React Native vs. Kotlin Multiplatform in 2025: Who’s Winning the Cross-Platform Crown?

Introduction

As the demand for seamless, high-performance apps continues to rise, businesses are turning to cross-platform development to reach both Android and iOS users with a single codebase. Two frameworks are leading this space in 2025: React Native and Kotlin Multiplatform. Both have evolved significantly, but they take very different approaches to solving the same problem — building efficient, scalable, and native-feeling apps.

So, which one deserves the cross-platform crown in 2025? Let’s break it down.

A Quick Overview of Both

React Native

Backed by Meta (formerly Facebook), React Native is a JavaScript-based framework that lets developers write UI code once and run it on both Android and iOS. With tools like Expo, React Navigation, and TypeScript, React Native has matured into a reliable platform for mobile app development.

Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP)

Developed by JetBrains (creators of Kotlin), Kotlin Multiplatform takes a different route: it allows you to share business logic (not UI code) across platforms while writing native UI code per platform. KMP is gaining popularity, especially among teams that want full control over native UI/UX design.

Performance: Who’s Faster?

React Native uses a JavaScript bridge to communicate with native modules, which can sometimes lead to performance bottlenecks — especially in complex animations or large-scale apps. However, recent updates like Fabric and TurboModules have significantly improved performance.

Kotlin Multiplatform shines here. Since the UI is fully native and only the shared logic is reused, you get true native performance out of the box. For apps where responsiveness is key (e.g., fintech, gaming, or productivity tools), KMP is gaining traction fast.

Winner: Kotlin Multiplatform (especially for performance-critical apps)

Developer Experience & Productivity

React Native has a massive community, rich plugin ecosystem, and thousands of open-source packages. With support for live/hot reloading, rapid prototyping is easy. Web developers familiar with React will find it a breeze to learn.

Kotlin Multiplatform, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve if you're coming from a JavaScript background. But for Kotlin/Android developers, the transition is smooth. JetBrains’ tooling with IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio is robust and productivity-focused.

Winner: React Native (especially for frontend-focused teams and startups)

UI/UX Flexibility

React Native offers a unified way to build UIs across platforms, but sometimes sacrifices a truly native feel unless you customize platform-specific code.

KMP gives you 100% native UI control, which means no compromises on Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines or Android’s Material You design language. If you care about pixel-perfect design and smooth animations, KMP gives you the edge.

Winner: Kotlin Multiplatform

Community & Ecosystem in 2025

React Native has a larger and more mature ecosystem, with widespread adoption by companies like Instagram, Discord, Shopify, and Tesla. There are plenty of job opportunities, tutorials, and pre-built components.

Kotlin Multiplatform is newer but growing fast. It’s being adopted by big players like Netflix, Philips, and VMware for its strong integration with existing native codebases and server-side logic.

Winner: React Native (for now, but KMP is catching up)

Testing & Maintainability

React Native’s JavaScript ecosystem allows for robust testing frameworks (Jest, Detox), but debugging across the bridge can sometimes be tricky.

Kotlin Multiplatform lets you test shared business logic in one place using Kotlin’s mature testing libraries. Since platform-specific UI is written separately, modular architecture makes apps easier to maintain long-term.

Winner: Kotlin Multiplatform (especially for enterprise-scale apps)

Use Case Comparison

Final Verdict: Who’s Winning in 2025?

In 2025, React Native still holds the crown for startups, frontend-focused teams, and projects where rapid development and cross-platform parity are priorities.

However, Kotlin Multiplatform is emerging as a serious challenger, especially in enterprise settings where native performance, long-term maintainability, and platform-specific UI are critical.

The real winner? It depends on your team, goals, and app complexity.

Conclusion

Whether you choose React Native or Kotlin Multiplatform, both are powerful tools for modern mobile app development. The future is no longer about choosing one framework for all needs — it's about aligning the tool with your project’s unique requirements.

So, pick wisely — and build apps that don’t just work everywhere, but feel right everywhere.