Most people assume that everyone cross-platform frameworks alike, which the choice to decide on one over the opposite ought to be supported the stack that you’re most comfy with. If you’re a React look, select React Native; if you’re Associate in Nursing Angular look, select Ionic (setting aside the fact that Ionic currently totally supports building mobile apps with React).
The truth of the matter is, this call isn’t nearly as straightforward in concert would expect.
In this article, I will show however Ionic takes a completely different approach than the opposite cross-platform frameworks. to stay it simple, we tend to reach to focus totally on React Native as a result of the prime example of what we tend to call the Hybrid-Native approach (more thereon later).. however most of what we tend to cowl can apply to Xamarin, Flutter, and Native Script likewise.
In the end, you will see that not all cross-platform frameworks area units alike. and also the framework you select can have profound implications for the long run of your project—whether you recognize it or not.
Let’s break it down a small amount, shall we?
Where We Are The Same
Ionic’s goal has continually been to allow internet developers the flexibility to develop for, and participate on, platforms that haven’t continually been accessible to them. for instance, does one need to create a native app that may be downloaded from the app stores victimization internet technology? Ionic has your back.
This conception of allowing developers to use technology that they already acknowledge, to form apps among the technologies they don’t acknowledge, is what all cross-platform frameworks are trying to realize.
For example:
- Ionic permits you to use HTML/CSS/JS to create iOS apps, robot apps, PWAs, desktop apps, or apps for the other platform wherever the online runs.
- React Native utilizes the JS framework React, however renders native UI components at runtime, permitting you to create iOS and robot apps.
In that method, we tend to all have an equivalent mission: Use technology X to make for platform Y, wherever X and Y historically aren’t an equivalent.
It’s conjointly vital to notice that every one hybrid app development frameworks, as well as Ionic, enable access to native device practicality just like the camera, biometrics, geolocation, and offline storage.
Hybrid-Native vs. Hybrid-Web
To accomplish the goal of building for a particular platform, every one of those technologies has different philosophies that they adhere to. In my opinion, we can divide these beliefs into 2 major categories: Hybrid-Native and Hybrid-Web.
Hybrid-Native
Native UI, Shared Code
React Native, besides Xamarin and NativeScript, permits you to program your user interfaces (UI) in one language that then orchestrates native UI controls at runtime.
It is “cross-platform” in this the React Native framework has mapped calls in JavaScript to calls that manage the native UI for specific mobile platforms. for instance, a React Native component that renders text on a mobile app is progressing to be translated into two separate components: [Text View] for android and [UIView] for iOS. Thus, you’re not sharing parts across platforms, you’re sharing code.
This means that the underlying native UI element that you simply would like to use, still as any customizations of that element, should be supported by React Native to use that element or modification it.
For instance, let’s say you needed to alter the border around a button. If React Native doesn’t open up a customization for that border, you’d be unable to switch it while not going directly into the native implementation to manually program it. That doesn’t mean you can’t modification the border, it simply suggests that it’ll be tougher to try and do therefore than expected in some things.
It additionally means, if you dream of one, a shared library of reusable UI parts that you simply will use across all of your digital experiences, the Hybrid-Native model (i.e. React Native, Xamarin, NativeScript, et al) wouldn’t be the correct approach.
Shared Codebase, Plus Native Code
The amount of code employ in your React Native project can depend upon what proportion you would like to customize your app at the native layer. If you persist with basic UI primitives like reading, Text, Image, and tangible then your code can run on every platform, which means you will get about to 100 percent code employ.
On the opposite hand, if you’ve got a lot of native customizations, your project can involve 3 separate codebases: 2 to manage your UI for golem and iOS, and a shared codebase wherever your controller code can live. in a very recent post from the mobile team at Airbnb, they explained however this compete go in their project:
In the end, React Native and also the alternative Hybrid-Native frameworks square measure nice solutions with a variety of advantages. Namely, the power to make a truly native UI victimization principally JavaScript, whereas enjoying a high degree of code sharing. above all, we tend to advocate selecting this approach if you would like to combine a cross-platform answer into the associate existing native codebase, have existing native skills, like native-specific languages over JS, or solely attempt to target iOS and automaton.
Hybrid-Web
Web UI, Shared Components
Ionic takes a special stance. rather than your JavaScript code acting as a bridge that controls native UI components, the UI parts you utilize in your app are running across all platforms. in an exceedingly mobile app, these parts execute in an exceeding review instrumentality. in an exceedingly Progressive net App, they run within the browser. And, in an exceedingly native desktop app, they might run in an exceedingly desktop instrumentality like lepton.
Why does this matter? Here are a few reasons.
Design consistency
First, if you’re building a style system and need to enforce wife and whole consistency across apps and digital experiences (e.g. this can be the precise button that ought to be employed in all of the apps we tend to build)—there’s just one thanks to doing it: By sharing parts across all digital platforms, like mobile, desktop, native, and also the net. to boot, if you would like to create certain an element you build for one app may be reused across any project, exploitation net parts are, currently, the sole thanks to going.
Portability
Since Ionic is predicated on markup language, CSS, and JavaScript, your UI runs on a conveyable, standardized layer. searching for a customizable element that mechanically works despite that platform your app is running on? Ionic makes this potential by utilizing open net standards.
Customizability
One of the items Ionic developers usually brag regarding is having the ability to customize as of their UI. for instance, you’ve got complete and total management over the UI by utilizing the net, which offers a lot of out-of-the-box styling properties.
And if you’d prefer to customize your app’s style supported every platform, it’s easier to try and do therefore once operating in an exceedingly single codebase with easy-to-use CSS styling on a per-platform basis, that Ionic’s technology provides.
Lastly, maybe the most important good thing about building on the net is that the stability of the platform. With open net standards supported all told fashionable browsers, you’ll be able to be assured that no matter what you write nowadays goes to figure tomorrow. alternative front-end tools area unit growing and dynamical all the time, while not the maximum amount of care towards backward compatibility.
One Codebase, Running Anywhere
With a Hybrid-Web approach, your UI is constructed with HTML/CSS/JS, with native practicality being accessed through moveable Apis (or “plugins”) that abstract the underlying platform dependencies.
Instead of your entire UI reckoning on the native platform, solely bound native device options, just like the Camera, area unit platform-dependent.
This additionally means your UI layer is shared between all platforms. this can be a very necessary point: though you customize the design & feel on the far side Ionic’s default platform-specific styles, you’ll ne’er get to split your app into multiple codebases.
On high of that, you furthermore may get the advantage of debugging multiple platforms at an equivalent time by utilizing web-based debugging tools, just like the Chrome Developer tools, saving you time within the long-standing time. this can be an enormous profit. we frequently hear that having the ability to make the majority of your app right within the browser is one among the foremost tangible edges of building with Ionic.
To add it up, here area unit the eventualities wherever I might suggest the Ionic (“Hybrid-Web”) approach to cross-platform development
- You’re trying to create an Associate in Nursing application not only for mobile (iOS and Android), except for desktops and browsers still.
- You don’t wish to possess to rewrite your UI for every target platform.
- UI customization and style consistency across all of your target platforms area unit crucial.
- You want to open up the probabilities of your UI to custom elements or third-party libraries.
- You want to rent from the massive pool of existing net development talent and build out a JavaScript organization.
What About Performance?
Now let’s state the elephant within the space once it involves evaluating the Hybrid-Web approach. Proponents of Hybrid-Native can usually say: “But what concerning performance?!”
However, the proof is within the pudding. If you would like to check however associate degree Ionic app performs, I invite you to ascertain out one amongst our sample apps and take it for a spin. And keep in mind, “bad code”, even during a native app, will build your app sluggish. thus invariably certify you’re utilizing best practices once building.
Lastly, if performance is your one and solely concern, you would possibly similarly go native and build directly with iOS and automaton toolsets. For performance-sensitive applications, staying as getting ready for the metal with Native SDKs can seemingly be well worth the trade-offs in terms of price and development time.
Conclusion
While each ar solid frameworks and can assist you to build an excellent app, the selection for your team or organization depends on your overall vision and also the ideal practicality for your app(s). to boot, you need to even be guaranteed to measure your choices supported that factors are vital to you, like style consistency, customization, platform independence, movability, and more.We have provides services react native app development.
