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React Native VS Marko

Compare React Native VS Marko and see what are their differences

React Native logo React Native

A framework for building native apps with React

Marko logo Marko

An isomorphic UI framework similar to Vue
  • React Native Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-16
  • Marko Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

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  • Potential for outdated documentation
    As React Native evolves quickly, some documentation or tutorials might become outdated, leading to confusion and extra effort to find up-to-date information.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.

Marko features and specs

  • Performance
    Marko is designed for high performance with its features such as streaming, asynchronous rendering, and intelligent compilation. It allows for fast server-side rendering, helping deliver content to users quickly.
  • Component Architecture
    Marko offers a component-based architecture which is beneficial for breaking down large applications into smaller, manageable pieces, promoting reusability and easier maintenance.
  • Isomorphic Rendering
    Marko supports isomorphic or universal rendering, enabling the same templates to be rendered both on the server and client side, reducing code duplication and improving rendering speed.
  • Ease of Use
    Marko provides a straightforward syntax and features like taglibs which simplify creating reusable components, making it easier for developers to build complex applications.
  • Vibrant Ecosystem
    As a part of the eBay ecosystem, Marko has robust community and tooling support, ensuring developers have access to resources and extensions to enhance development.

Possible disadvantages of Marko

  • Smaller Community
    Compared to frameworks like React or Angular, Marko has a smaller community, which might result in fewer third-party components and resources available.
  • Limited Learning Resources
    Due to its smaller adoption, there are comparatively fewer tutorials, courses, and documentation available for learners to quickly get up to speed with Marko.
  • Less Corporate Adoption
    Marko is mainly used within the eBay ecosystem, leading to less adoption in businesses compared to more widely recognized frameworks, which could impact its longevity or updates.
  • Opinionated Structure
    Marko's opinionated structure could be restrictive for developers who are used to more flexible frameworks, potentially increasing the learning curve.

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.

React Native videos

React Native in 2019 & Beyond

More videos:

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

Marko videos

OVERSTORY by Richard Powell // Marko Book Club Review Earth Day 2020

More videos:

  • Review - EXIT WEST by MOHSIN HAMID // Marko Book Club Review #5

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to React Native and Marko)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
88 88%
12% 12
JavaScript Framework
91 91%
9% 9
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

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...

Marko Reviews

We have no reviews of Marko yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, React Native should be more popular than Marko. It has been mentiond 243 times since March 2021. 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.

React Native mentions (243)

  • Yoga: A Simple Guide to Layout in React Native
    When you build layouts in React Native, you write styles that look a lot like CSS: flexDirection, alignItems, justifyContent, and so on. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • I Built The Same App 3 Ways: No-Code, React Native, And Angular + .NET On Azure - Hereโ€™s What Nobody Tells You
    React Native hit the best balance for speed and product quality. Its official docs still position it around building native apps with React, and the project continues shipping frequent releases and improvements to the New Architecture. (React Native). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • AI-Native Mobile Device Automation: Give Your AI Agent Eyes and Hands on Real Phones
    For apps with custom-rendered UIs โ€” React Native, Flutter, games โ€” where the accessibility tree is sparse, MobAI offers an OCR fallback that returns recognized text with tap coordinates. The agent always has something to work with. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • First Time Using GitHub CoPilot to Create a ReactNative LoginPage app. What Could Go Wrong?
    Before I started anything, the first thing I had to do was set up my environment on my MacBook, according to the directions on the ReactNative.dev site. ReactNative allows one project to create both iOS and Android mobile applications, but since I didnโ€™t want to bite off more than I could chew, I would focus on developing an app for the iPhone 16 Pro:. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Top 10 Frameworks for Hybrid Mobile Apps in 2026
    React Native is a widely used framework for hybrid mobile app development, supported by Meta. It enables developers to build cross-platform applications using JavaScript and React while delivering a near-native experience. Instead of relying on WebViews, React Native renders actual native UI components, resulting in better performance and smoother interactions. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
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Marko mentions (32)

  • auto-animate now speaks marko
    If you haven't met Marko: it's an HTML-based language for building reactive UIs, born at eBay (it powers eBay.com) and now under the OpenJS Foundation. Nearly any valid HTML is valid Marko; you add reactivity with tags instead of a component API:. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • JavaScript Awesome Package
    Marko.js - Bringing back progressive HTML rendering to the masses. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Mako: An fast, production-grade web bundler based on Rust by Ant Group
    Damn for a moment I thought this was about Marko (the frontend framework by Ebay). https://markojs.com/ They've been teasing v6 for years now. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • The Best UI Libraries for Cross-Platform Apps with Tauri
    SolidJS and Tauri form another potent combination for creating performant, lightweight, and secure experiences. SolidJS is a reactive UI library that is similar to Svelte in the way it compiles away reactivity and updates the DOM directly, but it also incorporates a fine-grained reactivity system reminiscent of libraries like Marko, Knockout, and MobX. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • The Qase for Qwik: Love At First TTI
    Marko is a huge leap in the right direction. It has streaming, partial hydration, a compiler that optimizes your output, and a small runtime. Iโ€™ve also heard through the grapevine that Marko V6 also adds resumability to the framework as well. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing React Native and Marko, you can also consider the following products

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

Svelte - Cybernetically enhanced web apps

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

Preact.js - Preact is a fast 3kB alternative to React with the same modern API. Components & Virtual DOM.

Composer - Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.

Inferno - An extremely fast React-like javascript library for building modern user interfaces.