The widespread adoption of mobile app development has contributed significantly to the digitization of our world.
With just a few taps, users can access a wide range of products and services within a single app, making it easy to shop, ask questions, and interact with businesses.
The convenience and attractive design of these apps enhance the overall customer experience. However, developers need reliable framework options to build these intuitive apps that accelerate their productivity.
In 2023, two of the most widely used cross-platform app development frameworks are Flutter and React Native, which have gained increasing popularity in recent years. Since both are highly regarded cross-platform app development frameworks, how to determine which suits best the project requirements?
Examining their capabilities, pros, and cons in detail allows the user to find the answer and make an informed decision.
So, let’s deep dive into a detailed comparison between Flutter and React native.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a free and open-source platform for coding and building native Android and iOS apps developed by Google and officially launched in December 2018.
It offers a balance of ease of development and high performance while maintaining visual consistency. Flutter’s programming language, Dart, was initially intended to replace Javascript.
One of the key benefits of Flutter is that it allows organizations to create cross-platform apps using a single codebase, which can be deployed on the web, mobile, and desktop platforms.
How Does Flutter Function?
Flutter’s framework consists of a flutter engine, a foundation library, and widgets. One of the unique aspects of Flutter’s approach to app development is its declarative UI writing, which requires developers to start with the desired result and work backward.
This means that before beginning to code, developers must have a clear vision of what the UI will look like. In Flutter, developers can build the entire user interface by combining various widgets and create custom widgets by combining existing ones.
To enhance the capabilities of the app and improve the user experience, Flutter also offers a range of software packages that provide access to Firebase and Redux data stores
What is React Native?
React Native is a widely used mobile framework based on Javascript that allows developers to create natively rendered mobile apps for Android and iOS using the same codebase. Facebook developed it as an open-source project in 2015.
In a short time, it has become a leading choice for mobile app development, with well-known examples including Instagram, Facebook, and Skype. It equates to a significant benefit in terms of time and resource savings because just one piece of code needs to be created.
How Does React Function?
React Native uses Javascript and JSX, an XML-like code, to facilitate communication between Javascript and native app threads.
This cross-platform development solution doesn’t rely on web views but rather runs on existing native components and elements. Through the use of bidirectional communication between Javascript and native code, React Native enables developers to create apps with a truly native user experience.
Flutter vs React Native Comparison Key Factors
When selecting between Flutter and React Native, businesses should consider several key factors that would help them make a more informed decision.
1. Performance (in terms of speed and efficiency)
The programming languages used by Flutter and React Native can affect their performance. It is important to assess the performance needs of your app and evaluate how well each framework meets those needs.
2. Smartphone Performance
React Native executes source code by bridging the gap between Javascript code and the device’s native environment, enabling communication and data exchange.
However, this bridge acts as an interpreter that translates JS code into the native programming language and requires additional time and resources.
On the other hand, Flutter compiles directly to x86 and ARM native libraries without intermediary layers, resulting in faster code execution and lower resource usage.
Additionally, Flutter’s C++ graphic rendering engine allows for smoother and quicker animations. As a result, Flutter has an advantage over React Native in terms of mobile performance.
3. Web Performance
React Native excels in app development, thanks partly to Javascript, which is one of the main front-end languages and performs exceptionally well on the web.
If website performance is a top priority for your business, React Native is a good choice, as it provides technology specifically designed for app development.
4. Design and Graphics
Both React Native and Flutter have strong graphic features, but they use different approaches to creating user interfaces.
React Native uses native visual elements and appearance, which creates a seamless and personalized experience. Even when the operating system is updated, the app elements will also update accordingly to maintain a consistent look and feel with other native apps.
In contrast, Flutter’s app appearance remains unchanged across different OS versions and device models, unless intentionally updated. This can make it easier to implement a standard, neutral style across all devices, saving on project scope
5. Time to Market
When deciding between Flutter and React Native, it’s essential to consider time to market. Both frameworks are cross-platform solutions that enable code reuse rather than developing separate, standalone apps. When choosing the best platform for your development team, there are several key factors to consider:
- Engineering communities for both platforms
- Most loved by developers
- Cost and demand
While React Native has a larger community and more ready-to-use packages and libraries, Flutter has strong support from Google engineers. Both platforms have gained significant traction among developers. However, React Native may require connecting to third-party libraries for additional features.
6. Community Support-
React Native was released as open-source on GitHub in 2015; react Native is the most popular framework on Stack Overflow, with a community of developers supported by over 310,507 tagged questions.
While Flutter is a newer framework with a smaller community, it is slowly gaining adoption among developers. It has over 89,638 questions on Stack Overflow.
7. Cost and Demand
The demand for a framework is closely tied to its supply. Since React Native is based on Javascript, a widely known language, so it is relatively easy to find a solution developer.
However, Flutter developers tend to charge less, but they may be harder to find in your location. Newer developers more commonly use Flutter than those with more experience.
What are the Disadvantages of Using Flutter?
– Limited third-party options:
As Flutter is a newer platform for mobile app development, it currently has fewer third-party libraries and package options. However, it is continuously improving.
– Large file size:
One downside of Flutter is that it leads to larger app file sizes, which can be an issue for mobile users running out of storage space. They may choose between keeping an app, photos, or other files. A smaller file size can improve runtime and performance, and this is something that Flutter lacks.
– Skill requirement:
Flutter is a straightforward language, but it does require programmers to learn DART first. This adds an extra learning step, which can increase the time and cost of a project.
What are the Disadvantages of Using React Native?
– Compatibility and debugging issues
Despite being on the market for six years, React Native is still in beta. Using Javascript, C/C++, and Java in its construction also make debugging difficult and time-consuming.
To address this, developers may need to use Flipper, a toolset for debugging.
– Complex UI
If your mobile app requires a lot of transitions, animations, and interactions, React Native may not be the most suitable option.
The distinct APIs of the Android and iOS touch subsystems, even with a gesture responder can be challenging to operate.
– Immature framework:
The rapid evolution of React Native has made it difficult for developers to stay up-to-date and adapt to changes.
In its attempt to become faster, it has lost credibility and is not as mature as native Android and iOS apps. Additionally, the flexibility of React Native apps is not as good as native apps.
What are APK Developers’ Opinions on Flutter and React?
React Native is a good fit for applications with basic functionality and similar entities, such as events, social media, eCommerce, and loyalty programs.
If you’re a well-established company with a large client base and a mobile app is not your primary product, React Native is a good choice because it allows you to create native-looking apps quickly.
Flutter, on the other hand, is ideal for exciting new projects involving complex computations and animations and when functionality is more important than aesthetics.
It’s a smart option for early-stage software companies to build a visually appealing proof-of-concept with minimal essential functionality on a budget, find product-market fit, and then grow.
Bottom Line
There’s no denying that both Flutter and React are excellent frameworks for app development, as they offer nearly every feature you need to create a perfect app.
The key factor is how you want your app to be developed in terms of features, functionality, and design. This blog post provides all the information you need to make a better decision for your next app development project.
But, if you want to avoid the hassle of app development, Scrum Digital can help. They work with experienced app developers to deliver the results you want. Visit their website to learn more.
