In 2020, the answer to "React Native or native?" was complicated. React Native had meaningful performance gaps, the bridge architecture caused jank in complex UIs, and third-party library support was inconsistent. Native development (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android) felt safer for anything serious.
In 2025, the answer is simpler — but it still depends on what you're building.
What Changed
React Native's New Architecture (Fabric + TurboModules + JSI) shipped stable in late 2024. The JavaScript bridge that caused most of the historical performance problems is gone. JSI (JavaScript Interface) gives JavaScript direct synchronous access to native APIs, eliminating the async serialization overhead that made complex animations and gestures feel off.
Expo has also matured significantly. Expo SDK 52, released in late 2024, ships with the New Architecture enabled by default and provides a managed workflow that handles most native module complexity. For Canadian startups without a dedicated native platform engineer, Expo dramatically reduces the operational burden of maintaining two codebases.
When to Choose React Native (Expo)
Budget and timeline are the primary constraints. A cross-platform React Native project typically costs 40–60% less than two separate native apps with equivalent feature sets. For a pre-revenue startup or a business validating a new product line, this is the dominant factor.
Your UI is standard. If your app's core experience is forms, lists, maps, and standard navigation patterns, React Native matches native quality. The gap shows up at the edges — complex custom animations, heavily gesture-driven UIs, and deep OS integration.
Your team is web-first. React Native lets your existing JavaScript/TypeScript developers contribute to mobile without learning Swift and Kotlin. This matters enormously for small teams where a dedicated native developer isn't economical.
You need over-the-air updates. Expo's EAS Update lets you push JavaScript changes to production without an App Store review cycle. For fixing bugs between releases, this is a meaningful operational advantage.
When to Choose Native
You're building something that lives at the OS layer. VoIP apps, real-time audio/video processing, AR experiences, complex CoreBluetooth integrations, or anything that needs to run reliably in the background. React Native can do some of this, but you'll be fighting the framework rather than working with it.
Your UI is genuinely custom. If your core product differentiator is a fluid, unique interaction model — think a trading interface, a creative tool, or a spatial UI — native gives you direct access to Metal (iOS) and Vulkan/OpenGL (Android) without abstraction layers in the way.
You're targeting a single platform. If you're building iOS-only (common for B2B tools targeting Apple-centric enterprise customers), native Swift development is the obvious choice.
The Hidden Factor: App Store Review
Both React Native and native apps go through the same App Store and Google Play review processes. React Native apps are not at a disadvantage here — Apple reviews the compiled native binary, not your JavaScript source. One exception: if you abuse OTA updates to ship functionally different apps without review, Apple will reject or remove your app. EAS Update is designed to stay within Apple's guidelines.
Our Current Default
At Cleva IT, we default to React Native with Expo for new mobile projects unless a client's use case clearly requires native. The New Architecture has closed most of the quality gap, Expo's toolchain has dramatically improved developer experience, and the cost savings at the build phase are real.
We revisit this decision in the scoping phase for every project. If you're unsure which approach fits your product, a two-hour technical scoping session is usually enough to make the right call.