Best Databases to Use for React Native Mobile App Development

As a business organization, if you wish to expand your realm, you have to build top-notch cross platform applications. Cross platform apps are cost-effective and also have very little development cycle time.

In the tech realm, React Native is considered to be the best framework for cross-platform app development. Be it Android/iOS, demand for React Native is increasing as many organizations are trusting the working of this ecosystem. But companies across the globe find it tough to choose react native databases as it has a plethora of options available.

Due to the increase in adoption of the React Native framework, the developers too are under pressure to deliver the best. Therefore, choosing the right database for react native becomes even more important.

Here, we will unearth all the possible options and help you choose the best database. We duly understand that many modern-day organizations are relying on this framework to ship high performing native apps. Therefore, we have curated a list of hand-picked mobile app databases for react native.

Here we go!

Criteria to choose the right database for react native

The selection of the right database for react native depends mainly on the complexity of data. Because if the database is inefficient to understand data complexity, it won’t be handy in the cross-platform application development process.

In addition to data complexity, database maintenance policy and memory management capacity are vital in zeroing the best mobile database. If we dig deep, we find other important criteria like code line numbers and conflict handling policies. Moreover, the developers have the luxury to go for the server-side database or the local database as well.

Top databases for react native mobile app development

Before choosing the react native database, companies should know the features they want to include in the app. Because the high number of features in the app adds to more data conflict. Therefore, the performance of the database here becomes much more important.

Here are some of the top databases for react native mobile application development.

Realm for handling more amount of data

If you are looking for an engine which can handle more complex data, Realm databases can be for perfect fit. The USP of this database is that it has been created from scratch. Because of this, it allows the developers to develop mobile applications with offline capabilities. Moreover, apart from the mobile applications, it becomes a good fit to support tablets and wearables as well.

This react native database is famous for maintaining high-levels of security as it uses different encryption methods for separate platforms. Moreover, with Realm databases, the developers can easily open & edit local and synced systems. In addition, it allows them to administrate Realm object server instances. The developers find it very easy to perform other important tasks like viewing logs, browsing data, etc. through the Realm database.

Advantages of Realm Database

Below are some of the top benefits of the Realm Database

• This database is much easier to use and makes your cross-platform mobile application highly scalable
• With the redux offline feature, the developers can easily create an offline-first architecture with Realm database for react native
• Its synchronization services run in the background with an aim to view and record service requests and user interactions locally.
• Renders high-levels of user experience

Price

Realm database for react native is entirely open-source and free. Despite the fact that the pro version of Realm will cost you $1750, it has a commercially free version available as well.

Firebase for better data synchronization

Firebase to its core is nothing but a Backend as a Service (BaaS) used to write neatly-curated APIs. Moreover, the technology stack in React Native database Firebase is very minimal. If you are looking for better data synchronization and offline data change, Firebase can be your go-to database. Moreover, React Native database Firebase is pretty handy in fulfilling MVC requirements for the mobile applications as well.

The developers do not have to invest much time in setting up a customized server for secured communication using Firebase. In addition, it also renders something known as NoSQL database which is known as Firestore.

Firebase can be a boon for the financial and banking organizations as it is highly compatible with the SOX regulations

Advantages of React Native database Firebase

Some of the high-flying advantages of this React Native database are

• With Firebase, the data remains in sync with the overall clients, that too in real time. It is possible as Firebase provides methods to implement the real-time subscriptions
• When you use Firebase and Firestore at the backend, scaling databases become a ‘child’s play’
• React Native database Firebase has a free SSL and CDN layer. Therefore, hosting with cloud storage becomes very easy with Firebase
• Data transfer becomes seamless with Firebase. Because the users do not have to worry about the breakage of data at any stage

Price

Firebase is absolutely free if you wish to have storage capacity upto 1GB. Moreover, you just have to pay $25 for a 2.5GB storage. It also has a pay-as-you package as well.

SQLite for local storage

Are looking for a well-designed database for react native that provides local storage to mobile apps? If your answer is in affirmative, SQLite is the one for you. Since its inception in 2000, SQlite is a widely used SQL database engine.

It’s main function is to store all data on devices which lets the developers to move away from the client-server architecture. Because SQLite follows all the SQL-based standards, it is Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability (ACID) complaint. The database has a plugin named react-native-sqlite-storage that acts as a native plugin for both iOS and Android platforms.

SQLite has an extension named SQLite Encryption Extension (SEE) which allows it to write and read data in encrypted format.Beside, SEE, the react native database has other extensions such as SQLiteCrypt, SQLCipher, etc. which are used to encrypt the data in a hassle-free manner.

Advantages of React Native Database SQLite

Some of the leading advantages of React Native Database SQLite are:

• It is a very lightweight database. Besides React Native mobile app development, this DB can be used for embedded softwares as well
• It does not have a steep learning curve and the developers do not need to install and configure it.
• React Native Database SQLite is very cost effective as it can be updated by using the concise SQL queries
• The data in SQLite database lives longer than the code. Thus, it becomes very easy for the developers to recover the data if it has been lost
• It is highly reliable and can be used with all the leading programming languages without any compatibility issue

Pricing

React Native Database SQLite is an open-source platform and it is free to use. But in case you want to have a licensed version, you have to pay a one time fee of $6000.

WatermelonDB for high-performance

Like the SQLite Database, WatermelonDB is an open-source database for react native. The database is potentially capable of scaling millions of records in an accurate manner, without losing its speed. It is primarily designed for React Native as it can easily handle the data persistence on low-end devices.

Another USP of WatermelonDB that is vital in increasing the performance is that all queries here can be resolved easily. As nothing gets loaded on react native database until a request is made, all queries are performed directly on the database.

This react native database is fully resolvable. It means that whenever there is a change in any records, all the concerned user interfaces will re-render themselves. Because it greatly supports static typing, the developers who use Flow or TypeScript will not have any issue.

Advantages of Watermelon DB

Apart from increasing the performance, Watermelon DB has many other advantages as stated below

• The react native database is fast, highly cached and asynchronous
• It is multi-threaded thus has a capacity to scale 1000-10000 records easily
• It implements the offline-first approach. Thus, synchronization of Watermelon database for reactive native with its own backend is very easy
• The developers can work easily on either Android, iOS or Web as WatermelonDB is multi-platform
• The main reason behind the high-performance of WatermelonDB is that it is built on top of SQLite

Pricing

Watermelon DFB is an open-source and free to use database for react native.

PouchDB for strong mechanism

PouchDB stores important data in the JSON format. Because of this, the developers can easily create, update, delete, read all objects with JavaScript API. Moreover, the developers can access this API with a single call on React Native platform.

The USP of PouchDB is that it is built using CouchDB protocols. Apart from having strong mechanisms, it is a very reliable server-side database for React Native. PouchDB is highly compatible with server-side databases like MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL and many more.

PouchDB has a well-refined replication feature. Because of this feature, local storage can be disconnected from the server-side. This is done while the copies are being updated concurrently. It is the reason why data gets synced to multiple clients without getting leaked.

In addition, PouchDB implements some of the best practices when it comes to security. The database for React Native does not store any passwords and encrypts all the communications using SSL.As every possible loophole in the security is covered, the application will be safe.

Advantages of PouchDB

We have stated some of the best advantages of PouchDB. They are:

• PouchDB is very light-weight, just 46KB in size when gzipped.
• The database has an in-built authentication for React Native. Moreover, for security purposes the password is stored in hash form using a standard key deviation function algorithm.
• As it uses SSL, the encryption of the data is possible using AE256

Pricing

All the updates and development related to PouchDB are available on GitHub and they are absolutely free to use.

MySQL for fast and reliable operations

It is nothing but a relational database which is primarily based on SQL. MySQL uses thread-based memory allocation which makes it faster and best suited for React Native platforms. Moreover, the database for React Native does not perform any kind of memory allocation after every query. It plays a major role in enhancing its speed and performance.

MySQL is highly compatible with the React Native local database. Moreover, you can use AsyncStorage for storing data locally on the mobile device. MySQL also has some libraries that will help you to use SQLite with React Native. Above all, Realm does exceptional work with MySQL when you are working on the Android platform.

Advantages of MySQL

MySQL is highly preferred to store larger data. Along with this, we have listed other advantages as well

• Statically, MySQL can store about 50 million records and the capability to support 64 indexes. Each of the 64 indexes can have 1 to 16 columns
• It has a host-based verification which make the database for react native very flexible
• It implements several data layers of security and has a password-based encryption system
• The encryption in the database makes it more secured from the server-side vulnerabilities
• It is highly preferred in the finance and the banking sector

Pricing

MySQL is distributed and supported by Oracle distributions and is an open-source platform..

Conclusion

When you are using React Native databases, there are a plethora of backend-tools that a developer must be aware of. However, the React Native backend database should be chosen on the basis of your project type and other requirements.

Therefore, it becomes very important to make a list of things before choosing the database for react native. The companies must be aware of the things they want in order to leverage the goodness of react native databases.