Ionic vs React Native: Which Framework Is Better For Development ?

There are many frameworks available for Mobile App development. Ionic and React Native both are the most trending frameworks nowadays so let’s check details about both frameworks. 

Ionic :

Ionic was built on top of Angular and Apache Cordova which was released in 2013.  Ionic allows development of hybrid apps with the help of HTML, CSS and JavaScript along with one time or reusable code base. 

Ionic has User Interface components and functions to create beautiful and fully functional apps and it requires both PhoneGap and Cordova for Ionic to work. 

 If you have knowledge and experience with Angular then you will find app development is very easy using Ionic and the second version of Ionic is similar to Angular regarding design and structure. There is TypeScript ready so you can easily use your current Angular 2 components. 

The Ionic framework has some pre-developed UI components which can simplify your work. It means write code once and run it everywhere. It also has the feature of adaptability. 

It provides a comfortable amount of inexpensive plugins which allow you to forget about using third-party solutions. You can always look at Cordova plug-ins if you are unable to find what you want.

 Pros of Ionic

PhoneGap and Cordova wrap     it 

It works on WebView if it is     Android or UIWebView If it is iOS 

There is no matter whether it     is HTML, CSS, JavaScript or Angular - It is purely platform independent 

Easy to create Mobile App UI     functionality effectively and efficiently

Easy to use TypeScript for     development for all platforms

Cons of Ionic

Sometimes it is creating issue     while using too many call-backs to the native code

It is difficult to develop     graphics transitions or advanced interactive

It is necessary to know about     RxJS that may reduce our language learning         

React Native

React Native Framework was built and declared by Facebook in the year 2015 by applying React architecture to native Android, iOS and Windows platform apps. 

React Native has a feature that allows it to create cross-platform applications which are difficult to differentiate from the native apps and this is something like google translate by typing simple phrases and it provides translation automatically. The process is the same, you write code using React components and after this code will be rendered as native UI components in mobile applications and WebViews or Browsers are not used in it so your apps will be faster. 

Using this development process is based on JavaScript so programmers can share code across different platforms. Though you will not be able to use a single toolbar for different platforms. If you have decided to use React for mobile apps then be ready to use components which are close to the native behaviour of the platform as much as possible. 

 Pros of React Native

It is easy to reuse existing     code so development will be faster 

Community is big so you will     get help from them so it is easy to get solutions within short period of     time 

Code can be used for both     Android and iOS platforms 

Cons of React Native

If you have created code for     iOS then if you will use it for Android then it requires some efforts from     you 

It is somehow complicated so it     requires more resources and with a higher budget

Now, Comparison between both Ionic and React Native 

One of the major differences between using Ionic is, You are able to develop hybrid apps. These apps will be using WebView for Android and UIWebView for iOS. 

If you are using React Native, You can develop Mobile applications with standard UI blocks. It uses the native rendering APIs in Java for Android Platform and Objective-C for iOS. 

Performance 

The Hybrid apps which are built using Ionic are slower in speed than the apps which are built using React Native

2.               Testing 

For ionic testing can be done using any browser while it is requires a device or an emulator for React Native 

3.               Features 

For Ionic, The documentation is very much simple and clear-cut and there are a variety of pre-design sets of styles. In React Native, It is having excellent features which allows developers to debug and update the running application without rebuilding it completely. 

4.               Simplicity : 

Ionic and React Native both are considered to be highly functional because they can be “reused” if it is required because sometimes it requires rewriting code more than one time. Another point If the code is written in Ionic then it can be used anywhere after initial launch of apps while in React Native It is required to rewrite the code on the new platform.

5.               Developer Community : 

React Native is very famous on GitHub and it is a growing community. If you are a part of this community then it is easy to get answers to any questions as well as easy to access for other third party libraries which are developed by community developers. While In Ionic, it does not have a large audience in their community but it is growing gradually. 

Conclusion :