The Default Mobile Stack
Here's the good news: if you know the web stack, you already know most of mobile. React Native lets you build real iOS and Android apps with the same TypeScript and React you use on the web, and your database and auth picks carry straight over.
Read the Universal Toolbelt first — these are the mobile-specific picks on top of it. And keep the rule above the stack in mind: buy or glue, don't build — lean on hosted auth, payments, and uploads instead of rebuilding them per platform.
| Slot | Pick | Why this one | Without it you'd... | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Framework | React Native via Expo | Reuses TypeScript + React for native iOS/Android, and Expo handles the painful native setup for you. | Manage Xcode and Android Studio toolchains by hand before you can run "hello world." | Expo docs |
| Navigation | Expo Router | File-based routing just like Next.js, so screens map to files — a model you already know from web. | Wire up navigation stacks and pass routes around manually. | Expo Router docs |
| Backend / DB | Supabase | The same database you'd use on web works from a mobile app with the same client. | Stand up a separate mobile backend and re-learn a second data layer. | Supabase docs |
| Auth | Clerk | Drop-in sign-in with prebuilt React Native components and a free tier. | Hand-roll mobile login and token storage — easy to get insecure. | Clerk Expo docs |
| Build / deploy | EAS (Expo Application Services) | Builds your iOS/Android binaries in the cloud and ships updates without a full app-store release. | Maintain Mac hardware and signing certificates just to produce an installable build. | EAS docs |
Don't bother yet
These look like the "serious" way to build mobile. For your first app they're pure overhead — skip them until you hit a real limit.
- Native Swift / Kotlin — writing separately for each platform doubles your work; React Native ships both from one codebase until you hit a rare native limit.
- Bare React Native (without Expo) — you'd take on all the native build config Expo handles for you, for no early benefit.
- In-app purchases before you have users — payments add app-store complexity; get people using the app first.