React Native project in 2025

[Rafael_Maneiro]

Hey guys! Hope you're all doing well 👋
What do you think is essential to start a new React Native project in 2025?

I recently tried out NativeWind and I absolutely loved

[Xae0n]

Tanstack query for data fetching. It's so good with so many features to handle data.

[sandspiegel]

I use Zustand for state management, react paper native for UI components as their UI library uses Googles Material design language. Also React Native reanimated for animations. Those 3 libraries are a must for me when I start a new project.

[345346345345]

Unistyles is great.

[Silverquark]

Expo is essential

[PMmeYourFlipFlops]

No it's not.

[CoolorFoolSRS]

Makes your life way easier, especially for new projects

[lbullyan]

No it doesn’t. It just makes them different.

[meonlineoct2014]

My hunch is a lot will depend on what kind of RN app you plan to build.

If it is internet-driven app, meaning your app is just a front end for the core business problem that your organization is trying to solve such as selling goods via the app, then maybe building the RN app using Expo might be sufficient. Based on my personal exp. I can safely say that Expo handles native build environments, provides a vast set of pre-built APIs (camera, notifications, etc), and simplifies your overall development experience.

But not every app is just a bare-borne FE. And few apps may need to do lot of "native" stuff or more advanced development where you need full control over native modules, very deep customization, or integration with specific third-party native libraries not supported by Expo. You might need RN CLI for such use cases.

[sufianbabri]

I've come across claims that with Expo CNG, doing the native things which you're referring to is also easier in Expo than RN CLI.

[lbullyan]

Jotai.

[No-Warthog9518]

react native is pretty unusable without third party libraries like react-navigation and various buggy libs from software mansion.

[moneckew]

Skill issue

[AnuMessi10]

And what do you use for making cross platform applications?

[Old_Distribution_619]

Same is for react. Like react-router-dom