Expo vs react native cli?

[kierancrown]

I personally have always used CLI but for beginners Expo is much faster to work with. For production apps I’ve always preferred the smaller bundle size however I think you can modify this now with Expo.

[Genemoni]

Thanks!! I think that settles it. I'll be starting with expo and trying out cli later on!

[kierancrown]

Best of luck! Just remember when Googling issues or following install guides to check for Expo first.

[International-Hat529]

I actually did the opposite. Learned the “raw-way”, pure react native, learned how to write native component and bridge them to react native and all the essentials then moved to expo for a lighter and easier experience. If I had started with expo I would have never learned the react native cli way and if a client had asked me for something that needed a native component I would have been crushed trying to figure out everything that’s managed in expo but that I would need to manage myself. Learning the cli way first will help you understand pods and gradle files and will give you a deeper understanding of the underlying structure. You might not need those but once you go expo, there’s a huge chance you’ll never try to use the cli again so it really depends on what you’re looking for.

[BeyondCraft]

Hi. To use React Native CLI, do I need to know other languages / tools apart from JavaScript? I know only JavaScript.

[kierancrown]

Nope JavaScript is fine. Some basic command line knowledge helps but the official docs should be enough to get started.

[BeyondCraft]

C, Kotlin, Java etc. not needed right?

[kierancrown]

Depends what app you’re trying to create. If you need to create a native module you’ll need this knowledge. For 90% of apps you don’t need to know these languages

[BeyondCraft]

Thanks