# React Native 98 Hacker News commenters recommended React Native and 128 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 8 years (7 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for building iOS, Android and other apps from one codebase with native UI, fast iteration and over-the-air hotfixes; critics cite dependency churn, painful upgrades and long-term technical debt. ## Why people recommend it - One codebase for many platforms (6 comments): "React Native and Flutter as cross platform frameworks are best for Startups which can't handle 2 mobile developers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49655952)) "React Native got me out of a jam when I had to build identical apps for AppleTV and Android/Amazon TV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50169400)) "React Native's advantage of having a single source of truth for code hasn't quite gone away yet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49646769)) - Renders real native UI components (5 comments): "All UI views and widgets are native. Platform SDK is native, Yoga Layout is native C++ and even faster than UIKit layout." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46800005)) "its components become native platform views which would directly be located by 3rd party apps like Appium etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289281)) "React Native is able to build abstractions on top of both Android and iOS that uses native UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868547)) - Over-the-air hotfix updates (4 comments): "Over the air updates is SO valuable with react-native. Being able to ship hotfixes instantly to our users has saved our asses multiple times." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647479)) "they're losing the ability to ship hotfixes over the air and will always be at the mercy of apple & google to deliver their updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647667)) "The most valuable feature which RN have is OTA updates, this has been a game changer for us and many fast moving companies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49655066)) - Fast iteration and developer experience (4 comments): "With React and Expo the AI was able to generate from the first few short prompts what it took me a month to produce with Swift." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266230)) "incredible DX improvement to be able to just save a file and instantly see the behavior of your app update" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485889)) "The frameworks, developer tools, languages, and iteration speed of RN hands down beat any one platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49660904)) ## What people warn about - Dependency hell and difficult upgrades (4 comments): "inherently difficult to maintain without huge amounts of ongoing effort and capital invested" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525272)) "React Native is a viable option if you don’t mind installing lots of third party packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282791)) "React Native, with its dependency hell, project rot, npm ecosystem under the hood, and transpilation with lax runtime leaking into TS, is a total no-go for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49284654)) - Technical debt and hidden complexity (4 comments): "it adds a layer of indirection, so you're no longer as "in touch" with the underlying platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49655439)) "React Native is penny-wise and pound-foolish. You save on initial time-to-market for two platforms, then spend years mired in technical debt." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586157)) "It gives you the appearance of efficiency and uniformity, but much of the complexity is just moved elsewhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656378)) - JavaScript runtime performance overhead (3 comments): "These tools are bad, objectively! They give inferior user experiences, and waste resources" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644905)) "reviews everywhere about React Native that it's doesn't have that kind of performance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49881947)) "React native will always be more resource intensive than a native framework because it relies on a whole javascript runtime to work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46476305)) - Web developers produce messy apps (2 comments): "they usually take random react developers to work on these apps and the structure they create is absolutely horrible to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283165)) "RN has historically attracted a lot of web developers who treat mobile like a React website, and the result can be terrible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283270)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Flutter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flutter.md): 171 recommend - [Kotlin Multiplatform](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kotlin-multiplatform.md): 27 recommend - [Expo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/expo.md): 21 recommend - [.NET MAUI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/net-maui.md): 21 recommend - [Skip](https://hackerapproved.com/p/skip.md): 19 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "React Native", https://hackerapproved.com/p/react-native/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).