Are you confused about which technology to use for mobile app development? According to Staista, in 2022, 32% of developers used React Native, while 46% opted for Flutter for App development. As they are the two major contenders, choosing between them is quite challenging.
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, adopting a mobile first development strategy is crucial for creating successful applications. This approach ensures that the design and functionality are optimized for mobile devices, which are increasingly becoming the primary means of accessing digital content. By prioritizing mobile users, developers can create more intuitive and responsive apps that cater to the needs of a broader audience. This strategy not only enhances user experience but also improves performance across various devices, making it an essential consideration for any mobile app development project.
In recent years, we have seen a huge surge in mobile apps and more compani Unlike react native vs react, Flutter and React native both are new technologies that help in
es are moving towards apps to enhance their visibility That’s the reason mobile app development company in Dubai, is implementing new solutions that are less time-consuming to develop apps that fulfill the business’s objectives.
Flutter and React native both are new technologies that help in developing interactive apps for iOS and Android. As they both serve the same purpose, it’s important to know the difference between them and select the right one.
However, in this blog, we will compare and discuss the two on the basis of the most relevant elements and help you in deciding the best for your app development. So, let’s get started…!!
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a cross-platform app development framework, that allows developers a simple way to create and deploy visually attractive, natively compiled apps for Mobile (iOS, Android), web, and desktop, by utilizing a single code base.
However, flutter development was created upon Dart and developed by Google in 2017. Flutter has the capability to develop cross-platform apps without compromising on quality, performance, and speed. And ensure that the apps created are usually more intuitive and easier to use.
Development Process
Flutter belongs to the fastest cross-platform frameworks for developing an app & is renowned for its high performance. which enables smooth and responsive transitions. It has its own built-in widgets which also enhance performance by decreasing the amount of interaction between the app and the underlying platform.
Additionally, flutter has access to various third-party UI libraries with ready-made components, which decreases the development time and makes the process smoother and faster. Another useful flutter feature is “Hot Reloading” which guides developers to see the changes instantly.
Performance
As we have read above that flutter is developed with a Dart language, which allows it to compile code faster than JavaScript. Because of this, flutter shows animations at 60 fps as a standard.
It has been observed that Flutter apps have high performance by default, and also offer users suggestions that help to get the desired results, which includes performance optimization & improvement.
What is React Native?
Alternatively, the React Native app development framework leverages the best aspects of native development with React to develop user interfaces. It is based on the renowned React library and offers a range of powerful features that allow developers to build high-performance apps with less effort.
However, React native helps developers to develop an app, without having to create a separate code for every platform, which is time and cost-effective. Usually, it offers access to native APIs and elements like geolocation, contacts, and cameras providing you the ability to create powerful apps with an incredible UI library and offers cross-platform support.
Development Process
React native is popular for its fast development times and accessibility to third-party UI libraries with ready-made widgets that save time during development. Additionally, it allows the delivery of new features to supported platforms instantly, which requires less time. It also possesses some of the flutter features like hot reload, which allows developers to make quick changes.
Performance
React native is developed in JavaScript language, and do not offer a high level of app performance. Therefore, developers must merge the extra iterations with native ones to get the desired effect.
However, the architect of react native is made up of two parts JavaScript & native, that’s why the framework needs a JS bridge to connect with native elements, which makes the react native slower than others.
Flutter Vs React Native: Key Differences
Both Flutter and react native have many similarities, but they are also quite different from each other in different ways. However, Flutter uses the Dart programming language in its codebase, while React native uses JS, but they both are the same in design.
Programming Language
Flutter relies on Dart, a programming language created by Google. It allows super productive mobile app development and shares similarities with well-known object-oriented programming languages including C++ and Java. Developers need to know that it usually takes minimal time to write codes with Dart because of its object-oriented concept.
Whereas React native depends on JavaScript and uses ReactJS, a set for generating user interfaces. The libraries and pre-built modules of JavaScript make programming a lot easier
Architecture
Flutter framework usually uses the BLoC architecture, which has three major benefits which are, testable, powerful, and simple. The main purpose of this architecture is to build complex products out of simple blocks. However, this architect decreases the time required to get accustomed to a project, it is more reliable when working on a commercial development project with short deadlines.
On the other hand, react native uses flux, which needs JavaScript as a programming bridge to operate the code. Hence, it inherently lowers the app rendering time, which is a downside of flux.
User Interface
Flutter UI development is fully compatible and customized with Google’s Material and Apple’s Cupertino design. But while using React native, you may have to adjust and generate components using JavaScript and use patches in your code to make them work. So, if we talk about user interface, flutter wins.
Code Reusability
Flutter’s codebase is more reusable than react native, which makes Flutter leading in terms of code reusability. Flutter allows you to modify a single line in your codebase, define a new logic, and reuse your codebase for another purpose. However, flutter graphical coding and intuitive interface contribute to easy reusability.
Device Compatibility
If we discuss the device compatibility of both frameworks, flutter supports iOS 11 and later, and the same goes for React Native apps. For Android development, you will need a minimal SDK version of Android 4.1+ for Flutter and Android 6.0+ to run React native apps at the best performance. Hence, you can choose Flutter as the more compatible one.
Documentation
Flutter is a new framework as compared to react native, and from the start, it focused on developing comprehensive documentation with planned resources and videos. While on the other hand, despite a lot of third-party documentation & guidelines, it is sometimes challenging to find react native resources. That’s the reason, its documentation is not impressive, but many developers find it useful. Though, it’s difficult to choose the one in the documentation aspect.
Debugging
Flutter has a hot reload feature that lets developers iterate on their code to simplify debugging instantly. Flutter’s built-in debugging environment makes the process of resolving issues easier and more convenient. But the only downside is that its debugging environment is a bit tricky.
While react native also provides its own benefits when talking about debugging. With more accessible and visible code as compared to traditional native apps, you can instantly detect errors and fix them. But there are some negative things as it has less rich core components as compared to Flutter, and the debugging process is quite tedious.
Final Verdict
When it comes to choosing the best one, Flutter and React native both have their own pros & cons. From the development point of view, mobile app development company usually prefer Flutter, as it is simple to use, offers a more customized UI, and has a shorter development time because of its hot reload feature.
However, on the other hand, react native has broader community support, but is slower in performance and needs more configuration for platform-specific functionality.
Therefore, flutter is a leading choice for businesses that prioritize app speed and have a higher budget, whereas react native may be good for businesses that need faster development time and a small budget. However, you can contact the best mobile app development company to develop react native or Flutter apps to streamline your business goals.