If you're interested in developing iOS apps, you probably know about Swift and React Native. Both are popular in their ways, one of them being the fastest growing technology these days. Given that both these technologies are relatively new, it's not easy to choose between them and pick the ideal option/choice for your next project.
Swift has been around for less than a decade and got introduced in 2014. However, its popularity has just begun to increase in recent years, and it has become one of the most sought-after technologies among developers and businesses alike.
React Native, on the other hand, is a JavaScript framework that was developed by Facebook back in 2015. Its high code reusability and excellent speed performance in app development projects gained fame.
So how do you make a choice between React Native vs. Swift?
Well, as Steve Jobs says: "Details matter. It's worth waiting to get it right".
So, when choosing between React Native vs. Swift, consider the following qualities of each one:
1. Performance: Analyzing the ideal option for better speed performance
2. Application Architecture: Facilitating quicker app development
3. Testing: Faster & effective testing of bugs and issues
4. Scalability: Ensuring effective performance with a growing audience
5. Top Examples: A look at famous apps developed via them
6. Popularity: A look at what research says about their usage
The table below offers insights into React Native vs. Swift based on the above parameters.
Having gained a concise idea about which one is a suitable choice for your project, let's dive into the detailed comparison. By weighing up each of their benefits and drawbacks in diverse areas, you can make the decision that's right for your business.
So, let's begin with React Native.
React Native- Providing Native UX over Diverse Platforms
Source: Statista-Top Cross-Platform Frameworks
React Native is a renowned framework that allows developers to code mobile apps in JavaScript. It utilizes native components on mobile operating systems to create a fast user experience that doesn't sacrifice performance or UI quality.
It has quickly become one of the popular ways to develop native apps. With React Native, developers can create apps that run on multiple platforms (like iOS and Android) using JavaScript and reusable components rather than different code bases.
It can be much more efficient, but it also means that you need to know both native languages and JavaScript to use React Native properly.
Here are some benefits and cons of using React Native in your development work to help you decide if it's right for you!
Pros of Using React Native
Cross-Platform Support: Produce apps that allow your customers to install your product on several different devices without having any significant changes on their part.
Open-source: It also helps that it has become an open-source framework that is both accessible and affordable.
Reliable Community Support: There's no doubt why more and more people continue using React Native when developing their mobile applications as it offers dedicated community support. Moreover, React Native development companies offer affordable development rates for the project compared to Swift development firms.
Flexibility in Development: In addition to JavaScript and Java support, it also allows other developers to use CSS and flexbox styles. It makes it possible for them to develop applications without having to code everything from scratch or use additional tools outside what they are familiar with.
Faster Development Cycles: When building new mobile applications using JavaScript, programmers believe they can save time since they don't have to reinvent everything by themselves.
Cons of Using React Native
One caveat with React Native is that it's a relatively new framework. It means you'll be making some sacrifices in terms of libraries.
It saves developers some time, but you need to hire React Native developers with good experience using the framework. It is especially true if you want your app or game to run smoothly across multiple platforms. Or, if you want your users to have access to a web-based dashboard, they can control various aspects of their device.
Swift- Offering Powerful & Robust Coding
Source: Statista- Top Programming Languages
Swift is an application development language that Apple Inc developed. It is intended to be a simpler, more streamlined alternative to Objective-C. Although it was announced in 2014, Apple made its support official when iOS 9 was released (September 2015).
Swift has emerged as a prevalent programming language among iOS app developers in recent years with its focus on simplicity & ease of use. It's also expected to be included in the upcoming version of Apple WatchOS, so it's likely to become even more widely used soon.
Despite this popularity, however, there are some pros and cons of using Swift for app development that you should consider before deciding whether or not to adopt it for your next project.
Let's look at both sides of the issue and see what Swift can do for you and where it may fall short.
Pros of Using Swift
Simplicity – Developers can simplify programs writing code in Swift by removing some complexities in other languages.
Performance – Apple has created a programming language that is fast, safe, interactive, and fun.
Easy to learn – Developers who have learned other programming languages such as Objective-C can quickly adapt to using Swift since both are based on C programming syntax with some changes in terms and rules to differentiate them from each other
Multitasking support – With Swift development, developers no longer need to worry about how their code would function on platforms with different operating systems. Swift supports all major operating systems like Mac OS X, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Android.
Bugs-free code – Unlike other programming languages that may contain bugs, Swift offers a clean and straightforward coding environment that is user-friendly.
Compatibility with Objective-C - Many software companies now use Swift and Objective-C to develop applications.
Cons of Using Swift
Although popular among beginners and educational institutions, Swift's performance isn't on par with C or C++ yet.
Swift is a new language, so it is missing key frameworks that make it more appealing to enterprise developers. It means that while you can use Swift in your app development business today, you will spend the developer's time converting things rather than making progress on newer features.
Detailed Comparison: React Native vs. Swift
1. Performance: Analyzing the ideal option for better speed performance
React Native and Swift have been developed using an imperative paradigm, which means that you directly manipulate objects in memory when you code them. This programming style can cause performance issues when you need to build an extensive application with complex logic like third-party libraries, network calls, or complex user interactions.
React Native's significant performance advantages allow developers to write their apps just once in JavaScript and run them everywhere on mobile devices and desktop browsers. As a result, developers don't need to rewrite their apps every time they want to deploy them to new platforms as they do in cases of native development by targeting specific platforms such as Android or iOS individually.
On the other hand, Swift compiles down to native code, allowing developers to write highly-optimized code that runs faster and smoother than React Native. Apple doesn't provide a way to measure performance in real-time applications on React Native.
However, in some cases, such as Stack Overflow, there are fewer issues with performance-related crashes that occur during runtime. It can be attributed primarily to differences in their level of abstraction when handling user interactions or animations.
React Native vs. Swift - Winner: Swift
2. Application Architecture: Facilitating quicker app development
React Native enables developers to write code in JavaScript and then share it between various platforms, including Android, iOS, and others (with an additional library). React uses a separate UI from your apps' core functionality and is customized with other third-party libraries.
It is why Facebook created React Native—to unify their app development efforts and provide cross-platform compatibility as needed. In general, React Native requires less effort & time than native development to create apps that perform well on both platforms.
Swift fails to offer faster development cycles than React Native since it uses native components instead of web views in many cases. Another issue with Swift is that some apps are written in it crash during execution and require restarting entirely due to the unavailability of JavaScript debugging tools.
React Native vs. Swift - Winner: React Native
3. Testing: Quicker & effective detection of bugs and issues
React Native doesn't need to install as many emulators to test your app because it uses real device screens. It increases efficiency and means developers can test apps more quickly. It also means that errors are caught earlier in the process and don't leave a wrong impression on your users when they discover them later on down the line.
It makes testing more accessible, quicker, and more effective than Swift-based development, forcing you to use more emulators when testing, which slows down progress overall. Moreover, Swift requires developers to put in extra work by downloading Xcode from Apple's site and installing it onto their personal computers to test their apps.
React Native vs. Swift -Winner: React Native
4. Scalability: Ensuring effective performance with a growing audience
Swift offers modularity which automatically enhances the flexibility and the scalability of the framework so that you can easily reuse components throughout your app. It allows developers to create functionality without breaking down their applications into smaller ones, and everything gets connected seamlessly at run time, making it easier to scale things when necessary.
With React Native, components can only be used within their boundary because they are isolated within different applications altogether, causing issues when scaling with it since many changes need to be made before developers can use it again. This problem gets worse with more people on a project since communication between these modules becomes very difficult if there's no centralized entity overseeing everything in one place at all times.
React Native vs. Swift - Winner: Swift
5. Top Examples: A look at famous apps developed via them
Apps developed using Swift language includes the following:
Slack
Khan Academy
Lyft
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Similarly, apps developed using React Native framework includes the following:
Skype
Walmart
Airbnb
Uber Eats
Instagram
React Native vs. Swift - Winner: Tie
6. Popularity: A look at what research says about their usage
Source: Google Trends
React Native, compared to any other framework, has a good community of developers and excellent documentation available online; the same is with Swift.
Both have a strong community supporting them, allowing easy issues and bug fixes when found in the libraries. As both are open source, it's easy to contribute your changes, too, and become part of their community developer list and earn some money out of it if you want to.
As per Statista, React Native has a popularity of 38% in 2021 among the category of top cross-platform frameworks.
In contrast, Swift holds a 5% popularity in 2021, among the top programming languages.
React Native vs. Swift - Winner: No true winner
Note: As both of them do not belong to the same category, I cannot keep one over the other. For example, React Native is a framework with much lesser competition than Swift, a programming language.
Final Takeaways
Now, we can see that both are excellent options for digital app developments. The ideal choice depends upon your project requirements. Choose Swift when looking for the following:
High-speed performance
Significantly higher scalability in your app.
However, choose React Native when the following two parameters are your criteria:
Faster development cycle
Rapid project testing
Faster time to market
Choose wisely. Alternatively, you can also connect with a mobile app development company to analyze which one resonated with your project.