To Native or not to Native. If not Native, what to non-Native?

04 Dec 2022

Circa Dec 2022.

Dilemma:

I want to create an app that is available on all platforms - Web, iOS, Android; and on all form-factors - Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Phone, Watch.

My Criteria:

1. Easyness - Less ongoing effort.
2. Freshness - Easy to keep clients fresh.
3. Insightness - Unified monitoring.

Options considered:

I see the choices on a Sprectrum, from the safest to the easiest:

• Create Native Apps on each Platform

  • Web, iOS, Android, WearOS, WatchOS.

• Flutter App.

  • Has a “Skia” Rendering Engine, similar to Unity.
  • Flutter for Web is a joke, according to t3dotgg.
  • Code push has to go through Apple/Google store review.

• .NET MAUI App.

  • Haven’t looked deeper into this.
  • Smells like WPF which I hate.

• React Native App.

  • Has something called Expo for pushing out updates.
  • Does this work for Web? Apparently yes, but too high of an abstraction according to t3dotgg.
  • React Native has an impression of being slow.
  • Theo likes React Native
  • Some guy on Twitter mentioned an alternate stack.

• Progressive Web App (PWA).

  • There is only “partial” support for iOS, so this is not a great option.

• Web App only.

  • Won’t give free marketing through App Stores.
  • Won’t feel native - tab in a browser that would be too clunky to get back to. Can’t pin to lock screen.
  • May not get proper access to native features (eg. gps).

Conclusion:

Going with Expo + React Native for now.

References:

https://youtu.be/0zY-5z_8D4o