So, finally, you decided to build a cross-platform mobile app for your business. Congratulations, you are on the right path. Now, how will you choose one in the battle of Flutter vs React Native? Let’s Find out.
A couple of years back, there was a misconception that cross-platform development comes with several risks and if you want to take the complete advantage of the mobile platform, you should build a native app.
Then, another misconception came that cross-platform products are not user-friendly, less reliable and harder to integrate with third-parties. After a few years, when Cross Platform App Development frameworks evolved, these misconceptions started fading.
Today, there are various frameworks in the market utilizing which mobile application developers can create successful cross platform applications. The best out of these frameworks are Flutter and React Native.
Both come with a lot of similarities like creating applications with just one codebase for both platforms, hot reloading, amazing UI/UX, native features and magnificent tooling. However, they do have differences. Entrepreneurs often get confused between Flutter vs React Native when selecting the framework for developing business mobile apps.
To find an appropriate answer to this question, we have to explore Flutter vs React Native against several factors. But, first, let’s take a quick overview of both these platforms to understand them better:
| A Quick Overview | Flutter | React Native | |
| 1. | Initial Release | 2017 | 2015 |
| 2. | Developers | ||
| 3. | Language | Dart | Javascript |
| 4. | Performance | Best | Good |
| 5. | Time-to-Market | Faster | Slower than Flutter |
| 6. | Documentation | Precise, Clear, Up-to-date | Up-to-date, imprecise |
| 7. | Popular Apps | Alibaba, Google, Google Ads | Facebook, Instagram, Uber, Tesla |
| 8. | Competitive Advantage | Simpler, Faster, and Elegant Native Apps | More Than 3 Years In The Market Within The Ability To Deliver Native-Like App Experiences |
What Is Flutter?
It is an open-source SDK that can be utilized to make native-looking iOS and Android applications from a similar codebase. It is launched in the market since 2015 by Google, however, the buzz around it has developed just recently.
Being in its beta version for a while, Flutter was officially released on December 2018. But, the mobile app development industry is as yet fearful about Flutter. Is it reliable? That is yet to be seen.
What Is React Native?
React Native is a JS framework for making natively rendering mobile applications for Android and iOS. The framework relies on React, FB’s JavaScript library for making beautiful user interfaces, however as opposed to targeting the browser, it targets mobiles.
Unlike Flutter, React Native is a well-established platform with help and support from a huge community. However, what the future holds for React Native is still needs to be seen.
Now that we know the definition of Flutter and React Native and the battle they are fighting in the market. Let’s explore and find out which out of the two is best by comparing them against several factors.
Flutter vs React Native: Top 6 Attributes to Consider While Deciding the Winner of the Battle
To decide which one is better for Cross platform app development, lets first define the attributes based on which we will compare all of the above. And, these are:
- Programming Language
- UI Component and Development API
- Development Time
- Stability And Flexibility
- DevOps and CI/CD Support
- Community Support
The Comparison: React Native vs Flutter – Who is the Winner?
| Attributes | React Native | Flutter | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Programming Language | JavaScript | Dart | React Native |
| 2. | UI Component and Development API | Less Components | More Components | Flutter |
| 3. | Development Time | Less Development Time | Less Development Time | Both are Fast |
| 4. | Stability And Flexibility | More Stable and Flexible | Less Stable and Flexible | React Native |
| 5. | DevOps and CI/CD Support | No Support | Good Support | Flutter |
| 6. | Community Support | Good | Bad | React Native |
1. Programming Language
The key advantage of using cross-platform technology is the ability to utilize a single programming language to create applications for Android and iOS. Let’s see these framework’s take on programming languages to decide the winner of React Native vs Flutter Battle:
React Native – JavaScript
React Native uses JavaScript to develop cross-platform applications. Javascript is a well-known programming language in the web community. It is usually utilized with React and other well-known JavaScript frameworks.
Using React Native, web developers can make mobile applications just after a little bit of training or practice. Given this, businesses are embracing React Native as an easy decision. JavaScript is a language with dynamic types and everything is possible with it, which is great as well as bad at the same time.
Flutter – Dart
Flutter is completely based on Dart Programming Language which was launched by Google in 2011. In Spite of being a wonderful programming language, Dart is not used much by developers as of now. The syntax of Dart is quite simple for Java and JavaScript developers since its concepts are much similar to object-oriented concepts.
It’s also easy for developers to learn dart as there is great and simple-to-understand documentation accessible on the official Dart site.
The Verdict
JavaScript is a well-known and used language by most of the web developers so it is easy to adopt the React Native framework. On the other hand, Dart also comes with a great set of features but it is less known in the development community. So, the battle of Flutter vs React Native goes in the favor of React Native here.
2. UI Component and Development API
When creating cross-platform apps, if you are getting support from native components, it can become the key to your success. Without native components, it is almost impossible to make an application look and feel like the native one. So, a framework for developing cross platform apps must-have an API using which it can access the native modules easily.
Let’s see in Flutter vs React Native, who wins the battle of UI components:
React Native — Less Components
The React Native framework just provides UI rendering and APIs to access devices. To access other native modules, it has to depend on third-party libraries. This makes react native too much dependent on third-party libraries.
Flutter — Rich in Components
Flutter, on the other hand, is packed with a lot of UI rendering components, navigation, device API access, testing and loads of other libraries as well. This rich set of components expels the need to utilize third-party libraries. If you are using the Flutter framework, it implies you will have everything required for creating mobile applications. It also has widgets for Material Design and Cupertino that enable developers to effectively render the UI on both – Android and iOS platforms.
The Verdict
When it comes to UI components and API development, React Native relies too much on third-party libraries whereas Flutter is itself rich in components. Hence, between React native vs Flutter, Flutter is a clear-cut winner here.
3. Development Time
The time taken by the developer to design & develop an app directly depends on his productivity which is the key to making apps faster. In such a manner, a developer must be able to concentrate on application development with no sort of distraction or wait.
Let’s see which out or Flutter and React Native can increase developers productivity and make an app in less time:
React Native – Less Development Time
In case a developer is well-versed in JavaScript, then it is very simple to utilize those skills for developing cross-platform apps. React Native has a hot reload feature which spares a lot of development time while testing the code in the UI. Also in terms of IDE support, React Native app developers are allowed to utilize any text processor or IDE they prefer.
Flutter – More Development Time
Flutter also have a hot-reload feature and it’s very easy to begin with the demo application. However, as the complexity of application being developed grows, the flutter app developer would need to learn and embrace the new Flutter concepts. Also, Dart is not a well-known programming language and there is an absence of support for it in numerous IDEs and text editors.
The Verdict
Being a well-established framework, React Native has incredible community support when it comes to IDEs. Flutter is comparatively new. However, considering this, we can not say that Flutter is slower than React Native. Both frameworks are equally fast. Flutter is catching up React Native very soon – its community is growing fast. I would say its a tie here in terms of Development time between Flutter and React Native.
4. Stability And Flexibility
Stability becomes an important factor while Cross platform app development. And yet again, we have a tough competition here.
React Native – More Stable and Flexible
React Native is a cross platform app development framework which is acknowledged for its amazing features and reliability in the market. It is quite stable since its inception in the market and also enjoys the support of a huge community. The framework offers consistent UI/UX via directly communicating with the native platforms.
Flutter – Less Stable and Flexible
Again, flutter is comparatively new in the market. Its Alpha version is yet not stable enough for big and complex apps and features. Flutter beta 2 version, has numerous features, yet it will take some time before the developer’s community embrace it instead of React Native as it needs to prove its soundness.
The Verdict
Indeed, when talking about Flutter vs React Native in terms of stability, React Native is a clear-cut winner. As a new contestant, Flutter is still working on improving its stability.
5. DevOps and CI/CD Support
Constant Integration and Delivery practices are crucial for every mobile app so as to get persistent feedback and avoid releasing apps with buggy code.
React Native
React Native isn’t having any official documentation on CI/CD. However, there are a few articles which portray CI/CD for React Native applications which seems to be insufficient for developers.
Flutter
On the other hand, Flutter has a section on Integration and Testing which incorporates links to outside sources. Also, a rich command-line interface of Flutter enables developers to set up CI/CD effectively and easily.
The Verdict
Flutter applications are simple and effortless to set up on CI/CD services by utilizing its solid CLI devices. However, React Native doesn’t have any official guidelines to CI/CD. Thus, React native vs Flutter Winner is Flutter.
6. Community Support
When developers begin to show interest in a technology and embrace it in their development practices, they form a community to share information. A solid community helps developers in learning from each other and take care of the issues you are confronting. Let’s see the take of Flutter vs React Native on the same:
React Native
React Native was released in 2015 and has been in the limelight ever since. There is a strong network of React Native engineers on GitHub and its developers are active in loads of meetups and conferences around the globe.
Flutter
About 5 to 6 years ago, Google came out with Flutter, however, it acquired the spotlight when Google talked about it in 2017 during one of its conferences.
These days, the community of flutter is developing rapidly along with meeting and conferences happening worldwide. To put it plainly, the Flutter community is developing quickly; yet, there are still insufficient assets for engineers to solve common issues in Flutter.
The Verdict
The community and resources of React Native are well-established since the technology was released by Facebook. However, Flutter is comparatively new but it seems like it will soon catch up with the trends. Winner – React Native.
So, now that you have seen the comparison of both the frameworks against several factors, it is time to make a decision. Find out your project requirements, discuss with proficient cross platform mobile app developers and make the right decision to make your business app a success.
The Final Words: React Native vs Flutter
It is surely an intriguing time in mobile app development. We are moving from simply native app development for iOS or Android and grasping the latest technologies that develop cross-platform apps. Even though, React Native has some solid points today, Flutter is a developing contender and it will be embraced by developers in the coming days.
Selecting a technology to build your application, truly relies upon the features you need to integrate into your app and your industry background. If you are in contact with good C++ or Java developer, you may like Dart and Flutter will be the right choice for you. However, if your experience is in web development and you adore JavaScript, React Native will be a superior choice for you.