Startups often ask whether to hire separate iOS and Android engineers or a React Native developer who can ship both. For most MVPs, React Native (or Expo) wins on speed and cost because one codebase covers the majority of product UI and business logic.
Choose React Native when your app is forms, lists, auth, payments, and standard navigation - marketplaces, SaaS companions, booking apps, and internal tools. Pair it with a solid Node.js API so one full-stack partner can own mobile plus backend.
Choose fully native when you need bleeding-edge device APIs, heavy graphics, or platform-specific UX that frameworks struggle to match. Even then, many teams still start in React Native and rewrite hot paths later if metrics justify it.
Budget beyond the UI: push notifications, store listing assets, TestFlight / Play internal testing, crash reporting, and API auth. Mobile quality lives in those details - not only in beautiful screens.
When you hire a React Native developer, ask for a recent store-ready build, how they handle offline states, and how they coordinate with your backend. End-to-end ownership (app + API + launch) is usually faster than splitting mobile and backend across two freelancers who never meet.
