Which is best for Cross-platform app development? React Native or Flutter

Almost two-thirds of the global internet users prefer mobile applications over any other medium to access information or use the internet.

Due to the rapid digitalization, the demand for hybrid mobile applications is on high. 

The growing expectations of customers and the continuous influx of higher technology and frameworks have created a necessity for cross-platform applications.

To achieve greater accessibility and ease of development the majority of enterprises are staking around popular platforms such as Flutter and React Native.

React Native and Flutter are the most popular cross-platform development frameworks developed by Facebook and Google respectively.

Which is the better of the two has been the hottest debate of the past few years and is still going around without a clear winner.

The particular article is dedicated to comparing both the cross-platform frameworks that are Flutter and React Native by considering some basic parameters.

Both the technologies are currently being used to develop immensely popular e-commerce, social and interactive applications with great ease.

Also, React Native and Flutter have notable similarities such as single codebase, extra-ordinary UI and easy to use tool base.

But there exist certain differences that need to be studied in depth for proper evaluation.

What are Flutter and React Native?

The basic advantage of using a cross-platform framework is to allow a single language to develop applications for both Android and iOS.

React Native was introduced by the social media giant Facebook around 2015 as an open-source cross-platform hybrid application platform.

React Native has gained immense popularity among companies due to its language of programming that is JavaScript.

Developers are finding it easy to adopt and use React Native and are calling it the future of cross-platform hybrid apps.

Flutter was introduced by Google in 2017 and uses relatively unpopular language that is Dart.

Flutter is known to create attractive native applications and cross-platform applications with great ease.

The adoption rates of Flutter have grown many folds due to easy to understand the syntax of its programming language Dart.

The comparison will decide the winner of the professional bout between the Flutter and React Native.

Which is the best among Flutter and React Native?

The following discussion will be helpful for all digital enterprises to decide which cross-platform they want to use for their projects.

User Interface

React Native is considered to be the most dynamic cross-platform framework when it comes to user interface design.

React Native is based on native components and thus developer is given more freedom to enhance user experience in all.

Flutter is said to work very smoothly with the owner and proprietary widgets which itself is very exciting.

Flutter provides one of the best-customized UI designs which adds a significant amount of native support and dynamism.

People have argued that Flutter lacks a few components that result in compromise with UI design. Overall both apps have their strengths as well as drawbacks which add to their uniqueness.

Time is taken for Development

React Native is one of the most reliable frameworks when it comes to the time frame for development.

React Native easy to use components that make the whole process simple and quickens the overall pace.

Flutter when compared to React Native requires more time as its framework and components require more of recognition.

Flutter may take time but still is best known for its high-quality usability.

Overall Performance

Flutter leads all other frameworks due to easy to understand and simple to use dart framework.

React Native is superior to all cross hybrid framework as it utilizes the JavaScript layer which helps them easily connect with native components.

It has been observed that React Native has a larger community and is more popular among all. 

Still, developers have reported some issues faced while running the React Native architecture.

Flutter has gained a lot of appreciation because it makes it easy for developers to reuse the existent code.

The flawless working of the C++ engine of Flutter and its support to the language has been applauded throughout the industry.

Stability and Strength

Stability is one of the strongest points of comparison as companies expect applications with flawless working and strong base.

Flutter has faced some controversies as its Alpha Version is not considered stable enough for large projects.

React Native has large community support and is very consistent since inception making it the most popular and reliable framework.

Flutter when compared to React Native is struggling to make a mark but it’s beta 2 version has impressed developers all around.

React Native can be considered a winner in this case because it is already established and very much appreciated for its reliable features.

Customer Base and Popularity

React Native is up to date the favorite framework for developers across the globe. 

The framework of React Native is known to carry out projects of any sizes and shapes.

The legacy of React Native includes big names such as Instagram, Facebook, Skype, Airbnb, and WALMART.

Flutter when compared to React Native is in its struggling days and needs some time to create a popular fan base for itself.

Toolkit and Documentation

Flutter is known to provide tools with extensive IDE’s along with the support of React Native.

The compatibility of Flutter with android studio and visual studio code makes it very good at facilitating all the required documentation.

React Native is not said to be that much organized when comes to documentation.

Arguments have been made that React Native deletes some of the components required to smoothen the record-keeping procedures.

Corporate Support and Banking

React Native is backed by Facebook which has dedicated engineers working on it day and night.

Many internal products of Facebook are coded in React Native which has helped the framework gain the trust of millions of people.

Similarly, Flutter is backed by the giant Google and is well known as an open-source cross-platform framework that uses a single codebase.

Google has one of the finest people in the world trying to make Flutter better by each day.

Global Trends and Job Prospects

According to the survey conducted by Stack, Overflow Flutter has eventually ranked a little higher than React Native.

Flutter only a few years old and gaining such a higher amount of popularity is itself an amazing fact.

Hats off to the developers and promoters of Google!!!

According to the recent statistics, React Native has much higher demands in the market compared to Flutter.

Flutter is still very young in the market and its demand for jobs is expected to increase at a rate predicted very high in the market.

Which is the best according to the perspective of the developer?

Let us make some comparisons between the widely popular platforms React Native and Flutter taking some development parameters.

Architecture

Flutter is known to contain all the native components in the given framework itself.

React Native utilizes the JavaScript Bridge to communicate with native modules which often results in poor performance.

Components and API’s

Flutter is very well known to be very rich in UI components and development API’s.

React Native, on the other hand, is too much dependency on third party libraries.

Productivity and Community

React Native has achieved the desired level of maturity in terms of language features and IDE’s.

Flutter being fairly new is growing rapidly and catching up on its developer support.

Testing and Release Support

Flutter has a rich set of testing features compared to React Native.

Flutter also has a great build set of automation tooling which can be utilized easily to deploy applications from the command lines.

CI/CD and DevOps Support 

Compared to React Native Flutter has an amazing setup system for CI/CD services using CLI tools.

Conclusion

React Native and Flutter both have been embraced by cross-platform communities, in the same way, leaving us with a no clear winner.

The most appropriate statement which can be made would be that if React Native is the winner of today then Flutter is sure to lead tomorrow.

The use of the framework also depends upon the taste of the developers and requirements of the clients.

Such as if you are more of a Java or C++ developer, you may prefer Dart or Flutter.

But if you have a liking towards web development or JavaScript, you are more likely to pick React Native as your hybrid application tool.

Flutter supported by Google has entered the field very strongly and is surely a worthy contender to React Native.

According to now the future of both cross-platform frameworks looks impressive enough.