OpenTube

Is React Native Dead? Shopify Is Leaving

Code with Beto

82,457 views

✨ Try VoiceOS for FREE: https://cwb.sh/voiceos
Master React Native with me: https://cwb.sh/rn?r=yt

Shopify is moving from React Native to Swift and Kotlin, so I'm breaking down what AI changed, what its benchmarks actually show, and how to decide what makes sense for your app.

Resources mentioned
React Native Course: https://cwb.sh/rn?r=yt

My Products
• Pro Access — get access to everything: https://cwb.sh/pro?r=yt
• Platano — AI app template: https://cwb.sh/platano?r=yt
• Book — From Idea to App Store with Claude Code: https://cwb.sh/book?r=yt
• Inkigo — AI Tattoo (iOS): https://cwb.sh/inkigo?r=yt
• Quick Push — test push notifications (macOS, $4.99): https://apple.co/4tvT4wF

Free Resources
• Newsletter: https://cwb.sh/newsletter?r=yt
• Discord: https://cwb.sh/discord?r=yt

Support My Work
• Channel Membership: https://cwb.sh/join
• GitHub Sponsors: https://github.com/sponsors/betomoedano

Socials
Follow Beto on X: https://cwb.sh/x?r=yt
LinkedIn: https://cwb.sh/in?r=yt
GitHub: https://cwb.sh/gh?r=yt
Instagram: https://cwb.sh/insta?r=yt
TikTok: https://cwb.sh/tiktok?r=yt
Threads: https://cwb.sh/threads?r=yt
Bluesky: https://cwb.sh/bsky?r=yt
Facebook: https://cwb.sh/fb?r=yt

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:54 Why Shopify is switching to Swift and Kotlin
03:10 Performance gains and benchmark limits
05:10 Shopify's AI workflow and the engineer's role
07:31 VoiceOS demo (sponsored)
09:05 Native tools, Expo UI, and platform APIs
12:06 What happens to Skia, FlashList, and Restyle?
13:10 My take: React Native or native?

#coding #technews #reactnative

20 Comments

@codewithbeto Creator 3 weeks ago Pinned

✨ Try VoiceOS: https://cwb.sh/voiceos

@glaze4629 3 weeks ago

I'd be way more scared if Software Mansion left React Native

@ifebusolaogunbayo 3 weeks ago

“The skill I want to keep building is the ability to ship and maintain a good mobile application, wherever the implementation lives” - that’s Gold! Thank you Beto

@Bapsciss 3 weeks ago (edited)

For individuals like me react native is better as i dont have a mac.i can do both android and ios app in one codebase.for shopify a big corporation they dont need react native and they have the means to have seperate codebase 😅

@mohamdalmhde1322 10 days ago

As a founder, I’ve heard every tech-stack hot take imaginable. But here’s the reality:
React Native handles the heavy performance
Expo Handle Native Build
so my team can focus purely on business logic.

That’s the real win. 🚀

@elihuvillaraus3651 3 weeks ago

First comment... Just saw this yesterday and I understand their thinking, I do not know yet if I´m going to take that path

@alp-b7u 3 weeks ago

lol, i just made this descision a couple hours ago, now seeing this😂😂. Only reason for the switch up though is because I desprately need projects, my data transfer cable is broken and emulator is slow asf so yeah... one day we shall meet again RN😢 back to web smh, hopefully RN knowledge can transfer to react.

@oSethoum 3 weeks ago

Because the AI is the one writing the code there is no need for multiplatform code base anymore.

@asadanik5987 2 weeks ago

But think about EAS OTA updates. it will eat the native when its time to publish for new update the app on both stores same times, allowing you to update the system without waiting for a new store submit evalutation.

@azizoid 2 weeks ago

They also say that they could mostly achieve almost the same improvements on RN new architecture too, but since theyw ere going to rewrite everything, they decided to move to native

@コーヒーコー.アンディ 3 weeks ago

Yea the problem is, new architecture and almost every expo sdk release for the last 5 versions had pretty big improvements for builds, performance, etc... So it's very hard to compare this with Expo in 2027 I'd say.

@OspreyDawn 3 weeks ago

One aspect missed from this discussion is consistency.

Agents are only as good as their context and React is full of many jank ways of accomplishing functionality as a result of being a jack of all trades.

More strongly typed languages like Swift and Rust limit the potential deviations an agent will go down (ie hallucinate) to accomplish a goal vs React.

The added benefit is being lower level and having more control over what you want to do. You still have to know how to write good strongly typed code however.

Speaking from experience, my code generated in Swift is always more consistent than when I used React.

@dakunskye 3 weeks ago

2.5 seconds to startup screen is acceptable? I made a 3d godot game that takes that long on the FIRST run. That's building the cache of shaders on compatibility mode and launching.

Why is this 2d ui application taking as long?

@namannema3349 3 weeks ago

i would appreciate react naitve more if the build time for android decreases it is too much compared to flutter / native

@mycloudvip 2 weeks ago

Hey Beto, long time no see! You broke many hearts with your departure from Expo. What are you focusing on these days! Wishing you the best! Love your content!

@sandaaaaaaaals 3 weeks ago

What browser are you currently using?

@jbmystic999 3 weeks ago (edited)

People is trusting too much on vibe coding, but I wonder... what about the automated tests, don't you need to understand your own code to write it on your own? Other things is that React Native, thanks to Expo, allows people like me, who can't buy a MacOS, to develop for iOS using a hybrid architecture and cloud services, like EAS Build & Submit. Other advantage of using a hybrid architecture is the OTA updates, allowing you to update the system without waiting for a new store submit evalutation.

@netssrmrz 3 weeks ago

Whilst many insist AI will make react the defacto framework I argue the reverse. That, in the long run, AIs will no longer need ANY framework.

@MohdSuhail-c9e 2 weeks ago (edited)

I feel like it's their fault. We can't really judge react native without looking at their actual implementation, and since this is before the new architecture, there's no point in comparing them.