Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GPU.JS VS React Native

Compare GPU.JS VS React Native and see what are their differences

GPU.JS logo GPU.JS

Single-file JavaScript library for GPU acceleration

React Native logo React Native

A framework for building native apps with React
  • GPU.JS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-20
  • React Native Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-16

GPU.JS features and specs

  • Performance Boost
    GPU.JS leverages the power of the GPU to perform computations, potentially offering significant performance improvements over CPU-based computations, especially for parallelizable tasks.
  • JavaScript Integration
    GPU.JS is built for JavaScript environments, allowing easy integration into existing JavaScript projects without the need for external languages or complex setups.
  • Ease of Use
    The library provides a high-level API that abstracts much of the complexity associated with writing GPU code, making it more accessible to developers who might not be familiar with GPU programming.
  • Cross-Platform
    GPU.JS runs in the browser and on Node.js, allowing developers to write platform-independent code that can execute on both client and server environments.
  • Real-Time Processing
    By utilizing GPU acceleration, GPU.JS can handle real-time data processing tasks efficiently, which is beneficial for applications such as simulations, data visualizations, and animations.

Possible disadvantages of GPU.JS

  • Compatibility Limitations
    Not all machines or environments have accessible or functional GPU capabilities, which can limit the potential execution environment for applications built with GPU.JS.
  • Learning Curve
    Although GPU.JS simplifies GPU programming, developers still need to understand parallel processing concepts to fully leverage its capabilities, which might be challenging for those unfamiliar with such paradigms.
  • Debugging Challenges
    Debugging GPU code can be more complex than CPU debugging, and errors may be more difficult to trace and resolve due to the abstraction layer and parallel nature of execution.
  • Overhead
    For smaller tasks, the overhead of transferring data between the CPU and GPU might outweigh the performance benefits, making it inefficient for certain applications.
  • Limited API
    While GPU.JS provides a good high-level API, it might not expose all the lower-level functionalities and optimizations available in more mature GPU computing frameworks.

React Native features and specs

  • Cross-platform development
    React Native allows developers to write code once and use it to build applications for both iOS and Android platforms, significantly reducing development time and effort.
  • Performance
    React Native uses native components under the hood, providing better performance compared to hybrid technologies like Cordova or Ionic.
  • Community support
    React Native has a large and active community, which means plenty of libraries, tools, and support are available to help developers solve problems and add features.
  • Hot reloading
    React Native supports hot reloading, enabling developers to see the results of the latest change instantly without losing the application's state.
  • Reusable components
    Developers can use React Native's component-based architecture to create reusable UI components, making code more modular and easier to maintain.
  • Strong backing
    Backed by Facebook, React Native benefits from continuous development, regular updates, and a high level of reliability and stability.

Possible disadvantages of React Native

  • Complexity for advanced features
    Implementing complex features and achieving deep integrations with native APIs may require more effort and a good understanding of native programming.
  • Performance limitations
    While React Native performs well for most use cases, it may still fall short in performance-intensive applications compared to fully native solutions.
  • Limited third-party libraries
    Some third-party libraries might not be available for React Native, or they may lack features compared to their native counterparts.
  • Platform-specific code
    Despite being cross-platform, certain features might still require platform-specific code, increasing the complexity when developing for both iOS and Android.
  • Potential for outdated documentation
    As React Native evolves quickly, some documentation or tutorials might become outdated, leading to confusion and extra effort to find up-to-date information.
  • Size of the application
    React Native applications tend to have larger file sizes compared to their native counterparts due to the inclusion of the JavaScript runtime and other dependencies.

Analysis of React Native

Overall verdict

  • React Native is generally a good choice for mobile app development, especially if you're looking for a cross-platform solution. Its ease of use, combined with the ability to leverage a single codebase for both iOS and Android, makes it a popular option among developers.

Why this product is good

  • React Native is considered good because it allows developers to build mobile applications using JavaScript and React, enabling code reuse between Android and iOS platforms. This can speed up development time and reduce costs. It also has a vibrant community and a strong ecosystem with numerous libraries and tools, making it easier to implement complex functionalities. Additionally, React Native provides a native-like performance for most use cases, which enhances the user experience.

Recommended for

  • Startups and small businesses looking to develop mobile apps quickly and cost-effectively.
  • Developers with a background in JavaScript and React who want to expand into mobile app development.
  • Projects that require rapid prototyping and iterative development.
  • Applications that need to maintain a shared codebase between web and mobile platforms.

GPU.JS videos

GPU.js - GPGPU in your browser

React Native videos

React Native in 2019 & Beyond

More videos:

  • Review - What Is React Native?
  • Review - Why React Native is garbage.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GPU.JS and React Native)
Javascript UI Libraries
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
JS Library
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Framework
3 3%
97% 97

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GPU.JS and React Native

GPU.JS Reviews

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React Native Reviews

Explore 9 Top Eclipse Alternatives for 2024
Pioneered by Meta Platforms, Inc., React Native is a remarkable JavaScript framework that merges native app development with JavaScript libraries, offering a dependable solution for creating exemplary native apps for Android, iOS, and other platforms.
Source: aircada.com
Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
Introduced in 2015 by Facebook, React Native is an open-source framework based on JavaScript. Being a developer-friendly framework, itโ€™s a mobile-first platform that is capable of rendering mobile apps for multiple platforms, including iOS and Android.
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
React Native is an open-source UI framework for writing native Android and iOS apps using JavaScript and React. React Native does deliver excellent prototyping capabilities, however. The React framework lends itself nicely to creating basic proofs of concept and experimenting with different interaction models and UI designs with little overhead. Features like Fast Refresh...
THE BEST 34 APP DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE IN 2022 LIST
Create native apps for Android and iOS using React. React Native combines the best parts of native development with React, a best-in-class JavaScript library for building user interfaces. You can use React Native in your existing Android and iOS projects or you can create a whole new app from scratch. Written in JavaScriptโ€”rendered with native code. React primitives render...
Top 10 Visual Studio Alternatives
React native is famous for enabling the users to develop the core native applications and offers the best quality. It does not compromise on providing the best customer services and support. The react-native components surround the codes that already exist and then interact with the native APIs. That, in turn, allows the developers to learn the development process and makes...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, React Native seems to be a lot more popular than GPU.JS. While we know about 236 links to React Native, we've tracked only 11 mentions of GPU.JS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GPU.JS mentions (11)

  • Running GPT-2 in WebGL: Rediscovering the Lost Art of GPU Shader Programming
    Imho there are js libraries which goes through the traditional rendering based shader path to emulate general purpose computations on the GPU, gpu.js for example https://gpu.rocks/#/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Chrome Ships WebGPU
    How will this compare to Gpu.js? https://gpu.rocks/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 26: Zhuangzi (Open Source Ancient Warfare RTS)
    Https://gpu.rocks/#/ Sorry, this is barely gameplay related, just interested if that could be kept synced. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Show HN: GPU-accelerated โ€œlava lampโ€ based on universal function approximator
    You can refresh the page to get a different random generator function. This code uses the great gpu.js library (https://gpu.rocks) to speed things up. The basic idea is to generate colors for each pixel at each given time step by running a randomly-generated function. The function is influenced by the concept of neural nets as universal function approximators. Basically, it takes the pixel x/y coordinates and some... - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • Use your BฬถRฬถAฬถIฬถNฬถ GPU
    Website nowadays have high end graphics and requires a lot of processing power so it might be a good IDEA to utilize the power of GPU. It might sound complicated but its really simple actually. Because there are many library out there to help you out. For example GPU.js. It also switch backs to regular mode if the user device don't have a GPU so no worries there. So get started now by reading the DOCS. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
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React Native mentions (236)

  • React Native New Architecture: What You Need to Know in 2025
    React Nativeโ€™s 2025 architecture introduces Fabric, TurboModules, and JSI for faster performance and smoother development. By removing the legacy bridge, it enables quicker rendering and efficient native integration. Developers benefit from improved tools, crash handling, and native module access. This upgrade makes React Native a robust, future-ready choice for mobile app development. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • React Native vs Flutter in 2025: Which Is Better for Startups?
    Introduction In 2025, startups face a critical decision when choosing their mobile development framework. The React Native vs Flutter debate continues to dominate discussions among entrepreneurs and developers alike. Both frameworks offer compelling advantages for cross-platform development, but which one truly serves startups better in today's competitive landscape? - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Cross-Platform Development: Flutter vs. React Native โ€“ Which is the Right Choice for Your Project?
    Cross-platform development means writing code once and running it on multiple platforms like iOS and Android. This reduces time, cost, and effort compared to developing separate apps for each platform. Developers use frameworks to simplify this process, and two of the most popular are Flutter and React Native. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How I Created and Deployed An iPhone (and Android) App Without A Mac, And So Can You Too
    This course was great for me because one, it was made within the last year (at the time I took the course anyway). It seemed anything older than this had out-of-date information (using an older version of React Native) and it would throw me off when I encountered something that wasn't done using the more recent versions of React Native/Expo. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Apprendre Flutter
    React Native: Assez faile ร  prendre en main si on maitrise React. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GPU.JS and React Native, you can also consider the following products

Angular.io - Angular is a JavaScript web framework for creating single-page web applications. The code is free to use and available as open source. It is further maintained and heavily used by Google and by lots of other developers around the world.

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

WebMonkeys - JavaScript library for massively parallel GPU programming

OpenSSL - OpenSSL is a free and open source software cryptography library that implements both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are primarily used to provide secure communications between web browsers and โ€ฆ

gpgpu.js - JavaScript library to use the GPU in the browser through WebGL

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.