Flutter vs React Native: Total Comparison

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Flutter vs React Native: total comparison

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First theory: Are you ready to implement your idea and start developing it? But it is hard to make the right choice between two famous and top vendors Flutter and React Native, right? Therefore, do not swipe, but read to the end! 

The second theory: you have a written application based on bad technology. You have trouble maintaining and expanding your project. Do you have to do something about it?

The third theory: you already have a product ready, but you want to make sure the decision to select the development for it was right.

A detailed analysis of the capabilities, pros, and cons of Flutter vs. React Native helps you make an informed decision with your app development project. Now that you know what to expect…

Let’s compare the two powerful tools!

Flutter overview

Flutter is a free mobile interface framework set up by Google and released in May 2017. Flutter popularity has been steadily growing over the years. 

The main advantage of Flutter is that it allows you to create cross-platform applications using a single code base. This significantly reduces the time and resources required to launch and support an application. Typically, companies have needed different tools and developers to create an application that adapts across industries: web, mobile, and desktop.

“Flutter is Google’s user interface toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled apps for mobile, web, and desktop from a single code base.” – Google, flutter.dev

Flutter pros and cons

Pros

Cons

  • Looks great;
  • Young framework with typical problems that are difficult to fix;
  • Rich in widgets;
  • Applications take longer to load and take up a lot of space;
  • Fast-growing community;
  • Libraries and support are impressive, but not as productive as native development;
  • Structured documentation;
  • Regular mobile development improvements;
  • Requires less testing;
  • High speed of development, as well as applications on the Flutter, run more quickly slightly than on the RN
  • Creating a user interface for older devices;

When to operate flutter?

  • Small budgets;
  • Short development time frame;
  • Applications focused on the user interface;
  • Iteration (hot reload);

React Native overview

React Native is a multi-platform framework created by Facebook. With a code base written in JavaScript, React Native makes it easier to create cross-platform applications by lowering the entry barrier for JavaScript developers.

Web development has been in existence for many years, and most web developers have used JavaScript for most of their careers. Mobile development is still relatively new, but the ecosystem has expanded significantly in recent years.

Nowadays, a lot of European tech companies use React Native to develop applications. Like Flutter, React Native lets you create applications on different platforms with just one code base.

React Native pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Hot Reboot – helps to code quickly;
  • For some cases requires domestic developers
  • Single code base – the ability to create applications for two or more platforms. The same situation is with a web application if React.js is used;
  • Poor performance compared to Flutter;
  • Use of JavaScript or TypeScript;
  • Fewer components out of the box;
  • Reuse of code;
  • Applications are larger than native ones.
  • Active and supportive community;
  • React js developers can easily learn React Native;
  • High performance;
  • Lower development cost (code reuse, easier to find developers);

When to operate React Native?

  • Large budgets and complex projects;
  • Complex cross-platform applications;
  • Reusing code for mobile and desktop applications;
  • Less experienced developers due to extensive documentation support;
  • Good if the web version of your product is written in React.js.

Main differences between Flutter and React Native?

In many ways, Flutter and React Native differ. They make it very easy for programmers to start developing apps, which explains why there are so many React Native and Flutter app development companies.

Documentation

Flutter and React Native have really great documentation guides. Flutter documentation is easy to read because it is well-formatted and structured. React Native documentation is more complicated than Flutter. 

Dynamic vs static programming

In terms of the underlying programming language, there is a significant difference between Flutter and React Native. 

JavaScript is dynamic in origin. This means that you can change the values of different data types, which makes it very versatile.

Dart is both dynamic and static, giving it the best of both worlds. A language with statically typed data is usually considered safer because it forces you to declare and use the correct data type. 

Project size

React Native apps have a JavaScript runtime environment. Although they often have a larger build size, this size can be reduced in React Native by enabling Hermes and ProGuard.

Flutter apps usually have larger file sizes, but Flutter apps will still take up more space due to the larger build size. You should know that this causes many problems, so we recommend using TypeScript

Layout

Flutter uses a widget style to build the user interface, while React Native uses JavaScript and JSX.

Flutter widgets are pre-built, so you don’t need to create your own if you don’t like to. Since the widgets have been created and tested by Google, you don’t need to worry about compatibility issues.

Both technologies are quite modern and cool. Either of them is suitable for developing cool products. Hire Flutter developer or React Native specialist from Omisoft to get highly skilled and experienced talents in your project.

Flutter vs React Native – Comparisons

Technology React Native  Flutter
Created by Facebook Google
First release Jan 2015 May 2017
Programming language JavaScript Dart
Apps Instagram, Facebook, Tesla Google Ads, Philips Hue, Postmuse
Time-to-market Comparatively slower Comparatively faster
Hot Reload Supported  Supported
Main Architecture Flux and Redux BLOC
Components library Large inclusive library. Smaller, non-inclusive.
Performance Slower performance because of JavaScript bridging. However, on modern devices, applications work fast. High-performing, quick.
Adaptive Components Some are adaptive automatically. Components aren’t adaptive. Need to be configured manually.
Learning Curve Easy to pick up, especially if you are used to React or Javascript before. The platform is based on the Dart programming language – another Google development. The syntax is similar to the familiar Java and JavaScript, which means it will be easy to learn Flutter if you have experience with them.
Ecosystem Quite mature, used in production in many big companies around the world, many packages available. Not yet mature, a fewer number of packages.

How do you choose Flutter or React Native?

Which is better: Flutter vs React Native? There is no clear winner in this topic; Flutter and React Native development services have pros and cons, and the right choice will depend on the goals and requirements of your app or other projects.

Both technologies are very effective and powerful. If you put it on the shelves, React Native will be more useful when you have another web product, because it will be a cheaper option. If you do not have a web product, both React Native and Flutter will do.

In conclusion…

Both technologies have pros and cons depending on your use case and application types, which you should carefully consider before choosing Flutter vs React Native. The idea is to fill the gap between the two platforms (Android and iOS). 

Some developers say that Flutter is the future of mobile app development. But React Native remains at the top with some of the most impressive apps on the market today, like Facebook and Instagram. 

Both technologies are quite modern and cool. Either of them is suitable for developing cool products. Hire Omisoft to connect with highly skilled Flutter and React Native developers. 

If you are considering developing mobile (or even web) applications for multiple platforms at once, we can help you. Our OmiSoft development team works with both Flutter and React Native frameworks.

Let us know your needs and we will contact you to discuss the details.

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