React Native vs Ionic vs NativeScript vs Android/ iOS Native Apps

Time for the ultimate comparison - who wins? React Native? Ionic? NativeScript? Native apps built with just Android and Swift? Let'see!
Join the full React Native course: acad.link/react-native
Exclusive discount also available for our React course: acad.link/reactjs
Learn all about Ionic: acad.link/ionic
If you prefer NativeScript, we also got you covered: acad.link/nativescript
Check out all our other courses: academind.com/learn/our-courses
----------
Swift: developer.apple.com/swift/
Apache Cordova: cordova.apache.org/
----------
• Go to www.academind.com and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated and to get exclusive content & discounts
• Follow @maxedapps and @academind_real on Twitter
• Join our Facebook community on / academindchannel
See you in the videos!
----------
Academind is your source for online education in the areas of web development, frontend web development, backend web development, programming, coding and data science! No matter if you are looking for a tutorial, a course, a crash course, an introduction, an online tutorial or any related video, we try our best to offer you the content you are looking for. Our topics include Angular, React, Vue, Html, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Redux, Nuxt.js, RxJs, Bootstrap, Laravel, Node.js, Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Ionic, React Native, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Stencil, Power BI, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase or other topics, make sure to have a look at this channel or at academind.com to find the learning resource of your choice!

[@ny9113]

best comparison so far !

[@EdigleyssonSilva]

First of all thank you for this video, great work! I have a question, what do you think about Xamarin ?

[@i-ptr]

+1

[@g-luu]

+1

[@sampathreddy4057]

Good question... Lets wait for max to answer

[@Haxory1]

+1

[@academind]

I can only judge what it brings - I haven't worked with it since I'm not a C# developer. I like its approach - it's generally comparable to React Native/ NativeScript. BUT: It's closer to the actual native languages, at least if you want to. That's certainly a difference to React Native and Nativescript and it can be a huge advantage. It could of course also be considered "bad" because you want to use a solution that provides a high level of abstraction (=> "Write once, use everywhere").

[@parikshitraghav5116]

man thanks this was what i was looking from past few century

[@junka3]

Max! thanks for this video. I always wanted to learn about this comparison and you did it great. Let me remark your slides since 2017 your slides have been improving drastically, love them. Keep it up, you are the best youtuber. Grats on 100k subscribers

[@academind]

Thank you Sergio, always happy to receive your awesome feedback! Also great to read that my slides apparently improved and almost 100k subs is just more than I ever could have imagined. So grateful to all of you guys for making this possible :)

[@torianoevans]

This saved me SO MUCH time, trying to understand the differences between them all. THANKS!!

[@academind]

So happy to read that Toriano, thanks a lot for your awesome comment!

[@Ferdii256]

Great, clearly structured comparison, thank you very much!

[@academind]

Thank YOU Ferdinand, I'm glad that you liked it and found it to be helpful!

[@d3vilm4ster]

Awesome video Max I agree in everything! You are a really great mentor, thanks for the video.

[@academind]

It makes me so happy to get such an awesome feedback like yours Sebastian, thank you very much!

[@tobyokeke5408]

Lmao. "Wix which you might have seen at the beginning of this video" haha. Those guys are steady on KZbin ads

[@academind]

Yeah, we kind of see it from time to time :D

[@sangeethks554]

I'm a Vue.js developer and I came to know about Weex which is the alternative to React's React-native. The only thing bad about this project is that its not officially out for production usage, but I thing once it came out, it would change the current market ad Vue.js gaining its popularity.

[@kngauriet]

Which one is best suit for cross platform for 3D rendering using three.js - Angular + Native script Vs React Native?

[@rahulsawant599]

can you provide the comparision with latest information

[@paregis]

Great comparison! But I think you should include Flutter too, if possible :D

[@SiriusFuenmayor]

You say that you could use any Javascript library with Ionic, that means that you could use the JavaScript Firebase SDK directly with Ionic?

[@sajidali5613]

Please help me as i have to choose pne of them for my FYP and i am more focused related to features and performance

[@mazharzia7701]

Outstanding presentation, from contents to style. Clearly define the subject in a superb way. Thanks a lot for doing a good job.

[@academind]

Wow, what more can I say but thank YOU so much for your absolutely amazing feedback!

[@vatsalpatel3669]

beautiful and super honest comparison love u man (:

[@remotossucahersa9536]

This being half 2020, how is it come to NativeScript? It gotot more traction as I can see, and platform has evolved a lot.... How do you see it now?

[@heyyy4987]

Flutter its close to nativescript and reactnative? Nativescript and reactnative share the same philosofy working above xml to access components. Its right? Tanks.

[@dassaev86]

With Ionic 4 release, is this comparission any different? Or Ionic 4 has the same performance "issues"?

[@benamribettaiebahmed6824]

this is the best video i've ever seen , thanks man please keep us with this type of academic videos but in backend technologies also ! keep going

[@academind]

Thank you so much - I'll do my best to keep it up!

[@alexandraimereli2892]

Thank you for video. Have you heard something about or use Quasar Framework?

[@academind]

I have - haven't worked with it though.

[@HelmarBaechle]

I am familiar with Ionic but will try Native Script

[@hoxorious]

Very useful tutorial!! Thank you so much.

[@academind]

Thanks a lot, really great to read that!

[@matts4304]

seriously great video. super well done comparison in my opinion. thanks!

[@academind]

It's really awesome to read that you liked the video Matt, thank you very much!

[@elderofzion]

this was very useful, thanks max

[@academind]

Happy to read that, thank you for your comment!

[@LorenzoJimenez]

You can also use Xamarin to create IOS and Android apps with C Sharp.

[@AbdelrahmanOmran]

I like it, much thanks for the insightful comparison 👏

[@academind]

Awesome to read that the video was helpful, thank you!

[@therapy36]

Thanks for this comparison definitely checking out react native, i have built with ionic and angular js but response not as fast as native android.

[@justtlenin]

it's really helpful. thanks Max

[@academind]

Thank YOU Lenin - great to hear that!

[@WahajAKhan]

nice work. had me decided where to go . thanks

[@academind]

Happy to read that the video was helpful Wahaj, thank you for sharing this!

[@MultiAkshay777]

hello , if i want to make which works after killing app like whatsapp which is the best crdova,ionic,nativescript,react....actually i tried for cordova but not find working plugin....please help me with this

[@AarbozT]

The most well explained video that I never seeing before about this topic!!

[@academind]

Thanks a lot, this is really great to read! I also got an updated version of this video (also covering Flutter), maybe this is also interesting for you: academind.com/learn/angular/angular-vs-react-vs-vue-my-thoughts/

[@TheSirOwner]

you did not compare "Flutter" framework from google!

[@zaralockheart7450]

1:05 "just use the language we know Javascript"

[@padonker]

It would have been interesting to add Expo to the mix. It combines most strengths of RN with some of the advantages of Nativescript. It's basically a wrapper around RN and gives you a decent set of components (enough for most apps) but abstracts you from the native side of things. Plus running on your device is a breeze because you can load it in their shell app for testing.

[@rajeev1668]

Max I have one question regarding this toturial .can you tell what technology used by WhatsApp. For example like Java/Swift .react native ,native script or Cordova

[@iuliuvisovan7307]

Ive been using React Native for work for past 6 months and I'm pretty sure that RN is on the far left end of the "write once use everywhere" axis. I literally have like ~20 'if' statements (in a project with 100+ screens) to compensate layout differences between the 2 platforms (such as switches, alerts, inputs), but apart from that everything's the same.

[@Seitenwerk]

Iuliu Visovan that’s one of many reasons why after using ionic and other cross platform solutions we switched to real native programming. It’s a huge difference. Performance is so much better, no more messing around with hundreds of third party plugins that mostly rely on outdated or even deprecated API. The knowledge and time we put in learning and debugging all those cross platform frameworks, we would have been much faster getting great results just concentrating on native programming. Many think it’s faster to use cross platform solutions because they get both platforms from one code source. The truth is neither will be great, you will having no control over all the produced code, you will eventually end up with problems that could cost you days or even worse caused by bugs or outdated stuff in code that isn’t even from you. Trust me, I have been trough that. Worst part we experienced was when a cross platform app stopped working completely because of multiple problems with plugins that cost us around 3 weeks until we gave up and started going fully native. I would never go back. The learning curve is not harder than learning a new cross platform system but in the end every implementation we wanted to do, was so much easier and faster to make. Especially when it comes to new native features. Those are often not even supported on all those frameworks. Or you can implement them, like with native script, but you need to know how to code native with native tools. In that case you could have went native from the beginning.

[@ZFlyingVLover]

I wonder if REact Native implementations has something to do with the recent report of alot of mobile data secretly going to FB ?

[@Wilco2998]

if you make a follow up this video or update can you also include flutter?

[@academind]

Thanks for the suggestion. No follow-up is planned right now but if I do such a video again, I will include it

[@FidelGuajardo]

With Vuejs being a serious competitor to React and now with the NativeScript-Vue integration, I think NativeScript is a serious competitor to ReactNative. It will be very interesting to see the popularity trends by end of 2018.

[@academind]

Indeed!

[@ExpertAkademi]

Unfortunately nativescript is far away from being mature enough to use for real world applications. On the other hand react native has already born from industrial grade usage. Stay away from nativescript for next 15 years.

[@BillClinton228]

I know this is a unpopular opinion, but I prefer Android Java to React or Flutter. I dont even like Java as a language but when it comes to mobile development i find it way more intuitive... If you have a ton of time to learn these technologies they might be fun to work with, but if you are in a hurry to create something the learning curve can be a bit steep especially with Flutter. PS... the way FLutter stacks widgets and their methods can become extremely cluttered and confusing.

[@hesanamini809]

Awesome!! Thank you so much for your efforts 🌹

[@academind]

Thank you Hesan, it really means a lot to me to get such a great feedback!

[@manuel56354]

Awesome comparison, thank you very much. Do you think anything has changed since late 2017?

[@academind]

Thank you Manuel! Here is my 2018 version of it (I also plan to release a 2019 version) => academind.com/learn/flutter/react-native-vs-flutter-vs-ionic-vs-nativescript-vs-pwa/

[@drzigzag8985]

Can you use 3D animation, Can an SVG UI interface be used with React Native. Now that sounds very interesting to me can I get more videos on that.

[@velopia]

Maybe about size before install n after installed

[@unityme8898]

Hello Max, with hybrid we can create 3d app also ???

[@CameronPak]

Thanks for providing a better understanding of those programming languages. I will continue with Ionic, as it's best for the app I'm currently working on. Thanks!

[@academind]

So happy to read that the video was helpful for you Cameron! I also like Ionic, wish you all the best for your project :)

[@ancelottis_eyebrows]

How would Xamarin fit into this comparison?

[@NightstalkerKK]

Please make a NativeScript tutorial series

[@academind]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll need to work more with it before I'll start teaching others though ;)

[@heyyy4987]

Nativescript with vue .

[@peekpt]

Hi Max . Can you please enumerate the valid frameworks that not be banned by apple in Jan 2018. I heard Apple will ban template based apps.

[@sangamsahai9823]

This was a very very good comparison. Thanks so much for posting this

[@academind]

Happy to read that you liked it Sangam, thank you!

[@nbaua3454]

I'm surprised, why NativeScript is not very popular. Seeing that Angular/TypeScript is being widely used, the developer has very little to stretch with NativeScript if he have to create a mobile app around the MEAN stack. I.e. If someone is offering a web platform for set of features and want to provide the same features via the mobile app as well. I would like to see a set of videos if you can share on NativeScript/Angular for creating a mobile app.

[@twinsmujahid]

what about C# - Xamarin native Apps?

[@carlosmosqueda326]

It is a good choice if you know C#. We did a few apps a while back before they were bought by Microsoft. But a good option. Seems a lot like NativeScript does when it compiles to the native code mappers, but if you know it, use it.

[@tinloywan4935]

thanks, it is very well explained.

[@academind]

Thanks so much Tinloy, awesome to hear that!

[@daniilvatahovych491]

Hi, Max. Thank you for comparing these technologies. Are you planning a NativeScript course on your channel? Thank you in advance!

[@academind]

Hi Daniyil, thank you, happy to read that! I do not plan to do a NativeScript course on the channel as of now, but this might change in the future.

[@iMaxos]

I think now that we're in 2020 this video needs a refresh! EDIT: NEVERMIND I FOUND IT

[@test1729]

Nativescript seems to be the best way to go for an Angular person - esp since it seems you can get some native code from it. The adoption rate is a little troubling though - what if they decide to give up and leave the market?

[@academind]

You have to bet on open source then. But yes, this is of course a danger you face. There's a company behind it though, it's not just one person.

[@logusgraphics]

Unfortunately UI Components for NativeScript are not as mature as one would expect for production environments.

[@shilangyu]

Great vid! Maybe an updated comparison with Flutter? (edit: done)

[@academind]

Sounds like a good idea. I'll see if I can create something on this in the future :)

[@shilangyu]

@@academind thank you for doing it, cleared up some things for me :)

[@ahmady09]

very good comparison of the important key criteria

[@academind]

Happy to read that Ahmed, thank you for your comment!

[@amjadabujamous4637]

Great comparison and thanks for the valuable information. Could you please provide performance benchmarks for Nativescript, React Native, and Ionic if available?

[@ThorBSN]

What about nativescript-vue.org ? (is that the samme code for both web + native?)

[@univmusic]

Waw really honest and unbiased comparaison!

[@academind]

Very happy to read that Said, thank you!

[@ievatenav]

Thank you! Really good video! :)

[@academind]

Awesome to read that, thanks a lot for your comment!

[@saschametz9018]

Durchdachter und verständlicher Überblick, danke!

[@academind]

Es freut mich sehr dass dir das Video gefällt Sascha, vielen Dank für deinen Kommentar!

[@rickybruno5697]

Hi! Excellent video and explaintiation!, but now, with the release of ionic 4 with stencil, in what place of your graphs ionic is now? really increase the performance? is it worth it now? Thanks! Greetings from argentina

[@academind]

It should be a bit faster but probably not by much. But worse performance doesn't mean bad performance. For a lot of (I really mean a lot of) types of apps, you won't notice the difference.

[@jolsondacosta2017]

Hi Max. Very important question. I cannot find answer anywhere. Can I write mobile app project with combination of native and react native? As some part of my app really requires native code support .

[@academind]

Yes, definitely - that's one of the strengths of RN. You can build parts of it with React + RN and parts of it with native code.

[@jolsondacosta2017]

That is great. What about ionic?

[@tareqibrahim117]

very informative, but i wonder how flutter fits in all this?

[@tharunrocky14]

Useful. =) Thanks!

[@academind]

Great to read that, thank you!

[@logusgraphics]

Also I know that Dart language is coming hard with Flutter (native for mobile), Dart Angular for the web, Dart for Server and CLI. Basically you can write native everywhere.

[@olmanmora21]

Nativescript seems to be a very interenting option, not too popular the downside, but the fact that it's not tied to framework is a good point, anyways there's plenty react fanboys out there and that's the tendency nowadays

[@river11576]

what do you mean not tied, NativeScript IS a framework, you have a choice between NativeScript's view layer and Angular I guess. Both are OK but bloated comparing to React + Cordova or React Native.

[@Asthbendriel]

What he means is you can combine NativeScript components with any framework for the logic: by default you can use Angular, pure Javascript or even just Typescript without angular, but you can also use Vue. In React Native case, you have to use React Native for the native components side, and you *have* to stick with Reactjs to handle the logic, which is why NativeScript is sometimes called agnostic.

[@sbacon92]

after working with react for a week i absolutely hate it. there are so many bugs and NOTHING works as the documentation describes.

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

Yeah, React is for people who are really new to programming. Hence the popularity I guess - the entry barrier is low but once you get deeper in it you start to see all the shortcomings. React is horrible compared to Angular and Vue

[@SakibsRoamingRoutes]

Are you planning on making a Tutorial on Angular+NativeScript soon as NS started supporting Angular now? I learned Angular and Ionic from your tutorial on Udemy ... those are great ... would be great if you do one for Ng+NS :)

[@Stexine]

I think Nativescript will have a good future in the "write once" sector. Looking forward to a tutorial on it. Thanks Max

[@jakubrpawlowski]

As an everyday PhoneGap user I approve this comparison! Well done Max!

[@academind]

Thanks so much Jakub!

[@PraveenAV]

Great work. Thanks for the video.

[@academind]

Thank YOU Praveen!

[@Mvrck44]

I have a way clearer picture now, thank you!

[@ellisdos6714]

very informative content, thanks a lot . Enjoyed it

[@academind]

So happy to read that, thank you very much for your comment Ellis!

[@MouradBougarne]

As an Angular and Vue developer, I will go with NativeScript as my second step since I'm good with Ionic. By the way, do you have any plan to produce a tutorial in NativeScript? I already bought your Angular and Vue and they are really great :)

[@academind]

Thanks so much - awesome to hear you're enjoying my tutorials! Nativescript is interesting but to be honest, I haven't worked enough with it to produce a full, high-quality course. Once that changes, it's definitely possible, yes

[@DariuszTryba]

Go for The NativeScript Book, it's amazing and free.

[@MouradBougarne]

Welcome :D I will go with your PWA and Ionic too, thank you for that work man!!

[@MouradBougarne]

THANK YOU!!! I'm a books lover.

[@martinmtawali7359]

here's a link to {N}ativescript vue github.com/tralves/groceries-ns-vue and the {N} Book here www.nativescript.org/get-the-nativescript-book

[@WholeNewLevel2018]

very nice! comparison ... Thank you ....

[@academind]

Great to read that you like it, thank you very much for your comment!

[@rodrigolima8022]

Very Nice !! Thanks !!

[@academind]

Happy to read that, thank you for your comment Rodrigo!

[@a.h.s.3006]

Can we create a hybrid app and than turn it into a PWA, only adding the PWA elements?

[@rahulsawant599]

nice ..

[@nichanson]

Love how nativescript has sidekick to easily deploy apps either for testing or to the app stores of both Apple and Andriod. Also love how NS can super easily access the OS' system. Finally I absolutely love there's no commercialised motive behind its framework. It's truly open sourced and aimed at speed and native like apps.

[@beyondtourismbeyondtourism7242]

Where can I learn react native? I wanna build an e-commerce app for both ios and android.

[@academind]

I recently created a React Native course (www.udemy.com/react-native-the-practical-guide/?couponCode=ACAD_M) on Udemy, would be really great to have you on board! I also got a video here on the channel, where you can get a first impression of React Native: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIvRl6aAa9KAa8U

[@AntiWanted]

Nice

[@raxybenex2]

please add kotlin to the scope

[@DheerajBhaskar]

very well analysed review

[@academind]

Just fantastic to read this awesome feedback, thank you!

[@mayankchauhan4006]

its a great explanation . I hope google Flutter will have all great things of native apps and flexebility of hybrid apps.

[@shahzaibmughal3632]

Thanks for such a great video ♥♥

[@academind]

Thank YOU for your awesome comment!

[@paulius-lt]

Perfect analysis and all aspect was assessed very well with right placement, however I would share one more real world example where Ionic is “silver bullet” for success - enterprise apps designed for employees of one company, apps utilising MDM, single sign on (Kerberos/NTLM). Ionic provides opportunity to publish internal UI components library, apps templates, APIs and empower fastest and most cost efficient enterprise mobility adoption. I mentioned very specific use case, however it is fast growing industry where even Ionic framework developers yet not derived full potential.

[@academind]

Great addition - thank you so much Paulius!

[@Lolla1995]

Hi Max, what you think about Flutter? @academind

[@academind]

I haven't used it yet. It sounds interesting but I got no personal experiences to share

[@AjayKumar-ft1yj]

Is it necessary to know reactJS for getting into reactNative for a complete beginner.....Please help

[@academind]

Yes, you should definitely know React (at least the basics) before diving into React Native

[@AjayKumar-ft1yj]

Academind thank you sir... Can you please guide me to learn react native.... I need to make an app for my college work... I know Html Css and JS(intermediate level)...

[@AndreSantos-hx2mc]

Awesome video as usual. I would include developer experience in the comparison. I think react native and ionic probably have better realtime reload/refresh on changes in relation to nativescript. Although I have read the nativescript team is actively working on reducing reload/refresh time. Debugging is also probably better in react native. I feel the overall dev experience is more enjoyable in react native but in terms of stability I would go for nativescript. Thanks for your videos Max. You are awesome!

[@academind]

Great addition André, much appreciated!

[@jafar1607]

It is unfair for nativescript, it is really new in the market and has got this much popularity..! I think the duration it is active on market counts..!

[@bicunisa]

A compilation step is indeed needed if you write the app in a native language...

[@siluros]

I feel that the main advantage of nativescript is that you can build it on top of angular using typescript, and for that reason, from my perspective, it's usage will grow. Great video, as always

[@academind]

Thanks George, I'm glad you're liking it!

[@jondyason336]

thanks a lot! Fantastic video

[@academind]

Happy to read that Jon, thank you for your comment!

[@DieterWoestemeier]

What's about Xamarin?

[@khondakarreadulislam6337]

Danke Max, At the end of your comparison broke mine heart. The issue of performance can say that React is better than Ionic. However, will see React also, after finishing the Ionic Schnitzel :).

[@academind]

Important: Performance of Ionic is worse, not horrible! The scale does not go from "great" to "horrible" :)

[@gabrielaugusto6001]

Thank you for all the clarification about these technologies. I'm learning ionic and I think it's really easy to learn, the learning curve is not high but even a simple app doesn't feel like a native app and that really suck and made me stop the project in the middle to learn another technology to rebuild it, because of the result and I couldn't find anything to help me with the laggy experience... By the way, do you have any information about the learning curve of react-native and android dev? Thanks

[@academind]

I believe the performance will get better with the release of Ionic 4 + some other features they're planning. Regarding RN learning curve: If you know React, it's steep, if you don't know React, it's super steep. RN has a lot of issues and you need to do a lot of "manual wiring up of things". At least this can happen if you need certain functionalities that are bit beyond very simple and common app requirements

[@AndrewOnTestingCars]

Thanks for the video ! It was very good ! cheers best of luck

[@academind]

Thanks so much, awesome to hear that Andrew!

[@AndrewOnTestingCars]

Academind you're welcome. I'm looking to make a simple events app that knows your location & shows you events nearby. I was considering react native to develop it. I have android dev experience(check out my Drive Safe App on playstore) but not iOS.

[@deangrande7002]

NativeScript ftw. I've built with this for 2 years, weekly builds for iOS and Android. Ask me anything

[@abeercodes]

have you ever felt limitations working with nativeScript ?

[@GameBoyll]

Do the apps feel very smooth, how much work would I need to do if I were to create 2 similar apps on both ios and android platforms? I'm building a lot of webapps using Vue and looking to make some mobile apps and so I'm trying to go with something that is related or small learning curve from Vue. I'm wondering if NativeScript would be my go to or should I start with Vue Native?

[@MrNik-zv7dp]

whats the difference between Reace Native and Java/Kotlin ? main differences , btw I am an android developer

[@AbhishekKumar-mq1tt]

Thank u for this awesome video