React JS vs. React Native: Key Differences to Consider for Your Next App

Whether or not you're a developer, there's a good chance you know what React is. It's one of the most popular JavaScript libraries for building user interfaces, it's been around since 2013, and it's backed by Facebook.

Plenty of popular platforms (e.g., Airbnb, Dropbox) have been built using React. It's a great tool for developers because it allows them to create high-performance user interfaces (UIs) quickly and effectively.

But is it the right choice for your next development project?

In this article, we explore the key differences between React JS and React Native. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each framework, so you can make an informed decision about which is right for your project.

React vs. React Native: A Quick Overview

Although the two are part of the same ecosystem, React JS and React Native have some key differences.

What is React, and when should you use it?

React (or React JS) is used for building user interfaces (UIs) and front-end application logic. React powers the frontend of over 11 million sites globally.

When you create a React web app, you create small pieces of code called “components.” Once you’ve created a few components, you can put them together to create a complete application. 

React JS is the original component of the React library. It is an open-source, declarative JavaScript library used to create web applications with interactive UIs.

With React JS, developers can quickly create complex user interfaces with minimal code. It also offers reusable UI components and a virtual DOM, which makes it easy to develop web applications that run fast on multiple devices and browsers.

Other features of React JS include:

• Server-side rendering for improved performance and SEO
• Easy integration with other libraries such as Redux, Bootstrap, and jQuery
• Support for TypeScript and Flow

Especially when comparing Angular vs. React JS, React JS is often seen as the simpler option. It uses a declarative syntax, which makes it easier to understand and debug.

People hire React JS development services to create lightweight web applications like ecommerce sites and simple web apps. For example, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and Dropbox all built their web applications using React JS.

What is React Native, and when should you use it?

React Native is quite similar to React in the sense that it allows you to create reusable components. But React Native is designed specifically for building native mobile apps.

A “native” app is an app that is written in the native language of the platform it’s being built for (e.g., Swift or Java for iOS and Android, respectively). By contrast, a “non-native” app is an app that is written in a cross-platform language like JavaScript and then converted into the native language of the target platform. 

React Native also offers developers access to many APIs, allowing them to easily integrate with device hardware such as cameras and GPS.

Since React Native is designed to create native apps, it runs faster and more efficiently than React JS. Additionally, developers can use the same code base for both Android and iOS platforms, which makes cross-platform development easier and faster.

React Native is ideal for mobile app projects that require a fast time to market or need to access device hardware APIs. The Netflix app is a perfect example of an app built using React Native - its fast performance and smooth user experience on such massive servers are the epitome of what React Native can do.

Main Differences Between React JS and React Native

Let's take a look at the main differences between React JS and React Native.

Navigation

Navigation is one of the most important aspects of any mobile application. It's what allows users to move between different screens, search, view content, and make selections.

React (for web) uses React Router for navigation. It leverages the browser's native history stack and URL paths (e.g., /home, /about).

// App.jsx
import { BrowserRouter as Router, Routes, Route, Link } from 'react-router-dom';
import Home from './Home';
import About from './About';
function App() {
  return (
    <Router>
      <nav>
        <Link to="/">Home</Link> | <Link to="/about">About</Link>
      </nav>
      <Routes>
        <Route path="/" element={<Home />} />
        <Route path="/about" element={<About />} />
      </Routes>
    </Router>
  );
}

React Native doesn’t have a browser, so navigation relies on libraries like React Navigation or React Native Navigation, which simulate screen transitions like a native mobile app. It uses a stack or tab-based system to push and pop screens.

// App.js
import * as React from 'react';
import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native';
import { createStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/stack';
import HomeScreen from './HomeScreen';
import AboutScreen from './AboutScreen';

const Stack = createStackNavigator();

export default function App() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Stack.Navigator>
        <Stack.Screen name="Home" component={HomeScreen} />
        <Stack.Screen name="About" component={AboutScreen} />
      </Stack.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  );
}

The developer experience is quite different, but tailored to each's use cases: React favors a declarative, route-based setup, while React Native navigation feels more like managing a mobile app’s stack.

Storage navigation

Regarding storage, there are some key differences between React JS and React Native. 

React uses the browser’s built-in APIs — localStorage, sessionStorage, or IndexedDB — which are simple key-value storage systems. So, saving user preferences or session data is as simple as localStorage.setItem(...).

// Save data
localStorage.setItem('userToken', 'abc123');

// Retrieve data
const token = localStorage.getItem('userToken');
console.log(token);

In React Native, there’s no browser, so those don’t exist. Instead, you use libraries like:

• @react-native-async-storage/async-storage (most common)
• Or more advanced options like SQLite or Realm for complex needs.

By importing a third-party library, it provides access to the device's file system.

// storage.js
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';

// Save data
const saveToken = async () => {
  try {
    await AsyncStorage.setItem('userToken', 'abc123');
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Error saving token:', e);
  }
};

// Retrieve data
const getToken = async () => {
  try {
    const token = await AsyncStorage.getItem('userToken');
    console.log(token);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Error reading token:', e);
  }
};

React's system is convenient for smaller applications, but becomes problematic for larger applications where data needs to sync across devices because of the potential for data loss.

React Native, on the other hand, uses AsyncStorage, which is a persistent, asynchronous storage system. This allows for data to be stored securely and sync across multiple devices.

This makes it much easier to manage data in larger applications, as well as making it easier to sync data across devices. For example, with AsyncStorage, users could log into their accounts on any device and access the same data.

Components

When it comes to components, React uses standard HTML elements, while React Native uses platform-specific UI elements.

In React, you would use a <div> element to represent a screen.

// React Web
function Welcome() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Hello, user!</h1>
      <button onClick={() => alert('Clicked!')}>Click Me</button>
    </div>
  );
}

In React Native, you would use a <view> component.

Notice how in that React Native example:

• <div> becomes <View>
• <h1> becomes <Text>
• <button> becomes either <Button> or <TouchableOpacity>

You can’t use normal HTML elements in React Native. And with React Native, your code is not portable between platforms. But you can still share some code between your web and mobile app by using the same component library (such as Material-UI). 

Although platform-specific code is still necessary, components from the same library can be used across multiple platforms, making it easier to maintain code consistency.

Another difference is that React uses JSX, a syntax extension of JavaScript, while React Native does not. This means that you can use HTML tags within JSX code, which makes it easier to write code for the web. 

React provides router and form libraries that make it easy to build single-page applications (SPAs), while these libraries are not available in React Native.

Syntax

At first glance, React and React Native use the same foundational syntax: JSX, components, props, hooks, state management — all of that remains. But there is a major difference between the two.

• HTML vs. Native components: Again, React uses HTML-like tags, while React Native uses custom tags (<View>, <Text>, etc.).
• CSS vs. StyleSheet: React uses stylesheets or inline styles in CSS syntax. React Native uses StyleSheet.create() and JS objects.
• Events and attributes: Event names and attributes vary (e.g., onClick vs. onPress, className vs. style).

Here's a look at how that plays out in React:

function Card() {
  return (
    <div className="card" onClick={() => alert('Clicked')}>
      <h2>Hello!</h2>
      <p>This is a card.</p>
    </div>
  );
}

With external CSS:

.card {
  padding: 20px;
  background-color: #eee;
}

In React Native, it would look much different:

import { View, Text, StyleSheet, TouchableOpacity, Alert } from 'react-native';

function Card() {
  return (
    <TouchableOpacity onPress={() => Alert.alert('Clicked')}>
      <View style={styles.card}>
        <Text style={styles.title}>Hello!</Text>
        <Text>This is a card.</Text>
      </View>
    </TouchableOpacity>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  card: {
    padding: 20,
    backgroundColor: '#eee'
  },
  title: {
    fontSize: 20,
    fontWeight: 'bold'
  }
});

Feasibility

Feasibility means whether or not a project is feasible to accomplish using React JS and/or React Native.

• React is ideal for building web apps. It’s mature, flexible, SEO-capable (with frameworks like Next.js), and widely supported.
• React Native works best for cross-platform mobile apps. You write one codebase (mostly) and ship to both iOS and Android.

But React Native is not plug-and-play for every mobile feature, especially if you need deep native integration. When you need camera access, background tasks, or Bluetooth, feasibility drops without native modules or bridging.

Let's say you're building a simple UI for a chat screen. React Native is totally feasible for that.

// Chat screen in React Native
<View>
  <TextInput
    placeholder="Type a message"
    onChangeText={setMessage}
    value={message}
  />
  <Button title="Send" onPress={sendMessage} />
</View>

Need deep integration with iOS HealthKit or Android NDK? You’ll need iOS/Android expertise, Xcode, and native dev skills.

// iOS Native Module (Objective-C or Swift) might be needed

This is why React Native is better suited for lightweight mobile applications that require multiple device support and need to take advantage of platform-specific features.

Installation process

React has a lightweight, web-based installation process using Create React App (CRA), Vite, or Next.js. Plug-and-play functionality means it's simple, fast, and doesn’t require mobile-specific tooling. You can set it up in ~30 seconds with nothing but Node and a browser.

npm create vite@latest my-app -- --template react
cd my-app
npm install
npm run dev

React Native needs native mobile development environments: Xcode (for iOS), Android Studio (for Android), and possibly CocoaPods, Java SDKs, or Gradle. Once your environment is set up, you can start writing code with React Native.

npx react-native init MyApp
cd MyApp
npx react-native run-android  # or run-ios (macOS only)

If you want maximum speed to prototype, React wins by far. React Native is still accessible, especially with Expo, but the native dependencies add friction.

React vs. React Native: Drawbacks and Limitations

Although the entire React ecosystem is among the most popular in the world, it has its own drawbacks and limitations.

Limitations of using React JS

Cost and time

Although there are plenty of performance optimization techniques, React JS requires a large amount of time and money to set up and maintain. An excellent example of this is when a business wants to use React to create a website that needs to run on multiple platforms. This means more cost for development and maintenance, as well as the potential need for separate teams for each platform.

Debugging errors in React can also be difficult due to the complexity of the codebase. Since React is built on JavaScript, any changes to the code can have a significant impact on the entire application.

External library support

React is a library that focuses on the UI, so there is limited external library support. This means that developers need to find libraries to extend their existing code or write their own custom code.

Although this isn't necessarily a limitation of React itself, it can be difficult for developers to find the right libraries for their projects. And even though there are many external libraries available, they may not be compatible with the latest version of React.

When comparing Node.js vs. React JS or Next.js vs. React JS and deciding what framework to use for your next project, it is important to keep in mind that React has some drawbacks and limitations regarding how it interacts with other libraries and frameworks (even the ones built off of it).

Long data hierarchy

In a React JS application, data is typically passed down from the top-level component to lower-level components. This can create a long and complex data hierarchy, which can be difficult to understand.

When data is passed down the hierarchy, it is often transformed or computed in different ways by different components. This can make it difficult to trace the flow of data through the system.

Different components may have different requirements for the data they receive. For example, a component may expect an array of data, while another component may expect an object. This can further complicate the hierarchy and make it difficult to understand how different components are related to one another.

To help mitigate these issues, it is important to keep the data hierarchy as simple as possible.

When designing a React application, developers should carefully consider how data will flow between different components. Keeping the hierarchy flat will help to make the system more understandable and easier to maintain.

Limitations of using React Native

Platform-specific Code

React Native requires developers to write platform-specific code for each platform they want to support. This means that if a developer wants to create an app for both iOS and Android, they will have to write two separate sets of code.

This can be a time-consuming process, as each platform has its own set of idiosyncrasies and requirements.

Additionally, any code changes will have to be made separately for each platform.

If you need to build an app with complex features that must be supported on multiple platforms, you might be better off using a cross-platform solution like Flutter or Xamarin.

Takes more time to initialize

React Native is a popular choice for mobile app development, but it can take longer to initialize than React JS. This is because React Native needs to download the necessary SDKs for Android and iOS before it can start running.

Downloading these can add a significant amount of time to the development process, especially for larger apps. But once the SDKs are downloaded, React Native is typically fast and efficient.

License and patenting issues

React Native is built on top of the popular React JS library, which is released under the Facebook BSD+Patents license. As such, it falls under the same license.

This means that any apps created with React Native are subject to the same licensing and patenting rules as those created with React JS.

Licensing and patenting can be a problem for businesses looking to protect their applications from potential infringement. And although the Facebook license does allow for some flexibility in these areas, developers should be aware of the potential risks they may face when using React Native because it does not allow for complete protection.

While it's always best practice to research and understand the licenses for any software you are using, this is especially important with React Native.

Requires a lot of native workarounds

Since React Native is not a fully native solution, developers may need to work around the limitations of the platform when creating their apps.

For example, navigation components are typically written in Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android. This means that if a developer wants to use React Native for navigation in an application, they will need to write the necessary native code.

This can be a difficult and time-consuming process, as the code needs to be carefully designed and tested in order for it to function properly.

Advantages of using React Native

Third-party plugins

When it comes to plugins, React Native has the edge over nearly every other solution. It has access to an extensive range of third-party plugins and libraries, which can be used to quickly add new features and functionality to apps.

Plugins like Expo, for example, allow developers to quickly add features like barcode scanning and augmented reality without having to write a lot of code.

Another plugin, React Navigation, makes it easy to create navigation patterns in apps.

And because most of these plugins are open-source, they can be freely modified and customized to fit the needs of any project.

Live reload

One of the best things about React Native is its live reload feature. This allows developers to make changes to the code and see the results in real time without having to rebuild their app or refresh the simulator window.

Let's say you were building a mobile app that displayed a list of items. With React Native's live reload feature, you could make changes to the UI and instantly see how it looks on multiple devices - all without having to recompile or relaunch the app.

This can save a lot of time during development, as developers can instantly test any changes they make and correct any errors quickly.

Cost-efficiency

React is often seen as a way to build two apps for the price of one.

Because it doesn't require separate teams of developers for iOS and Android, React Native can help you save money when compared to other solutions that require two separate teams.

And since the codebase is mostly shared between platforms, updating or adding features to both apps becomes much easier.

UI-focused

By nature, React Native is focused on the UI. This means that developers can create apps with beautiful, intuitive UIs without having to sacrifice performance.

And because React Native is based on native components, it provides a more consistent experience across different platforms - without having to write separate code for each platform.

Code reusability

React Native also allows developers to reuse code across different platforms. This means that a developer can create one component, such as a button or a list item, and use it on both iOS and Android apps.

Not only does this bring the cost of development down by about half, but it also makes the development process much faster and more efficient. If you are developing your application and you want to bring it to market as quickly as possible, React Native is an ideal choice.

Wrapping Up

These are just some of the key differences between React JS and React Native. Ultimately, it depends on your project requirements which one you should choose for your next app.

Consider all the points mentioned above and make an informed decision that will benefit your business in the long run.