Top 10 React Native Developer Tools

This article will discuss the best ten development tools for React React. It will provide an overview of each tool, core features, and advantages.

React Native is a leading and broadly hired JS cross-platform framework. The popularity and consumption of this JavaScript framework code library enhanced a lot among developers because of its enticing properties.

According to the 2020 Developer Survey of Statista, React Native is the most practiced framework. This survey shares that around 42% of software developers said they are using React Native to build responsive mobile applications.

Easy interface and compatibility with both Android and iOS platforms also make it a perfect choice for coders. However, it is vital to know about the reliable React Native developer tools.

That’s why we are sharing the best React Native developer tools, pros and cons of React Native with its core features in this article.

What is React Native?

React Native is a JS framework that is used for scripting powerful and natively executing Android and iOS applications.

Although it is a JavaScript framework and depends on Facebook’s JS library ‘React’ but React Native focuses on mobile platforms rather than addressing the browser. React Native applications uses the combination of XML-Esque markup and JS to code mobile applications.

This open-source framework of JS is particularly created to build native mobile applications for different platforms. These platforms are comprising of Windows, iOS and Android etc.

Moreover, because of the variety of benefits like user-friendly interface, fast development, and resource availability make it a good option for businesses.

Uber Eats, Discord, Skype, Facebook, Bloomberg, Instagram and Salesforce are known businesses that are using React Native for their mobile applications’ development.

What are the Core Features of React Native?

Software developers are using React Native because of its variety of properties. Withal, we are only going to discuss the core features of React Native below!

Flexible Programming Language

All of us know that React Native uses JavaScript as a programming language, and no doubt, scripting language plays a great role in selecting a framework.

Therefore, many businesses prefer developing mobile applications through React Native because it is a broadly practiced programming language.

In addition, a survey of Statista about the most utilized languages reveals that 68% participated and shared that they practice JavaScript to develop software. Around 57,378 software developers participated in this survey, and it was conducted in 2020.

In short, the flexible programming language feature of React Native engages developers to use this JS framework for their application development projects.

Node Package Manager for Installation

Coders don’t like the installation procedures while making mobile applications because these processes take much time. Sometimes, it becomes challenging for developers to deal with slow installations. Luckily, if you use React Native, you can avoid this headache because of the availability of NPM.

Indeed, Node Package Manager (NPM) is a known and reliable package manager that works for open-source JS frameworks, including React Native. By using this tool, you can quickly update, uninstall and install applications.

Live & Hot Reload

The feature of live reloads allows coders to see every script change in real-time. In this regard, React Native offers two screens to the developer, and it is seamless and spontaneous to watch how your code is changing your application. Definitely, it is a beneficial feature that attracts programmers towards this JS framework.

On the other hand, hot reloads is another appealing feature of React Native. It enables the developer to see the recent script changes without restarting the app. Luckily, this characteristic only reinvigorates the files without any loss.

This hot load feature is usually affiliated with Hot Module Replacement. HMR is known to include, change or exclude modules while the app is running. It doesn’t reload the entire application to conduct these changes.

UI Focused

UI or user interface is the approach through which application users communicate or interrelate with the mobile app. UI typically consists of elements, controls and buttons of the mobile applications and plays a great role to improve user experience.

React Native emphasizes a lot to design responsive and easy to use user interfaces. Because of these UI focused features, the international community of software developers really like this framework of JavaScript.

Third-Party Libraries

Another feature of preferring React Native over the other frameworks is its support for third-party libraries. So, if the developer thinks React Native is not fulfilling its needs, then he can consider using third-party libraries.

Yes, React Native allows linking and installing third-party libraries. Several resources and tutorials are also available on the internet to guide coders about installing third-party libraries with React Native.

CocoaPods Support

CocoaPods support is another impressive feature that you can utilize while using React Native. It permits React Native to ally with iOS application projects.

Nonetheless, this feature doesn’t exist in many versions of this JS framework. To utilize this feature of React Native, you would have to go with the 0.61 version of React Native.

Native Modules

Native modules also assist programmers in the development of mobile applications. These modules offer reflexive linking properties while using React Native. However, it also permits the coders to proceed without React Native Link.

What are the Advantages of React Native?

Global developer communities like React Native framework because of its benefits for developing native mobile applications. We are also going to discuss a few of these React Native advantages here:

Open-Source & Large Community

React Native is an open-source JS framework, and a huge global community of developers use it. This open-source property doesn’t only help coders to find a variety of resources, but it is also easy to fix errors and bugs with the support of the community.

You can discuss your React Native issue with senior coders anytime, anywhere using different platforms like Stack Overflow. Surely, they would assist you in the best manner.

Cost-Effective Solution

Another advantage of using React Native is its affordability feature. First of all, you wouldn’t have to create code for each platform separately because of its cross-platform characteristics.

Similarly, the scripts that you create for React Native are reusable and work outstandingly for distinct platforms. This feature leads to cost-effectiveness. Probably, React Native saves 40% of your investment compared to the other frameworks to build mobile applications.

Tested Framework

React Native is a tested framework that reputed tech giants have already used. It was initially used by Facebook, so developers can use it without any hesitation. In addition, many big companies like Tesla, Instagram, and Uber Eats are using this framework. It definitely enhances the trust of users in this framework.

Fast Development

It is also fast to make applications by using React Native framework. React Native takes very little time to build applications, and features like live load and NPM speed up these development procedures compared to the other option.

Improve Rankings

Improvement in search engine rankings is also an exciting advantage of using React Native. It has been noticed that the application pages which are designed by using React Native framework get better rankings. Google also scans these applications’ pages faster than the other frameworks.

Need Less Staff

Compared to the other frameworks, you need small teams to handle React Native projects. Even you can only hire JavaScript developers to start working on your application development project.

What are the Disadvantages of React Native?

With numerous advantages, React Native also has some limitations. Here are the major disadvantages of React Native:

• Although tech giants like Facebook and Airbnb are using React Native but keep in mind, they have top-level experts to work with. However, if you are thinking of using React Native with a new team, it can cause many debugging issues and compatibility errors. These faults also affect the development speed of your project.

• React Native is also considered a relatively new framework that has much scope for improvement.

• It is not considered a fully cross-platform framework.

• Over time, when your application grows, you need expert-level developers to deal with the advanced features of React Native. It becomes a little expensive for SMEs.

• It is also risky to use React Native for sensitive data applications. These applications usually require ‘type A’ security but React Native uses JS libraries, so it becomes difficult to safeguard apps’ data because JS has many security problems. Therefore, it is suggested to not use React Native for data-sensitive applications like finance, banking, tax apps.

• Although it looks easy to learn React Native for novices. In actuality, it is challenging to learn React Native because it has a steep learning curve. So it is hard to learn for average coders.

Top 10 React Native Developer Tools

Programmers and businesses are using a variety of developer tools to build React Native applications. Howbeit, it is significant to pick the best tools. That’s why this guide presents the best React Native Developer tools here with their major characteristics.

Keep reading to know more:

1. Back4App

Back4app is one of the reliable React Native Developer tools that assists in building the backend of React Native mobile applications. Back4App was initially founded in 2015.

Therefore, it is easy to build backends of React Native applications’ server-sides by using Back4App. Furthermore, easy API integration, database support and scalability would make you able to develop excellent React Native applications with this BaaS provider.

Core Features

Fast — This platform does not require the programmer to work a lot on the coding part as it offers tools to automate that. In short, it is quick to develop React Native applications with Back4App.

Less Coding — This BaaS provider has many built-in functionalities and libraries support. Therefore, it indicates that the programmer does not need to go deep into the code.

Flexibility — Back4App allows the creation of applications that can be reused on different devices and different platforms. This does not require a massive code change to shift to a web application.

Open-Source — Having the backend be managed by Parse is one of the advantages as many developers are readily used to this technology for data-driven applications.

2. Expo React Native

Expo is a universally open-source platform to develop iOS, Android and web applications. It uses JavaScript and React to achieve the backend. That’s why you can also consider Expo as one of the reliable React Native developer tools.

Although it is a fairly new platform, it is becoming increasingly popular due to its universal application building capabilities.

Core Features

Fastest React Native Option — This is the fastest React Native development platform. Undoubtedly, Expo does not require a lot of coding and has a number of built-in functionalities.

Native API Support — It supports React libraries and can embed many common APIs that may need to be used.

Coding Expertise Not Required — This application works on a GUI model and does not require a lot of coding expertise.

OTA Updates — Applications can be updated without app store permission and long approval times.

3. React Navigation

React Navigation is another reliable React Native developer tool that aids to handle and route React Native mobile applications. This is a simple solution to work with a stack on the flow of tabs.

Core Features

Completely Customizable — This platform allows for complete customizability through JavaScript.

Easy to Use — Developers can quickly understand the function and customization with a seamless experience.

Extensible — It is very modular as it works on different layers and can employ different APIs.

iOS and Android Support — It offers routing and navigation to both Android and iOS platforms. Indeed, its simple features can be changed according to the platform.

4. Xcode

Xcode is Apple’s unified coding and programming environment. It is used to develop iOS applications for all iOS devices. This React Native developer tool was initially released in 2003 to code Macintosh applications.

However, over the years, this has expanded to all Apple devices. Therefore, if you are willing to use React Native framework to create iOS applications, then you should consider Xcode as a priority.

Core Features

Integrated to the OS — If you use this on the Mac, this is the best coding application as it is fast, agile and can run and debug without any delay and hiccups.

Minimal UI — This UI is very familiar for Apple Users and can easily be navigated for someone new to it. It can minimize the time to learn to navigate the application for a new user.

Coding Assistance — This application sends suggestions to the user regarding the code to avoid errors.

Easy Debugging — Debugging with this tool is easy as it sends in suggestions and can easily point out errors.

5. Android Studio

Android Studio is Google’s product to design applications, and it was initially launched in 2013. Android Studio is one of the finest React Native developer tools when it comes to Android application development. Databases’ inspections, Kotlin DSL support, the smart code editor and spontaneous profilers are the best features of Android Studio.

Core Features

Built-in Emulator — Fast and integrated emulator with built-in can directly test a variety of applications.

Testing Tools — Android studio offers individual debugging tools for code testing and immediate recognition of errors.

Optimized for All Android & iOS Devices — You can optimize this developer tool for numerous device. Surely, you can optimize the same code to Wear OS and to Android TV or any other devices running different OS Versions.

Faster Coding Suggestions — Immediate API updates allow for a fast and reactive coding perspective.

6. React Native Debugger

React Native debugger is one of the more powerful tools to code in React JS. This application is used for the purpose of the various tools that it has built into it. These features can be used for both understanding and proper integration of the application with React Native framework.

Core Features

Powerful Native Toolkit — It has a built-in set of tools such as UI analyzer, breakpoint and network inspectors. These tools can come in handy for any user. It doesn’t matter whether you are an amateur or an expert.

Network Inspector — The Inspector can monitor both inbound and outbound traffic to understand the load.

Constant Statistics — Tracking such variables means that statistics are available for the owner to understand where the content is lacking. And where it currently stands in terms of infrastructure and audience.

UI Assistance — The built-in assistance can help in understanding the usability, readability of the application and overall interface.

7. GitHub

GitHub is a fast, open-source React Native developer tool that assists in creating powerful native applications. This has an online repository where users can store and track data. Moreover, GitHub also helps users be able to collaborate on bigger projects with users from around the world.

It has been working since 2008 and currently has over 1677 employees. GitHub has increasingly become popular among new developers who are looking to find a platform to seek help regarding their code. Or want to collaborate on projects that may otherwise be very hard to achieve.

Core Features

Free & Open Source — It can be used in any capacity, and the open-source nature helps the users be able to modify the functionality according to their needs.

Collaborative Environment — This application can help users collaborate on code and work on bigger projects.

Fast — The architecture is based on local code running, so it does not put the load on servers.

8. OneSignal

OneSignal is another tool that you can use to develop React Native applications. It is a leading platform to enable mobile, web, chat, SMS or email notifications. So, if you are thinking of developing a React Native application for communication purposes, then using this tool could be a great idea.

Its basic package is entirely free, but it charges $8 per month when it comes to the Growth package. By the way, with a free plan, you can get limitless push notifications, 10 data tags and unlimited API access.

Core Features

Free — The basic plan of OneSignal is entirely free and comes with limitless notifications and many other features.

Multi-Platform Support — This can be used with multiple platforms. It supports Android, iOS and native devices for push notifications.

Developer Friendly — This is a developer-friendly solution. It can simply be integrated into any application.

Documentation Available — It offers proper documentation for any person getting into this React Native developer tool.

9. Redux

Redux is a JS management tool that is often paired with React. This can create states in the application and maintain it for frequent use. Furthermore, Redux can help in reducing the complexity and time to access the main or different states. This can also help cut down the processing memory consumption at any given time.

Core Features

Easily Maintainable — Redux has a standard coding mechanism. This means that code can easily be understood. In the same token, any additions or modifications can be made easily.

Simple Debugging — Redux has logging behaviours and stats maintained. This can help with the debugging process and point out the exact errors that occur.

Large Toolkit — Many tools are currently available within Redux to help state understanding and take further advantage of Redux.

Reusable Code — Since the coding has to be done as per a set of rules, the code becomes modular and easily reusable for different states within the application or other React or JS applications.

10. React Native CLI

React Native CLI is one of the most powerful among React Native developer tools. However, this requires Xcode and Android Studio to operate. CLI or Command Line Interface requires the package to only be installed once and then imported into the project.

Core Features

Light — React Native CLI does not require a separate compiler as the package is imported into current ones.

Local Debugging — This can be debugged locally by any application that is already integrated into the system.

Fast — Local integration and installation mean that the system has already loaded it to memory. So, it can easily be called and integrated into the system.

Conclusion

The charm of building native mobile applications using React Native framework is not lowering from years among developers because of exciting features. However, it is challenging to choose the right developer tools in this regard.

That’s why we shared the top 10 React Native Developer tools, properties, pros and cons of React Native through this article. Surely, both businesses and coders would get benefit from these details.

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