Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Flutter vs React Native – Which to Choose In 2022

Flutter vs React Native

Selecting the right framework for your application is super important to decide its functionalities and productivity. A poorly-developed application won’t work efficiently on every device and might lead to stuttering, lags, or even malfunction. There’s a constant debate between the two cross-platform development frameworks; Flutter and Reactive Native.

Understanding the Frameworks

Reactive Native and Flutter frameworks are used in cross-platform app development. Both of them provide assistance to the developers to decrease the time to launch a project into the market and thus improve productivity. In this blog, we are going to draw a comparison between Flutter and React Native with their architecture, learning curve, performance, community support, use case, and various other factors.

What is Flutter?

It is an open-source framework that works with the programming language called Dart (Developed by Google). This framework is commonly preferred for its improved UI toolkit used for creating cross-platform applications with a single codebase. The developers are able to develop a flexible and expressive UI with native performance by using flutter app development. The Google team of developers supports and contributes to this framework for effective flutter app development. Plus, developers have the backing of an entire flutter community.

Where Flutter is Used

      It is used for creating MVP mobile applications

      Applications following the material design language

      Applications that have OS-level functionality

      OS plugins that work with simple logic      

      Apps compatible with Skia rendering engine

      Reactive applications using huge data integration

      Innovative UI with advanced widgets


What is React Native?

It is another widely popular open-source framework that works on JavaScript. React Native app development has the main aim of native rendering of applications that are compatible with Android and iOS. A unique combination of XML- JavaScript and Esque markup is used to write React Native. This framework was created by Facebook for react native app development and currently, there are over 50 dedicated engineers working on React Native. The framework depends on native components instead of depending on web components as building blocks.

Where React Native is Used

      It is used for developing simple cross-platform applications

      React Native is ideal for fast prototype applications

      It is effective for applications with a simple user interface

      React Native is ideal for applications that almost appear native

      React Native is preferred for applications with reusable components

      It is useful for applications that work with synchronous APS.

 

Let’s Draw a Comparison Between Flutter and React Native with This Chart

 

Flutter 

React Native

Definition

A UI toolkit for the development of natively-compiled applications for mobile, web, desktop from one codebase

A framework used in the development of applications with React

Release Date

December 2018

March 2015

Invented by

Google

Facebook

Open-Source

Yes

Yes

Used Programming Language

Dart

JavaScript

Userbase

Over 120,000 users on GitHub (May 2021)

Over 95,300 users on GitHub (May 2021)

Tops Apps Created with the Technology

Google Ads App, My BMW, Xianyu app by Alibaba, Hamiton, Philips Hue

Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Tesla, etc.

The UI Differences

      Flutter Apps look uniform both on newer and older operating systems.

      The flutter apps look and act similarly across different operating systems because the codebase remains the same.

      Flutter apps are meant to act naturally on each platform by learning from the native components.

 

 

      The React Native Application looks similar to native applications (Ex; the buttons look the same on respective platforms)

      The React Native apps depend on the native components. Thus, any OS update also changes the app’s components.

      You have to use third-party libraries to achieve the native features of the respective platforms.

Competitive Advantages

      Provides the stunning look and feels with advanced widgets

      Continuously growing community

      Get complete documentation support from the Flutter team. This makes it to develop with Flutter

      Enhancing flutter for Web to get one codebase across different mobile and web platforms

      A very stable platform with over 5 years of existence in the market

      Many successful businesses are using React Native

      It is also an easy to learn technology with a huge community

      Developers can reuse the code for web app and desktop application development

Not Ideal When

      If your app requires 3D touch support

      The design of your app is made for a specific platform

      If your app needs to send multiple requests to an OS or needs rare libraries

 

      If your app needs to focus on very specific tasks in the background

       You need customized communication with Bluetooth

      If you want to develop an application only for Android

 

Which One to Choose for Mobile Application Development?

Both of the frameworks are reliable for creating reliable applications. However, there are different use cases where you should choose one of the two options.

Native Platform Support

Flutter can be used for not only mobile and web applications; we can use flutter app development for desktop and embedded applications as well. It is much better when your application can be accessed through almost any device including phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc.

Performance

Flutter apps work with native code, thus improving the overall performance. However, these apps might face performance issues if the graphics functionalities are not optimized from time to time.

Ease of use

The traditional JavaScript developers consider that is much easier to learn React Native. Whereas, learning Flutter requires expertise in Dart programming language

Size of Project

React Native projects are comparatively more lightweight than Flutter projects. It could be a great option for developing applications for wearable devices with limited storage. Thus, choosing react native app development makes a more sensible option.