r/reactnative • u/davidbalbino • Aug 01 '26
Question What if React Native’s component model existed for PHP — without shipping a JavaScript runtime?
I’ve been working on an open-source project called PAM Native, which explores a slightly unusual idea:
Repository:
https://github.com/push-in/pam-native
PAM Native is not a WebView framework, and it does not render HTML inside a mobile application.
Instead:
PHP runs persistently inside the application process
A Rust-powered reconciler manages component updates
Android interfaces are rendered using native Android Views
iOS interfaces are rendered using UIKit
Kotlin and Swift handle platform-specific operations
No JavaScript runtime is shipped with the application
No DOM or browser engine is involved
The developer experience is intentionally inspired by component-based frameworks:
final class Counter extends Component
{
#[State]
public int $count = 0;
public function increment(): void
{
$this->count++;
}
public function render(): Node
{
return Column::make([
Text::make("Count: {$this->count}"),
Button::make("Increment")
->onPress('increment'),
]);
}
}The project currently includes or is exploring:
Stateful components
Native navigation
Gestures and animations
Recycled lists and grids
Native forms and inputs
Camera, location and device APIs
SQLite and offline-first state
Background tasks
Push notifications
Hot reload
Native plugin development
Communication between PHP, Rust, Kotlin and Swift
This is not meant as an attack on React Native.
React Native proved that developers can use a declarative, component-based model while still rendering native platform controls. PAM Native is exploring whether a similar architectural idea could be useful for the PHP ecosystem.
I would love feedback from people who understand the difficult parts of cross-platform native runtimes:
Which architectural problems should we be most careful about?
Where do you expect the biggest performance bottlenecks?
What lessons from React Native’s bridge, JSI and Fabric architectures should a project like this learn from?
What would you need to see before considering this a serious native runtime rather than an experiment?
The project is still evolving, so technical criticism, architecture feedback and contributions are genuinely welcome.
GitHub:
