For most startups, this decision comes down to speed to market versus depth of platform integration — not which technology is 'better' in the abstract.
React Native makes sense when...
You need to launch on iOS and Android at the same time, on a limited budget, without heavy reliance on platform-specific hardware features.
Native makes sense when...
Your app depends on deep OS integration, background processing, or hardware access where cross-platform abstractions add real friction — and you have the budget to maintain two codebases.
We scope this decision with every client before writing a line of code, because reversing it mid-project is expensive in a way that's easy to avoid with 30 minutes of upfront planning.