React and React Native, both introduced by Facebook, have transformed the landscape of web and mobile application development with their component-centric philosophies. However, they cater to distinct platforms and have notable differences. React, commonly referred to as React.js, is a JavaScript library designed for creating interactive and dynamic user interfaces for web applications. It leverages a virtual DOM to efficiently update and render components, ensuring a fluid web experience within the browser. Developers using React often employ JSX, a syntactical sugar that mixes HTML-like tags with JavaScript, providing a more intuitive way to define component layouts.
Conversely, React Native serves as a framework for building genuine native mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms. Instead of translating components into browser-based elements, React Native components translate directly into native mobile UI elements. This ensures that applications built with React Native not only look but also feel genuinely native, with the capability to tap into platform-specific UI components and performance optimizations. An additional distinction is the environment and capabilities they offer: React operates within the confines of the web browser, using HTML and CSS for rendering, while React Native bypasses the browser, directly accessing native platforms and their features, such as the camera or GPS.
While both React and React Native spring from the same concept of component-based development, React specializes in delivering high-quality web interfaces, whereas React Native focuses on crafting true native mobile experiences.
