Nowadays, mobile applications are one of the main elements of a company’s existence – marketing or customer service. Actually, half of the activity in the network is done from mobile devices. There are two major ways to build cross-platform mobile applications when it comes to the React ecosystem: Ionic and React Native.

Ionic and React Native are two great solutions for creating applications. Both types differ in certain aspects, which we would like to briefly describe, explain and compare both solutions so that you can easily choose the right one.

Ionic and React Native have different possibilities, features and goals, so it is very important to understand their differences at the beginning and only then to invest in the chosen one.

Let’s get to the details. We’ll try to explain to you what Ionic React and React Native is.

What is Ionic Framework?

What is Ionic Framework?

Ionic was created by a company called Drifty (currently called Ionic). Initially, the company developed drag&drop solutions that allowed to create applications using jQuery Mobile and Bootstrap.

When the popularity of this type of solutions was recognized, it was decided to create a framework that allows to create applications much faster and easier. And that’s how we can enjoy the Ionic now.

The framework uses typically web-based code, which minimizes the effort associated with releasing applications to the next platform. Very often, thanks to Ionic, the application code that was copied from the web application will also work in the mobile application.

Ionic Framework is open source, easy-to-use tools which is used by companies such as Burger King, Home Depot, Amtrak Sworkit etc.

What is React Native?

What is React Native?

This cross-platform framework is supported by Facebook. It allows us to create a mobile application using JavaScript for iOS and Android platforms.

The code can be shared between the two platforms, thanks to the ability to “translate” JavaScript into native components. We use so-called Bridges – which in short means that we can create a “bridge” between Native Language and JavaScript. A bridge is simply a way of setting up communication between native platforms and React Native.

Another important feature is the so-called hot reloading, which allows the programmer to test changes and make corrections much faster and more efficiently than traditionally in single-platform applications.

For example, React Native is used by companies such as Shopify, Facebook or Wix.

What is the difference between ionic framework and react native?

What is the difference between ionic framework and react native?

From a non-technical person’s point of view, there is hardly any difference between the Ionic and the React Native, and if it is very small. From the developer’s perspective, however, it is worth learning about these differences, especially when it comes to developing a mobile application.

The differences are particularly marked in terms of mobile app development and this is what we will try to focus on. If we look at it from the comfort of the customer, we can see some differences:

React Native is native and Ionic is hybrid

React Native is native and Ionic is hybrid

A native app is a software application that was created with a programming language for a specific platform – iOS or Android. It is built using JavaScript and React, but all components are native components from iOS and Android. Applications created using React Native have superior user experience in comparison to Ionic where there is used a Web Views. (Web Views loads and displays web content directly in your application. For example, to display HTLM content in messages, mail uses Web Views).

On the other hand, Ionic is a hybrid application, which means that is uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript to build applications. Those apps can be used on web, desktop or mobile.

Ionic uses Web View to create applications that we briefly explained to you above. By using Web Views and web technologies, Ionic applications are full screen and full-powered browser.

Ionic uses Cordova or Capacitor plugins to integrate native features such as GPS, camera etc. into your application. In larger applications, this can cause a significant drop in performance – Ionic must first render the graphic elements by a browser to provide the component on the screen.

Speed of writing applications

Speed of writing applications

React Native allows engineers to use several dozen percent of the web application code written in React. This translates into a very large reduction in the time needed to write an application.

In Ionic, on the other hand, developers can transfer a website directly to a mobile application. So, if a web application already exists, you can theoretically create a mobile application much faster.



Indeed, it is quite an important issue to look at this aspect during the election between Ionic and React.

React Native is supported by Facebook, as we mentioned in the introduction. It is used by many other large applications such as Skype, Uber Eats and Instagram.

Ionic is definitely a very popular app. It is used by applications such as MyTelkomsel and Vodafone India.

Something to conclude – a brief summary

Something to conclude - a brief summary

There are, of course, many, many more or less technical differences. But in this short article we just wanted to show you that potentially similar Ionic and React Native, may differ in small details so much that one may suit us more than the other during the development of your application.

We did not want to accuse you of countless technical data and information, but only to give you some information and interest in this topic.


Leave a Reply