Does React Native have primitive UI libraries? A Deep Dive

Introduction

Alex recently got a part-time job at a company that requires him to create an app from scratch. However, he is a bit new to React Native, and he is anxious about starting a new job and proving himself.  

So, when his first task is creating an app from scratch?   

The main question that comes to his mind is -  

Does react native have primitive UI Libraries?  

Or he will have to roll up his sleeves and build his components.

This situation occurs for many developers who are just entering the world of React Native. In this blog, we are helping developers like Alex learn more about React Native and its primitive UI libraries.

We will explore whether it is better to use a pre-made UI library or create custom components. Making the best choice for your project requires understanding these trade-offs, whether the objective is to speed up development or achieve a highly optimized user experience.

What is a React Native UI Library?

It is a collection of pre-designed and reusable UI components that help developers build mobile applications quicker and more effectively. These required elements include menus, forms, buttons, cards, modals, inputs, and navigation bars. These components can be easily personalized to match the app's design and required features.

Developers can focus on app logic and features by using a React Native component library. These libraries help maintain the consistency of designs for different screens and platforms (iOS and Android) give a great user experience and lower the need for repetitive coding. 

The Power of React Native UI Libraries: Speed, Consistency, and Efficiency

React Native UI libraries are essential for speeding up the development of apps since they provide built-in elements that improve user experience, consistency, and speed. They improve the development process in the following ways:

• Faster Development & Cost Efficiency: Custom coding is unnecessary when using pre-built user interface components, saving money and time during development.
• Platform Adaptability: Adapting to platform-specific design guidelines. Keeping a consistent appearance and feel across iOS and Android.
• Customization & Branding: This function helps developers modify user interface elements according to the application's branding and design requirements.
• Strong Community Support: Development communities ensure regular updates, bug fixes, and new components.
• Optimized User Experience: Responsiveness, accessibility, and performance are all improved by well-designed UI components.
• Increased Productivity of Developers: A broad collection of readily used components simplifies iteration, testing, and coding.
• Third-Party Integrations: This feature lets you easily connect to additional libraries and APIs, increasing your project's functionality.
• Improved Localization & Accessibility: Integrated accessibility features promote inclusive design and worldwide reach.

React Native UI libraries help developers to create scalable, affordable, and high-quality mobile applications by utilizing these benefits.

Built-in vs. Third-Party UI Components in React Native

React Native provides the fundamental user interface elements that form the foundation of mobile applications. These elements provide cross-platform compatibility and make sure React Native apps act, feel, and appear like native apps.

View

• The most essential element used to create user interface layouts.    
• Serves as a container for additional user interface components.    
• Supports accessibility controls, touch handling, styles, and flexbox. 

Text

• Used to style and display text.   
• Handles touch events and nested text.   

Image

• Presents logos, icons, and pictures in React Native applications.    
• Both local and remote picture sources are supported.

Button

• A UI element that can be clicked to perform actions.    
• Basic yet adaptable using event handlers and styles.   

SafeAreaView

• Prevents information from overlapping with system bars, curved edges, or notches.    
• Essential to the iPhone X and later models.  

Third-Party UI Libraries in React Native

Many developers use React Native UI frameworks to improve UI design and speed development. These libraries cut down on development time by offering pre-made, adaptable components. 

Why Use React Native UI Libraries from Third Parties?

Many developers use React Native UI frameworks to improve UI design and speed development. These libraries cut down on development time by offering pre-made, adaptable components.

• Saves time: There is no need to start from scratch when creating UI elements.   
• Better UI/UX: Offers well-designed, eye-catching elements.   
• Customization: Changing layouts, styles, and themes is simple.   
• Cross-platform development Consistency: Both iOS and Android can use the components.   
• Community Support: These libraries are maintained and contributed to by open-source communities. 

The Importance of a React Native Component Library for UI and Performance

Mobile apps need a smooth UI/UX, but it can be challenging to optimize for both design and performance in React Native. The user experience can be negatively impacted by a poorly optimized user interface (UI) due to slow load times, unnecessary re-rendering, and memory leaks.

Using a React Native Component Library can speed development, increase consistency, and boost app performance without sacrificing design.

Unoptimized Components cause lag: Performance constraints may result from intricate user interface structures with deeply nested components. A component library provides lightweight, pre-optimized components to reduce the need for pointless re-renders.

FPS May Be Affected by Heavy Animations:  

• Poorly optimized animations frequently cause frame dips and user interface slowness.  
• Utilizing component-based react-native-reanimated  
• Smoother, GPU-accelerated animations are guaranteed when react-native-reanimated and component libraries are used.

Ineffective Layouts and Lists Extend the Load Time: 

• List rendering using.map()? That kills performance.  
• Component libraries and FlatList enhance scrolling and rendering performance.

Advantages of React Native Component Libraries

Components that have been pre-optimized for quicker rendering. React Native Paper, NativeBase, and UI Kitten are a few libraries that offer performance-optimized components that minimize the need for re-renders.

Improved State Management and Decreased Memory Consumption: To avoid excessive component updates, several libraries reduce state dependencies. 

Optimized Layouts for Effective Styling: Compared to inline styles, rendering time is increased by libraries that make use of Stylesheet. Create().

Less Code and Cross-Platform Consistency: A component library guarantees a consistent user interface across iOS and Android without additional programming work.

Utilizing a React Native Component Library can optimize efficiency and improve UI/UX. It maintains design uniformity across platforms, increases app efficiency, and reduces development time.

Custom Styling vs. Pre-Built User Interface Components

For MVPs and test projects, pre-built React Native UI libraries provide ready-made components that facilitate rapid development. With minimal customization possibilities, they provide accessibility and a well-designed user interface. However, your design may not stand out because many apps use the same libraries.

A custom React Native UI library removes unnecessary components, providing complete control over functionality, design, and performance. Although it offers a genuinely tailored UX/UI, adjusting to new use cases takes a lot of effort, money, and ongoing development. Developers must decide between custom styling and pre-built UI libraries when creating a user interface.

Advantages of Pre-made user interface elements

• Accelerated Development: Provides components that are ready to use, saving time.    
• Consistent UI: Guarantees a smooth, consistent look across all platforms.    
• Optimized Performance: Faster and more efficient operation is achieved with well-tested components.    
• Limited Customization: It does not match the branding requirements.    
• Complete Control: Developers can design a distinctive and customized user interface.   
• Improved Performance Optimization: Able to adjust each component for responsiveness and speed.    
• Time-intensive: More work must be put into development.    
• Higher Maintenance: Requires regular updates and testing.

Pre-built components vs Custom Components: A Comparison  

The Best React Native UI Libraries for Developing Apps More Quickly

Using the appropriate React Native UI library can significantly increase the user experience, design consistency, and development speed. The most excellent React Native UI libraries are listed here, along with information about their characteristics and potential suitability for your application.

Selecting the appropriate React Native UI library can speed development, increase design consistency, and improve app performance. The top UI frameworks for React Native component development are listed below; they are streamlined for cross-platform compatibility, speed, and style. 

When developers use the appropriate React Native UI library, they can create apps more quickly with pre-built, configurable components. Below are the best UI libraries that provide consistency in design, performance, and flexibility. 

Gluestack UI

NativeWind (Tailwind CSS) created the modern, lightweight UI library  Gluestack UI v2 for React Native, React, and Next.js. It offers no additional dependencies, complete RSC compatibility, and copy-paste components. 

Key Features: Cross-platform support- Compatible with both iOS and Android.  Customizable theme - Allows for easy customization of UI components.  Speed-optimized - Provides accessibility and quick rendering.

Best for: Developers seeking Tailwind-integrated, scalable, high-performance UI components.

React Native Elements 

It is an open-source UI library that provides a large selection of pre-built components such as cards, lists, buttons, and forms. With little work, it gives you a professional look.

Key Features: It supports many platforms and functions flawlessly on both iOS and Android.  Adaptable - Change styles to fit your brand. Easy to use – Clear documentation and a simple API.

Best for: Developers who require simple, professional UI components rapidly. 

Universal shadcn/ui for React Native

The open-source component library React Native Reusables was created using NativeWind v4. It provides universal components, hooks, and utilities tailored for web, iOS, and Android apps.

Key Features: Incremental adoption - Use elements progressively. Integrated dark mode - Provides theme flexibility. No reliance on third parties – Lightweight and optimized.

Best for: Developers who want scalable, reusable components with universal compatibility.

React Native Paper

React Native Paper provides ready-to-use user interface components with integrated theming and dark mode support, adhering to Google's Material Design guidelines.

Key features: Material Design UI guarantees a unified, contemporary appearance. Support for themes: You may easily change the colors and designs.  It is clearly explained, easy to set up, and well-documented.

Best for: Developers creating apps with a simple user interface that adheres to Material Design.

React Native UI Kitten

The Eva Design System is the foundation for the flexible UI library React Native UI Kitten. It supports custom themes and has pre-styled components for a customized user interface.

Key Features: Pre–made user interface elements – buttons, cards, lists, etc. Customizable themes - Easily change styles. Simple setup – Comprehensive documentation for speedy integration. 

Best for: Developers that require a wholly themed user interface system with available components.

You can choose these libraries based on the needs of your project.

Does React Native have a primitive UI Library?

A UI library is not essential for React Native, but it helps speed up development, assure consistency, and improve user experience. React Native comes with basic user interface elements, including, and by default. Developers must create unique UI elements from scratch because, despite their functionality, these elements lack style and advanced capabilities.

A React Native UI toolkit makes the process easier by providing pre-made, adaptable UI elements that function flawlessly on iOS and Android. Without having to start from scratch, these libraries assist developers in producing polished and professional interfaces.

Using a React Native component library also improves performance and maintainability. Developers can concentrate on creating app functionality rather than writing repeated UI code. Well-known UI libraries such as UI Kitten, Native Base, and React Native Paper offer pre-made, organized components that follow modern principles.

By weighing all these factors, developers can select the best strategy to create effective, visually appealing, and high-performing React Native apps.

Top Techniques for React Native UI Performance Optimization

React Native UI optimization improves the app's user experience, responsiveness, and speed. It is the best way to improve user interface performance.

Code Division   

• TDivideUI: elements into smaller modules. to reduce initial load time and load only the most important components initially. to enhance app performance.
• Slow loading:Only load components as required. This speeds up the app's start and lowers memory use.
• Caching: To reduce unnecessary computations, cache frequently used components and assets. As a result, UI interactions are accelerated.
• Improve Layouts: To improve rendering speed, avoid deep nesting and intricate hierarchies. Also, make sure your user interfaces are clear and effective.
• Efficient Image Handling: Reduce load times by using lazy loading, image compression, and caching. Avoid using large images to block the main thread.

Conclusion

Finally, React Native does offer basic UI libraries, although they only provide the most fundamental features. Selecting a React Native component library or exploring React Native UI libraries can greatly increase design consistency, performance, and development time. By choosing the best strategy, whether custom or off-the-shelf, teams may create React Native apps that are effective, visually appealing, and easy to use.