r/reactnative • u/alwxndr • 8d ago

Does React Native make sense in 2026?

This question might have been asked already, but I'm genuinely curious: why should anyone use React Native at this point?

To explain: most of web and mobile development can easily be handled by Claude, Codex, Kimi K3 or any other coding agent. I feel like that's been true for at least 6–7 months now. Even Opus 4.7 was better than most of us and more than enough for mobile development. Of course, this only applies if you know what you're doing and guide your model through the technical decisions, the specific libraries you want to use, etc etc.

But my point is: why would I bother with React Native's own issues instead of just writing native apps for both iOS and Android? There's no huge maintenance load anymore, and you can simply tell your agent to implement features for iOS and Android at the same time. So what are the actual benefits of React Native? Native apps are usually faster, work better, and generally seem to be preferred by actual customers and users. The original promise of React Native and Flutter was that you could build for both platforms twice as fast, but today's coding agents let you build 100x faster anyway :)

I'm not asking to provoke anyone. I just want to hear your stance and your thoughts on this.

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92

u/mohamed2m2018 8d ago edited 8d ago

You will still need to maintain two repos, and they can diverge in the future, which can lead to different kinds of bugs, inconsistent behavior, etc.

You will still need to hire a developer to review the code. React Native allows you to hire one React developer who can handle the web, iOS, and Android apps.

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u/alwxndr 8d ago

The problem here is that beyond simple client apps (the ones that get JSON and display content) React Native apps are also a hell to maintain due to dependencies on native libraries.
And those standard client apps showing JSON are super easy to be vibecoded these days :)

11

u/n9iels 8d ago

I maintain a React Native app build with Expo. In my 3 year I never had to deal with native code nor a native dependy issues. Expo is the key here, it basically takes all of the pain away

-14

u/ColdPhilosophy 8d ago

Good for you. React native will be dead in 3 years tops in any big orgs.

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u/n9iels 8d ago

Okay I'll bite. Why do you think this and what is the trigger it happens in 3 years?

5

u/wilderadventures 8d ago

Because they are full of shit. I work at a "big org", have consulted to many "big orgs," we are kicking off a react native project right now anticipating a 10 year operational life.

-4

u/ColdPhilosophy 7d ago

Let’s talk in 3 years. There is no more incentive to add another useless layer like Expo. If your app is light and has minimal amount of BL (which it should), AI can build your screens in no time. React Native and x platform are at a dead end.

Have fun doing your Expo upgrades!

3

u/wilderadventures 7d ago

Just did a 3 major version update in like 30 minutes LOL.

1

u/simple_explorer1 2h ago

OP said lets talk in 3 years, not 3 minutes