also decide which framework you want to use. You can use both frameworks for developing cross-platform apps.