React Native vs. Swift: What to Choose for Your iOS App?

Whenever it comes to developing an app, most developers have confusion between React Native and Swift.

Although it is relatively better to choose Swift as the primary language for building an iOS app, the thing is that there are quite a lot of times when you might consider React native as a better choice.

However, if you are not sure what platform is a better choice for you, I will help you out.

In this article, I will talk about React Native vs. Swift and draw a comparison between both of them. So you can easily choose the right solution for yourself. Whi;e researching on the topic, I’ve found the perfect guide on it written by Topflightapps, so you can get it, too here  React Native vs. Swift.

So here we go:

React Native vs. Swift: What to Choose for Your iOS App?

What is Swift?

Swift was created by Apple back in 2014. And it works with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks. Apart from that, it supports existing Objective-C doe developed for Apple devices.

Swift is a perfect framework for complex infrastructure, native iOS features, and in-app payment.

Swift Pros:

  • Swift is an open-source programming language distributed under the Apache license.
  • Swift is capable of better error handling. It has a strong typing and error handling system, which prevents code crashes and errors in production.
  • This programming language can easily be scaled. Also, it is future proof and can be extended with new features as needed.
  • Swift requires less coding as it is very concise. As a result, you will need to code less to perform the same task than React Native.
  • Swift also offers us a faster coding experience. The coding language was developed, keeping performance in mind. It has a simple syntax. So you can develop apps faster.

Swift Cons:

  • Swift is made for Apple devices. It is a native platform, and the language can only be used for native apps. So if you are building Android and iOS, you will need to develop two separate apps for two devices. Also, whatever update you will be pushing in the future needs to be developed for both the apps.

What is React Native?

React Native is a framework which is designed and supported by Facebook. And Facebook uses it for its cross-platform mobile applications. React Native uses JavaScript. As a result, developers can easily use 70% of the code between various platforms like Android and iOS, unlike Swift.

It also cuts down the app’s developing time and the cost to create two separate apps for two devices.

React Native Pros:

  • React Native is a great framework when it comes to the faster development of apps. It is powered with JavaScript. So up to 90% of the code for your mobile app may be taken from web applications.
  • React native requires significantly less debugging. Bug tracking is much more effortless on this framework.
  • You can run the project with a smaller team and cut down costs for the overall project and development.
  • It comes with the hot reloading feature. As a result, mobile developers can visualize the code they have created. It makes the whole coding thing much more productive.
  • React Native allows you to expand the features pretty quickly. The app will enable you to extend your app functionality with existing or custom JavaScript modules.

React Native Cons:

  • Both Android and iOS have different design guidelines for apps. As a result, it is quite tough to build high-quality custom UI to React Native apps.
  • React Native is an open-source framework. As a result, it lacks security. So if you are building banking and financial apps, you need to add extra security patches.
  • React Native updates its components regularly. So you will also need to release updates for your app quite frequently.

Final Words:

So that was a comparison between both of the frameworks. You are now talking about what platform you should choose is entirely up to you as both of them has pros and cons. So do read about both o them and see which one would work the best for your app. Also, for any other question, make comment below.