What is React Native?
Understanding React Native architecture, its benefits, and how it enables cross-platform mobile development
45 min•By Priygop Team•Last updated: Feb 2026
Introduction to React Native
React Native is a framework for building native mobile applications using React and JavaScript. It allows developers to write code once and deploy it on both iOS and Android platforms, while still providing access to native platform features and performance.
React Native Architecture
- JavaScript Thread - Runs your React Native code
- Native Thread - Handles native UI components
- Bridge - Communication layer between JS and native code
- Native Modules - Access to platform-specific APIs
- Metro Bundler - JavaScript bundler for React Native
React Native vs Other Technologies
- vs Native Development - Faster development, code sharing
- vs Flutter - JavaScript ecosystem, React knowledge
- vs Ionic - Better performance, native feel
- vs Xamarin - JavaScript instead of C#
Key Benefits of React Native
- Cross-platform development with single codebase
- Hot reloading for faster development
- Access to native platform features
- Large community and ecosystem
- Backed by Facebook/Meta
- Performance close to native apps