The 5 Best React Native UI Libraries in 2025

Choosing the right UI library can make or break your React Native development workflow. Instead of building every button, input, or card from scratch, these libraries provide pre-built, customizable components that save time and ensure consistent design. In 2025, several strong contenders stand out — but here are the top five UI libraries worth using.

Why Use a UI Library in React Native?

React Native UI libraries give you production-ready components, theming support, and often cross-platform compatibility (iOS, Android, and even web). They accelerate delivery, reduce boilerplate, and improve accessibility — letting you focus on building unique product features instead of reinventing UI elements.

1. Tamagui

Tamagui is both a styling system and a UI component library for React Native and web. It’s known for its performance focus and cross-platform design capabilities.

Instead of shipping a bloated component set, Tamagui emphasizes a fast style engine and lets you create or extend components. It includes responsive design, dark mode support, and media queries out of the box.

Highlights:

• Performance-optimized style engine with ~24 KB core size
• Cross-platform (React, React Native, Expo, and web)
• Built-in theming, media queries, and light/dark modes
• Pre-built UI kit you can use or customize

Considerations:

• Initial setup and configuration can feel tricky
• Documentation can be dense for beginners

2. Gluestack UI

Gluestack UI, the successor to NativeBase, provides a modern UI library with Tailwind-like styling via NativeWind. It’s highly modular — you can copy/paste components or patterns and tweak them to your liking.

Highlights:

• 30+ customizable components
• Tailwind-style utilities for styling
• Works across mobile and web
• Expo-friendly, active development

Considerations:

• Still evolving quickly (expect changes and updates)
• Some docs and examples may lag behind features

3. HeroUI Native

HeroUI Native is an emerging library in alpha, aiming to deliver “beautiful, fast, and modern” components for React Native. Built on Tailwind Variants and NativeWind, it feels modern and integrates cleanly into Expo apps.

Highlights:

• Modern design with Tailwind-style customization
• Includes essentials like Buttons, Cards, Switches, and more
• Light/dark mode support
• Expo demo apps available

Considerations:

• Still in alpha — some instability expected
• Smaller ecosystem and community compared to mature libraries

4. React Native Paper

React Native Paper, maintained by Callstack, is the go-to Material Design UI library for React Native. It’s widely used in production apps and offers excellent theming and accessibility support.

Highlights:

• Follows Google’s Material Design system
• Light and dark themes built in
• Babel plugin reduces bundle size by tree-shaking unused components
• Supports web via React Native Web

Considerations:

• Material Design is opinionated — customization sometimes feels heavy
• Large apps may need bundle optimization

5. React Native UI Kitten

UI Kitten, built on the Eva Design System, is a mature library offering a polished set of components and runtime theme switching. It also comes with a starter template called Kitten Tricks, showcasing real-world UI screens.

Highlights:

• 20+ UI components
• Runtime theming (light/dark) without app reload
• Right-to-left (RTL) writing support
• Strong community and documentation

Considerations:

• Some styles feel dated compared to newer libraries
• Heavy customization can require workarounds

Quick Comparison

Here’s a simplified side-by-side look at the top five:

| Library | Best For | Web Support | Theming | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ----------- | ------- | | Tamagui | Performance & design systems | ✅ | ✅ | | Gluestack UI | Tailwind-style, flexible components | ✅ | ✅ | | HeroUI Native | Modern, emerging, Tailwind-based UI | ✅ | ✅ | | React Native Paper | Mature Material Design components | ✅ | ✅ | | UI Kitten | Eva Design System + runtime theme switch | ✅ | ✅ |

Conclusion

All five libraries can dramatically improve your React Native development speed and design quality.

• Choose Tamagui if you need maximum performance and cross-platform consistency.
• Try Gluestack UI if you want Tailwind-style flexibility.
• Experiment with HeroUI Native if you like cutting-edge, modern design.
• Pick React Native Paper if Material Design matches your needs.
• Go with UI Kitten if you value a mature design system and easy theming.

No matter your choice, each of these UI kits saves hours of development and ensures your app feels polished and professional.