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Introduction
The most popular frameworks for modern cross-platform mobile application development are Flutter and React Native. The native platform-specific API-based development is still the technically best approach to building smooth and well-performing mobile applications. However, it becomes cumbersome and time-consuming for development teams to maintain separate native codebases for each mobile operating system. Therefore, every development team selects Flutter or React Native to build modern cross-platform mobile applications.
We all want to develop applications quickly and reduce costs with cross-platform development. But most of the time, we are unsure which technology to choose. With the help of this blog, we will compare the differences between Flutter and React Native. This will help you identify which framework fits best for your requirement.
Flutter
Flutter is a UI(user interface) toolkit for creating aesthetic, fast, natively compiled mobile, desktop, and desktop applications with a single programing language and codebase. This free and open-source was initially developed by Google and is currently managed by an ECMA standard.
Flutter applications use the dart programming language for creating an application. The dart programming language shares several same features as other programming languages, such as Swift and Kotlin, and can be trans-compiled into JavaScript.
Flutter is primarily optimized for 2D mobile apps that run on iOS and Android platforms. We can also use it to build full-featured apps, including storage, camera, geolocation, third-party SDKs, network, and more.
Are you preparing for roles based on Flutter? Check out Flutter Interview Questions and crack the interviews.
React Native
React Native is a framework based on JavaScript. It is used for developing native mobile applications for Android and iOS. It is similar to React, which uses native components rather than web components as building blocks. Facebook developed it in 2013 for their internal project Hackathon. It was released publically in January 2015, and in March 2015, Facebook announced that React Native would be made open and available on GitHub.
React Native applications targets the mobile platform rather than the browser. They run on a mobile device, and it does not load over the browser. React Native apps are native apps, the JavaScript code stays as JavaScript, and they run in some extra thread by the compiled app. The user interface and everything are compiled into native code.
Custom widgets are used to build the UI of the app.
Native UI controllers are used for creating the UI of the app.
It is slower to install.
Installation is seamless using the node package manager.
It relies mainly on its own customized development language. No third-party apps or custom components are required.
It uses a third party or custom components.
It lacks the support of many IDEs and text editors, which adds more time to the development process.
Development time is comparatively less.
Flutter supports code reusability.
We can write code once and apply it to every platform. But compatibility on every type of mobile platform isn't always guaranteed. Due to this, developers often have to load different components that work.
The performance of the Flutter application is fast. Flutter compiles the application using the arm C/C++ library, making it closer to machine code and giving the app a better native performance.
The performance is slow in comparison to Flutter. Sometimes developers face issues while running the hybrid application architecture.
Ecosystem and community support isn't as large as React Native.
Better ecosystem and community support.
The performance of React Native is slow in comparison to Flutter. Developers might face issues while running the hybrid application architecture.
The performance of React Native is slow in comparison to Flutter. Sometimes developers face issues while running the hybrid application architecture.
It lacks the community support it gains in CI and CD official documentation.
DevOps support is better than Flutter.
It has a vibrant set of testing features. This feature allows the developer to perform unit testing, widget testing, and integration testing.
It uses third-party tools for testing the app.
It has detailed documentation where developers can find graphics and videos for help.
It has poorly written and disorganized documentation.
Xianyu app by Alibaba, Google Ads app, Hamilton app for Hamilton Musical, My BMW, Philips Hue, etc., use Flutter.
Instagram, Facebook Ads, Facebook, Telsa, Skype, etc., use React Native.
These were the major differences between Flutter and React Native.
Want to learn Flutter and React Native? Check out our guided path on Flutter and React Native to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the advantages of using Flutter?
The advantages of using Flutter are as follows:-
a) Hot reloading allows faster development.
b) We can write just a single codebase for iOS and Android platforms.
c) Up to 50% less testing is required.
d) Flutter apps perform fast and smoothly.
e) Flutter apps have a user-friendly UI.
f) Suitable for MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
What are the disadvantages of using Flutter?
The disadvantages of using Flutter are as follows:-
a) It doesn't have huge community support like other frameworks.
b) We can't always find the functionality we need in an existing library, so the developers might need to build custom functionality, which is time-consuming.
c) It lacks support for CI platforms.
d) Large application size.
What are the advantages of using React Native?
The advantages of using React Native are as follows:-
a) Hot reloading allows faster development.
b) It uses JavaScript that many developers know well.
c) It allows the developer to decide what solutions they want to use according to the project's requirements and the developer's preferences.
d) A vast and active community.
What are the disadvantages of using React Native?
The disadvantages of using React Native are as follows:-
a) It supports only basic components out of the box.
b) React Native has a huge number of libraries. Most of them are either of low quality or have been abandoned altogether.
c) It has a fragile UI.
d) It has poor documentation.
When to choose Flutter and React Native?
The hot reload, and built-in native components feature make Flutter a perfect tool for iteration. If we need to create an MVP in a short period, we can go with Flutter. It's also the best choice if our app is UI-centered.
React Native is a suitable tool for creating complicated cross-platform apps. If our project is expected to be extensive and deeply rooted, we can use React Native.
Conclusion
In this article, we have extensively discussed the differences between Flutter and React Native in detail.
We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding the differences between Flutter and React Native in detail and if you would like to learn more, check out our article RichText Widget in Flutter and Testing React Native Apps with Jest. Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow. Happy Coding!
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