You probably know that React is an open-source JavaScript library that helps to build user interfaces for both web-based and mobile apps. It includes a number of components that you can use readily for your apps. But, there are some component libraries and UI toolkits that help you save time and build your applications faster, using a pre-made set of components. Let’s discover the top 8 React Native components libraries help you to accelerate your development process!
1. NativeBase
At 14.2k stars and over 1.7k forks, NativeBase is a fully open-source which is a widely popular UI component library providing dozens of cross-platform components for React Native. The components are built with React Native combined with some JavaScript functionality with customizable properties. When using NativeBase, you can use any native third-party libraries out of the box. This is a nice starter kit: the template acts as a wrapper on most of the native React components (such as buttons, text fields, views, keyboard views, list views,…), and enriches them by adding extra functionality.
2. React Native Elements
At over 19.2k stars React Native Elements is a highly customizable cross-platform UI toolkit built entirely in Javascript. The package includes a whole basket of components such as pricing, badge, overlay, divider, and platform-specific search bars. They are easy to use and quite customizable. The props for all the components are defined in one central location, which makes it possible to easily update or modify components. Additionally, it can serve as a platform connecting small teams developing commercial React Native apps with open-source contribution.
The library’s authors state that “The idea with React Native Elements is more about component structure than actual design, meaning less boilerplate in setting up certain elements but full control over their design”, which should make it appealing for both new developers and seasoned veterans.
3. Shoutem
Shoutem is an app-building platform that works by using extensions or modular building blocks, somewhat like building a website with plugins on WordPress. It consists of 3 parts: UI components, Themes and component Animation. The library provides a set of cross-platform components for iOS and Android, and all components are built to be both composable and customizable. Along with components, it comes with basic Animation that is suitable for using its own UI toolkit and themes to build amazing React Native applications.
Shoutem offers many mobile back-end services such as analytics, user authentication, layouts, push notifications, and more. Extensions include galleries for photos and videos, products, events, restaurant menus, and more.
4. UI Kitten
At 7.1k stars, React Native UI Kitten provides a set of cross-platform components for iOS and Android. Each component also has a predefined style that is consistent with the rest, which makes it possible to build complex components without manually defining complex styles.
UI Kitten offers a set of about 20 general purpose components styled in the same way to take care of visual appearance. The library is based on Eva Design System, containing a set of general purpose UI components styled in a similar way. And the most awesome thing: the themes can be changed in the runtime, with no need to reload the application.
UI Kitten aims to fill this gap and boost mobile app development so that you can focus more on business and less on view composition.
5. React Native Vector Icons
React Native Vector Icons is one of the best React Native component libraries if what you’re looking for are some icons to use in your apps. At nearly 13.8k stars this library is, well, a set of customizable icons for React Native with support for NavBar/TabBar/ToolbarAndroid, image source, and full styling. Unsurprisingly, it’s extremely useful and used by thousands of applications as well as other UI component libraries with a library of 3,000+ icons that you’re pretty much sure to find something that will fit your needs. What’s more, it’s possible to customize, style, and extend the icons while integrating them into your project.
6. React Native Paper
Another free and open-source library is React Native Paper. At nearly 6.4k stars React Native Paper is a cross-platform UI component library which follows the material design guidelines, with global theming support and an optional babel-plugin to reduce bundle-size. It has all the major components, and these components are designed in keeping with Google’s Material Design standards.
There are components and interactions to suit almost every use-case scenario. Most details, including animations, accessibility, and UI logic are taken care of. You can customize default colors or make your own. Besides, you have full theming support, as well as the option to switch between dark and light modes.
7. React Native Material Kit
Next on our list of React Native component libraries is yet another set of UI components that brings material design to React Native. The React Native Material Kit is a 4.7k-stars library that is still worth a mention with a basic yet useful set of UI components and themes implementing Google’s Material Design. Inside, you’ll find buttons, cards, range sliders, and text fields. You’ll also see spinners and progress bars to display loading, as well as toggles for switches, radio buttons, and checkboxes.
All it takes is a few lines of code to add buttons using predefined builders that adhere to the Material design lite default theme. Using the builder, you can also create customized buttons from scratch. The same is the case for built-in text fields. Not only that, you can customize the styles by changing the global theme. This will affect all checkboxes and radio buttons across the whole app.
8. Lottie wrapper for React Native
With nearly 13.3k stars and 1.4k forks, lottie-react-native enables developers to ship beautiful animations in their apps without the pain of recreating them. Lottie is a library from Airbnb for mobiles to help you add animations to your apps. It works by exporting animation data in JSON format from an After Effects extension, BodyMovin. This extension is bundled with a JS player to render animations on the web. It works with React Native too, and you can access the official docs on Github.
Lottie libraries and plugins are available for free, and you can use the curated collection of animation files to make your apps attractive and interesting. The animation files are small in size and are in vector format. As such, you should not experience any impact on the performance of your app. At the same time, it can spice up your UI and make it more visually appealing.
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*Reference:
- https://blog.bitsrc.io/11-react-native-component-libraries-you-should-know-in-2018-71d2a8e33312
- https://blog.logrocket.com/react-native-component-libraries-in-2020/
- https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/10-awesome-react-native-ui-component-libraries-you-should-know-cd3296d99c0b
- https://flatlogic.com/blog/top-react-native-ui-components-kits/
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