Totally confused! which UI component library to choose with react-native for App development
If you are new to react-native and just doing the basic setup, the next you will look for what all UI frameworks are available in react-native.
I have spent almost a day to just find out which UI library to choose. Believe me, I was completely freaked out. Why? look at down…
After reading all the post and spending the whole day, this is what I have:
- By 2020, the internet is flooded with hell lot of UI libraries like CORONA. Do not know which one to choose.
- People are marketing their framework and platform left and right, which makes a person confused and worry, which one to choose.
- So many, builtin UI design tool.
- Libraries are getting outdated very fast.
- Some are opensource and good but no ReactJS hook support. Sad!
- Some are very rich in UI but less support and not maintained.
How to choose a library?
These are some basic things, you must look before selecting any
- If it has a git code repo, check the last commit time, If it too old, do not select that. It must be no more maintained. If you choose this, you will be stuck in the middle, if any issue comes.
- Check the forks, stars, and how many people are already using this.
- Check the license properly. It may make you free to paid without even knowing. You may get into trouble when building a long-running application.
- Look for a cross-platform library.
- If you have already experienced in any other web UI library then you should check if that is also available in react-native. This will reduce learning costs and time.
- Check stack overflow and google how many problems and solutions you are getting, how people are contributing and supporting. If you do not find much, then do not choose otherwise you will find difficulty in finding solutions when you hit an issue.
- Should have enough examples and good documentation.
- Should have the latest ReactJs features support like hooks.
After doing enough research, these are some libraries that I shortlisted.
NativeBase — Currently, not seeing react hooks support and also not sure will it work. All the examples are given in the traditional react class modal. So I did not choose this.
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React native element— I found this one is used by 5k + people and has enough support. You can choose this.
UI Kitten — I did not find much content in stack overflow and google for problem and solution. So, I did not choose this.
React native paper — I have experienced in materials-UI and was looking for the same in react-native and found this. There are many other materials-UI libraries also available but not satisfy all the points which I mentioned above ‘How to choose a library’. So I chose this one.
You can also search for all the react-native libraries here.
Hope this helps you and saves your time!
If you know any other good libraries, which are widely used, have enough support, and opensource, please mention in the comment. I will be happy to take a look.
