Harvard University
CS50's Mobile App Development with React Native
Harvard's React Native course with Jordan Hayashi — strong JavaScript and React lectures, but officially retired since June 2020 and badly dated on mobile.
Intermediate10+ hours
One codebase, two app stores. React Native takes JavaScript and React and renders real platform components — actual native views, not a web page in a shell — which is why apps built with it feel like apps rather than websites with a splash screen.
Eight courses sit in this category, and the useful way to sort them isn't by difficulty. It's by what they really cost you and how current they are.
React Native — Set Up Your Environment from Meta is free, current, and carries in-browser Snack examples on most pages. Expo Tutorial: Build Your First Universal App is two hours and gets a real app onto iOS, Android and web. React Native Tutorial for Beginners is Mosh Hamedani's polished two-hour intro, and it's honest about where it stops — components, Flexbox and debugging, then nothing on navigation, data or state management. All three cost nothing and ask for nothing.
Learn React Native — Codecademy is free to work through, with browser-checked lessons and six Expo projects, but the certificate sits behind a paid plan. The Meta React Native Specialization has no audit option at all — eight Coursera courses ending in a capstone, reachable via a seven-day trial, a subscription, or financial aid. Both are good. Neither is free in the way the word usually means.
Two entries need a caveat. CS50's Mobile App Development with React Native was officially retired in June 2020; Jordan Hayashi's JavaScript and React lectures still hold up, and the mobile-specific material does not. React Native Express by Devin Abbott is clearly structured and pleasant to read, but carries no last-updated date anywhere, so check anything tooling-related against current Expo docs. The Net Ninja series is the same story — good teaching, verify the upload dates.
Expo first, Meta's docs alongside it, and treat anything without a visible date as a concept guide rather than a set of instructions. Our gap here is the middle of the journey: plenty of getting-started material, and almost nothing on testing, performance or the New Architecture.
Harvard University
Harvard's React Native course with Jordan Hayashi — strong JavaScript and React lectures, but officially retired since June 2020 and badly dated on mobile.
Expo's official two-hour tutorial: build StickerSmash across iOS, Android and web with Expo Router, gestures, modals and image picking.
Codecademy
Codecademy's Expo-based React Native course: browser-checked lessons and six projects. Free to learn, but the certificate needs a paid plan.
Meta on Coursera
Meta's eight-course Coursera path from JavaScript basics to a React Native capstone. You cannot audit it free — only a 7-day trial or financial aid.
Devin Abbott
Devin Abbott's readable, book-style guide to React Native — JavaScript through native modules. Clearly structured, but carries no last-updated date.
Meta Open Source
The official React Native reference — core components, styling, debugging, Codegen and native modules, with in-browser Snack examples on most pages.
Programming with Mosh
Mosh Hamedani's polished two-hour React Native intro: components, Flexbox layout and debugging. Ends before navigation, data or state management.
The Net Ninja
The Net Ninja's short-lesson React Native series with a companion GitHub repo — clear teaching, but check the video dates against current Expo tooling.