Show HN: I built a React Native boilerplate to ship mobile apps faster | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I built a React Native boilerplate to ship mobile apps faster

expoship.dev

Hey HN.

I'm a developer and solopreneur.

Few months ago I realized I was doing the same thing over and over again: set up onboarding flow, user authentication, payments, connect a DB...

So I built ExpoShip for 3 reasons: 1. Save Time and focus on what matters: building a business. 2. Avoid headaches like setting up authentication or handling in-app payments. 3. Get profitable fast.

I hope this boilerplate will be as helpful to you as it is for me. Would love your feedback.

Rudolfs

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Nice work on the launch, rudolfs! any chance this is inspired by shipfa.st?

One thing that caught my eye is that you're using expo - how do you handle the tradeoff between expo's ease of use and its potential limitations? do you have any plans to support non-expo react native projects in the future?

And have you used flutter? I've used both rn and flutter, and i found flutter to offer much superior dx

Many years ago I tried Flutter. I had to stackoverflow every single thing because dash is a language that nobody uses (maybe it is easier now with chatgpt but this was before openai releases it). In comparison React Native feels familiar to anyone who has uses React (with in 2024 is pretty much everyone who has done anything in frontend) and you only need to read a fairly short documentation explaining the core components https://reactnative.dev/docs/components-and-apis

Regarding Expo, I found the the easiest and most sane way to get iOS compilation working. It worked for me and got it set up in < 1h. Just getting Xcode to work took me way more and I don't even use xcode to code wtf

dart*

Yes, it is inspired by shipfa.st but for mobile development. Well if there are more than 1 people who also want support for non-expo version I'll probably make also that, no problem.

About flutter, yes I have used it a year ago but for my use case it didn't work very well so I switched to React Native.

from your experience, what are the pros and cons of expo vs no expo ?

I only have experience with no expo react-native development

Expo makes it super easy to get started with React Native, offering quick setup, built-in tools, and easy updates, which is great for simple apps or prototypes. However, it comes with some limitations, like larger app sizes and less flexibility with native code. On the flip side, using bare React Native gives you complete control, better performance, and access to the latest features, but it requires more setup and can be a bit more challenging. The choice really depends on whether you need speed and simplicity or full control and customization.

When click "get ExpoShip" on the homepage and put my email address in I get an email saying "follow this link to confirm your user". When I click that link, it takes me to a page that says "You don't have access to this page To get access to this page make a purchase first".

Same thing if I sign in with github.

You need to go to https://expoship.dev/#pricing and make a purchase first to get access to the dashboard

Yes I understand that. But the “get expoship” button on the homepage should take me to somewhere I can purchase. And if it’s sending me a magic link then the magic link should take me to somewhere I can purchase.

Trying it again now it’s still the same bug, and the email doesn’t arrive.

If you have bugs like this at the first point you’re trying to acquire a customer then that doesn’t bode well for the robustness of the product you’re selling.

I was genuinely interested to buy this (I bought shipfa.st, and have found it very useful) but this is a big red flag.

This is incredible. I will definitely check it out.

You can add your kits to BoilerplateSearch .com directory

Looks nice, congrats on the launch.

After building an app from scratch, I see the value in a nice starter template.

expoship.dev's design is a copy of shipfa.st

That's not cool.

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