Swift Vs. React Native: Which is Right for Your iOS App Development?
Having an iOS business app that is scalable, tailor-made, and highly-performing, can turn things in your favor.
Apple users are loyal and trust the brand dedicatedly. As per a survey, there are more than 1 billion users using iPhones worldwide in app store.
Not just that, another research relevals that Apple shipped 206.1 million iPhones in just 2021 alone.
You can reach out to your Apple users by having a high-quality, scalable, and secure business app.
However, the 1st dilemma that you will face is whether to go for a native app or a cross-platform app.
The 2nd one is whether to go for Swift Vs React Native for iOS app development.
Both- React Native and Swift are highly preferred by iOS developers and both have their own pros and cons.
However, when you have decided to build an iOS app, you need to carefully vet both of these options to find the right one.
As Swift is the brainchild of Apple, you might argue why to think of React Native in the first place. Well, you really need to educate yourself about React Native and benefits this amazing framework has to offer.
In this post, we will discuss almost Swift, React Native, their benefits and disadvantages, and an in-depth comparison between Swift Vs React Native.
Stay Tuned!
What is React Native?
You might have heard about React. Well, React is not React Native. Both are different.
React is a JavaScript library that developers use to create intuitive and compelling user interfaces.
On the other hand, React Native is a JavaScript-based cross-platform app development framework developed by Facebook. Since its inception, it has garnered too much acclamation and appreciation across the globe due to some astonishing benefits it has to offer.
As React Native uses JavaScript, developers can build apps in just no time, thanks to the code reusability feature the language has to offer.
Just imagine, if you have developed an Android app, you can use 70% of the code to create an iOS app. If you want to reduce the app-to-market time to a great degree, you can go for React Native for iOS app development.
Also, in React Native, the UI elements are getting rendered in native versions. This is the reason React Native-based iOS apps offer native-like experience to users.
Some of the apps that are built with the React Native frameworks are Facebook, Walmart, Bloomberg, SoundCloud, and Instagram.
Now, let’s check out some of the advantages and disadvantages of the React Native framework:
Top 5 Benefits of React Native
#1. Development Time is Too Fast
As we have mentioned earlier, due to the code reusability feature, developers can easily build an app in just no time. Also, React Native is OS-independent, reducing the development cycle to a great margin.
#2. You Will Need a Smaller Team
Yes, another advantage of choosing the React Native framework is recruiting a small team to work upon the project.
Here, you will need a small team of JavaScript developers who will be able to develop both Android and iOS apps for you. If you are building a native app, you will need two teams for both the platforms.
#3. It Has a Rich Library Support
React Native has more than 33,000 libraries and packages to build astonishing iOS apps. On the other hand, when we talk compare Swift Vs React Native, Swift has just 3,800 packages.
It shows how committed and enthusiastic the React Native community is to help you out. In case a developer needs help, he can reach out to the community for help.
#4. It Is Highly Automotive
Building an app is not just about writing code. It has many other parameters such as back-end development, front-end development, app testing, deployment, release, and bug addressing.
Generally, developers prefer a framework that has automatic processes to accelerate the development cycle.
When you are using the React Native framework, you can allocate such mundane tasks to third-party services such as Bitrise, AppCenter, and others.
#5. It Offers a Native-like Experience
One of the main reasons why you should go for the React Native framework for iOS app development is that React Native apps offer a native-like experience to users.
Though you cannot make a 100% native iOS app, you can develop a cross-platform app that behaves, looks, and feels like a native app.
Top 3 Disadvantages of React Native
#1. It Has a Complex Design
When you are building separate apps for Android and iOS, you have to cater to their separate guidelines. Hence, creating highly custom UI for React Native apps becomes a bit complex issue for developers.
#2. It takes a Long Time to Test the App
Though you can develop a cross-platform app faster than a native app, the testing time is longer compared to native apps. For React Native apps, you have to be extra careful and precise while testing the app.
#3. It Has a Fewer Wrappers
While developing a React Native app, developers might need to write custom wrappers to integrate native modules, APIs, and components accurately. It also takes more time to write these wrappers.
What is Swift?
Swift was developed by Apple in 2014 to build highly custom, robust, and scalable iOS apps. It is a general-purpose programming language and developers can create apps and programs for iPhones, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and other iOS platforms.
Swift is a highly versatile, trustworthy, and highly expressive programming language that is easy to create, read, and maintain.
Furthermore, developers believe that it has a human-friendly syntax and uses the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch Apple frameworks.
Some of the apps made on Swift are Airbnb, Uber, Asana, Hubspot, LinkedIn, and Square.
Top 5 Advantages of Swift
#1. It Handles Errors Better
As it is developed by Apple, its error handling capabilities are stronger. It is stronger to such an extent that it prevents developers from making errors and also highly efficient in preventing code crashes.
#2. It Is Easy to Scale
Another reason why you should go for Swift is that it is easy to scale in the future. Being a powerful programming language developed by Apple, adding a new feature or functionality is like child’s play.
#3. It Offers Better Safety and Performance
The main reason to develop Swift was to replace the Objective-C, which was also an official Apple programming language. However, Swift offers more safety and performance compared to Objective-C.
#4. It Offers Highly Satisfying User Experience
Yes, all native apps offer the same. Swift apps are excellent when it comes to user experience. They consume less memory storage as these apps are lightweight.
Also, as it is built with the native iOS development, developers have more access to the native features.
#5. Open Source Community
Swift has an active open-source community that backs the platform. Also, it’s very easy to learn and understand for newbies.
Top 4 Disadvantages of Swift
#1. Poor support for previous iOS versions
If you are using an older iOS versions, you cannot use Swift apps for a long term.
#2. Lesser talent pool
Finding the right and talented Swift developers are very difficult as it is a relatively new programming language.
#3. Interoperability issues with third-party software and IDEs
There are some functionality issues developers find such as syntac highlighting, autocomplete, compilers, and others.
#4. It is Only for Apple Devices
Swift is a dedicated iOS programming language and it cannot be used for cross platform development. You cannot create apps for Android.
An In-Depth Comparison Between React Native Vs Swift
Now, we will discuss the comparison of Swift Vs React Native for some vital parameters.
React Native vs Swift: Performance
There are multiple parameters that affect the performance of both these platforms such as GPU speed, CPU consumption, and others. When it comes to React Native Vs Swift performance, clearly React Native wins.
Let’s cut down the comparison for individual parameters:
- Memory Usage: React Native consumes less memory compared to Swift.
- GPU Speed: React Native again wins here when it comes to GPU speed.
- CPU Comparison: here, Swift clearly wins the race.
Furthermore, React Native allows developers to embed native codes in the React Native apps.
In conclusion, when it comes to performance, React Native clearly wins here.
Swift vs React Native: User Interface
Now, let’s talk about Swift UI Vs React Native UI.
When it comes to Swift, developers can create highly compelling, intuitive, and astonishing UIs that are easy to navigate and offer a seamless experience to users.
Furthermore, developers can also use SwiftUI to offer users a outstanding native user experience. It simply goes out of the world.
On the other hand, React Native uses JavaScript libraries to build highly compelling user interfaces. When it comes to create native-like experiences, developers use platform-centric component versions.
Developers can easily wrap native code and meaningfully communicate with native apps, thanks to JavaScript and declarative UI.
Hence, it is easy to make highly compelling UIs with React Native, but it is bit challenging for developers to stay updated with future changes and advancements in the native environment.
In conclusion, here, Swift beats React Native easily.
React Native vs Swift: Stability
You cannot expect a cross-platform app beats a native app. It is clear that when it comes to stability, Swift clearly wins here.
Swift is a native app development programming language and has a support of a strongest native platform called iOS. Furthermore, when it comes to handling heavy tasks and visual effects, Swift handles them excellently compared to React Native.
Even though the React Native framework is the leader in cross-platform app development, it cannot be compared with Swift when it comes to stability.
Also, React Native mostly ise internal APIs and libraries to execute apps. Hence, React Native apps are bit unstable.
React Native vs Swift: Speed of Coding
React Native is older than Swift and hence, it has an easy learning curve. Also, it has many various tools when it comes to coding. Furthermore, creating the React Native codebase is easy compared to Swift.
On the other hand, when it comes to Swift, developers take more time to write code compared to React Native. The main reason is that Swift is a relatively new language and hence, it does not has an easy learning curve.
Hence, when it comes to speed of coding, React Native weighs more compared to Swift.
Swift vs React Native: Learning Curve
React Native has an easy learning curve compared to Swift. Developing a cross-platform iOS app is easy and simple for developers. The whole development process is highly pre-defined and the community support makes the learning curve easier and quick.
Also, the React Native framework has a wide range of documents and extensive libraries to help developers.
On the other hand, when it comes to Swift learning curve, it is highly cutting-edge as it is a new programming language. Also, Apple came to a rescue for developers with an official document that explains language, fundamentals, and features in an easy language.
Also, Swift has a fantastic feature called Swift Playgrounds to help Swift developers learning the language.
Here, Swift beats React Native clearly.
React Native vs Swift: Platform Maturity
Both React Native and Swift are relatively new in the industry. React Native and Swift were released in 2015 and 2014 respectively. However, both are becoming stronger with each version update.
Furthermore, both are backed with the tech giants Facebook and Apple, with regular version updates.
However, no matter how advanced React Native is, it is not a native framework. Hence, you cannot expect that level of efficiency that Swift offers. The main aim of React Native is to become a bridge between iOS platforms and code.
Swift, on the other hand, is more stable, matured, and a native language, offering more stable apps.
Here, there are no clear winners. Both are equal when it comes to platform maturity.
Swift vs React Native: Developer Cost
Finding a React Native developer is easy. Also, you can hire a React Native developer at the best, cost-effective price compared to Swift developers.
Also, when you need to hire a team, you can end up saving more when you hire a React Native team compared to a Swift team.
Being a new language, it is a bit challenging to find Swift developers and more difficult is to develop a team of Swift developers. Also, as Swift developers are difficult to find, they ask for more money compared to React Native developers.
When it comes to developer cost, React Native clearly wins.
React Native vs Swift: Developer’s Availability
React Native uses JavaScript as a programming language. It is one of the most popular programming languages and hence, finding JavaScript developers is relatively easy compared to Swift developers.
Also, as Swift is a relatively new programming language, it is difficult to find proficient Swift developers and a team of Swift developers. Even various studies prove that developers find JavaScript a more developer-friendly language compared to Swift.
React Native clearly wins here.
React Native vs Swift: Community Support and Documentation
Being an open-source programming language, it has a vast community of React Native developers across the globe. In case of any development issues, React Native developers can easily turn to the community for solutions.
On the other hand, Swift is supported by Apple, but when it comes to community support, Swift lacks such support for developers.
Also, when it comes to documentation, React Native has a comprehensive, concise, and highly accurate documentation. Swift also has a concise and highly consistent documentation.
However, when you have to choose one for community and documentation, React Native clearly wins.
Swift Vs React Native: Which One to Choose?
When it comes to iOS app design and development, both React Native and Swift are powerful options to choose. However, it also depends on various parameters such as the size, scope, expectations, and others.
You can choose React Native if:
- You want to develop an app for both iOS and Android platforms.
- You want to launch the app quicker in the market.
- You want features such as Hot Reload that makes the app development faster.
- When you want a cross-platform app that looks and feels like native apps.
You can choose Swift if:
- You want to develop an app only for iOS.
- You want an app that is easy to maintain.
- You want an app that has platform-specific code.
Conclusion
When it comes to Swift Vs React Native, there is no particular choice to follow. The selection of the framework or programming language depends on your unique business requirements.
You can choose Swift if you are looking for a native app with more security, stability, and performance.
You can choose React Native if you want to launch the app in the market quicker and have some budget constraints.
You can hire New York Mobile Tech, a leading mobile app development company offering the most talented iOS app developers in New York. We have carved a niche for ourselves by offering the best-in-class Android and iOS apps in the market.