Not sure which one to select between Flutter and React Native ?

This article is your guide to learn about the popular debate; Flutter Vs React Native.

Some time back developing and maintaining the same app for both iOS and Android used to be a tedious task.

We used to have separate code base, separate development team, more cost of operation & time-taking development.

Oh how tough were those days!

The mobile app developer community, the service providers and the consumers needed a revolution that solves this problem.

These important changes in mobile app development arrived in the form of Hybrid or cross-platform App development techniques.

How Cross-platform app development fits into this scenario?

Not only developers but the businesses and startups too were working hard towards achieving this goal by developing the cross-platform app Hire React Native app for their businesses.

Facebook lead this revolution and back in 2015, introduced React native.

Being a Facebook offering and free to use nature it was destined to get an amazing response from the developer community. Today, React native is the tech behind major apps like Facebook, Wal-Mart, UberEats, Instagram, & Tesla etc to name a few.

Google too joined the bandwagon and launched its framework called Flutter. This also promised native-standard performance to all the application.

Since then there has been confusion among new startups about which to choose. This gave rise to the debate of Flutter vs. React native.

In this article, I am going to discuss the hot comparison between React Native and Flutter.

In case you are a person or start-up without technology awareness, you may not be aware of these frameworks.

Hence let’s start with a formal introduction!

Flutter is the Software development kit (SDK) released by Google. It allows the developers to create apps for iOS & Android, using a single code base.

This framework does the same thing as Flutter but in a different fashion. It is released by Facebook to create fast performing apps without compromising the look and feel.

Detailed Comparison between Flutter & React Native:

Let’s have a detailed understanding about the differences between these two platforms.

Programming Languages

Both of them are using different programming languages as their code engine.

React native is developed and released by Facebook allows developers to develop apps using JavaScript. Hence it is understandable why React native gained success in the development of server-specific, web, or mobile applications.

Whereas, Flutter is developed and released by Google includes a new programming language known as Dart. Though, it’s new to developers, but those who with experience in OOP languages such as C++ and JAVA can easily adapt to learn and code, using this language.

Development Speed

When we discuss about Flutter vs react native development speeds; React Native gets the edge over flutter. Its ready-to-use components help developers to make an app with a very less turnaround time. On the other hand, flutter, is looking for ways to beat React Native in terms of development time.

According to Datanalyze , React native has a Market share of 4.3 % in the United States, which is higher than flutter at this stage.

Performance

For developers, performance is the most important aspect. React native works and performs faster and any other cross platform technology as in the back end, JavaScript runs independently to interact with native modules for any actions needed.

On the other hand, the performance of flutter has a different philosophy as compared to native-script. It is compiled using OOP languages C/C++ library, it is more of a direct machine language which enables it to perform better.

All in all, the performance of both platforms is somewhat close to each other. React Native just performs marginally better due to its close interaction with Native codes from Google and Apple for their respective Mobile OS.

Architecture

The React Native supports two types of architectures to build mobile apps, called Flux and Redux.

The former is made by Facebook whereas the latter is enhanced by the developer community. Due to the unidirectional data flow, the app components are stateless and the app’s state is in one central place called the store.

Being a new tech, Flutter is hard to be prescribed as the best architecture for mobile apps. However, there are many popular components such as BloC (Business Logic Component) which depends on streams and RXDart (Reactive Dart).

IDE and Ease of Coding

If we talk about the IDEs for React Native, then it is supported by almost all the leading IDEs.

Whereas, Flutter is supported by Android studio/IntelliJ & visual studio code. It has less support overall, than React Native.

Since React Native has the power of JavaScript, the learning curve is easier. On the other hand, Dart being the newly invented language is a little hard for the developers initially.

Code Structure

Google’s dart does not have separation of template, style, and data files. Therefore, the code gets hard to understand. Whereas in case of React Native, JavaScript follows the simple code structure which results in cleaner code structure for the developers to understand and write the code.

Stability and Flexibility

The most important aspect for flawless mobile apps is its stability. Both platforms have the support of leading tech communities, so there is no doubt about their stability and long term code support.

React Native has a larger community support, hence, it enjoys being one of the most popular and reliable frameworks and its ahead of Flutter at this stage.

On the other hand, Flutter has launched its new version beta 2.0 that is also having some impressive features for the developers.

When it accounts for providing flexibility and customization, React Native is clearly leading the game.

It offers a seamless user experience by directly interacting with Native platforms. Whereas, Flutter is offering a rich set of customized widgets (beta stage), to create an engaging experience.

Tetsuhiro Ueda fellow Google Developers Expert has reported in his article on making the app CARTUNE , (cartune app caters to more than 200K subscribers) , though Flutter is having minute level stability issue , he believes that the platform is going to be one of the best platform in the future as its gaining stability every passing day.

Popularity

When it comes to Popularity React native has become one of the prominent leader for the hybrid app development. It is the developers’ favorite for any kind of hybrid, iOS or Android project.

On the other hand, Flutter, as we know is in its early stage and trying its best to make its mark on the mobile app development.

It’s interesting to note the fact that on the day of its launch, Flutter was most trending hash tag of Twitter. That helped the platform to get v high stars on the Git repository and built a good reputation in its early stage. World’s eCommerce giant Alibaba is using Flutter. This shows its promising future in the hybrid app development market.

During F8 conference 2018, both Microsoft and Samsung, committed to bring React Native support in Windows and Tizen respectively. There are already many Windows Platform and Smart TV apps built using React Native.

Quick Comparison

React Native and Flutter Key Difference

Technology React Native Flutter First Release Jan, 2015 May 2017 Built By Facebook Google Coding Languages JavaScript Dart Github Stars (in 2019) 77,827 66,183 Learning curve Easy to learn for React or JavaScript developers “Hard for novices. But easy to learn for experienced C++ and JAVA experts Main architecture Flux & Redux bLoC Components Some are adaptive automatically Nonadaptive. Need to be configured manually Library Very Big &inclusive Smaller &non-inclusive EcoSystem Mature Not yet mature Hot Reload Supported Supported UI components OS native components Proprietary widgets Documentation Smooth documentation Disorganized documentation Time to market Slower than Flutter Faster Native Performance Good Best Popular users Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tesla, Uber, Walmart, Wix.com Alibaba, Google Greentea, GoogleAds, App tree, Tencent

React Native vs Flutter: Final Words

After reading this article you, must have got a fair level of idea about basic differences among React Native and Flutter.

You can decide what to go for your next hybrid app development project.

Where react native is a veteran hybrid app development platform, flutter is also leaving its mark and it is here to stay for long.

It’s up to you what kind of project you are looking for and how much time and money you want to invest in.

At this stage in terms of Robustness both are well comparable but React Native beats Flutter in terms of community support and with easier coding and deployment due to its nature and timeline of existence.