React Native + Supabase

Same backend, different app framework. Both stacks put Supabase's PostgreSQL, auth, and storage behind the app, so the database design, row-level security policies, and costs carry over unchanged. The difference is the client: React Native renders native platform components from JavaScript or TypeScript, while Flutter draws its own UI with Dart. Pick React Native when your team already knows React or TypeScript, or when you want to share logic and developer skills with a web app; Expo also makes the first device build unusually quick. Pick Flutter when pixel-identical UI across platforms or heavy custom animation matters more than reusing web skills.

The first time you add a library with its own native code that isn't part of the Expo SDK, such as a specific payment, Bluetooth, or maps library. Expo Go is a prebuilt app that can only run the native modules it ships with. The answer is a development build: your own version of that app, built with EAS Build or locally, that includes whatever native modules the project uses and still gives you fast refresh. Config plugins apply each library's native setup for you, so you still don't edit Xcode or Android Studio projects by hand. Most teams switch to a development build early and treat Expo Go as a quick way to try things out.

Three things differ from the web. First, sessions: pass a storage adapter such as AsyncStorage (or expo-secure-store for tokens) when creating the Supabase client, or users get signed out whenever the app restarts. Second, social sign-in: OAuth returns to the app through a deep link, so register the app's URL scheme in Expo and add that redirect URL to Supabase's allowed redirect list; expo-auth-session and expo-web-browser handle the browser step. Third, App Store rules: an iOS app that offers Google or another third-party login generally also has to offer Sign in with Apple or a comparable privacy-focused option, which Supabase Auth supports.

Because the phone suspends backgrounded apps, which closes the realtime connection and pauses token refresh. It is expected behavior, not a bug, but the app has to handle it. Listen to React Native's AppState: when the app returns to the foreground, restart Supabase Auth's automatic token refresh, resubscribe to realtime channels if needed, and refetch the data the screen shows, since changes made while the app was asleep were never delivered. For anything the user must hear about while the app is closed, use push notifications (Expo's notification service works with this stack) rather than realtime subscriptions.

EAS Update can replace the JavaScript bundle and assets, so bug fixes, copy changes, and new screens built from existing components reach users without an App Store or Play Store review. Anything that changes native code needs a new store build: adding a native module, upgrading the Expo SDK or React Native version, or changing permissions and app configuration. EAS ties each update to a runtime version so an incompatible update is never delivered to an older binary. Both stores allow updates of this kind as long as they don't change the app's core purpose, so OTA is the normal way to ship fixes between store releases, not a workaround.