React Native

Still the most practical way to ship a mobile app from a JavaScript codebase. React Native lets web developers build native iOS and Android apps using React, sharing 80-90% of code between platforms. If you're an indie hacker who needs a mobile app and your team knows React, the math is simple.

Flutter is the main competitor — Dart-based, Google-backed, arguably better performance and consistency. Expo is the React Native framework that handles the painful parts (builds, updates, native modules). Capacitor wraps web apps in a native shell. Swift/Kotlin are the native options.

At 125K+ stars and Meta's backing, the ecosystem is massive: navigation, state management, UI libraries — everything has a React Native solution. The new architecture (Fabric, TurboModules) has finally shipped, fixing the performance complaints that plagued older versions.

The catch: you will still need Xcode and Android Studio. Native module compatibility breaks between versions. The upgrade path between major versions remains painful. And "learn once, write anywhere" is aspirational — platform-specific code is inevitable for anything beyond basic screens. If you don't already know React, Flutter's developer experience is arguably smoother.