Updated: July 7th, 2023
As a developer or tech entrepreneur, you know building a beautiful, performant mobile app from scratch is extremely hard and expensive — let alone the enormous amount of time it takes. Fortunately, a number of gorgeous mobile app themes have emerged recently that allow you to save months of design and development and thousands of dollars.
Mobile apps are extremely complex, and the development process of making an app from scratch is overwhelming: prototyping, designing, writing code, reviewing code, bug fixing, improving performance, testing, and hiring/firing people. No wonder mobile-development companies and mobile freelancers are asking for tens of thousands of dollars to build even the most simple apps.
React Native is a game changer for people and companies who are starting new mobile projects. React Native allows developers to build native mobile apps more quickly that run on both iOS and Android. It saves a lot of development time and financial cost. But you can go even further in this journey of moving fast by saving money, by leveraging fully functional mobile app themes.
Mobile app themes are helping developers and entrepreneurs skip the hardest (and. frankly, the most boring) part of the development life cycle, by providing them with more than 80% of the necessary work. And yes, more than 80% of the work is shared across all mobile apps — think about user authentication and registration, push notifications, localization and RTL, chat features, back-end communication, dark-mode support, account details, user settings screens, navigation, etc.
All of these aspects are shared across all mobile apps, and each one of them can be extremely complex when done right.
In this piece, we’ve curated the best mobile app themes of 2023 out of the ones currently available on the market. To make the list, we set a high quality bar by looking at the design, code quality, app performance, and feature completeness. Back-end integrations, customer support, documentation, and authors’ track record are also important criteria based on which we came up with the final list of the top mobile app themes. For those interested in checking out even more codebases, visit this amazing article on the best mobile app templates.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the most stunning and complete mobile app themes we can find on this thing called the web.
1. Dating App Theme in React Native
This React Native app template is by far the most complete Tinder clone available on the market. All the functionalities depicted in the presentation page are fully implemented, making it possible for you to launch a fully fledged dating app to both iOS and Android in a matter of hours. You can literally submit your brand new Tinder-like app to the App Store and Google Play today.
From the swiping functionality, with geolocation recommendations and matching, to the real-time chatting features, this React Native app has everything you need to get started. Even if you’re interested in implementing a slightly different app idea, the functionality in this template will still provide you with more than 80% of the work. The best part? It’s fully integrated with a Firebase back end, so everything is fully functional end to end.
We estimate this React Native theme will save you about six months of app design and development compared to if you started from scratch. The source code contains more than 20,000 lines of code, and the app has more than 50 fully implemented app screens.
- Main features: Matchmaking, geolocation, Tinder swiping, realtime chat, push notifications, multilanguage and RTL, account management, profile, dark mode, etc.
- Back end: Firebase authentication, Firebase Firestore, Firebase storage, Firebase cloud messaging
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Design: Free Sketch Dating UI Kit
- Download link: React Native Dating App
2. Social Network App Theme
Remember in “The Social Network” how it took Mark Zuckerberg a few months in order to build the first version of TheFacebook? Well, it’s been 15 years since then, and in 2023, launching a social-network app for both iOS and Android can be done in less than one day. And everyone can do it — you don’t need to be a genius like Mark Zuckerberg anymore.
How? Well, this awesome React Native template allows developers and entrepreneurs to launch their own social-network apps quickly, by providing all the source code and back-end integrations necessary for such an app.
Ephemeral stories, news feed, Facebook-like reactions, friendships — these are only a few of the cool features this social-network script contains. You can save at least sixmonths of hard work and development by simply purchasing this React native template.
- Key features: Ephemeral stories, posts, news feed, Facebook-like reactions, comments, friendships, chat, push notifications, multilanguage and RTL, dark mode, etc.
- Back end: Firebase authentication, Firebase Firestore, Firebase storage, Firebase cloud messaging
- Demos: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Social Network
3. Free Recipes Mobile App Theme
For those of you who don’t have a budget to develop a mobile app, there are also plenty of free mobile app themes out there that can help you get a head start in the product-development process. This free React Native recipes app is one of those open-source products.
With a simplistic modern design, the app contains a lot of functionality that otherwise would take you a couple of weeks to develop from scratch. Features include navigation, recipes, ingredients, search, categories, and more.
This mobile starter kit is also a great way to learn React Native, for those who are looking to get into mobile development. Learning React Native is by far the most efficient way to study and assimilate a new programming language — especially with a high-quality codebase, which this open-source mobile app theme has.
Key features: Recipes, categories, search, ingredients, photo gallery, etc.
Back end: Hard-coded modularized JSON
Demo: Google Play Store
Platforms: iOS and Android
Download link: Food App Template
4. Argon Mobile App Theme
If you’re looking for a great UI fully coded in React Native, Argon is the perfect starting point. This free React Native template is built with Galio and Expo to help developers create beautiful mobile applications. Saving a couple of days of work and a few hundred bucks is always a good deal.
Argon contains a great number of fully implemented UI components that you can easily access and use. Also, you must love the amazing color scheme.
Key features: UI components — cards, buttons, etc.
Platforms: iOS and Android
Download link: Argon React Native
5. Shopertino - Ecommerce App Theme
Shopertino React Native is one of the most complete e-commerce mobile app themes out there. With an amazing modern design, using this shopping-app source code is the most efficient way to launch a fully fledged native mobile app for your e-commerce store.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a brand-new e-commerce business or you’re looking to extend your existing web store to the App Store and Google Play, this React Native template has all the features you need.
With complex functionality, such as Shopify and WooCommerce, automatic integration, a shopping cart, checkout flow, payments with Stripe, and push notifications, this React Native e-commerce app will save you at least three months of development, and it’ll allow you to stay ahead of your competition by moving fast.
A mobile app for a e-commerce business can help by boosting the brand value and will increase sales by improving customer loyalty and retention. Customers with a native app installed order 8x more than those who don’t have the app.
- Main features: Shopping cart, product lists, collections, Apple Pay, Android Pay, instant checkout, one-click reorder, Stripe payments, order history, push notifications, etc.
- Back end: Firebase, WooCommerce, and Shopify
- Payments platform: Stripe
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Design: E-commerce UI Kit
- Download link: React Native Ecommerce Template
6. Fully Functional Chat App Theme
Building a chat app might sound simple at first — a couple of bubble views, a network request, and you’re done, right? Well, this might be true until your users start asking for things such as translations, photo and video messages, typing indicators, audio messages, text-to-speech, clickable URLs, group chat, emojis, GIFs, photo-camera integration, dark mode, push notifications, audio calls, video calls, etc.
Implementing all these chat features will take you at least five months of development. And that’s just for a simple chat. This is before you begin calculating the other time spent on building the core functionality of your app. Well, integrating a fully fledged chat functionality into any mobile app is now extremely straightforward with this premium React Native template.
- Main features: Group chats, photo messaging, video messages, audio messages, push notifications, clickable URLs, full-screen photo viewer, photo-camera integration, dark mode, etc.
- Back end: Firebase
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Chat App
This is by far the most complete chat app from all the mobile app themes out there. The best part? You can now integrate a fully fledged chat feature into any React Native app with only two lines of code.
7. Fitness App Theme in React Native
Fitness is one of the most popular app categories this year. Workout apps are popping up everywhere since developers have realized users are willing to pay good money in order to stay active and healthy.
Fitness apps are hard to design in general. That’s because there’s a lot of information needed to be structured — various charts, health-kit data, daily activities, VIP upgrades, etc.
Fortunately, there is a great mobile app template that can help you save a few weeks of design and development. While this is only a UI template (with no back-end integration), it contains a lot of features you don’t need to waste your time on building from scratch: navigation, beautiful charts, Redux, VIP/premium payment screen, goals, etc.
- Main features: Calories tracker, water tracker, steps tracker, charts, social news feed, notifications, settings, etc.
- Backend: Firebase
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- **Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Fitness App
8. Finance App Theme in React Native
The mobile revolution has disrupted financial-services companies. Any bank or financial institution is working on building mobile native apps. Combine that with the personal finance front, and the opportunity in this space is extremely obvious.
Great news: Building a finance app in React Native is so much easier these days due to the existence of mobile app themes.
This finance-app template is a fully coded UI, giving you access to a series of financial screens — incorporating charts, stats, finance tracking, stock andcrypto trading, notifications, budget planning, and more.
You can build an investment app, a personal-finance app, a budget-tracker app, a bank app, a payments app, etc. Anything you want. This boilerplate project represents the fastest and cheapest way to start any mobile-finance project.
This app is also extremely useful for its integration of React Native Charts.
- Main features: Budget tracker, investment portfolio, charts, stocks trading, crypto trading, expense tracker, bank accounts, notifications, profile, etc.
- Backend: UI only
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Finance App
9. Airbnb / Real Estate App Theme
The sharing economy has gained a lot of momentum in the past decade. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have had tremendous success. So naturally, taking these app ideas into other markets and domains can be extremely productive as well.
This Airbnb clone is a fully working ready-to-use React Native app template that’s inspired by the Airbnb design and is already integrated with a back-end system. Users can list their own properties (this feature can be restricted to admins only), so other users can discover them.
This React Native app template is great for anyone looking to start a real-estate app. There’s a multitude of different app scenarios where this template can be applied: real-estate apps, on-demand services, marketplace apps, Airbnb-style sharing, etc.
- Main features: Maps, geolocation, add listings, advanced filters, custom filters, chat, push notifications, search, account management, etc.
- Backend: Firebase
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: Real Estate App Template
10. Booking App Theme for Appointments
When discussing the best mobile app themes that you can find on the market, this stunning React Native Booking App must probably be mentioned first.
When an insane attention to details, the design of this appointments app template is breathtaking. Fully coded in React Native, integrated with Firebase backend, the app template contains so many advanced features, making it the best app starter kit to use if you are looking to make your own booking app.
The codebase can be used by any type of business that takes appointments, such as dentists, gyms, hair salons, hair specialists, doctors, yoga teachers, any kind of teachers, etc.
- Main features: Book appointments, confirm/edit/cancel appointments, appointments dashboard, interactive appointment picker, search, categories and multi-vendor lists, etc.
- Backend: Firebase
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Booking App
11. Chat App Theme in AWS
One of the most popular AWS chat app codebase, this mobile app theme is fully functional and scales to millions of users right out of the box.
You get fully functional chat features, that are meant to save you years of development. Written by top software engineers, the code quality is simply astounding.
- Main features: Group chats, real-time messages, photos, videos, audio recordings, typing indicators, emojis, etc.
- Backend: AWS (AWS Cognito, AWS Amplify, S3)
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native AWS Chat App
12. Video Chat App Theme
Video calling has been exploding in popularity within the last few years. Building a video chat functionality is actually quite complicated, and only seasoned developers can get it right. Scaling to millions of users is such a complex problem, that only top 1% developers can actually pull it through.
You get fully functional chat features, that are meant to save you years of development. Written by top software engineers, the code quality is simply astounding.
- Main features: Video calls, audio calls, group calls, group chats, real-time messages, photos, videos, audio recordings, typing indicators, emojis, push notifications, etc.
- Backend: Firebase (Firestore, Storage, Auth, GCM)
- Demos: Google Play Store and App Store
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Download link: React Native Video Chat App
Conclusion
These are our guesses for the most popular mobile app themes of 2023. Find the one that suits your requirements the best, and save more than 80% of the energy and work by starting with a boilerplate app instead of reinventing the wheel.
The app-development costs can go down drastically if you’re leveraging one of these top app themes. You might also not need to hire designers or developers at all, so you can reroute part of your budget into different areas, such as marketing and growth.
Focus on what makes your product unique instead of working on reinventing the wheel.
I’ll be trying to keep this list of app themes as up to date as possible. Cheers!
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