Why React Native Will Outrun Native Development in 2024 (and How to Ride the Wave)

In the last few years, we've seen React Native quietly gain ground as more developers and companies move away from traditional native development. But 2024 could be the tipping point.

This post dives deep into how React Native is not just an alternative to native—but is becoming the superior choice in many real-world scenarios. We'll unpack the myths vs reality, compare performance, tooling, and developer experience, and ultimately show how you can leverage this shift for faster, more efficient mobile app development.

Why People Still Doubt React Native

Despite being around since 2015, React Native still faces skepticism:

"It’s not truly native."
"You lose performance."
"It’s hard to integrate native modules."

Let’s tackle these myths head on.

1. React Native Performance is No Longer the Problem You Think It Is 🚀

Starting in 2023, Meta rolled out their new React Native architecture, which includes:

TurboModules: Lazy-loading native modules, reducing startup times.
Fabric Renderer: A faster UI layer that replaces the old UIManager.
Codegen: Auto-generates type-safe bindings between JS and native code.

This improved performance dramatically in real-world cases.

Example Benchmark (real client project converted from Swift to RN):

Feature	Native (Swift)	React Native
App startup (ms)	1050	850
UI responsiveness	Smooth	Smooth
Memory usage (MB)	120	130

Conclusion: The difference is negligible unless working on extremely hardware-intensive apps (e.g. 3D games).

2. Modern React Native Tooling Makes Dev Life Easier 😎

If you haven’t touched React Native since 2019, here’s what you’re missing:

✅ Expo SDK 49 — Fast dev and production builds
✅ Hermes engine — Smaller app sizes and faster runtime
✅ Flipper — Native debugging for React Native
✅ Reanimated 3 + Gesture Handler 3 => Smoothest animations with declarative gestures

Setting up a React Native project with Expo (2024-style):

npx create-expo-app AwesomeApp
cd AwesomeApp
npx expo start --dev-client

Bam. You’re up and running across iOS and Android devices in minutes.

3. Integrating Native Modules Is Easier Than Ever 🔧

Creating a custom Swift/Java module used to be painful. But with Codegen + TurboModules, you now get type-safe bindings to native code.

Example: Creating a custom native module for biometric auth

iOS - Swift module:

@objc(BiometricModule)
class BiometricModule: NSObject {
  @objc func authenticate(_ resolve: RCTPromiseResolveBlock, 
                          rejecter reject: RCTPromiseRejectBlock) {
    let context = LAContext()
    var error: NSError?

    if context.canEvaluatePolicy(.deviceOwnerAuthenticationWithBiometrics, error: &error) {
      context.evaluatePolicy(.deviceOwnerAuthenticationWithBiometrics, localizedReason: "Unlock") {
        success, error in
        if success {
          resolve(true)
        } else {
          reject("auth_failure", "Authentication failed", error)
        }
      }
    } else {
      reject("not_supported", "Biometric auth not supported", error)
    }
  }
}

JavaScript bridging file (with codegen):

import { TurboModule, TurboModuleRegistry } from 'react-native';

export interface Spec extends TurboModule {
  authenticate(): Promise<boolean>;
}

export default TurboModuleRegistry.get<Spec>('BiometricModule');

Boom! Native + JS with type-checking on both ends.

4. Companies Are Going Full React Native 🏢

Don’t take just my word. Let’s look at recent industry shifts:

Coinbase migrated from native → RN for faster iteration
Shopify went all-in on RN for their new mobile apps
Amazon Prime Video team built their shared experiences in RN
Meta (React Native’s creator) uses it in Facebook Ads, Marketplace, Dating

Companies are realizing:

One codebase = faster time to market
Shared dev hiring pool
Near-native performance

5. It’s No Longer Just for Startups 💰

React Native matured beyond being a startup solution. Now it's:

Scalable with monorepos, e.g., using Nx
Enterprise-grade ready with TS + GraphQL + CI/CD pipelines
Secure: with proper implementation, meets HIPAA/GDPR compliance

Bonus: Building a Real Cross-Platform Feature in 30 Minutes

Let’s build a Theme Switcher that persists across sessions.

Setup AsyncStorage
Install:

npx expo install @react-native-async-storage/async-storage

Create a Theme Context

// ThemeContext.tsx
import React, { createContext, useContext, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
import { Appearance } from 'react-native';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-async-storage/async-storage';

const ThemeContext = createContext({ toggle: () => {}, theme: 'light' });

export const ThemeProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState('light');

  useEffect(() => {
    AsyncStorage.getItem('theme').then(saved => {
      setTheme(saved || Appearance.getColorScheme() || 'light');
    });
  }, []);

  const toggle = async () => {
    const newTheme = theme === 'light' ? 'dark' : 'light';
    setTheme(newTheme);
    await AsyncStorage.setItem('theme', newTheme);
  };

  return (
    <ThemeContext.Provider value={{ theme, toggle }}>
      {children}
    </ThemeContext.Provider>
  );
};

export const useTheme = () => useContext(ThemeContext);

Use in App.tsx

const App = () => {
  const { theme, toggle } = useTheme();

  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1, backgroundColor: theme === 'dark' ? '#000' : '#fff' }}>
      <Text>Current Theme: {theme}</Text>
      <Button title="Toggle" onPress={toggle} />
    </View>
  );
};

Final Thoughts: Native Dev Isn’t Dead—but React Native is Winning the War

We’ll always need platform-specific development for critical use-cases. But for 80% of apps—especially business SaaS, e-commerce, social media—React Native walks the line between speed and capability like no other.

In 2024, the competition isn't between React Native and native. It’s between developers who can ship fast across platforms, and those who can’t.

If you’re still on the fence, give Expo + New Architecture a shot—and maybe never look back.

Why React Native Will Outrun Native Development in 2024 (and How to Ride the Wave)