When it comes to developing an app for iOS, people tend to face the first problem – they have to decide which platform is better to choose. Even though Swift is considered the best option, they may go with React Native in some cases. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what is the distinction between Swift vs React Native is.
In this article, we’re going to get acquainted with the pros and cons of both platforms, along with some other valuable information.
Swift: description, advantages and disadvantages
Swift was developed by Apple and it is an intuitive programming language. Since its launch in 2014, it has been working with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks. The platform also supports Objective-C code, which was developed for Apple devices, including iPadOS, macOS, etc. Swift is the best thing you can find for projects with a complex infrastructure that requires both native and in-app functionality. Payment. Therefore, the first difference between Swift + React Native is that the former is ideal for applications that require complex integrations.
Now, it’s time to see what benefits Swift gets:
- Accessible coding. It is a programming language accessible to all and currently distributed under the Apache license;
- It allows developers to handle errors. Swift gets an excellent entry and error handling system, which helps them avoid crashes and code errors;
- Less coding. The platform is quite concise, and this implies that less code is required for the same task. This is another difference between Swift + React Native.
- Easy scaling. By using Swift, you can always add new functionality to your app as needed, so those apps tend to be easier to scale;
- Coding is faster. The language was obviously created with performance in mind because it includes simple syntax, which speeds up the application development process.
As for the downsides, Swift only has one:
- It is only suitable for Apple devices. The platform happens to be native; therefore, developers can only use it for native devices. This means that you will have to use something else if you need an app for iOS and Android.
React Native: description, strengths and weaknesses
React Native is a framework applied to cross-platform mobile applications. Facebook created it, and it supports the platform. Since the framework uses JavaScript, developers are able to share around 70% of the code between different platforms, like iOS and Android. This is another difference between Swift + React Native, which reduces time and costs during app development.
The most significant strengths of React Native are:
- React Native allows for faster development because it is powered by JavaScript. This means that you can recover up to 90% of the code in web applications. If you decide to develop an app for iOS, the process will be 33% faster compared to Swift;
- Using this framework, bug tracking should be done effortlessly;
- This will help you save costs as a large team is not needed to run such a project;
- It has the hot reload feature, which allows developers to see the code they’ve built. With this feature, the whole app development process becomes much more productive, which is one more distinction between Swift + React Native.
- The framework allows developers to extend the functionality of the application with custom or existing JavaScript modules.
React Native has a few drawbacks, however, and here they are:
- There may be restrictions on the App Store side, which are possible if your app uses libraries that upgrade native code;
- The frame lacks wrappers. Sometimes it is necessary to create custom wrappers to add components, native modules, and APIs to the application; therefore, more time is needed;
- The design is complex. There are different guidelines for iOS and Android app designs. Therefore, it is not easy to create a high quality custom user interface for such applications;
- Security is another concern when it comes to React Native. The setting is accessible to everyone, which implies that there is a lack of security. That is why they must add additional security patches to create banking and financial applications;
- Updates are frequent. Another distinction between Swift + React Native is the fact that the latter updates components very often. Therefore, developers have to publish apps all the time.
Swift vs React Native: which one to choose?
Now when you are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of Swift + React Native, you should start to ask yourself which one is better. To answer this question, we must study the cases below:
- Mobile applications which should have complex user interfaces. For example, you might need a resource-intensive application with a lot of UI interactions. It can be a messaging platform with a geolocation function. You should opt for Swift in this case because building applications on native services is always the best choice;
- Applications for a platform. You should use Swift if a great app for iOS users is only required;
- Multimedia players and utilities. It is not difficult to create apps like battery monitor and media players using Swift. The reason is that they tend to apply native functions and APIs offered by iOS. The distinction between Swift + React Native here is that building API wrappers will definitely increase development cost and time.
To sum up, there are some important distinctions between Swift + React Native, so different cases require different solutions. Therefore, it is better to go with Swift if you need a mobile app for a scalable app, apps for businesses that require a good level of security, a single platform app, or applications requiring APIs or payment systems. React Native is ideal for data retrieval and display applications and event applications.
Conclusion
Both services are amazing solutions that one can use for application development. At the same time, the choice between Swift + React Native depends on demand. If you solve the problem correctly and go for the right option, the development costs will be reduced. In addition to this, the productivity of the mobile application will be increased and it will work smoothly. So, you have to analyze the needs of the application and choose between the Swift + React Native platforms.
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