Scale your team and processes with super app development

Check out the “Building a super app from scratch” section in our Step-by-Step Guide to Super App Development that should provide you with a basic understanding, or go ahead and have a look at our super-app-showcase that provides a more robust example of the super-app inside a monorepo.

When creating a cross-platform super app with React Native, Re.Pack is the only solution that enables you to achieve that. It allows you to leverage Module Federation for code sharing and modular architecture. Beyond Re.Pack, any React Native library that fits your specific requirements and use cases should be compatible with your super app, enabling you to build a powerful, feature-rich, and well-integrated application. 

Alternatives include Play Feature Delivery for Android, and WebView for iOS. If your app is not constrained by the size or team velocity issues, you can also go with regular app development. We focus on Re.Pack because this approach allows you to enjoy the most benefits compared to other tools, for example, the ability to reuse features across apps, smaller JS bundle size, OTA updates, time and cost-effective development experience, and potential to leverage third-party contributors.

Micro frontends are a modular frontend architecture for the web, while mini apps are small and often self-contained applications within a super app, typically for mobile platforms. They are related but not the same. Mini apps embrace the concept of micro frontends within them. You can think about mini apps as micro-frontends for mobile apps.

If you are keen on adopting the super app architecture, it’s crucial to ensure the development team has the necessary skills or provide training on super app concepts and best practices. Establishing clear goals and vision for adopting the architecture will also come a long way. You should first make sure your organization actually needs this kind of architecture. You’ll know it when you hit certain issues with scaling teams working together on the same product.

To efficiently transition to a super app-related architecture, analyze the current app to identify components suitable for mini apps. Develop a phased migration plan, first focusing on low-risk or easily separated components. Ensure the team is well-trained by providing resources and workshops on super app concepts and best practices. Throughout the process, monitor progress and address challenges to maintain a smooth and non-disruptive transition.

To ensure safety when executing code from remote sources, RePack is equipped with the ability to code-sign the bundles via CodeSigningPlugin. When you create a production build, RePack will output a file with tokens for every remote bundle created. Upon downloading the mini app, RePack will verify the integrity of each bundle, ensuring that it wasn’t tampered with. It’s worth noting that the downloaded code will be evaluated within the same JavaScript execution context, which means it has full possibility to inspect how data flows throughout the whole app at runtime. You’re expected to have full trust over the code added by your contractors.

Super apps and OTA (Over-The-Air) updates are related to app maintenance and deployment. Super apps, with their modular architecture and mini apps, allow for more granular updates and easier maintenance. OTA updates enable developers to directly deploy these updates, including those related to mini apps, to users' devices without the app store review process. Combining super apps with OTA updates results in a streamlined process for maintaining and improving app features and user experience.

Adopting a super app can significantly reduce maintenance time by enabling code modularity, smaller codebases, better scalability, and improved testing. The exact time saved depends on the app's size, complexity, and development efficiency will be extended by the time dealing with shared dependencies. 

In comparison to the traditional deployment, where you would have to go through the AppStore/PlayStore review process every time you would want to change the app. While this can be mitigated with an OTA solution like CodePush or Expo Updates, Module Federation gives you more granular control over what gets updated. It depends on how your product delivery pipeline is organized and whether the app has OTA set up. What’s worth noting is that releasing full features will usually require AppStore/PlayStore submission for compliance. However, thanks to mini apps being independently deployed and versioned, particular feature/mini app teams have the potential to move significantly faster with fewer chances of being blocked by other teams lagging behind the release schedule.

While the setup of Re.Pack and Module Federation inside your project is relatively simple, It’s hard to say how long it might take as it all depends on what you want to include in the draft as well as the complexity of your own setup. If you would like to see how such a draft might look like you can try the super-app-showcase we prepared.

With super app architecture in place, you can ship bug fixes and some of the features much faster when compared to a traditional mobile app. When it comes to bigger features, you will have to submit your app for another review in the AppStore/PlayStore to stay compliant with the store policies. Failure to do so might result in your app being taken off the store.

The initial release of the super app will require you to submit your app for a review like a traditional mobile app with all of the mini apps enabled. When it comes to updating the app - it depends. As the super-app is divided into a host-app and mini-apps, if you would like to update the host-app you will have to go through the review process again, but for the mini-apps, it’s reduced to uploading them to a remote location like a CDN to make them available for download.

Accelerated development in super apps saves costs by reducing development time, enabling efficient resource allocation, improving code quality, and facilitating seamless updates. These factors contribute to lower personnel costs, higher productivity, and better customer satisfaction.