Mobile-first development approaches

Progressive Web Apps

PWA

features

PWA

Also

Weaknesses refer to:

• iOS support from version 11.3 onwards;
• greater use of the device battery;
• not all devices support the full range of PWA features (same speech for iOS and Android operating systems);
• it is not possible to establish a strong re-engagement for iOS users (URL scheme, standard web notifications);
• support for offline execution is however limited;
• lack of presence on the stores (there is no possibility to acquire traffic from that channel);
• there is no “body” of control (like the stores) and an approval process;
• limited access to some hardware components of the devices;

React Native

What is React Native not?

• React Native is not a webview
• React Native is not React
• React Native is not PWA
• React Native as of this writing supports web development using React Native for Web

React native

Don't use React native if

1. Your app needs to handle less common, or ultra-specific tasks (like calculations) in the background
2. You require custom communication via Bluetooth (which can be tricky to implement using React Native)
3. You want to create an app for Android only

iOS and Android – but there are select libraries that allow you to use the same code to build iOS, Android, web, and Windows10 apps.

You can also extract shared code in mobile, desktop, and web apps, to a separate repository; treat it as a separate project; then inject it in the same way as another dependency.

This allows a developer to focus on writing code for a specific platform without having to consider compatibility with another one.

Sharing code

Trends

Since React Native is already mentioned in Javascript therefore, for most developers, it is one of the most preferred software development languages whereas Flutter uses Dart, therefore it is considered as an object-oriented programming language.

Currently on iOS and Android – but the long-term vision for Flutter is to offer an integrated solution that allows developers to write one code for both desktop & mobile, and for the web.

Flutter

React Native

Don't use Flutter if

1. Your app needs to support 3D  (for now, Flutter support of 3D is basic – but it features on the Flutter team’s long-term roadmap)

2. The design of your app is platform-specific

3. Your app requires multiple interactions with an OS; or requires rare, little-known native libraries

4. You need a minimalistic UI, but rely on significant use of the phone hardware (e.g. an application that plays music, or only takes pictures)

5. You want to create an instant app (small-sized app)

   If your app sounds like any of the above, it’s probably better you choose native app development.

Ionic

It uses multiple technologies (including HTML5, CSS, and JS) to develop and run applications and access the Cordova wrapper to use native platform controllers. To improve the quality of the code, you can also use TypeScript while using Ionic.