Expo — building, updating & shipping React Native apps

Why I use it

Expo's real value is that it removes the two worst days of any React Native project: the first one, spent on Xcode and Gradle config, and the one much later when a signing certificate expires at the wrong moment. The old objection — that you'd hit a ceiling the moment you needed a native module — stopped applying once development builds and config plugins landed. You get the managed workflow's ergonomics without giving up the native layer.

What I've built with it

• EAS Build and Submit for iOS and Android releases, so a build doesn't depend on one particular laptop being set up correctly
• Over-the-air updates to push JS-only fixes straight to users, skipping the store review cycle
• Config plugins to inject native changes at prebuild time, keeping ios/ and android/ out of version control
• Root Native UI is built to run on both Expo and bare React Native — the library has to work either way

Alongside

Rest of the stack

• React NativeOne codebase, iOS + Android
• React.jsComponent-driven web UIs
• Node.jsAPIs, services & tooling
• TypeScriptStrict types across every layer
• Next.jsApp Router, SSR & static rendering
• GraphQLTyped APIs, one query per screen
• FirebaseAuth, Firestore & push
• SupabasePostgres, auth & storage
• ElectronDesktop for macOS, Windows & Linux
• DockerReproducible builds & environments