The core principle of React Native is its ability to leverage a single JavaScript codebase for both iOS and Android applications. While some platform-specific adjustments might be necessary, the majority of your UI components, business logic, and navigation can be shared. This drastically reduces development time and effort compared to building two separate native applications.

React Native's development experience is significantly enhanced by its hot reloading and live reloading capabilities. Hot Reloading injects new code into the running application without restarting it, preserving the application's state. Live Reloading restarts the app when file changes are detected. These features dramatically reduce the time spent waiting for builds, allowing for rapid prototyping and iteration.

Unlike hybrid frameworks that rely on webviews, React Native utilizes a JavaScript bridge to communicate with native platform APIs and render native UI components. This means your app's interface elements are actual native widgets, providing a smooth, responsive user experience that matches the performance of apps built with Swift/Objective-C for iOS or Java/Kotlin for Android.

React Native benefits from the massive JavaScript and React ecosystem. This translates to a wealth of third-party libraries, pre-built components, extensive documentation, and a highly active community on platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Discord. This vibrant community ensures that you can find solutions to problems, discover new tools, and stay updated with the latest best practices.

By sharing a single codebase, businesses can significantly reduce development costs. Fewer developers are needed, and the time to market is shortened. Furthermore, maintenance is streamlined, as updates and bug fixes can often be applied to the shared codebase, impacting both platforms simultaneously.