The React Native testing consensus has fractured. For years it was "Jest for units, Detox for E2E, that's the answer." In 2026, Maestro has crossed 10,000 GitHub stars, Detox holds at 11,800, and most production teams now run a layered combination of all three. Here's a practical, opinionated breakdown of when to use each — based on actually shipping React Native apps, not just reading the docs. The TL;DR Tool What it's for Setup time Flakiness Jest Unit + component tests Built-in <0.1% Detox Gray-box E2E with native synchronization 1-3 days <2% Maestro Black-box E2E with YAML 15 minutes <1% If you only read this far: start with Jest + Maestro . Add Detox only when you feel the specific pain it solves. Jest: the layer everyone keeps Jest plus React Native Testing Library is the universally accepted baseline. Jest 30 (late 2025) brought meaningful performance improvements, and RNTL 12.x now plays nicely with the New Architecture.…