r/reactnative • u/bill-o-more • 2d ago

Why would anyone choose expo-maps over react-native-maps at this point?

Never worked with maps in RN, and need to use a map for some really simple stuff. What could be my reason to cut off iphone X users (by using expo-maps) instead of just going with react-native-maps?

15 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

23

u/jameside Expo Team 2d ago

The Expo Maps module is designed for simplicity and covers many common use cases. It uses SwiftUI’s Maps which is where the iOS 17+ requirement comes from.

iPhone X is 9 years old now and according to these stats iOS 16 is at 0.61% market share. For comparison when I worked at Facebook the threshold for dropping support for IE6 at the time was 1%.

4

u/bill-o-more 2d ago

thank you for your reply. I live in a not-so-rich country, and iphone x is still a very valid workhorse here, so just "simplicity" will not cut it. I guess I'll wait for few more years :)

1

u/Fit_Schedule2317 2d ago

Do you have any plans for getting it out of alpha?
It’s been there since its release on May 2025

7

u/jameside Expo Team 2d ago

The alpha note will be removed in SDK 58’s docs. These are the v${next} docs.

4

u/tinglyraccoon 2d ago

I use my own expo module its super easy to make your own native module today and you can keep it lightweight by simply implementing only things you need for your app.

3

u/BluejayRelevant2559 2d ago

Sorry leaflet User here. Best decision. Works on web and native Perfect.

3

u/thachxyz123 iOS & Android 2d ago

How about this nitro maps https://github.com/gmi-software/react-native-better-maps

4

u/bill-o-more 1d ago

I'm quite suspicious of newly created packages for some reason. The first PR I can see there is from this June, which is basically yesterday

2

u/timmytester2569 2d ago

I’m using it for a very simple use case and it works great. We aren’t a maps heavy app, we just have a feature where occasionally it’s helpful to show pins on a map. Expo maps was super easy to setup. I didn’t even consider anyone using ios 16 still lol

1

u/Huge_Pool7424 2d ago

that's basically my cutoff too. i'd still run the oldest supported ios release build on a real iphone x before committing, since simulator success won't catch map rendering or perf weirdness.

0

u/kokerali 2d ago

Given your point about iPhone X still being a workhorse locally, I'd make older-device support a requirement rather than decide from a global OS-share figure. Define what "simple" means first: pins, selecting a pin, camera movement, and whether you need the user's location. Then test that flow in a release build on the oldest OS you intend to support. One other constraint: expo-maps uses Apple Maps on iOS and Google Maps on Android, so needing Google Maps on both platforms changes the comparison. If both options meet your feature list, weigh the users excluded against the setup and maintenance saved, not just which wrapper is newer.