A quick walkthrough of the pros and cos of Swift vs ReactNative vs RubyMotion for developing new mobile applications.

1. Mobile Architectures

2. State of the World
• Objective-C - Around since the beginning
• Swift - Apple’s official replacement for Objective-C
• React Native - Facebook’s port of React to native device development
• RubyMotion - Commercial project that compiles Ruby to Objective-C

3. Objective-C
• Official Apple solution
• What our current app is written in
• Constitutes the majority of apps currently written in the store
• Steep learning curve

4. Swift
• Official Apple solution
• Objective-C’s successor
• Much easier to work with, faster
• Large (unofficial) repository of components (Cocoapods)
• Choice of iOS specialists the world over

5. React Native
• Facebook’s latest project
• Web views as performant as native components (with native bindings)
• Very young (v 0.12 at time of writing)
• Write once, deploy everywhere

6. RubyMotion
• Write in Ruby, compile to Objective-C
• Less popular than the official solutions, but with an active community
• Supports InterfaceBuilder via gem
• Can also leverage Cocoapods
• Cross-platform, but only at the model layer
• Commercial software ($199/person/year)