Should You Choose React Native Or Swift For iOS App Development?

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Should You Choose React Native Or Swift For iOS
App Development?

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Table of Contents

• 1) About React Native
• 2) About Swift
• 3) The advantages and disadvantages
• Advantages of React Native
• Disadvantages of React Native
• Advantages of Swift
• Disadvantages of Swift
• 4) 1. Performance aspects
• Performance of React Native
• Performance of Swift
• 5) 2. The architectural aspects
• 6) 3. Building complex applications
• 7) 4. App testing
• 8) Final considerations

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Introduction

• Have you been thinking about developing a
  cross-platform application or a native iOS
  solution for your business? How will you make the
  right choice regarding technology thatll yield
  an interface worth showcasing? This topic will
  answer these questions and more.
• This write-up is primarily a comparative study of
  React Native and Swift two different
  technologies preferred for building iOS
  applications. Before getting into the thick of
  things, however, you and your preferred swift app
  development company have to solve this riddle.
• Is it possible to use Swift, as well as React
  Native, to build a native app for iOS?

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• Both frameworks are powerful enough to help
  developers build apps for iOS devices
  efficiently. Then again, a few factors determine
  the language developers should use to create the
  application.
• Without further ado, this topic will take you
  directly into the pool of comparison to help you
  contemplate both technologies.

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About React Native

• React Native is an exceptionally renowned
  open-source app development framework that works
  on JavaScript. It mostly focuses on rendering
  apps natively, which are primarily compatible
  with Android and iOS. The creators of React
  Native wrote it by combining JavaScript and XML
  Esque markup language.
• Two years ago, about 42 of all developers were
  using React Native for hybrid app development.
• About 58.5 of the entire community of developers
  loves using RN.
• About 11.5 of all developers prefer using React
  Native because of the libraries and tools it has
  to offer.

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About Swift

• Experts describe Swift as a robust programming
  language with multi-paradigm abilities for
  building applications for Mac, iOS, Apple TV,
  Apple Watch, and Linux OS. Apple created and
  released Swift about seven years ago and made it
  open-source. For developers, Swift is simple
  enough to read, write, and maintain. They need to
  use straightforward syntax to do it.
• Based on the report of the annual survey
  conducted by StackOverflow in 2020, about 59.5
  of all developers enjoy using Swift.
• In the Tiobe index report that came out in May
  2021, Swift held the 11th rank.
• Another report from PYPL ranked Swift 10th on
  their list and affiliated it with a market share
  of 1.91.
• On Github, Swift enjoys 56.1k stars and 9k forks.

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Advantages of React Native

• Rendering natively
• React Native uses the host platform to render
  APIs natively without using CSS or HTML markup.
• Performance level
• React Native converts an applications markup to
  replicate the authenticity of UI elements without
  compromising performance.
• Debugging
• React Native offers intelligent tools for
  debugging and error reporting purposes.

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Disadvantages of React Native

• UI
• API native rendering of React Native may fail to
  support specific native elements of UI. As a
  result, the UI can become off-putting
• Plugins and tools
• Some of the libraries from third parties may turn
  out to be obsolete.
• Performance level
• React Native doesnt facilitate multi-processing
  and parallel threading. This drawback affects
  performance.

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Advantages of Swift

• Ease of reading and maintenance
• Swift possesses clean syntax and fewer lines of
  code. Naturally, it reduces the possibilities of
  mistakes during reading, writing, modification,
  and maintenance.
• Hybrid support
• Swift enables hybrid support through platforms
  like Linux OS. Itll also receive support from
  Windows soon. Furthermore, the framework has
  libraries and modules accessible via other
  supported platforms.
• App safety
• Swift boasts of a structured and robust system of
  typing with error-management systems. As a
  result, developers can find and squash bugs
  within a short time.

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Disadvantages of Swift

• A new entrant
• As Swift is a relatively new entrant, only a
  handful of developers use it. Also, the developer
  community needs time to grow.
• Debugging
• Swift utilizes clunky LLDB functions and
  services. It may not be able to debug compiler
  errors properly.
• Absence of Hot-Reloading
• Developers cant use the Hot-Reloading feature in
  Swift. Thats why they need time to make changes
  to the code.

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Performance aspects

• Performance of React Native
• The app development community never liked the
  performance of React Native. It has three
  elements, including a JavaScript thread, a
  bridge, and a native thread. The bridge works as
  the mediator between the two threads.
• Performance of Swift
• Swift, on the other hand, can run complicated app
  logic and the heaviest computations surprisingly
  fast. Theres the LLVM compiler that converts the
  code of Swift into optimized native code. As a
  result, developers get direct access to APIs and
  device hardware components.

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The architectural aspects

• The architecture supported by React Native
• React Native bridges the gap between the
  JavaScript thread and the Native thread. Based on
  this functionality, the code of JavaScript
  communicates the Native API with the platform.
  React Native utilizes JavaScriptCore separately
  to make all the codes work on iOS.
• The architecture supported by Swift
• Some of the architectures used in building
  applications on Swift include MV, Viper, MVVM,
  and Clean. The architecture of Clean has the
  templates of Xcode to generate the components.
  Developers can modify these template components
  depending on future requirements.

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Building complex applications

• Suitability of React Native
• Indeed, its perfectly possible to create
  complicated native applications on React Native.
  However, you must know that your developers can
  do it only when you incorporate native
  development with React Native.
• Suitability of Swift
• Swift is an excellent choice if you want to
  include native features in your app or any other
  complicated integrations. Swift works well for
  apps with the most complex infrastructure in need
  of features native to iOS.

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App testing

• Ease of testing on React Native
• React Native doesnt receive official support for
  testing at the UI level. It doesnt get any
  integration testing support, either.
  Additionally, only a few frameworks with unit
  testing systems are available to developers for
  inspecting React Native applications.
• Ease of testing on Swift
• To test apps for iOS devices, Swift utilizes
  Xcode. It facilitates both UI and unit testing.
  For unit testing, Xcode starts the app first and
  then runs tests. If it spots one or more bugs, it
  sends a report to the developers before moving on
  to the subsequent test case. The UI testing
  process works just like unit testing, but it
  leverages XCUITest.

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Final considerations

• Well, there you have it a comprehensive
  comparative study of the two most popular
  frameworks in existence for developing iOS
  applications. The creators of both frameworks
  designed them specifically for offering the best
  UX on native platforms. Also, both frameworks
  have exclusive advantages and disadvantages.
• If the information provided above doesnt help
  you in making the right decision, then you should
  hire react native app developers based on the
  factors mentioned below.
• You want to build an app with complicated UI and
  high device memory management.
• You want to create just one platform by
  leveraging the ecosystem of Apple.
• You wish to create apps with native APIs and
  features for iOS.
• You hope to build something thatll need upgrades
  and maintenance in the future.
• You want to create banking solutions with extra
  safety and a high memory management level.

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• Conversely, Swift should be your choice if your
  idea satisfies the following conditions.
• You want to create an app that you can release on
  Android later.
• You want to reduce your app development expenses.
• You want to create something in need of live
  reloading and hot reloading.
• You want to create a cross-platform solution.
• You want to build your app as fast as possible.
• These considerations will aid you in making an
  informed decision. You can always contact Moon
  Technolabs if you wish to learn more about the
  differences between React Native and Swift, as
  well as their abilities.

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• THANKS
• Original Source https//www.moontechnolabs.com/b
  log/should-you-choose-react-native-or-swift-for-io
  s-app-development/