Navigating through React Native Navigation Options

This post compares two major navigation libraries for React Native: react-native-navigation and react-navigation. We'll evaluate setup complexity, ease of use, performance, and community support.

Setup

React-Native-Navigation

Single package installation with native code modifications (manual or via npx rnn-script):

npm install react-native-navigation
npx rnn-link

React-Navigation

Modular approach requiring multiple dependencies:

npm install @react-navigation/native @react-navigation/stack
npm install react-native-reanimated react-native-gesture-handler react-native-screens react-native-safe-area-context

Ease of Use / API

React-Native-Navigation

Requires editing index.js with configuration objects:

import { Navigation } from 'react-native-navigation'
import App from './App'

Navigation.registerComponent('com.myApp.WelcomeScreen', () => App)

Navigation.events().registerAppLaunchedListener(() => {
  Navigation.setRoot({
    root: {
      stack: {
        children: [
          {
            component: {
              name: 'com.myApp.WelcomeScreen'
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  })
})

React-Navigation

Follows React conventions with component composition:

import { NavigationContainer } from '@react-navigation/native'
import { createStackNavigator } from '@react-navigation/stack'

const Stack = createStackNavigator()

function MyStack() {
  return (
    <NavigationContainer>
      <Stack.Navigator>
        <Stack.Screen name="Home" component={Home} />
        <Stack.Screen name="Details" component={Details} />
      </Stack.Navigator>
    </NavigationContainer>
  )
}

Performance

React-Native-Navigation sets up your application with each screen being its own React application. This provides truly native navigation with better performance for complex screens.

React-Navigation works on the JS thread but uses react-native-screens for optimization. For most apps, the performance difference is negligible.

Community

Conclusion

Choose React-Native-Navigation for performance-critical apps with complex screens and native-feel requirements.

Choose React-Navigation for most projects—it stays aligned with React-Native ecosystem developments, has better documentation, and follows React patterns that feel more natural.