Ask HN: React Native is dead, how you would build mobile app nowadays?

[jsifalda]

I want to build a simple hybrid mobile application and I was thinking that React Native can be the best solution for me... Because I know reactjs well, and js/html/css is my daily bread. However, in recent days I have noticed there are plenty "buzz" about dying React Native. I have not dig into... but I wouldn't want to use something which is "out dated". I would like to know what would be your dev stack to build simple mobile application quickly these days? What technologies you would use? I do have knowledge of swift but I don't want to use it anymore...

Any feedback/ideas would be appreciated.

George

[mottomotto]

React Native is far from dead. I suspect your conflating "React Native isn't good for Airbnb" with "React Native is dead". The reality is Airbnb already had mobile applications. They wanted to use React Native to potentially accelerate their application development. However, after a couple of years, they still had a hybrid application with both purely native screens and a some React Native screens. I think the number was roughly 200 out of 800 screens? Anyway, point is if you're in the same situation as Airbnb, yes, React Native as it stands right now might not be the ideal for making a hybrid application.

If you're not in Airbnb's shoes, React Native may be a completely viable way to build your applications. One hint is that hybrid is harder than it seems. That is is more than just a technical problem. I'm going to avoid rehashing the Airbnb articles but you can read them to get a sense of the pain points. To continue the hint though, it's worth looking at those for whom React Native is working. I've noticed most seem to be greenfield applications developed from the start in React Native.

[q-base]

I am glad to read the comments saying that it is not dead, as I am planning to start building my latest project from the ground with React Native.

[mottomotto]

If you need or will need a web equivalent, you should look into react-native-web (and just for interest, react-native-dom but that is much more expiremental -- I'd stick with -web for actual usage). With react-native-web, you can have one code base that serves both the mobile devices and web. It takes a little bit of getting used to but I'm using it on two projects and it's really powerful.

[q-base]

Thanks a lot! I will absolutely look into that. I will at some point need a web-equivalent, so that might be very useful.

[sharmi]

I am not a front end developer, but I do understand what you are going through.

You, basically, want to invest in something that is future proof and there are just too many options to evaluate. The pros and cons are fuzzy. You are stuck in analysis paralysis. It is sad to say, this is the case in all branches of software development. Just too many options, but none exactly what you want. For backend, it was first Rails, then Django, Node.js, microservices in Go, now Serverless. Somewhere in the middle, there is also Phoenix, Play, and a dozen other stuff that I have not yet found out.

So, how do you really decide?

First, don't believe anyone who says X is dead. May be X's growth acceleration has slowed down a bit. The existing users are all still there and the community is still thriving as it were.

To arrive at a decision, there are only 3 usecases:

1. You are developing a product that you want to release. Then there is no question. No new tech unless absolutely necessary. Learning a new tech and ability to delivery just don't mix. This is especially true if you are doing this in your spare time as you need to reduce your cognitive overload as much as possible. Usually, the older tech have all their corner cases ironed out and are solid and dependable if nothing else. They also tend to have better documentation and community to help out when stuck.

2. You are looking to develop a new skill that will help you land a better job. Take a job portal that you respect. eg. https://whoishiring.io/ . See which tech has the best offers in your locality and how many companies actually use that tech. That is what you should explore first. Of course, trying as many new tech as possible expands your horizons and makes you as much a valuable hire.

3. Just to have fun. Choose the one you like the most. Build what you like. Throw it away when you get bored. Build again.

All said and done, Flutter from google seems to be growing in popularity, though I do not know how mature it is or even if it truly cross platform yet.

[gremlinsinc]

Go back to 2015 and use Ionic/Cordova/Angular? (Still a good framework imho to build apps).. or just build native if you have the time. I guess you also could try Flutter, seems to be the popular hyped framework of the moment, but I don't think react native is quite dead yet.

[danieka]

Ionic 3 is really good as well, provided you've drunk the Angular kool-aid, which I have.

[gremlinsinc]

Yeah no problem with Angular and ionic. I personally like Angular better than react, but Vue trumps both.

[k8martian]

An open source project with more than 65k stars is dead? How and where is your confidence of saying that? With some little common sense, think again how stupid your title is. Even if you want to troll, please do some research first.

[harrisreynolds]

I'd take a hard looks at Ionic! We built the early mobile apps for Shipt on Ionic and it worked out really well.

Best of luck!

[nazneen]

To find out the best platform for your mobile app with the right technology do visit:https://bit.ly/2Jh7Dxn

[dylanhassinger]

Vue Native

[neilsimp1]

...which runs on top of React Native (not that that necessarily makes it a bad choice).

[PerfectElement]

I would try Xamarin.

[ivm]

Yes, I'm finishing a four-tab app with some tables and it works perfectly. Just don't touch Xamarin.Forms (it's still buggy and slow), use the bindings to the native frameworks instead. So far I have 65% code reuse with MvvmCross.

[pauljaworski]

That's just not true at all.

[StriverGuy]

This feels like a troll.