Whether you are going to launch a minimum viable product to validate your mobile app idea, showcase a working app to investors, or test different app monetization strategies, you will have to decide on what technology to choose to build your MVP. And the React Native framework, with its cost-efficiency, flexibility, and cross-platform compatibility, can be instrumental for you in this regard.
In this article, React Native experts from Itransition delve into the concept of mobile app MVP and highlight the unique benefits of React Native for MVP development.
Why Use React Native For Mobile App MVP Development?
React Native is a great technology for MVP development for a number of reasons:
Cross-Platform Compatibility
The React Native framework is based on JavaScript, a popular cross-platform app development language. This means that with React Native, you don’t have to create separate apps for Android and iOS and instead can use a single code base for both platforms. This way, React Native can help you reduce development costs and time dramatically.
Component-Based Architecture
React Native has a large ecosystem of ready-made reusable components, which can serve as building blocks for mobile apps. Developers can leverage these components instead of creating app UI elements from scratch, saving a lot of development time and money, if you pay developers based on an hourly rate.
A Large Pool Of Developers
As a mature framework, React Native has a well-established and vast developer community around it. There are more than 145,000 React Native community members on Reddit, more than 2,700 active React Native contributors on GitHub, and countless developers communicating in React Native channels on Discord. Such extensive React Native popularity can also make it easier to find developers for building MVP or scaling it to a full-fledged product.
3 Ways You Can Streamline React Native MVP Development
Build Reusable Custom React Native Components
In addition to ready-made core React Native components, the framework provides the tools to create bespoke components, either based on the core ones or built fully from scratch. The use of custom components allows for building a more tailored app UI that better aligns with your company’s unique branding. Moreover, creating custom React Native components can help further accelerate software development speed, as developers can reuse them in the current solution or future apps.
There are a couple of practices that can help make React Native components more maintainable. First and foremost, developers should strive to keep them smaller and dedicated to a specific function, so they are easy to maintain. Developers should also document custom components thoroughly, specifying their characteristics and applications, to make it easier for other specialists to work with them.
Using Reliable Third-Party Libraries
Apart from using custom components, developers are also able to implement third-party React Native libraries to add UI elements to their apps (sliders, buttons, navigation bars, etc.). The adoption of third-party React Native libraries can significantly accelerate developers’ work. After all, they don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” and spend time on coding specific UI elements themselves.
But you should also remember that third-party libraries and code can also introduce new risks to your project. In particular, the use of third-party libraries, especially those that are dependent on other third-party libraries, can introduce unnecessary software dependencies, which in turn can make your app harder to build, deploy, or maintain. Not less importantly, third-party libraries can contain bugs and vulnerabilities that can compromise the performance and security of your app.
Therefore, we advise React Native teams to examine third-party libraries from multiple perspectives before using them to minimize potential risks. Your team should ensure that a library comes from a trusted and proven vendor and has clear and up-to-date documentation. Team members should also ensure that a library is regularly updated and receives necessary fixes for any new discovered vulnerabilities. Also, if this library has some known dependencies, they should be all examined in advance as well.
Establish a CI/CD pipeline for your React Native app
To further improve the speed of MVP development, you can create a CI/CD pipeline and automate the processes of building, testing, and deploying your React Native app. Thanks to SDLC automation, developers can allocate more time to coding and engineering the app’s functionality. It also allows teams to identify and fix bugs early in the development cycle, which can enhance overall MVP quality and help you avoid extra costs related to future app reworks.
Depending on your business requirements, you can select one of CI/CD platforms suited for React Native projects, such as Expo App Services, Fastlane, or Bitrise. Evaluating them from different perspectives (functionality, scalability, ease of use, cost, etc.) will help you make an optimal platform choice.
Final Thoughts
If you are eager to follow successful examples of GoShare, Duolingo, Wolt, or other startups and launch your own mobile product, you should consider starting by developing an MVP. This way, you can quickly validate your business idea and get your product to early customers. And with the React Native framework, you can build a mobile app MPV without investing a lot of time and money.
Also, by using the practices listed in this article, you can ensure smoother React Native MVP development to accelerate the project’s delivery even further. In case you want to learn more useful practices or get expert guidance, you should consider hiring a React Native development agency, which can also provide you with technical assistance to help you build MVP and then turn it into a full-fledged product.
