Flutter Vs React Native- Top Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Frameworks

Flutter and React Native are two popular cross-platform application development frameworks that redefined how the apps developed by minimizing time and cost. Thus, each of the frameworks is available with certain unique benefits for both developers.

Developed by a leading search engine giant Google, Flutter witnessed its growing acceptance for its expressive UI, quick performance, single codebase, etc.

It allows developers to create apps on both platforms be it iOS or Android. Based on the Dart programming language, Flutter includes a range of pre-designed widgets, which makes it a top choice among developers who aim for a visually appealing and seamless user experience.

Backed by Facebook, React Native is another emerging cross-platform app development framework that leverages React and JavaScript. It allows the framework to create native-like applications. The framework is popular for its vast community support and library of third-party plugins. React Native brings the possibility of both the development and maintenance of a mobile application.

In this post, we will discuss Flutter vs React Native and help you select the right option between these two.

React Native vs Flutter – Similarities

Though both React Native and Flutter have certain differences, they also have certain similarities as well. That’s the reason why both frameworks emerged as a popular choice for mobile app development. Let’s discuss several similarities here.

Cross-Platform Development

Both frameworks allow developers to perform coding once and use it on different platforms. It thus minimizes the overall development effort and time when compared to maintaining a separate codebase for each platform be it iOS or Android.

Hot Reloading

Be it Flutter or React Native framework, both frameworks enable hot reloading that enables developers to visualize the effects of code changes in real-time even without restarting the application. It can accelerate the overall development process which makes it easy to debug, experiment, and iterate fast.

High Performance

Both frameworks can deliver near-native performance. React Native generally uses native components through JavaScript Bridges whereas Flutter compiles to native ARM code. It offers smooth animation and also a highly responsive user interface.

Vast Community and Ecosystem

Both React Native and Flutter have vast community support and also have extensive libraries. Flutter has large ecosystems with several packages, tools, and plugins that ensure ease of integration and functionality with several APIs and services.

UI Components Libraries

Every framework provides a range of pre-designed UI components. React Native generally relies on several native components and also third-party libraries such as NativeBase and React Native Elements. Flutter also includes a wide set of widgets with the help of its Cupertino and Material Design libraries. It ensures customizable and consistent UI across a range of platforms.

Popular and Wider Acceptance

Both frameworks gained a wider acceptance for creating top-rated apps. When it comes to React Native, it’s used by a large number of companies like Instagram, Airbnb, Facebook, and others. Flutter, on the other hand, is used by many popular brands like Google Ads, Alibaba, and more.

Which is Better Flutter or React Native?

Choosing the right option between Flutter and React Native is a responsible task. You need to take into account numerous factors to make the right selection. Some of these factors include developer expertise, project requirements, and specific requirements of any application.

With the direct compilation of native code, Flutter can excel in performance and offer a responsive and outstanding user experience. It is available with a range of pre-designed widgets that offer a consistent appearance across multiple platforms. It improves UI development. Flutter is available with a ‘hot reload’ feature, which can maximize the speed of the development time by ensuring real-time code changes. Meanwhile, Dart is less popular compared to JavaScript, which may require developers to learn.

React Native is popular mainly due to the widespread use of JavaScript. It leverages a vast ecosystem of tools and libraries. Live Reload and Hot Reload are the two most significant features of React Native, which boost the productivity of developers. It also allows code reuse between mobile and web platforms. Meanwhile, React Native is behind Flutter in terms of performance, especially when it comes to complex animation.

Flutter Vs React Native – Future

As far as the future of Flutter and React Native is concerned, it seems to be brighter for both of these frameworks. Let’s understand the future of each Flutter and React Native one by one.

Flutter

The popularity of Flutter lies mainly in its capability to deliver high-performing applications with a complete native feel and appearance. It provides a more powerful foundation when it comes to creating complex apps. With its continuous investment, Google aims to make Flutter more advanced, especially in web support and Fuchsia OS integration.

It reflects that Flutter has a broader horizon even beyond a mobile to a unified codebase for multiple platforms. This kind of expansion makes the future of Flutter more promising, especially in situations where both performance and also cohesive design are important.

React Native

As mentioned, React Native is available with the ability to use native components to allow for native performance. Besides, the flexibility of the framework in the integration of third-party libraries and existing codebases offers it an edge in several enterprise scenarios.

Facebook’s commitment is to boost the architecture of React Native to make it relevant even in the coming time. And also to improve its ability to handle even those of complicated and large-scale apps.

So, the selection between React Native app development and Flutter app development generally depends on some specific project requirements and also developer expertise.

Difference Between Flutter and React Native

When it comes to the difference between Flutter and React Native, both frameworks generally differ in their architecture, design philosophy, and the experience they offer to both users and developers. Let’s understand certain key differences between these two frameworks to find out the right one.

1. Origin and Backing

Flutter

Being an open-source UI software development kit (SDK), Flutter first came into existence in the year 2017 and since then, it has grown quickly. It has Google’s backing that ensures its consistent updates, seamless integration, and also substantial community support with an ecosystem of Google.

React Native

Developed by none other than Facebook, React Native is another framework that came into existence in the year 2015. It’s a popular JavaScript library for crafting user interfaces and is used for mobile app development.

2. Programming Language

Flutter

Flutter uses Dart programming language, which is indeed a new and not very popular language compared to others including JavaScript. Meanwhile, it provides the most powerful features including async/await, strong typing, and also comprehensive standard libraries. It comes with easy-to-understand syntax and is good for those who are aware of various object-oriented programming languages.

React Native

React Native leverages mainly a popular variant of JavaScript called JSX, which allows for HTML/XML including syntax within JavaScript. The widespread use of JavaScript and familiarity make it a top choice for most developers, which offers an easy learning curve for those who have enormous web development experience.

3. Architecture and Performance

Flutter

Flutter is better known for having its unique architecture based on the Dart framework. It leverages mainly the Skia graphics library, which renders everything from scratch. This approach works perfectly and ensures well-performing and customizable UIs since it can bypass the need for a JavaScript bridge for interaction with several native components.

React Native

React Native leverages the bridge between native code and JavaScript. This bridge enables JavaScript to communicate with different native modules that can introduce performance overhead, especially for heavy computational tasks and also complex animations.

4. UI Components

Flutter

Flutter is available with a wide set of several pre-designed widgets, which are fully customizable and pixel-perfect. These widgets are parts of frameworks and are developed with Dart, which ensures both consistency and performance. Flutter includes a widget-based architecture and enables developers to build even complex UIs conveniently and also with precision.

React Native

React Native, on the other hand, uses several native components directly and also allows various third-party libraries to offer several additional UI components. It reflects how React Native applications appear and feel more native to the platform that they function. Meanwhile, its dependence on several third-party libraries also led to inconsistencies in UI and several maintenance-related issues.

5. Libraries and Ecosystem

Flutter

Flutter includes a vast growing ecosystem, with an increasing number of packages. These are widely available in its pub. dev repository. Meanwhile, its ecosystem is indeed not so extensive as JavaScript, the integration and quality of packages improve quickly. Flutter has also a vibrant community and expands continually, which contributes to both its tools and extensions.

React Native

React Native harnesses the potential advantages of the JavaScript ecosystem. With npm, developers get an opportunity to access several tools and libraries. Well, the extensive ecosystem comes with both advantages and certain setbacks as well. The wider availability of libraries is indeed a great advantage. The maintenance and quality of these libraries tend to vary.

6. Development Feature

Flutter

Flutter is available with a vast development experience with the most important features including Hot Reload. It allows developers to see certain great changes in real time even without losing the app’s state. It also has a perfectly defined structure that makes it convenient to start and also maintain several projects.

React Native

React Native also boasts features like ‘Hot Reloading’, which improves the overall development workflow. It offers quick feedback. Based on the JavaScript framework, Developers grab opportunities to integrate with a number of web development tools and practices into their workflow.

7. Cross-Platform Capability

Flutter

As mentioned above, Flutter is purely a cross-platform development framework, which extends beyond mobile to support the web, and also several embedded devices with a single codebase. So, the wider reach makes Flutter the most appropriate choice among the majority of developers who seek to target numerous platforms with minimal code changes.

React Native

It’s mainly focused on mobile development, with experimental support for both desktop and web through several projects like React Native for web and electron. It also brings certain possibilities of sharing certain code across multiple platforms, while achieving a seamless cross-platform experience that often requires certain additional effort.

8. Community and Support

Flutter

Though Flutter is new compared to other frameworks, it still has a growing community. The credit goes to Google’s continuous effort and support. The Flutter team engages with the community regularly with the use of forums, conferences, social media, and many other mediums. It also improves the collaborative environment.

React Native

React Native harnesses the benefits of the JavaScript community. It enjoys having a great presence with multiple forums, tutorials, blogs, and various third-party services. Facebook invests continuously in React Native to ensure regular improvements and updates, which contributes to its powerful network.

9. Integration and Capability

Flutter

Flutter is available with a seamless integration with Google’s great services like Google Maps, Firebase, and AdMob. It also supports a range of third-party services, which makes it a versatile option for different types of apps.

React Native

React Native is available with a range of third-party services and APIs. It’s especially powerful when it comes to integration with various existing native applications, which allows developers to conveniently add many React Native components to the existing native codebases.

10. Learning Curve

Flutter

When it comes to the learning curve of Flutter software, it can be steep, especially for those who are not familiar with Dart. Meanwhile, it includes comprehensive documentation and a fully structured approach for the development that can make the learning process smooth. Once developers get a full command over Dart and also widget-centric architecture of Flutter, they can create even more complex apps with higher efficiency.

React Native

React Native has an easy learning curve, especially for those developers who have enough experience in React and JavaScript. The familiarity of extensive availability and the language of learning resources also contribute to the fast onboarding process for many new developers.

Flutter or React Native? Cumulations can Help to Decide

Of course, deciding the right option between Flutter and React Native is not an easy task. So, you can get professional help and approach none other than Cumulations! If you are looking for a framework with fast performance and expressive UIs, you can opt for none other than Flutter. On the other hand, if you seek a framework that offers a rich ecosystem and powerful community support, you can go with none other than React Native.

We at Cumulations, have an enormous experience in working with both frameworks be it Flutter or React Native. Our team assesses your specific project development requirements and provides you with tailored advice. We have an experienced team that guides you to the best choice and ensures an efficient and smooth mobile application development process.

Wrapping up

So, after going through the above discussion of React Native vs Flutter, you may now understand the right option between Flutter and React Native. No matter which framework you choose for cross-platform app development, you need to make the final selection based on the specific needs of your projects. If you are still in confusion, you can get in touch with a professional assistant.

FAQ

1. Which one is the best, Flutter or React Native in 2024?

Flutter has an edge over its counterpart React Native for offering greater rendering and CPU storage. Meanwhile, React Native is known for having better memory usage.

2. How to select the right option between Flutter and React Native?

Well, the selection of the right option between Flutter and React Native depends on numerous factors including developer expertise, project requirements, performance needs, and more. Flutter uses Dart and also provides a higher performance. It has a small developer base with limited IDE support.

3. Is Flutter quicker than React Native?

Yes, Flutter is faster than React Native for having a compiled nature and also an efficient rendering engine.

4. Is Flutter native or hybrid?

Flutter is a hybrid framework that enables developers to create applications for a range of platforms such as iOS and Android with the use of a single codebase. It combines UI flexibility and native performance with efficient cross-platform development.

5. Can Flutter replace React Native?

Well, Flutter can’t replace React Native as both are strong contenders with various advantages and disadvantages.

6. Which is in more demand Flutter and React Native?

Flutter is in demand for facilitating developers to perform development work in less time. Thus, it emerged as a top choice compared to React Native.