Mobile became an irreplaceable part of life which propelled the need for businesses to focus on targeting their audience on this medium. The steep rise of mobile use and dependency has increased the demand for creating personal experiences for customers. Even though mobile apps were existing, their use in increasing business was leveraged recently when companies realized their true potential.
Developing a mobile app involved a lot of coding earlier but with the development of technology, developing cross-platform applications became easy and less time-consuming. And when we talk about mobile app development technologies, we cannot miss talking about Flutter and React Native.
What do Flutter and React Native do?
Flutter and React Native is a mobile app development framework that helps in creating mobile applications for various platforms. Flutter was developed by Google and became popular because of its features and ease of use for developing mobile apps. React Native was developed by Facebook which gained popularity for its ability to help create seamlessly functioning mobile apps. Both these platforms are excellent for creating hybrid applications that use web technologies like JavaScript, CSS and HTML. So, if you are looking for a cross-platform application then Flutter and React Native are good choices.
Let’s dive deeper into understanding these two and which one is better.
Flutter Vs React Native
These points will help you decide which platform to choose for your mobile app development. In these points, we will try to answer if you need an expert developer from a Flutter App development company or an expert developer from React Native App development company.
UI or User Interface
Flutter is preferable when it comes to UI because it has proprietary widget sets that enable getting dynamic customized UI designs easily. React Native uses components on the other hand, for customization of UI. However, with Flutter the application might lack a few components that take away user’s experience while React Native provides enhanced user experience through dynamic frameworks.
Architecture
React Native apps makes use of two main patterns for app development- Flux and Redux. Both Flux and Redux follow a unidirectional data flow pattern during the development of the app and make the application components stateless by providing storage of the app’s state in a central store. Developers can also use the new feature of React Native, Context API for managing the state.
Flutter on the other hand offers few architectures that are very popular among developers but it comes with a little uncertainty since it is relatively new, when it comes to choosing the most suitable platform for app development.
Development Time
React Native is more preferred by developers because it offers a more efficient and time-saving app-building besides providing a better user interface.
Flutter offers better customization and usability but it cannot match the straightforward, quick and ready-to-use components of React Native that shortens the development time.
Performance
The difference in the performance between Flutter and React Native lies in the different approaches followed by these platforms. Flutter uses C and C++ library which are very much closer to machine language and also deliver superior performance. All the components in Flutter are compiled using C or C++ including UI.
React Native on the other hand does not use native languages C or C++. It instead uses native equivalents for the compilation of UI components. Here JavaScript acts as a bridge connecting each of the native modules and performs the required actions. React Native thus delivers faster performance in comparison to other hybrid alternatives such as Ionic or Cordova. It, however, does not perform as efficiently as Flutter.
Read More : Top React.js Development Trends To Watch In 2022
Stability
Stability is important for the flawless functioning of a mobile app. In terms of stability, developers prefer React Native over Flutter because it is well established, offers more features and is reliable. Flutter is still in the development phase for improving stability. The Alpha version of Flutter is not very stable for large projects while Flutter Beta 2 versions have many improved and impressive features but it will take some time for developers to adopt Flutter and replace React Native.
Customer Base
React Native has big names in its list of users. Besides Facebook and Instagram, it is also used by Skype, Airbnb, Walmart. It is used by giants and small companies both because it is suitable for all sizes of projects.
Flutter, being a newbie, is still establishing itself in the industry and it will take it a few years to develop a strong customer base as React Native. However, it has few giants like Ten Cent, Alibaba, Hamilton Music, Abbey Road Studios, JD Finance and others in its client list.
Documentation
Documentation is one of the most time-consuming aspects of app development. Flutter makes things easy for developers by providing thorough documentation. It is however difficult to comprehend for developers who have less experience. React Native’s documentation is simple but it is not as organized as Flutter.
Which one to choose between Flutter and React Native
Now, when we talk about comparative analysis, it is important to discuss the Pros and Cons of each framework.
Programming language
Flutter uses Dart while React Native uses JavaScript as its programming language. JavaScript is more popular and is widely used by developers all over for coding mobile apps, websites and servers. Dart on the other hand is new and offers the latest features of other languages for creating a native experience. It is suitable for developers who are experienced in using Java and C++.
Stability
React Native has a lead in terms of stability over Flutter
Customization
Flutter gets the lead here as it offers an extensive set of widgets that make customization easy.
Development time
Flutter offers a customized and extensive range of widgets that shortens the time of development while React Native offers the use of ready-to-use components and access to third-party libraries. Flutter offers a customized and extensive range of widgets that shorten the time of app development.
Performance
Flutter offers simplicity while React Native offers a superior user experience
Conclusion
Choosing the right framework for your app development depends on factors like budget, time-to-market, features, etc. Any Flutter app development company or React Native app development company will only be able to build your app perfectly when you have done your research on the requirement of the app, your target market, competition and future prospects. When you have a clear picture of what you want, choosing the framework will become easier.
