No matter whether you have just started your business or running it since ages, having a mobile application is necessary to reach your potential customers and stand ahead of the competition. Mobile application development is not a child’s play; it needs a lot of factors to be considered and the foremost among them is the framework.
Yes, the first thing you need to decide is: which framework should be used to make your mobile app technically and functionally sound? Considering the popularity and demand, React Native and Ionic are the two frameworks that fit perfectly in the answer to this question. If you want to choose one of them for your business app development, then it is advised to go through the below-mentioned parameters to have a clear understanding of both:
(Please note that both the frameworks are new in the programming world and hence, you would need to hire React Native developers or Ionic developers for your mobile app development.)
- Programming Language
- React Native or RN uses JavaScript, a high-level programming language, along with react.js to build a mobile application. Moreover, developers can also write few codes in Java, Objective-C, and Swift, as and when required. For handling high computational operations, such as editing images or handling videos, developers can make the most of various libraries and native modules.
- Ionic framework develops and runs applications by writing codes in HTML, Angular JS, CSS, and TypeScript. For accessing native platform controllers, it needs Cordova wrapper.
- Performance
- RN provides code elements mainly to native APIs; it also permits developers to utilize native modules while coding for difficult operations. The only purpose of doing so is to improve the run-time performance.
- Ionic uses different web technologies to build an application, which makes it lose a point in terms of performance. Apart from this, the framework doesn’t include any of the native components, which led to delivering poor performance.
- UI or User Interface
- React Native delivers an amazing user experience as the modules in the framework are linked with native UI controllers. Moreover, it also uses the ReactJS library, which includes a wide range of UI elements, to make the GUI of the app engaging and attractive.
- Ionic uses HTML and CSS for coding and then utilizes Cordova to deliver a native mobile experience. In short, ionic apps lose the game when judged on the UI parameter.
- Supported Platforms
- React Native or RN is an open-source cross-platform framework that supports Android 4.1+, iOS 8+.
- Ionic is compatible with Android 4.4+, iOS 8+, and Windows 10 platform.
- Pre-developed component library
- React Native is embedded with a decent set of built-in components and most of them need to be customized according to the requirement.
- Ionic framework comes up with a big set of components that are already styled and ready to use. These components automatically get adjusted with the platform which the app runs on.
- Maintenance
- Maintainability is an issue in React Native because third-party libraries you utilize during coding might get obsolete.
- On the other hand, in the Ionic framework, you need to maintain only one app. Another challenge with it is that the framework itself might change at any time, which might cause further maintainability problems.
Now when you know the differences between the two frameworks, make your choice and contact a reliable React Native development company or Ionic development company to start your project.
