Rebuild it in React Native and keep most of what you already have
Lovable, Bolt, v0 and most Base44 front ends are React. That is the whole argument for React Native: the component model, the state handling, the validation rules and every line of your API layer come across largely intact.
- Typical timeline
- 6–12 weeks depending on surface area
- Pricing
- Fixed quote per phase after a scoping call
What this is actually about
The parts that decide whether the project takes three weeks or three months, and which nobody mentions until they bite.
- 01
The logic is already written
Your API client, your validation, your permission rules, your formatting and your state management are TypeScript and they move with almost no change.
- 02
One codebase, two stores
iOS and Android from the same source, with platform-specific behaviour where it matters and shared behaviour everywhere else.
- 03
Real device capability, which is what clears review
Push notifications, biometrics, camera, offline storage, background sync, deep links, native share.
- 04
The web app does not have to go away
Most products keep both. The shared layer can be extracted into a package both consume, so a business rule fixed once is fixed everywhere.
The sentences we hear most, and what we do about each one
Paraphrases of things founders have actually said on scoping calls. Left column is the experience; right column is the work.
"Can you not just make the website work on a phone?"
A responsive web app is often the right answer and it is worth asking.
How we helpThe scoping call starts with that question, honestly. If a progressive web app covers your requirements we will tell you, because a PWA is a fraction of the cost and we would rather have the smaller project and the reference than sell you a rebuild you did not need.
"I do not want to maintain two products"
The fear is that every feature now has to be built twice, in two codebases, by a team that was already stretched building it once.
How we helpThe API layer, the types, the validation and the business rules go into a shared package.
"My designer gave me web layouts and they look wrong on a phone"
Tables, hover states, multi-column dashboards and dense forms are web patterns.
How we helpWe rework the interaction model, not just the widths: navigation becomes tabs or a stack, tables become lists with detail views, hover becomes press and long-press, dense forms become steps.
"How do I even release an update?"
Web deploys are instant. Mobile has signing keys, store review, staged rollouts, and users who never update.
How we helpYou get a pipeline that builds and submits from a tagged release, a documented signing setup in your own accounts, staged rollout with automatic halt on a crash-rate spike, and over-the-air updates for the changes that qualify - so a copy fix does not need a store review at all.
The decisions that shape the whole project
We work through every one of these before the first submission, because finding them one rejection at a time is where the weeks go.
What carries over
API client, types, validation, business rules, state management, auth flow logic.
What gets rewritten
Every component's presentation, navigation, and any web-only dependency - anything reaching for the DOM.
Navigation model
Routes become a native stack and tabs. This is a product decision, and it is the one that most changes how the app feels.
Offline behaviour
What must work with no connection, what may be stale, and what has to fail loudly.
Push notification strategy
What triggers a notification, how a user turns categories off, and what happens when they deny permission at the prompt.
Build and release pipeline
Cloud builds, signing in your accounts, over-the-air updates for what qualifies, staged rollout for what does not.
Deliverables
Everything lands in accounts you own, with the certificates and keys in your name.
- React Native app for iOS and Android from one codebase
- Shared package for API, types, validation and business rules
- Mobile layouts designed for the screen, reviewed before the build
- Push notifications, offline behaviour, biometrics, deep links
- Cloud build and submission pipeline with signing in your accounts
- Over-the-air update channel for changes that do not need review
- Crash reporting, release health, and staged rollout gates
- Submission to both stores, and 30 days of post-launch support
Phases
Scope is fixed after phase one. Every phase ends in something you keep.
- 011–2 weeks
Scope and shared layer
We read the existing app, work out precisely what carries over, and extract the shared layer.
- 021–2 weeks
Design for the screen
The web layouts are reworked as mobile interaction patterns and reviewed with you in a design tool.
- 034–8 weeks
Build
The app is built screen by screen against the shared layer, with device capability wired in as it is needed rather than bolted on at the end.
- 042–3 weeks, plus 30 days support
Submit and hand over
Both store submissions, staged rollout, monitoring, and a handover that leaves your team able to ship the next version.
What can go wrong, and what stops it
Scope growing because mobile exposes product questions
The screen inventory is fixed at the end of phase 1 and the design is signed off in phase 2.
A web-only dependency with no native equivalent
The dependency audit happens in phase 1, when a replacement is a decision rather than a blocker.
The shared layer drifting from the web app
Both consume the same package and both run its tests in CI.
Store review landing at the end of the schedule
A build goes into TestFlight and a Play closed track during phase 3, not phase 4, so account, signing and policy problems surface while there is still slack.
Before you book the call
If your existing app is React - which Lovable, Bolt, v0 and most Base44 front ends are - React Native reuses far more and is almost always the cheaper project.
No, and most clients keep it. The shared package means a business rule is fixed once.
They will produce a lot of React Native quickly, and the same gap appears as everywhere else: the generated code compiles, and the signing, release pipeline, offline behaviour, permission prompts and store compliance are not code problems.
In our projects, most of the non-visual code and none of the presentation.
Related tracks
Flutter rebuild
Flutter draws every pixel itself, which is why an animation-heavy or heavily branded interface behaves identically on both platforms instead of nearly identically.
Read the planApple App Store
Apple rejects wrapped web apps under guideline 4.2, and that is the single most common outcome for an app built in Base44, Replit or Lovable and dropped into a WebView.
Read the planGoogle Play
Play is easier to publish to than the App Store and harder to plan around, because a new personal developer account has to run a closed test with a dozen real testers for fourteen continuous days before it can even apply for production.
Read the plan
Want a straight answer on the route?
The review is free and it ends in writing, including the case for the cheaper option.