Ranking
Technologies with less than 10% awareness not included.
Each ratio is defined as follows:
- Retention = would use again( would use again + would not use again )
- Interest = want to learn( want to learn + not interested )
- Usage = ( would use again + would not use again )total
- Awareness = ( total - never heard )total
Experience Over Time
| Would use again | |
| Would not use | |
| Interested | |
| Not interested | |
| Never heard |
Sentiment Split
This chart splits positive (“want to learn”, “would use again”) vs negative (“not interested”, “would not use again”) experiences on both sides of the central axis.
Bar thickness represents the number of respondents aware of a technology. Click on the individual label to see more details.
It comes as no surprise to me that Expo is the clear leader here in terms of React Native developer tooling. They never stop putting out new tools that boost the React Native ecosystem. If you are just arriving at React Native, I encourage you strongly to build with Expo.
I see a lot of potential in Microsoft’s rnx-kit to be more widely adopted, but I think they will need to do a better job telling people what it is and how it helps. If you haven’t checked it out, you should!
I don’t see Orbit on this list! I want to give it a shoutout because we use a very similar tool at Shopify, and it’s been crucial in our team to test each other’s PRs.
Colin Gray
JavaScript/TypeScript Balance
Package managers
Starter templates
The 2023 State of React Native survey results show a clear trend: React Native developers are increasingly adopting Expo CLI, EAS CLI, and Ignite CLI as their preferred tools for developing their projects.
Expo CLI rises to the top of developer’s lists as an all purpose tool for React Native and Expo projects. With that change, we’re seeing less interest in React Native Community CLI. Both tools allow developers to configure projects, run them, and autolink native dependencies.
Config plugins make their first appearance on this survey, allowing developers to include native code with Continuous Native Generation (CNG), while custom development clients (expo-dev-client) allows teams to run development builds with native changes included.
Microsoft’s production-grade tools also make the list this year, with React Native Test App (RNTA) and rnx-kit. Microsoft’s hard work on cross platform support in React Native is paving the way for others looking to build apps that work across Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
Overall, developers prefer tools that give them a fast way to get started while also providing escape hatches that allow them to customize specific features of their app.