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React Native development

React Native apps for iOS and Android, from one codebase.

We build the app with Expo and the product around it — the API, the dashboard and the infrastructure — as one team.

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In short

  • VMGM Software is a React Native development company in Austin, Texas that builds iOS and Android apps with Expo from one TypeScript codebase.
  • VMGM Software builds the whole product around a React Native app: the API, the database, the web dashboard, AI features and the AWS infrastructure.
  • ClearSite, a React Native app VMGM Software built for Scrap-It, controls an Insta360 camera over Bluetooth and feeds an AI vision pipeline; the whole product took three months.
  • Every VMGM Software project is one fixed quote, free, with working builds every week.
  • The code, the App Store and Google Play listings, and the cloud accounts belong to the client.

What is React Native?

React Native is a framework from Meta for building iOS and Android apps in TypeScript from one codebase. The screens render as native platform components, not a web page inside a wrapper, so the app looks and responds like any other app on the phone. Shopify and Discord both ship their mobile apps on it.

Why we build with Expo

Expo is the framework on top of React Native that we start every app with. The React Native documentation itself recommends starting new apps with a framework such as Expo. It handles the parts that used to take weeks:

  • Builds and store submission run in the cloud, for iOS and Android, from one command.
  • Over-the-air updates send a fix to users without waiting for app store review, for any change that does not touch native code.
  • Native code when you need it. Development builds and config plugins give the app full access to the device. ClearSite, an Expo app we built, controls an Insta360 camera over Bluetooth.

React Native or native Swift and Kotlin?

React Native with ExpoSeparate Swift and Kotlin apps
CodebasesOne, for iOS and AndroidTwo, one per platform
TeamOne teamAn iOS team and an Android team
Shipping a fixOver the air for most changesApp store review for every change
Camera, Bluetooth, locationYes, through native modulesYes
Best fitMost product appsGraphics-heavy games, or apps built around a new platform-only API on its release day

For most products one codebase wins: every feature reaches both platforms at once, and there is one team to pay.

What we build around the app

An app is rarely the whole product. We build the rest of it as the same team:

  • The API, typed end to end with tRPC, so the app and the server cannot disagree about the shape of the data
  • The web dashboard your team works from
  • The database, on Postgres
  • AI features: voice agents, LLM pipelines and computer vision
  • The AWS infrastructure, in your own account

Should I hire a React Native developer or a team?

A React Native developer builds the app. The product also needs an API, a database, a dashboard, infrastructure, and someone to design all of it. We take on the whole product as one team at one fixed price, so you are not hiring and coordinating each of those separately.

React Native apps we have built

A subdivision part-built at sunrise, slabs poured and frames going up, with a pickup carrying a roof-mounted camera driving the street.

Scrap-It · 2026 · 3 months

ClearSite

Lots with no addresses, graded from a drive-past. The plat becomes a map, the map gives every lot coordinates, and a camera on a truck does the rest.

Expo · tRPC · NestJS · LangGraph · Postgres · AWS

Our own · 2025

Kidtime

Keeps track of where children’s time actually goes: activities, schedules and the week as it really ran.

Expo · tRPC · Next.js · Postgres · AWS

Frequently asked questions

Is React Native good enough for production apps?

Yes. Shopify and Discord run their mobile apps on it, and it is what we use for client apps such as ClearSite, which drives a camera over Bluetooth in the field.

Can a React Native app use Bluetooth, the camera and GPS?

Yes. Native modules give a React Native app the same device access as a native one. ClearSite connects to an Insta360 camera over Bluetooth, tracks the vehicle’s location and uploads footage when it has signal.

Does one codebase really cover iOS and Android?

Almost all of it. The screens, the logic and the data layer are shared. A small amount of platform-specific code handles the places where iOS and Android differ, such as permission prompts and store requirements.

Is Expo only for prototypes?

No. Early Expo could not run custom native code, and that is where the reputation comes from. Today it can, and the React Native documentation recommends starting new apps with a framework such as Expo.

Do you publish the app to the App Store and Google Play?

Yes. We handle the builds, the review submissions and the updates, under your own developer accounts so the listings are yours.

How much does a React Native app cost?

It depends on scope: how many kinds of user, which integrations and hardware, and what has to be built around the app. Here is what moves the price, and the fixed quote is free.

Related

MVP development

Starting from an idea? How we take a first version from scope to real users.

Tell us what you want built, and a fixed quote follows within days.

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