Shopify completes React Native migration after a Decade
Article Summary
Shopify just completed a massive React Native migration of a decade-old app—and the results are stunning.
Mustafa Ali from Shopify shares the complete story of migrating their flagship mobile app to React Native. The thread covers performance wins, code reduction, open source contributions, and hard-earned lessons from transforming a legacy codebase.
Key Takeaways
- Deleted 1.8M lines of code net while migrating 586 screens to React Native
- 86% code sharing between platforms, up from just 5% previously
- 59% faster screen loads, 44% faster launches, 500K fewer crashes per version
- App store ratings jumped from 4.4 to 4.8 on iOS and 4.1 to 4.4 on Android
- Open sourced FlashList, React Native Skia, and Tophat to give back
Shopify achieved dramatic performance improvements and code simplification while proving React Native works at scale for complex enterprise apps.
About This Article
Shopify's mobile app had been around for a decade but was plagued by code duplication. Only 5% of code was shared between iOS and Android, which made maintenance harder and kept the two platforms out of sync.
Mustafa Ali's team moved 586 screens over to React Native. They kept native code where it mattered most, like for widgets, Siri shortcuts, and watch app complications. This pushed code sharing up to 86% across both platforms.
iOS ratings climbed from 4.4 to 4.8, and Android went from 4.1 to 4.4. The app also landed 5 feature placements from Apple and Google during the migration.