Mobile applications are the platforms where most of the people spend their time for some actions like playing games, listening music, writing documents, etc., Mobile apps are the easily available resources; so, they have driven traffic more than web applications.  

If you are planning to develop a mobile app, you have to concentrate on the mobile app framework. There are lots of frameworks that are available for developing mobile app; in that, most of you are confused while choosing react native and Xamarin. We will discuss these differences in this article. 

React Native: 

Created by Facebook, react native is a famous framework that helps developers to create quality mobile applications across all platforms like Android, iOS, and the web.  

React native includes JavaScript, Java, C++, Python, etc. It offers efficient code to develop your mobile applications with better user experience. 

Features of React Native: 

> One-time written code used everywhere 

>Greater accessibility 

>Good migrating feature 

Xamarin: 

On the other hand, Xamarin, founded by Microsoft, is also a popular framework used for developing Android and iOS applications. Xamarin is an open and free platform based on .NET. 

Features of Xamarin: 

>Native platform integration 

>Contains application loader 

>Has Android SDK manager 

Since two frameworks are on the same road, we can discuss the best framework here. You can choose the best framework based on your application requirements. 

React Native vs Xamarin: 

1.Development Platform: 

The best advantage of React native is that you can use any type of IDE (Integrated development environment) or text editor to develop the react native application. 

Among the different choices available like Visual Studio Code, Vim Editor, Sublime Text, Atom, Nuclide, etc. you can choose the comfortable editor to develop the app. 

For Xamarin, you can have only two options like Xamarin Studio or Visual Studio. There are no other options available but these editors can give you the best results while developing the Xamarin application. Xamarin studio is free to use and it gives convenient features for windows and MAC platforms. 

2. Speed of Framework: 

 Since hot reloading feature is enabled in React Native, you can easily analyze the real-time changes in the app. You can save more time with the Hot reloading option. Every time, if you make changes in your app development code, you don't need to compile the code; the Hot reload the app instantly to save your valuable time. 

You can also use other React Native components (that are already inbuilt) to reload the application. 

 The prebuilt controls and layout features in Xamarin help you to speed up the development process. Without creating code from scratch, you can use the already available ones to control the functions of the application. Also, the development tools in the Visual studio help to increase the speed of the process. 

3. Performance of React Native and Xamarin: 

In the React native framework, you can use the native app languages like Swift, Objective C, Java, to build your applications. With the good combination of native languages the react native helps you to build amazing apps like Facebook. The performance of native app comes with the native languages. Since react native allows you to use native codes, the app performance will be higher.  

Similarly, Xamarin also helps you to build high performing applications by providing near-native experience. 

4. High Market and Highly Popular Framework: 

React native has strong developer community than Xamarin. Even React native is founded after Xamarin, it receives huge response from the 900000+ developer community. Also, React native is trending and popular than Xamarin. 

Large companies like Facebook, Skype, Instagram, Pinterest, Walmart, etc., are a part of React Native framework; that means, these apps use React native as one of their technological stacks. 

If you want to know, read it: Example Applications of React 

At the same time, Xamarin is also used by startups and growing companies like Bosch, Honeywell, Cognizant, etc.,  

So, it is clear that, React native is having high market share and popularity than Xamarin which does not mean that React native is better than Xamarin. 

5. Low Cost Framework: 

Both React Native and Xamarin are open-source platforms. 

Since, you can use React native with any text editors and react libraries are available for free, React native is better to use than Xamarin based on budget factor. 

Because, in Xamarin, the Visual code editor needs subscription fee to use and it costs little more than React native development process. 

Hence, the low-cost framework to use is React native. 

6. Framework Components and Packages: 

A package set including IDE, SDKs, Testing cloud features, etc. are available in Xamarin which reduces the acquisition cost of the development process. 

On the other hand, React native offers simple and customized solutions using platform specific components. The react native tools offer functions like networking, testing, type checking, user interface features, etc., Thus both frameworks are having equal competition by providing useful component to develop the mobile applications. 

7. Scalability: 

In short, React native gives native app experience while customizing the application features. But, in Xamarin, you can feel native app experience without even customizing the app. It integrates effectively with different operating systems. But, to remember that, React Native is also available for both Android and iOS mobile applications. 

8. Code and Technology:  

64-bit support is present in Xamarin and React native does not support 64-bit requirement. Xamarin follows the one-way data flow model while React native is using Model-View-View-Control (MVVC) architectural model. 

React Native developers use JavaScript as their main programming languages to build the applications. Xamarin users want to have knowledge in C# along with .NET framework to build Xamarin based applications. 

React Native uses JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler to compile the code while Xamarin has the Ahead-of-time (AOT) compiler to compile the code. Since AOT is better than JIT, it is well-suitable for both Android app development and iOS app development. 

Which Framework is the best to use? React Native or Xamarin: 

React native has advantages like reusable code, hot reload functions, strong developer community with high popularity, low cost, etc. 

Xamarin has benefits like good compiler, best control features and library functions, scalability, etc. 

Since both frameworks are having equal advantages and disadvantages, it is difficult to choose the best mobile app framework. You have to choose based on the framework features and based on your application features.  

You have to be strong in C# to use Xamarin and want JavaScript knowledge to use React native. But, if you want me to choose one, I will recommend you to use React native which is having a developer base and also it helps you in budget factor by offering features at low cost. 

But, I can’t say that Xamarin is not better, based on scalability and compilation process, it is the best choice. 

You can hire react native developers and Xamarin developers from Infinijith on timely basis to develop your mobile applications on both Android and iOS app platforms. 

Are you still confused in choosing the framework? Don’t worry. Talk to our mobile app development expert to know, which framework suits to your application.