React to React Native: A Practical Guide for Teams Transitioning to Mobile

React to React Native: Making the Transition

I have been helping companies strengthen React and React Native applications for years. Working hands-on in both frameworks has given me a front row seat to what teams struggle with, what translates smoothly, and what requires a mindset shift. One of the biggest value areas is cross-training. When React developers understand React Native early, organizations can move into mobile much faster and with fewer roadblocks.

This overview highlights the major differences and practical recommendations for transitioning a team into a React Native workflow.

Why Teams Are Transitioning

There are several reasons a company might encourage a shift into React Native, and most of them tie directly to efficiency and resource optimization. Organizations want to reuse the talent they already have and create better coverage across mobile, web, and backend. For example, many teams extend React and React Native developers into Node for backend work.

Here are the most common reasons developers choose to make the shift.

• You want to build mobile apps and need a fast path from your current experience
• Entry cost is low when you already know React
• React Native follows the same component and state management concepts
• Configuration, testing, and tooling have familiar patterns

Major Differences Between React and React Native

There are technical differences that can make React Native feel easier in some areas and more complex in others. These are the ones worth calling out during a transition. 

Building Blocks

React Native offers a smaller set of core components. Common HTML elements like div, span, and p do not exist. Instead you work with View, Text, FlatList, and Image as your primary building blocks. This feels limiting at first, but it also reduces the number of components you need to learn.

Styling

While you can still use component libraries, theming patterns, and inline styling concepts, there are two major differences.

• React Native does not use standard CSS
• Styling is done with StyleSheet objects, which feel similar to CSS but are less flexible

Animations are also programmatic. Instead of CSS animations, you use the React Native Animated API or Lottie.

Navigation

Routing looks different. React Native supports deep linking through the Linking library, but the dominant pattern is programmatic navigation. For almost every mobile app, you will use a library like React Navigation to manage stacks, tabs, and transitions.

Tooling Requirements

You can continue using your preferred IDE, but building for mobile adds platform-specific tools.

For iOS development, you will need a Mac, Xcode, Ruby, and often CocoaPods unless you rely on Expo.

For Android development, you will need Android Studio.

If using Expo Go, you can avoid some of the heavier native setup.

Library Support

Because React Native does not run in a browser, anything dependent on browser APIs will not work. This includes direct DOM manipulation or browser storage.

You will need React Native specific alternatives. Examples:

• react-router does not work, but react-router-native does
• axios works in both, but storage must use react-native-async-storage or react-native-mmkv
• react-native-camera exposes mobile hardware features and only works on React Native

Permissions and Hardware Access

Mobile requires explicit permission handling. React Native provides helper libraries such as react-native-permissions, but your code must request, validate, and gracefully handle denied permissions.

Common areas that require explicit permission: camera, audio, GPS, notifications, and file access.

Native Modules and Turbo Modules

React Native allows you to write custom native code and surface it through JavaScript. Most teams rely on existing libraries, but this capability is available for advanced integrations. Libraries like react-native-camera and react-native-webview rely on this pattern.

Autolinking

Modern React Native libraries autolink to native projects during install. While this works most of the time, iOS may require manual pod installs or additional configuration. Teams should always review each library’s documentation for setup steps.

Conclusion

React developers already have a strong advantage when learning React Native. The concepts and structure map closely, and much of the tooling remains familiar. The largest learning curve sits in styling, navigation, platform tooling, and understanding what libraries are compatible with mobile runtimes.

Once teams work past these foundational differences, building mobile applications in React Native often feels like a natural extension of building web apps in React.

If your organization is exploring how to scale React Native, cross-train teams, or modernize your mobile experience, RBA can help you plan a smooth transition grounded in best practices and enterprise architecture.