Quick verdict
Adalo wins for non-technical teams building simple internal apps and directory-style products that never need to scale beyond the tool. React Native + AI wins whenever code ownership, performance, or custom functionality matters — which is most consumer apps.
What each tool actually is
Adalo is a drag-and-drop mobile app builder. You compose screens from pre-built components, wire them to Adalo’s database (or an external one), and Adalo compiles the result to a React Native binary. You can publish to iOS and Android, but the code lives inside Adalo.
ShipNative generates an Expo React Native project from a prompt, screenshot, or PRD. You get a real, exportable codebase. Iteration is conversational — describe a change, see it in preview. No visual editor, no component library lock-in.
Head-to-head comparison
| Dimension | Adalo | ShipNative (RN AI) |
|---|---|---|
| Build method | Drag-and-drop editor | Prompts / screenshots / PRD |
| Output | Compiled RN via Adalo | Standard Expo project |
| Code export | Not available | Full codebase you own |
| Custom components | Limited to Adalo library | Any npm package |
| Performance | Moderate — lags on heavy lists | Native-level |
| Real-time features | Limited | Fully supported |
| Backend flexibility | Adalo DB + Airtable / REST | Any (Supabase, Firebase, custom) |
| Pricing at scale | $250+/month | Free generation, pay your own hosting |
| Ceiling | Hits it fast on complex apps | No ceiling — full code |
Where Adalo wins
- Ops teams and non-technical founders who prefer a visual canvas over prompts.
- Directory and event apps — where functionality maps cleanly to Adalo’s components.
- Client apps built by agencies who want a faster-than-Figma way to prototype a mobile flow.
- Internal tools with small, trusted user bases.
Where React Native + AI wins
- Consumer apps that need to feel fast and native.
- Custom UI — if your design is distinctive, Adalo’s component library will fight you.
- Code ownership — you export, version-control, and extend in Cursor or Claude Code. See Do You Own the Code If AI Builds Your App?
- Scale — Adalo pricing escalates hard; an Expo app runs on your own infra at its actual marginal cost.
- Integrations — push notifications, HealthKit, biometrics, deep linking work natively.
Pricing reality
Adalo’s free tier does not publish to the stores. Pro (for App Store submission) starts around $45/month, Team plans reach $250+/month, and enterprise escalates from there. Extra app versions, extra collaborators, and higher app user caps all stack.
ShipNative is free to start and free to export. After export, your costs are whatever your backend and EAS usage add up to — typically under $30/month at MVP stage. At 10k users, the Adalo plan is almost always more expensive than hosting an Expo app yourself.
Should you migrate from Adalo to React Native?
Migrate when one of three things happens: performance complaints appear in your App Store reviews, you hit a custom-feature request Adalo cannot deliver, or your monthly bill crosses your hosting-at-scale cost. Use screenshot-to-app to rebuild the UI fast, then wire your business logic into the Expo export. Founders we talk to wish they had started in React Native from day one — the ceiling on Adalo shows up earlier than the marketing suggests.