React Native
Build native apps using React
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Sep 2026
React Native builds real native mobile apps with native UI components, not a website wrapped in a phone frame. You write React components in JavaScript or TypeScript, and they render as actual iOS and Android UI. One codebase, two platforms.
This is Meta's own framework, running inside Facebook, Instagram and Meta Quest, with Microsoft and Shopify shipping it too. The ecosystem is enormous: navigation, UI kits and thousands of community packages. The old JavaScript bridge is gone. Since version 0.82 the New Architecture (Fabric renderer, TurboModules) is the only architecture, and it's faster for it.
Completely free under MIT, with no paid tier from Meta. The project itself tells you to start with expo/expo, which handles the native toolchain for you, and that's the right call for most teams. flutter/flutter is the main competitor: Dart instead of JavaScript, its own rendering instead of native components.
The catch: "learn once, write anywhere" still means platform-specific work. Complex animations, native APIs and platform UI patterns mean writing Swift or Kotlin or finding a library that does. Debugging spans JavaScript and native code, builds are slow, and upgrades between versions have historically been rough.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freePricing Breakdown
Free tier: Everything. MIT licensed. The full framework, CLI and core libraries are free.
The real costs are around it:
- Apple Developer Program: $99/yr (required to publish to the App Store)
- Google Play Developer: $25 one-time
- Expo EAS: Free plan includes 15 Android and 15 iOS builds a month on a low-priority queue and over-the-air updates to 1K monthly active users. Starter is $19/mo plus usage ($45 of build credit, updates to 3K MAUs). Production is $199/mo plus usage ($225 of build credit, updates to 50K MAUs, SSO). Enterprise is custom. Not priced per seat.
- Over-the-air updates: Microsoft's hosted CodePush shut down with App Center on March 31, 2025, so EAS Update or a self-hosted server is the path now.
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions free tier works, or ~$15-50/mo for more minutes.
Comparison to alternatives:
- Flutter: Free (BSD-3). Google-backed, Dart language, its own rendering engine. More consistent UI across platforms
- Expo: Free (MIT). Built on React Native, handles the native toolchain. Start here if you choose React Native
- Ionic/Capacitor: Free core. Web technologies in a native shell. Easier but less performant
- .NET MAUI: Free. Microsoft's cross-platform framework. C# ecosystem
- Kotlin Multiplatform: Free. Shared business logic, with Compose Multiplatform for shared UI
The math: React Native itself is free. A solo developer ships an app for ~$124 the first year (Apple + Google fees), $99/yr after. A team on Expo's Starter plan adds $228/yr plus any usage beyond the included build credit; Production is $2,388/yr.
When to go native: If you're building for one platform only, or if your app is performance-critical (games, video editing, real-time audio). Native Swift/Kotlin will always be faster and have fewer quirks.
Free framework. Shipping costs $99/yr for Apple plus $25 once for Google. Expo EAS managed builds start at $19/mo plus usage.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free; use Expo, not bare React Native, and stay on EAS Free as long as you can
- Small team
- free; strong choice if your team knows React, with Expo Starter at $19/mo for faster builds
- Medium team
- free framework; budget for CI or Expo Production at $199/mo, since builds are slow
- Large team
- free; proven at Meta, Microsoft and Shopify scale, and the hiring pool is an advantage
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