Developing native applications is relatively costly. For businesses, this means writing applications in different OS native languages. It's not just a financial burden; it also requires two teams for a mobile app development company. It is also challenging for many companies to roll out updates simultaneously on different operating systems.

Furthermore, we cannot ignore the cost of developing a native app, which is why cross-platform solutions are gaining popularity day by day. Due to its cost-effectiveness, the cross-platform mobile app development market is growing rapidly. Projections indicate that the market could reach USD 2.5 billion by 2033, contributing to the booming mobile app development market.

The mobile app development market is projected to reach $546.7 billion by 2033, with a global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.8%, according to Persistence Market Reports. Not having on the mobile platforms means missing out on millions of potential customers.

You might be exploring new tech for your next project or evaluating the most popular frameworks for front-end development. If this is the case, read on to learn why React Native for mobile app development is an excellent choice.

Don't worry if you don't know much about it; we will let you know its key features and the benefits it offers to businesses.

Let's get started

Cross-platform Development: An Overview

When businesses consider cross-platform mobile app development, two frameworks typically come to mind:

• Flutter
• React Native.

Flutter, supported by Google, leads the cross-platform market, with React Native closely behind. React Native, created by Meta (formerly Facebook), has been around longer and has strong community support. It has been the most popular and widely used for cross-platform development for a decade. The world's biggest companies, such as Facebook, Airbnb, and Pinterest, have used it.

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What's the Role of React Native in Today's Development

React Native is a go-to framework for developers for building cross-platform mobile apps with a single codebase. It lets you create cutting-edge applications using web development technologies (such as JavaScript, JSX, HTML, CSS, etc.). This feature makes it one of the most popular front-end frameworks today.

In addition to this, it presents a rich library and a modular architecture, enabling developers to rapidly build scalable mobile applications. It extends the functionality of one of the most celebrated web development libraries – React.js

Today, React Native is the second most popular mobile app development framework, used by approximately 14% of professional developers. The React Native development ecosystem is evolving rapidly. In our recent blog, The Future of React Native, we explored recent updates in React Native that are reshaping the React Native ecosystem.

It continues to attract more big names to its portfolio. A recent example is Kraken, a US-based crypto exchange platform that leverages the capabilities of React native, which helped it achieve a twofold improvement in app rendering performance. Check out their detailed case study here: How Kraken Fixed Performance Issues via Incremental Adoption of React Native's New Architecture.

Industry experts highlight the importance of cross-platform frameworks in meeting the different needs of modern businesses. Gartner notes that mobile development frameworks provide developers with structured environments and standardized methodologies for building both platform-native and cross-platform apps.

In 2025, React Native continues to play a pivotal role in this domain. Its ability to enable developers to use a single codebase for multiple platforms aligns with the industry's shift towards more efficient development processes.

The framework's active community and ongoing updates ensure it remains a relevant and powerful tool for cross-platform app development, contributing to the market's expansion and the delivery of versatile mobile applications.

Notable Frameworks for Cross-Platform Development

The cross-platform development space is getting competitive day by day, with frameworks like Flutter, Xamarin, and React Native leading the charge. Since the emergence of Flutter, cross-platform app development has changed drastically. Flutter, backed by Google, has gained attention for its expressive UI toolkit and near-native performance.

It is getting popular attention among developers, especially when creating visually complex apps. Xamarin, supported by Microsoft, appeals to enterprises with its integration into the .NET ecosystem and robust backend capabilities.

React Native, however, has a unique edge that makes it a consistent favorite for many projects: its ability to seamlessly integrate with existing native code. This feature is invaluable for teams moving from native to cross-platform development. Also, the team that is working on enhancing the legacy apps can opt for this framework.

What we like about React Native is its strong JavaScript foundation and compatibility with widely used libraries, which also make it ideal for agile development teams who prioritize flexibility and scalability.

While each contender has strengths, React Native's balance of performance, cost-efficiency, and versatility often makes it the practical choice for teams looking to deliver fast, scalable, and user-friendly apps.

Why React Native is the go-to Choice for Cross-Platform Mobile App Development

*1. Fast and Efficient *
It enables JavaScript developers to build a native-like app by writing code once. They can use the same code on different platforms. Your web development team can ship mobile apps that look native in appearance and speed.

Talking about some of its hot features, then hot reloading, declarative syntax, reusable components, and a rich library of pre-built features and functions are its core features that assist programmers in writing apps to build apps in a few weeks that would otherwise take many months with traditional development approaches.

If you want to learn more about these features in detail, head to our blog, Introduction to ReactJS.

3. A Battle-tested Framework
For startups, shipping apps at a rapid speed becomes easier with React Native. It ships all the essential tools (features or libraries) needed to build modern apps. Additionally, it is one of the core tools used in the ever-expanding field of cross-platform development.

Though Flutter is more popular than React Native, it is not as mature as its counterpart – React Native.

If you are more concerned about talent availability, then finding Dart experts (Flutter uses this language) is quite challenging. On the other hand, React Native leverages JavaScript, one of the highly regarded programming languages in the world of application development. React Native is a mature and battle-tested framework that enables companies to use a single language to build the front-end of digital solutions for mobile devices.

3. Made for Scaling
You may think it is only for small projects, but that is not true. World's World-renowned companies like Meta itself (which initially used in its internal projects), Pinterest, Airbnb, and Instagram used it to build their many features. One reason is its component-based architecture, which is popular today due to its highly scalable nature.

You can not only reuse the components many times but also independently add more features without worrying about scalability. You can start small and easily scale up your app while keeping costs under control. This balance of scalability and cost-effectiveness is why it continues to be very popular in cross-platform development.

4. Next-level Rendering
When developing front-end elements or pages, rendering has always been a primary concern for developers. React Native is well-known for its dynamic rendering capabilities. It's also popular for its powerful rendering engine and seamless integration with native modules.

5. Pre-built components
These components are the backbone of the React Native ecosystem. If you want to build an app quickly, there are numerous templates you can use, eliminating the need to start from scratch. This allows you to focus on more complex tasks. However, it's important not to rely too heavily on pre-built solutions if you want greater control over your app. In one of our blogs, Popular React Native UI libraries, we discussed how these pre-built libraries can streamline the UI development process.

6. Cost-effective
This is cross-platform, so obviously, you can save more than half the cost that would otherwise be required to build native apps for different platforms. This is a direct benefit. But another factor is that you can easily hire JavaScript developers since they are widely available, so you won't face talent limitations. Consequently, building your app with a tech stack like Dart would cost more.

7. Strong community support
React Native has a large community of active developers. Choosing a tech stack is one of the things businesses underestimate. But the very community acts as a catalyst, helping the community

Popular Companies Using React Native

Facebook
As the originator of React Native, Facebook initially developed it as an internal project to upgrade its apps. After making it publicly available, many components in Meta's apps have been developed using React Native.

Kraken
An American cryptocurrency exchange platform, Kraken utilized React Native's new architecture to address performance issues. This integration resulted in a twofold increase in app speed and a fivefold improvement in the trading flow screen render time.

Instagram
The Instagram team adopted React Native to expedite feature deployment across both Android and iOS platforms. By sharing approximately 99% of their codebase, they achieved significant development efficiency.

Walmart
Walmart aimed to enhance app development velocity, prompting the adoption of React Native, known for creating apps with native-like performance. This strategic move enabled the company to develop apps more rapidly and improve its performance.

Final Word

React Native is a cost-effective solution for those who want to build apps in less time. It provides all the essential components and a modern environment that helps developers improve their productivity and ship features and products faster.

It is popular among both large enterprises and small businesses. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are popular examples of React Native engineering. It has helped the world's largest organizations solve their application performance issues and speed up development.

As a React Native development company, we have built over 50 projects for different industries. If you want to reach your target audience or streamline your business operations with pocket-sized mobile devices, hire React Native developers today to take your business and services to the next level.

Still, have questions about selecting the right tech stack for your next project? Reach out to us today to find the perfect solution for your needs.