React Native or Flutter? Which is a better choice?

Launching an app on both the App Store and Google Play is every business’s desire. Technology helps us make an app, and thus, as technology asks for improvement day by day, mobile apps are the most trending way to get people’s attention. These apps help the company to achieve its goals. So, developers have brought about their shift to using cross-platform applications.

In short, React Native and Flutter have become the two leading and most popular class-platform software development mobile applications. These are the main competing frameworks since 2019. The adoption rate of these applications has increased tremendously for two years in a row now. So, let’s take a dive into the details of each app and know which one to choose.

Flutter

On a primary note, Flutter is a UI Software Development Kit (SDK) for mobile applications developed by a team at Google. It uses the Dart language and helps us create native applications for the App Store and Google Play. 

Flutter can help you make high-quality Progressive Web Apps, including tailored UX, installation, and offline support. You can also use it for Single Page Applications and existing mobile applications.

Some popular apps built through Flutter are:

• Xianyu app by Alibaba
• Google Ads app
• eBay Motors app
• Philips Hue
• Groupon, and others.

 Flutter’s alpha release was in May 2017, which means it is younger than React Native.

Advantages:

• Fast Coding – A developer can fix bugs or add new features instantly since Flutter has faster coding. Within no time, the changes get reflected in the application.
• Appealing Designs- People love Flutter for its attractive designs. With its easy UI, you can easily create a widget or customize the existing ones.
• Single Code for multiple platforms- At present, a single code works for two applications, including iOS and Android. It means that you can see the exact version on both platforms. You can also make some differences in both platforms using Flutter.
• 50% less testing – Since the same application can run on both platforms, you need to test the application on only one platform. It saves your time to complete the Quality Assurance process.
• Supports older devices- You do not have to worry about older devices since new apps look the same on older iOS and Android systems.

Disadvantages:

• Lesser Support- Since Flutter is new, we do not always get its functionalities in the libraries. Hence, the developers have to work harder and build custom functionalities.
• Still Developing Community-Dart is not as popular as Javascript. So, it took time for people to adapt to Flutter. But now, it has its edge back in the competition with React Native.
• App Size- Flutter’s app sizes are bigger than native ones.

Architecture

Flutter has a layered architecture. The application starts with platform-specific widgets, followed by basic widgets interacting with the rendering layers. Then comes the animation gestures transferring API calls to the application’s foundation. It is run by a C/C++ engine.

To separate the presentation layer from business logic, you must use Flutter BLoC. Through this, junior Flutter developers can also create complex applications.

React Native

This application is being designed as a Mobile Application Framework. It is perhaps a renowned world champion of cross-platform mobile development. React Native has a library built based on JavaScript and being created by Facebook. It allows development over both iOS and Android Apps.

Some popular apps made through React Native are:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Fb Ads Manager
• Pinterest
• Skype
• Bloomberg, and others.

Advantages:

– Optimum Performance-

• Relative Maturity- Compared to Flutter, React Native is older. So, Facebook got sufficient time to fix the bugs and stabilize the API.
• Large Developers Community – It has a larger community that serves uncountable tutorials, libraries, and UI frameworks.

Apart from these, React Native also has a few features similar to Flutter like:

• 50% less testing
• Single code for multiple platforms
• Fast coding

Disadvantages:

• Not Native -The UI experience and performance are not the same as native apps.
• Many Abandoned Packages- We learned that React Native has a vast library. But most of them are of low quality, and a few have been abandoned together.

Architecture

For React Native, the architecture uses the JavaScript Code and the Native API. JavaScriptCore runs every code separately in iOS and bundles the JavaScriptCore in Android. 

A Comparative Study

1. Flutter is a good choice if you have a minimal budget or make a simple application. However, if you desire a complicated app and have a sufficient budget, React Native is the go-to choice.

2. Flutter app looks awesome and has up-to-date operating systems. With one codebase, the app behaves uniformly across platforms. Moreover, the app contains two sets of widgets that stand up to particular design languages. Besides, React Native consists of components that look native and give the confidence of up-gradation after an Android or iOS update. The use of third-party libraries would enable the user to have Material Design components.

3. The launch of Flutter 2 allowed sharing of code to native apps of five operating systems called – Android, Linux, iOS, Windows, and macOS. While for React Native, libraries build the same codes. We can also extract the code in mobile, desktop, and web applications.

4. Talking about the marketing strategies of these apps, Flutter is much faster than native development. However, React Native uses the bridge and native elements to make a different optimization for every issue.

5. So far, the Flutter team has given their best to document the features of Flutter. On the contrary, React Native has plenty of tutorials and libraries that enable quick and smooth development.

6. Choose Flutter if UI is the key priority of your app, and in case you want a universal code for mobile, desktop, and the web, choose React Native.

7. Ensure that you do not choose Flutter if you require an app smaller than 4MB, and don’t opt for React Native if you need a higher efficiency of calculations in your app.

The Future:

Flutter keeps improving itself, and hence it has proved to be successful in attracting most companies. The helpful community of Flutter allows users to create apps for the web and desktop in addition to mobile applications. 

Whereas, React Native is on a large scale focusing on the re-architecture of technology. The team is trying its best to improve and support React Native users and build a wider community. It pays off a great thank you to the community as it has enabled them to be open to suggestions for various changes in the framework and the core functionalities through a fixed process.

Who’s The Winner?

So, when to choose Flutter, and when to choose React Native? You can answer this question considering that delivery of projects on time is one of the most basic, critical aspects and a major requirement that needs to be fulfilled for mobile apps and web app development.

This cross-platform nature of the two allows reduced time-to-market with a cherry on the cake as third-party libraries and ready-to-use components make it more efficient.

Apart from the speedy development of the business, Flutter and React Native also reduce the cost of projects. It again benefits the companies to save their revenue.

Hence, it is impossible to conclude a winner in the battle of Flutter and React Native. Each of them has its pros and cons, and both of them are a great solution as they support the needs of a developer.

Thus, each framework would help your application to spread its wings wide and fly, while all you can do is give your best and keep your fingers crossed!

You can also learn about the top mobile app frameworks here.