Comparing My Experience with Flutter and React Native for App Development

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By Ridham Modi • 2 years ago

Introduction

Do you want to build apps efficiently and reduce costs with cross-platform development but need clarification about which technology to use, then this blog is the right place to get free of your confusion?

In this article, we will compare the famous technologies Flutter and React Native from a developer’s point of view and help you gain an inside-out look to choose what is suitable for you.

What is Flutter?

  1. Flutter is a comprehensive app software development kit (SDK) with various widgets and tools developed by Google in 2017. It gives developers an easy path to build applications for mobile(IOS, ANDROID), web, and desktop using a single codebase. More about flutter.
    • It is an open and free source.
    • It is based on Dart, an object-oriented programming language, which is comparatively easier to learn than other programming languages, especially for developers already familiar with languages like Java and C#.
    • Flutter uses its widgets which are fast, attractive, and easily customizable.
    • Even Though Flutter was released in 2017, it looks mature for its age, as it has been receiving new updates with practical improvements at a breakneck pace.

    Mobile Apps Made Using Flutter

    1. Glasier Wellness Inc
    2. FoodVault
    3. FoodVault Partner

     

Pros and Cons Of Flutter

Pros:

  • From a developer’s point of view, it seems that Flutter gives a more dynamic -and quick app development process. Due to the Hot reload feature, the changes made to the code can easily be seen in the application. This characteristic of Flutter comes in very handy when you want to experiment with your code and see the changes it makes to your application instantly. 
  • You have to write just one single code, and using the same code, flutter will help you build the application for both iOS and Android platforms. Isn’t that time-saving?
  • Thanks to Skia Graphics Library, which helps flutter apps to run smoothly and quickly. The reason why Flutter delivers 60fps is that most of its work is done on GPU.
  • As Flutter has custom widgets that the framework’s graphic engine takes care of.
  • Apps created on Flutter will look the same on old Android/iOS devices so that you can support specific older devices for your applications.

Cons:

  • Flutter, a recently developed platform, will only sometimes have the perfect functionality in its existing libraries, so creating specific custom libraries to cater to your need will take a big chunk of time.
  • Applications written on Flutter are more significant than the native ones.
  • You will need to use and manage custom scripts to enable automatic building, testing, and development.
  • Dart is not so widely known or used in comparison to JavaScript, and because of that, many developers that like statically-typed programming prefer using Native rather than Flutter.
  • Flutter hasn’t been around for long. This is why it is not entirely stable.
  • The framework and Dart language are changing rapidly, making it hard to maintain code in the long run.

 

What is React Native?

  1. React Native is an open-source mobile application framework like Flutter but based on JavaScript.
    • React Native can be used for cross-platform development.
    • Both Android and iOS applications can be developed using a single codebase.
    • React Native was developed by Facebook and was launched in the year 2015 in March.
    • React Native uses the same basic User Interface building blocks as regular iOS and Android apps. In simple words, instead of building in Java, Kotlin, or Swift, you would combine the same building blocks using JavaScript and React.

    Mobile Apps Made Using React Native

    1. Linen Of India
    2. IADVL GSB
    3. Tiny Tales To Tell

Pros and Cons Of React Native

Pros:

  • Like Flutter, React Native also has the same feature wherein you can inject a new code directly into the running app and see the changes the regulation made in the app instantly.
  • Precisely the same as Flutter, you can write a single code to power 2 apps – covering Android and iOS platforms.
  • JavaScript, a more popular language than Dart, makes it easier for developers to use React Native.
  • React Native lets you build cross-platform apps in a way wherein you can decide accurately what solutions you want to use according to your project’s requirements and your preferences.
  • You must decide how to handle and store the data in many parts of your app. You can choose a router library or select between JavaScript and TypeScript – you will hold the power to decide.
  • React Native has been in the market for a long time, which means it has a larger active, and vast community. Not only that, but countless tutorials, libraries, and UI frameworks make learning and developing the technology quick.

Cons:

  • React Native supports essential components out of the box. On the other hand, Flutter is designed so that the framework supports much more widgets. You could create most of the views with already present devices that will require no additional effort.
  • Unfortunately, many libraries are either low-quality or have been abandoned altogether.
  • Applications that are written in React Native must be able to run in JavaScript code too. Android does not have this functionality by default; thus, your application will need to include that supports JavaScript code.
  • React Native is just a wrapper over native methods, requiring a bridge to translate those calls into a native API.
  • It has been recently observed that bugs on React Native have started to take longer to get fixed.

 

What Does The Future Hold?

Talking about Flutter, more and more companies and people are getting attracted by Flutter as it is a recently released platform. Because of that, Google continues to refine its tool.

As the word goes in the market, Flutter is planning to bring in a significant upgrade to Flutter wherein

users will be able to create applications for the web and desktop.

Companies like Alibaba and Tesla are already using Flutter. The future looks promising for the toolkit.

MVP(minimum viable product) is a product with minimum requirements and functions to understand the needs of its target audience. People now want to show off their MVPs quickly so they can tell their investors or clients what they are working on, and this trend is experiencing quite an increase. Flutter is the perfect platform for doing it, as it speeds up the development process and adds a phenomenal UI layout. Due to this point, the future of Flutter holds great potential.

Taking the focus to React Native, Facebook plans to restructure the technology on a large scale completely. The team is working as we speak to make React Native more efficient. The current users can directly suggest changes through an RFC process, making the restructure worth the wait.

Some examples of the restructuring are…

  • Hermes: An open-source JavaScript engine optimized for mobile apps that improves time interaction and lowers the app size.

 

At Glasier Inc:

We also had a word with our dedicated developers, and they think Flutter is the key. We have already done projects using Flutter, and on that basis, Flutter made the process relatively easy and time-saving. We also had a positive response from our clients about the work. Looking at the current market situation, we observed that there had been an increase in clients coming to us with a project they wanted us to work on with Flutter.
Hey, so contact us if you want to develop your application through Flutter to look unique. We can provide you with the work you deserve.

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