Your preferred mobile development framework and why you love it

[SantaMuerte]

For the mobile devs out there, what are your preferred frameworks for building mobile apps and why do you prefer it over any other.

Looking at getting more into mobile. I am drawn towards React Native. Yay or nay?

 

[CarboVan]

Abort. Preferred is solid real native. eg Droid or IOS - swift/obj c
If you do want to check out xcross platform, have a look at Flutter. Recently released version 1.0. Google backed instead of shady Facebook (eg RN)
Tbh, any crossplatform will come with bs promises of code once, deploy twice. I've lost a few years of my life expectancy in the few months that I _had_ to do RN at work. Granted it was on older versions (which is part of the problem:, upgrading an rn versions will put a cactus up your naught, and sometimes be impossible if you are too far behind)
Log off on a Friday. Come in on a Monday. Project suddenly does not build. Buy me 5 beers and I can keep talking

But yea, latest and 'greatest' RN should be much better than my experience I had. New navigation frameworks and standards have improved. So worth checking out. But have a gander at Flutter as well.

 

[SantaMuerte]

@CarboVan React Native comes with some praise nowadays hence why I’m thinking of checking it out.

In previous projects I’ve worked on in the mobile space I used Phonegap/Cordova and that put a cactus plant up my ass for sure. I despise Cordova. iOS with Cordova is the biggest trash ever. Android is bearable but still a pain in the ass nonetheless.

Swift is absolutely in my list of future learning.

 

[Priapus]

Honestly, I am not a fan of anything cross-platform. If you want to see how badly React Native can bite you in the arse; look no further than Airbnb's attempt at it in this series of blog posts: React Native at Airbnb – Airbnb Engineering & Data Science – Medium

I prefer native every time. I built the bidorbuy iOS app all natively and had a huge role (And still do) in the Android app - all using native tech.

So, to answer your question:

Swift / Objective-C / UIKit
Java / Kotlin

Reason why I prefer it - because the alternatives don't offer anything of real benefit and can cost more in the long run.

PS: We're hiring if you know of any decent Android devs.

 

[CarboVan]

Haha ye I would not touch cordova/phonegap with someone else's pole...
RN makes me think of Wordpress back in the day. It's great if you want something out there fast, but once you start getting strange requirements (specifically 3rd party integrations and new sdks etc) you want to take out your eyes with a rusty spoon

That said, a friend is currently doing a ton of RN freelance, and he is really enjoying it. Of course it is all fresh projects, so he can hop right on the latest versions, so its much less painful.

@Tander where are you guys based? Also Jozi as per your profile? Might know a droid dev or two if you are looking in CT.

 

[Priapus]

Yeah based in Jozi. As is Bidorbuy

 

[dalion619]

Just throwing my 2c since I used to dabble in mobile dev.

Firstly please respect the design language for the mobile OS. You don't need to get every device for testing, but just understand how users expect apps to work. I'm an iPhone user so my own personal peeve.

I agree with the statements above, native is best but 'it depends'.
Take look at maybe Xamarin Forms.

Lastly maybe look into PWAs.
Unless you need a presence in the Store and access to device APIs, this could work. You also get Push Notifications.
Proper iOS support is still a WIP.

 

[chaos505]

I use ionic for hybrid apps.
I've also heard some good things for react native.