The first technical decision on a new app is usually the biggest: one codebase for iOS and Android with React Native and Expo, or a native app written in Swift. We have shipped both.
- PL Showet is an iOS and Android app built with Expo and React Native, backed by Supabase.
- Redmen Family is a native iOS app in Swift, backed by Firebase.
Both are fan apps with memberships, podcasts and matchday features (we compared them in Building a membership app for a fan community). So the difference is not what the apps do. It is how they are built.
What Expo gives you
Expo is a framework and toolchain on top of React Native. You write the app once in TypeScript and ship it to iOS and Android.
- One codebase for both stores, so features land on both platforms together.
- Web skills carry over. A team that builds in React and TypeScript can work across the app, the admin dashboard and the backend.
- Over-the-air updates for JavaScript changes, so small fixes reach users without a full store release.
- A large library of ready-made modules for audio, video, notifications and payments.
What native Swift gives you
Swift is Apple's own language, and a Swift app uses Apple's frameworks directly.
- Access to new iOS features and APIs as soon as Apple ships them.
- The platform's own look, feel and accessibility behaviour by default.
- No cross-platform layer between your code and the system, which matters for heavy graphics, background work or deep hardware use.
- One platform to design and test for, if your audience is mostly on iPhone.
The questions we ask
- Do you need Android at launch? If yes, Expo usually wins on cost and speed, because you build once.
- Is there a web app or dashboard too? Sharing TypeScript between the app and the web is a real saving. PL Showet's team dashboard is built in Next.js alongside the Expo app.
- Does the app depend on a specific Apple feature? Widgets, deep HealthKit use or the newest system APIs point towards Swift.
- Who maintains it after launch? Pick the stack your team, or your next hire, can work in.
What stays the same either way
Some decisions do not depend on the stack at all. Both apps sell memberships through in-app purchases with RevenueCat. Both use a hosted backend, Supabase for PL Showet and Firebase for Redmen Family, so there is no server to run. And both depend on the same thing: a reason for users to open them every week.
Not sure which fits your app?
We build in both. See our mobile app development service, or tell us about your app and we will tell you which route we would take and why.