The proper framework for your business application can make or break productivity and its features. A poorly-designed mobile application will overheat the device, lag or even malfunction. This article is for you if you want to develop apps quickly while reducing costs with cross-platform development. Here we compare the top players in the market – Flutter Vs React Native and help you identify the best framework to design your app.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a portable UI toolkit designed by Google to build apps across mobile, web and desktop using a single codebase. Flutter is a free and open-source framework that uses the programming language – Dart.
As they have only a single codebase, you can simultaneously create a mobile app for iOS and Android easily. One of the key features of Flutter is its two sets of widgets that abide by the respective design languages. This means that a typical Flutter mobile app will look and behave as per its native gadgets and up-to-date versions.
The amazing collection of widgets adds an aesthetic appeal while delivering promising performance to the users. Flutter uses rich interfaces which can be customized straight to the last pixel without compromising on the speed of the application.
Unlike native UI lacking proper features, Flutter UI ensures error-free performance and uniform view on all compatible platforms.
Pros and Cons of Flutter
Pros
- Offers 6x faster performance than React Native
- It is a dynamic and faster app development program
- You can easily make changes in code and see it instantly reflecting in the app
- Has features that help the development team to fix bugs and implement new ideas promptly
- A single codebase that covers both mobile platforms
- Amazing collection of widgets and designs to add aesthetic value
- Easier QA process with up to 50% less testing
- Smoother and faster performing apps without hanging or cutting
- Supports devices with older OS versions without changing their look
Cons
- Impressive but still new
- Developers may have trouble finding the functionality they need in current libraries
- Apps written in Flutter are more significant than native ones that might increase the APK size
What is React Native?
A framework created by Facebook in 2015, React Native is another toolkit that can be used to build native applications.
Like Flutter, React Native is a free and open-source framework that uses the Javascript programming language. The application components in React Native, unlike Flutter, looks just like native ones. For instance, the button in an iOS device looks just like the built-in iOS button, and the same goes for Android as well.
One of the top cross-platform mobile development frameworks, React Native offers you impressive features and supports various platforms making it one of the popular toolkits. It was at its peak of popularity back in 2018. React Native Github repository was on the top second, showing that the developer community still uses it and contributes to its enhanced performance.
Pros and Cons of React Native
Pros
- Instant changes in the development process and instant changes in the app
- Same as Flutter, where a single codebase works for two platforms – iOS and Android
- It uses Javascript, which is one of the popular languages many developers are aware of, unlike Dart, which is not yet known or used
- Offers freedom to developers to create cross-platform apps
- Has an active and enormous developer community
Cons
- Supports only basic components/widgets out of the box
- Though developers have freedom of choice, it takes time to comprehend the shades of every solution and choose the best ones to use in the project
- Though React Native has a huge collection of libraries, there are either of low quality or ditched completely
- React Native uses native components, making the app quite fragile as it can easily break the app’s UI (though it’s very rare)
- Apps written in React Native need to build a library supporting Java code resulting in an app size bigger than native Android apps (as Android doesn’t have this functionality by default)
So which is the best – Flutter Vs. React Native?
Many people are attracted to Flutter because of its user-friendly performance. While Flutter has received 120,000 stars on GitHub (May 2021), React Native has got 95,300 stars.
Both the programs offer cross-platform nature and reduce testing time. Both offer more than speed and performance as they can reduce the overall projects costs significantly.
Although React Native developers are widespread, the mere fact that Google backs Flutter creates a severe impact and makes it the best alternative to React Native.
Each framework can help you build your application and give your career wings to fly. Best of luck with your next steps…!!!
FAQ
1. Is Flutter easy to understand for non-it background candidates?
Absolutely. You can learn Flutter or any other technology if you have a passion for learning. The course is designed so that it covers the basics of programming before we dive to Flutter. This makes it easy for beginners to understand the basic concept of coding before moving to Flutter. We will cover advanced concepts in Dart, which is the programming language used in Flutter.
2. Can be learning Flutter boost my career in/out of India?
Flutter is currently the No.1 mobile app development technology. It’s been used by both MNCs and start-up businesses. Any company that needs to develop a mobile app will require Flutter. This will make it easy for you to land a job as an app developer.
3. What are the essential requirements to learn Flutter?
Apart from passion being the driving force to learn something new, all you need is a good computer with a minimum of 8GB RAM and a good internet connection.
4. What will be the job profile after you learn Flutter?
Your profile will be a Mobile app developer/Front-end developer or even a Software Development Engineer based on the company.
5. What is Flutter in simple terms?
Almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays. Like mobile apps such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., mobile apps are developing a program such as Flutter, React Native, Native Android, etc. that are used to build mobile apps. Among these, Flutter is the most used technology in mobile app development. The key feature of Flutter is you can create an app for both Android and iOS by using a single codebase. This technology is called hybrid technology.
