The Growing Demand for React Native Developers in Silicon Valley

Introduction

React Native, developed by Meta in 2015, quickly became one of the most popular frameworks for cross-platform app development. It allowed developers to build apps using JavaScript while still supporting platform-specific code. Many companies, including Silicon Valley leaders like Airbnb, Uber Eats, Discord, and Instagram, adopted it within months to “move quickly” with streamlined multi-platform development. 

Since then, the framework’s popularity has continued to rise, with many others adopting it to reduce development time and costs while maintaining app quality. This growing adoption has also translated to a surge in demand for skilled React Native developers who can develop high-performance apps. 

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at why many companies, including Silicon Valley leaders, are turning to cross-platform app development and looking to hire experienced React Native developers. 

What is Leading Silicon Valley Companies to Adopt React Native? 

Here are a few reasons that are causing several companies to hire React Native developers and shift to this platform for cross-platform app development: 

1. Reusable Components – Faster Development

React Native comes with reusable components that can be shared across both platforms. This made it significantly easier for engineering teams to build core features and functionality without duplicating the effort dedicated to boilerplate native development. 

2. PWA Support for Offline Functionality

In 2016, Google introduced offline functionality as a core web standard. Around the same time, progressive web apps (PWAs) began gaining traction for their ability to offer offline access. React Native’s support for offline functionality became a key factor for companies as it allowed them to enhance overall UX, especially for those who needed to access bookings and other features without a constant internet connection.

3. Native-Like Performance

React Native provides near-native performance for most applications. Instead of rendering components through a web view, it uses the same UI building blocks as native apps. This reduces the overhead that often comes with hybrid frameworks, which rely on web technologies. That said, there’s still a slight overhead because of the JavaScript bridge.  

4. Growing Community Support – Facebook Backing

React Native wasn’t just a development framework—it was backed by Facebook, one of the world’s largest tech companies. This gave companies a sense of reliability and stability. Additionally, Facebook’s active support in innovation, updates, and investment made them confident about using React Native, especially as many companies were working their way from the ground up.

In addition to these benefits, the decision to get started with React Native is often driven by a strong desire to move more quickly as a company. Realizing early on that the tech-to-market time was very crucial, the idea of building a single codebase that could work across multiple platforms appears to be incredibly appealing and even successful! 

Cases in Point: Famous Journeys with React Native

Uber Eats

Source

 

Uber Eats’s app exemplifies how hiring dedicated React Native developers allowed the company to enhance its online presence beyond the web. Their development team initially possessed extensive experience with React for web development but had limited exposure to iOS and Android. Consequently, collaborating with React Native developers was viewed as a viable solution that facilitated their planning for future expansion, including support for Android devices. This strategy enabled them to test key features, such as crash reporting, user authentication, and analytics, through a demo app. The entire experiment confirmed React Native’s compatibility with their existing mobile infrastructure.

Even though they did come across certain challenges in bridging native and JavaScript functionality, React Native’s integration had a largely positive impact on their performance across mobile devices. 

Coinbase 

Source 

Another well-known company that transitioned to React Native is Coinbase, which successfully moved its iOS and Android mobile apps from native development to the platform around 2021. The main purpose of this transition was to unify development teams and efforts, enhancing overall engineering efficiency. The company collaborated with a dedicated team of React Native developers who migrated existing apps in three main steps:

1. Greenfield Exploration: Coinbase started by building the Pro mobile app from scratch using React Native, testing its ability to handle complex features like real-time price charts, and evaluating developer velocity.

2. Brownfield Integration: They then integrated React Native into an existing native Coinbase app, rebuilding the onboarding flows to be shared across both the Pro app and the main Coinbase apps, simplifying the sign-up process for multiple platforms.

3. Core Product Rewrite: Building on lessons from the first two phases, Coinbase planned a complete rewrite of its core product in React Native.  

Airbnb

Source 

Airbnb was one of the most reputed early adopters of React Native. With the aim of scaling quickly and reaching more users across multiple platforms, Airbnb hired React Native developers to develop multi-platform apps using a single codebase for both iOS and Android apps. By doing so, they were able to share common features like UI components, navigation, and business logic across platforms. 

Additionally, to provide more platform-specific functionalities, they used minimal native code wrapping tailored for each platform. This hybrid approach enabled Airbnb to maintain a high level of consistency in the app's look and feel while still utilizing the unique capabilities of iOS and Android wherever necessary, significantly reducing development time and costs.

While React Native-based hybrid app development initially delivered what Airbnb expected, the company had to reconsider a few things regarding its long-term viability for their operations. 

1. Increased Overhead: Adding more native functionalities required significant extra effort in coding and maintaining compatibility with existing features. The company had to hire more React Native developers to make it happen, adding to the costs. 

2. Limited Usage: As only 20% of their app’s functionality was powered by React Native, with the rest relying on native code, they were still far from being truly hybrid.  

As a result, Airbnb decided to stick with native development, given the nature of their operations and requirements. 

What Does it Tell you About React Native?

Even though Airbnb’s experience may have appeared as a setback, it did not tarnish React Native’s reputation or future prospects, as demonstrated by other successful journeys like that of Coinbase. Airbnb’s decision was motivated by the nature of their operations rather than any issues with the platform itself. In fact, even after making this transition, the company has continued to support the React Native community by contributing significant open-source projects like Lottie and react-native-maps. Despite everything, their hybrid app development experience with React Native did give them the headstart they needed, setting the pace for how it should evolve.

For an increasing number of companies, adopting React Native has resulted in significant benefits, and many others are nearing the decision to pursue this route.

How Recent Advancements are Fueling the Demand for React Native Developers in the USA?

The demand is growing as businesses now need skilled React Native developers to: 

1. Handle the Complexity of New Features

The introduction of new features such as the New Architecture and Concurrent Rendering in React 19 has enhanced React Native's power but also increased its complexity. For instance, as the New Architecture replaces the old JavaScript bridge with JSI, developers need a deep understanding of React Native’s internal workflows to implement this effectively. 

Similarly, in order to benefit from concurrent rendering in the latest versions, the React Native developers you hire must be proficient in state management. This will ensure your app performs consistently well, even with multiple UI updates occurring simultaneously. 

2. Optimize Application Performance

React Native's recent advancements enable better performance but also require developers to optimize them carefully. For instance, while React 19's automatic batching can reduce the number of render cycles, it also comes with certain limitations and potential side effects when used in complex, data-heavy apps. To handle them, you need skilled React Native developers who can ensure that data states don’t conflict or override each other in the process. 

3. Navigate New Tools and Libraries

New tools and libraries, such as Reanimated 2 and React Navigation 6, improve platform performance. But at the same time, they come with their own learning curves and integration challenges. This is why many businesses have to hire dedicated React Native developers who understand how to integrate them without causing compatibility issues. Businesses also rely on them to stay on top of all React updates and changes in the ecosystem.

4. Add Platform-Specific Customizations

While React Native simplifies multi-platform development, many apps still require certain native features. For example, implementing push notifications requires different setup processes on iOS and Android due to platform-specific libraries and permissions. You can hire experienced React Native developers who know how to integrate these features without affecting the shared codebase.

5. Scale and Maintain Apps

As your apps grow in size, scaling and maintaining them becomes more challenging. React Native apps require careful management of large codebases that span multiple platforms. For instance, you must handle versioning issues when updating dependencies or adding new features. This may require you to hire dedicated React Native experts who can take over scaling and maintenance tasks like modularizing components, configuring state management, implementing security patches & new features, and fine-tuning app performance for desired benchmarks. 

The Current State of React Native Development in the USA

React Native continues to be a highly preferred development framework even in the USA. Even today, it is downloaded more than 2 million times every week! Additionally, a good number of top apps available on the App Store (for iOS) and Play Store (for Android) are powered by React Native. Some prominent names include 

In leading tech hubs like Silicon Valley, where companies are actively building efficient and multi-platform mobile apps, seasoned React Native developers are in high demand. As a result, the job market is highly competitive and offers attractive salaries. For instance, you can hire React Native developers in Silicon Valley at an average hourly rate between $90 and $160. The same is slightly lower in regions with lesser demand, such as in Southern USA, where businesses can typically hire them at $40 to $80 per hour. 

What to Expect in the Future?

The future of React Native looks promising for several reasons. With ongoing updates and community support from Meta, including the introduction of the New Architecture, React Native is becoming more optimized for modern development needs. 

In addition to this, emerging advancements like an increasing preference toward foldable, multi-format devices will call for more innovation. And with React Native’s growing support for adaptive layouts and app architectures, it will continue to remain a top choice. 

Further, with the rise of 5G technology, mobile apps will become more connected, faster, and data-intensive. React Native’s flexibility in handling real-time data and its ability to optimize performance will be key in delivering high-quality apps that make full use of 5G’s potential. This continues to go on with every other technological advancement. The platform is advantageous but not without those who can innovate faster and create more connected mobile app experiences using it. But one thing remains consistent—the need for skilled React Native developers who make it all happen.