Major Aspects that Differentiate ReactJS and React Native

You must have heard about Facebook Ads Manager app. It is the first full React Native-based, cross-platform app by the parent company of React Native, Facebook! Yes, the Facebook team has developed and released React Native framework back in 2015 and it has gained ground among the developer’s community swiftly. Apart from cross-platform apps, React Native app development is useful for developing desktop apps thanks to its vast community support.

Now comes another term- ReactJS or React.js. Many people believe that React Native and ReactJS are the same. But, let’s clear here that when you hire ReactJS developers, they may not make cross-platform apps! Read on this post to clear your doubts as we are going to discuss certain differences between React Native and ReactJS from the viewpoints of structure and use cases.

Let’s start with the obvious question.

What is ReactJS?

It is a JavaScript library designed to build user-friendly and responsive UI components. ReactJS is also known as React in short, and it is responsible for the rendering of user interface (UI) components technically. The library supports both front-end and server-side processes.

What is React Native?

React Native is a JavaScript framework or platform to build cross-platform apps with native characteristics. React Native has no role in developing UI. But, that’s not all. Here we compare both ReactJS and React Native to understand the similarities and differences between these two concepts.

• Set up and Workflow

As mentioned above, ReactJS is a JavaScript library. It is useful for web development and UI development. When you hire ReactJS developers for a new project, they choose a Webpack first, which is a bundler. After selecting the bundler, developers will decide which modules will specifically suit the project requirements.

In React Native, developers need to start from scratch. In other words, they have to set up everything first before developing an app. It is easy and rapid app development platform. Developers need to run just a single command line in terminal to start coding. As React Native is a framework meant for developing cross-platform mobile apps, it is necessary to use Xcode (for iOS apps) and Android Studio (for Android apps) to run the app.

• Animations

React JS can come up with live animations with the help of CSS. It shows that ReactJS is mostly web-oriented library. React Native, on the other hand, takes the entirely different, mobile app-specific approach. Here, React Native app developers animate components by using the Animated API. A well-known JavaScript library Veloity.js is also useful for building animations. It enables app developers to build assorted animations.

ReactJS allows developers to play with animations, whereas, React Native offers freedom to come up with innovative animations.

• Tools for Developers

Rapid app development is one of the biggest benefits of React or ReactJS. It offers a few great tools for developers while giving them get rid of installation. It can save a lot of time and effort. Also, ReactJS enables hot reloading to enable developers to make small changes to the app style and theme.

You can hire ReactJS developers to leverage the benefit of Live Reload. This feature makes it easy to add big changes in the app logic, and your app can reload when developers change its code.

React Native developers also use many tools available in ReactJS. For example, Chrome Dev Tools are present in ReactJS that are necessary for inspecting network requests and debugging. Redux DevTools can also assist developers for inspecting elements. But, the native inspector is not much useful in React Native because it is not possible to inspect DOM during React Native app development process.

Also Read- Native vs. Hybrid Apps: What to Choose in 2019?

After going through key differences, it’s time to jot down the business benefits of both ReactJS and React Native.

Key Business Benefits of ReactJS

• DOM (Document Object Model) in ReactJS can manage data inputs and outputs faster than traditional refresh model. It eventually enhances performance and increases the speed of writing program or developing a web project
• Reusable code components can further save the developer’s time and efforts
• Higher debugging speed in ReactJS can assist developers to complete their projects rapidly
• SEO part is supported by the possibility of rendering pages from the server to the browser
• Developers can come up with creative web solutions by using this rich JavaScript library

Key Business Benefits of React Native

• It contains native modules for better performance, appearance, and speed of cross-platform apps
• It enables the developers to reuse code and a common logic layer across iOS and Android platforms, which reduces the development time
• It allows developers to take an agile web-style approach to build customized apps with ease
• High performance, responsiveness, and agility are a few characteristics of React Native mobile apps
• React Native enables developers to add UI components directly into the existing application’s code to save time of rewriting the code

Quick Comparison between React Native and ReactJS

Aspects/Features	React Native	ReactJS
Type	Framework or Platform	JavaScript Library
Focus on	Mobile	Web
Syntax	ECMAScript 6, JSX	ECMAScript 6, JSX
Set up	Single command line to run the platform	One command to set up
UI Rendering	DOM	Platform-specific APIs
Styling	StyleSheet API, No CSS	CSS Stylesheets and Modules
Animations	Animated API	CSS Animations, React Move
Navigation	React Native Tools	React Router

In brief, components are different in both React Native and ReactJS, but syntax and workflow are similar. It is better to contact a reputed ReactJS development company to know more about them.

Concluding Lines

ReactJS is a JavaScript-based library and React Native is a framework to build cross-platform mobile apps. Simply put, ReactJS (or React.js) is a core of React Native that includes all the principles and syntax of React to make a learning curve easy. When it comes to build a dynamic and responsive UI with high performance, ReactJS is helpful and when you want to give your business mobile app a native look and feel, React Native remains handy.

Semaphore is a leading ReactJS development company. We have an in-house team of experienced and dedicated developers who have worked on a number of web and mobile app projects across different industry sectors. If you have any requirements for your next web or mobile app project, just send us an email at info@sempaphore-software.com. Our expert business consultants will contact you shortly to discuss scope and business benefits.