React Native at 10 Years: A Reality Check in 2025

Author: Kristoffer Dave Tabong | June 23, 2025

1. From Facebook Hack to Cross-Platform Workhorse

When React Native (RN) debuted as a 2015 Facebook prototype, many engineers doubted that JavaScript could drive “real” native apps. Ten years later, the framework quietly underpins surprising corners of tech: Microsoft ships React Native for Windows for UWP desktop apps, and parts of Sony’s PlayStation 5 interface are written in RN x.com. What started as an internal hackathon idea has matured into a strategic option for companies that need to stretch one codebase across multiple devices.

2. Case Study—Shopify’s Five-Year Bet

E-commerce giant Shopify migrated every consumer-facing mobile experience to RN. Their 2025 retrospective reports:

• One-team velocity: engineers now “write once” and share features across iOS + Android.
• Performance wins: median screen loads under 500 ms, > 99.9% crash-free sessions.
• Talent portability: TypeScript lets web engineers drop into mobile sprints with minimal ramp-up shopify.engineering.

The takeaway: with disciplined profiling and selective native modules, RN can deliver flagship-grade UX.

3. Developer Experience in 2025

RN Feature	Why It Still Matters
Fast Refresh / hot reload	Millisecond feedback loops keep dev flow intact—even in large codebases.
TypeScript first	Static typing closes many runtime gaps typical of JS-only stacks.
JSI & New Architecture	Moves heavy work off the legacy “bridge,” trimming frame drops and GC stalls.
Ecosystem depth	Thousands of OSS libraries (e.g., Reanimated 2, FlashList) reduce “reinvent-the-wheel” time.

4. Remaining Rough Edges

• Debugging breadth: IDE breakpoints span JavaScript, native C++, and Kotlin/Swift—toggling contexts is still clunky.
• Version churn: Each RN upgrade can trigger a parade of third-party patching, though the CLI’s upgrade-helper eases the pain.
• Native escapes: GPU-heavy features (AR, advanced camera, watch-OS widgets) still benefit from pure native layers.

5. Is RN a “Good Idea” Today?

If your roadmap prioritises:

• Feature parity across iOS and Android
• Lean teams who prefer TypeScript over twin native stacks
• Acceptable trade-offs on deep platform edge-cases

…then RN remains one of the most cost-effective answers on the market. For green-field apps demanding ultra-low-level hardware control, full-native remains king—but for everything else, React Native has earned its stripes.