Flutter vs React Native: Comparisons and Differences [2022]

Introduction

In 2022, mobile application development continued to rise. And because increasingly,

organisations prefer to make their mobile applications available on Android and iOS

platforms, cross-platform development is becoming more prominent.

Cross-platform development is the process of building a mobile application that can run on both Android and iOS from a single codebase, as opposed to native development, where

different versions of an application are built for every different platform in parallel development cycles. The primary rule and motivation of cross-platform development are to "Write Once and Run Everywhere' because a single reusable codebase can run applications

on multiple mobile platforms and operating systems.

At the heart of cross-platform ascendance, the debate of superiority between Flutter and

React Native intensifies. They are two of the most popular mobile development frameworks that have been compared by mobile developers for years. There is no clear winner when it comes to which framework is better. Both have merits and drawbacks, and it is up to developers to decide which is best suited for their project.

This article makes a comparison between both, intending to help you decide

which is best suited for your application.

Outline:

1. What is Flutter?

2. Popular Flutter users

3. Pros and Cons of Flutter

4. What is React Native?

5. Popular React Native Users

6. Pros and Cons of React Native

7. Flutter vs React Native comparison

8. Which one to choose?

9. Conclusion

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a user interface development framework used for cross-platform app development.

It is a top-rated open-source framework that allows development for apps across various

platforms and operating systems. Flutter uses a language called Dart, which allows

developers to create native web, desktop and mobile applications from a single codebase.

Flutter was designed and released in 2017 by software powerhouse Google. It is popular for its pleasant user interface and rapid development cycle.

Popular Flutter Users

Google Ads

Google Ads has been downloaded by over 10 million users globally, maintaining a rating of

4.3 stars on Playstore and a 4.5-star rating on IOS indicate excellent performance,

functionality, and stability, resulting in customer satisfaction.

Alibaba

Alibaba records over 100 million downloads from the Google Play Store and roughly 500,000

ratings on Apple's App Store. It is one of the top apps globally for B2B shopping and trading experience. The app developers used Flutter and Dart to achieve great graphics and quick load speed.

eBay Motors

This mobile app allows users to buy and sell vehicles with their smartphones, post

advertisements and bid for the cars.

Hookle

Hookle is a tool for managing social media profiles from one place. Hookle is accessible to

up to 3 social media accounts and integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google

My Business. It makes creating, scheduling and publishing content easy and is one of the

best Flutter apps that uses a single codebase for building mobile apps on multiple platforms.

Pros of Flutter

Hot Reloading

When you make changes in the source code or layout, Flutter instantly updates the UI of

your app, allowing you to review its appearance without reloading the entire code,

significantly speeding up your development process.

Consistency across Multiple Platforms

With Flutter, you can write code here and run it anywhere. The single codebase lets you

create applications or designs that appear the same on both iOS and Android. This

alleviates worrying about consistency platforms, makes your code easier to test, and makes

the process generally more convenient.

Same UI Across All Versions

Flutter works seamlessly across multiple platforms and versions, including the older ones, so

you have no problems with your application's performance or looks in older OS variants.

Faster app development

Flutter. Built-in widgets facilitate quicker app development, testing, and issue fixing. In

addition, Flutter is helpful for fast prototyping and developing an MVP.

You only need Dart

The Flutter framework is built in Dart, so to build apps using Flutter, it is the only

programming language you need to know.

Cons of Flutter

Fewer Libraries and Resources

Google has been working relentlessly to build a robust database of library, support, and

documentation for Flutter; however, it still falls behind native documentation in many areas.

Developers would typically find greater and richer resources during native development.

No CI/CD Support

Flutter does not natively support all of the CI/CD or continuous integration and deployment

tools. So the developers are sometimes required to use custom scripts while testing and

implementing changes.

App size

Flutter uses built-in widgets rather than platform widgets, resulting in larger applications

which occupy more memory space on a device and take longer to download.

Smaller Dart community

Compared to JavaScript, there is a relatively smaller community of Dart developers, and just like Flutter itself, there are fewer resources online.

Platform Dependency

Like every other third-party platform, Flutter is vulnerable to platform dependency risk.

Though unlikely, If Google abandons the Flutter project, the developers will be left stranded.

What is React Native?

React Native is a popular open-source mobile application development framework for

building natively rendered mobile, web and desktop applications. It is supported across IOS,

Android and Windows 10 platforms. It was launched by Meta(former Facebook) in 2015 and

was built out of React, Meta's Javascript library. Like Flutter, this framework allows you to

build applications that can be deployed across multiple platforms sharing a single codebase.

React Native has been used to create some of the most used applications worldwide, which we will look at next.

Popular React Native Users

Instagram

The world’s most popular photo-based social network, Instagram, used React Native to take

advantage of features like hot reload and live reload and to achieve higher iteration speed.

More than a billion users have downloaded Instagram from the Google Play store.

Walmart

Walmart, the widely-used retail shopping app, has used React Native framework to develop

its mobile application to take advantage of the single shared codebase. Another advantage

of React Native is its superb animation capabilities, which convert the source codes to

platform-specific views before rendering.

Tesla

The world’s leading electronic car manufacturer, Tesla Inc., has developed its iOS and

Android apps using React Native. More than a million users have downloaded the Tesla React Native app from the Google Play store.

Wix

Wix is one of the best apps for creating and managing websites conveniently. Without any

web development experience, you can design and create your sites in CSS or HTML5, as

well as mobile websites can also be created using the drag-and-drop features.

Pros of React Native

Fast Refresh

Much like Flutter's hot reload feature, fast refresh allows you to view instant results when you make changes to your code to edit the source code and view the result instantly.

Single Codebase

React Native also uses a single shared codebase, which you can use across both iOS and

Android platforms.

Developer Freedom

React Native gives you complete freedom over the app’s development. So you can choose

which components to use and how they behave within the native environment.

Vast Community

There is a limitless world of JavaScript and React Native documentation, libraries, and UI

designs that you can adopt while using React Native.

Flat Learning Curve

A developer with web application development knowledge can learn easily and use React Native.

Cons of React Native

Native Feeling instead of being Native

You can simulate a native experience by using React Native. However, it is not the same as

developing it using complete native components and platforms. Although the simulation will be close to the original, there will still be differences and some inefficiencies in termination

size, speed, and processing power requirements.

Mandatory Customisation

React Native offers only the most basic UI elements. These include buttons, notification

prompts, and indicators, so you are responsible for designing and customising the rest.

Outdated Resources

React Native has many outdated resources which have accumulated over the years, which

can make it harder to find what you need or mislead you.

Unstable UI

Whenever the OS manufacturer rolls a stem update, all app components reload. Sometimes this causes React Native components to malfunction and the application to freeze.

Flutter vs React Native Comparison

To start with, the fundamental difference between Flutter and React Native is that Flutter is a mobile UI framework designed to allow developers to create high-performance, visually attractive, and fast apps from a single codebase. On the other hand, React Native is a JavaScript framework that allows developers to create native mobile apps using the same codebase they would use for a web application.

Both Flutter and React Native have many unique advantages and shortcomings, so

choosing a better framework will inevitably come down to an issue of preference and

requirements.

Flutter is often praised for its fast development cycle, easy onboarding process, and excellent performance. It also offers a wide range of features, such as an extensive widget library, support for both iOS and Android, and the ability to create custom UI elements.

React Native, on the other hand, is often praised for its scalability, cross-platform capabilities, and ability to reuse code. It also offers a wide range of features, such as hot reloading, native modules, and live reloading. This section will look at direct comparisons and contrasts between the two.

Performance

One primary parameter to consider when measuring performance is the application speed.

React Native needs to run applications through a JavaScript bridge, and this impediment

makes it slightly slower than Flutter. Flutter takes the edge in this category.

Demand

Only Industry statistics can determine this parameter, and in a 2021 survey, Flutter was

rising faster than React Native in terms of popularity and usage. Industry data from Statista showed an increase in developer preference for Flutter from 30% in 2019 to 42% in 2021, while React Native lost 4% of the preference within that period. This points out that Flutter currently leads in market demand.

Programming Language

Flutter uses the lesser-known Dart as its programming language. Though coding in Dart is

often faster, it is relatively more difficult to learn than in JavaScript.

Javascript is a household name in programming, easier to learn, broader and vast, with a

wealth of resources on the web. This language also boasts one of the best communities

online, with pre-built modules, frameworks, and libraries of JavaScript. There also will be

more expert JavaScript developers than Dart out there. In conclusion, React Native edges

out the debate on programming language comparison.

Installation

Flutter has no program bridges, requiring extra steps such as downloading the full binary for the particular platform from the GitHub repository or an additional .zip file for macOS

installation to use a PATH variable.

On the other hand, installing React requires minimal effort using the node package manager. React Native is easier and faster to install, thus edging this parameter.

Development Time

React Native have abundant resources, libraries, and designs from various sources. React

developers can also use any JavaScript-based IDE or text editor. Flutter is a newer

framework and will take more time to assemble a team and strategy, thus giving React

Native the advantage here.

User Interface (UI)

Flutter offers customised UI development toolkits fully compatible with Apple’s Cupertino and Google’s Material Design.

On the other hand, React Native requires you to create

components using JavaScript and make them work through patches in your code. That said, Flutter significantly has a better UI.

Hiring Cost

Glassdoor, the world's leading salary information website, reports an average cost of

$100,000 per year to hire a Flutter developer and around $108,000 for a React Native developer.

Device Compatibility

Both React Native and Flutter support iOS 11 and later versions. However, you need a

minimum of Android 6.0 to run React Native and Android 4.1 for Flutter. This gives Flutter

the advantage of device compatibility.

Documentation

Flutter focused on building detailed documentation from its conception with well-planned

how-to guides and resources.

On the other hand, React documentation is vaster and less comprehensive. Compared to

Flutter, it may seem all over the place, and it can sometimes take time to find the exact

resource you need. There's also a lot of outdated documentation regarding React Native due to third-party input that was not updated.

Which one to choose

Choosing between Flutter and React Native depends on your application requirements and

preferences. Below are some criteria that will help you choose.

Use Flutter if:

●Your application is larger and requires performance

●You need a reduced time to market

●Your application requires many customisations

Use React Native if:

●You need multi-platform assistance

●You plan to reuse your code for a web app

●Your project requires 3D rendering

Conclusion

Both Flutter and React Native are the best frameworks for building cross-platform mobile

apps, and there is no single clear deciding factor that determines one as superior to the

other in 2022. Instead, your decision should be guided by the requirements and conditions of your project.

There is no one size fits all solution to developing mobile applications. Whether Flutter or

React Native, you should ensure compatibility with your application's security, performance, and scalability requirements.

React Native is more mature, popular with developers and has a larger community, but

Flutter is rapidly rising in popularity, with Google actively updating and improving the

framework.