Ask HN: Thoughts on Webview vs. React Native for mobile app?

1 pointsposted 13 hours ago
by hnroo99

Item id: 46371761

3 Comments

DecoPerson

11 hours ago

Go with WebView.

As you’re a solo dev, one of your most important resources is your mental capacity. Native platforms & their dev stacks are a world of their own.

Going with WebView allows you to spend your time on other things that matter more. It also helps you prototype quickly and get a feel for what works.

Later, after you have a better, more solid idea of what your game is, if performance is an issue, then you can convert parts of it (or all of it) to native.

(By the time your game is done, I suspect the mobile app dev landscape is going to be quite different than what it is now.)

hnroo99

10 hours ago

Yeah everything you said resonates, thanks for your input.

Your last paragraph is interesting though, in what way do you think mobile dev is going to change?

mvkel

12 hours ago

I have yet to see a webview that doesn't feel like a webview. In a native app, it inevitably ends up feeling like oil and water, empirically. Worth the extra effort to make it proper native, despite whatever promises the webview people give. They don't hold up at the important edges.