React Vs Flutter: The Debate is Over

React Native Vs Flutter: The Debate Is Over

So you’ve decided you want to build a mobile application but are confused about what technology should you use? There are many different frameworks, but in this article, we’ll compare two of the most popular ones: React Native and Flutter. React Native is a JavaScript framework for building native mobile apps. It is based on React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, but instead of targeting the web browser, it targets mobile platforms. Flutter is a mobile UI framework from Google that allows you to create native-looking Android and iOS apps with a single codebase. Flutter is based on the Dart programming language, which is easy to learn if you’re already familiar with JavaScript.

What is Reactive Native?

React Native is a framework used to develop mobile apps. It is a cross-platform framework developed by Meta, which allows you to create apps that can be used on both Android and iOS devices. React Native is built on top of React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It offers a fast development cycle, a strong community, and a native look and feel. Organizations like Facebook, Instagram, Uber Eats, Air BNB, and Skype are using React to develop their apps.

Advantages of React Native

Cross-Platform Development: The primary benefit of React Native is that programmers don’t have to write separate programs for different platforms like Android, iOS, etc. In reality, 90% or more of the code can be utilized again and again on the two platforms, greatly accelerating development time and efficiency. As a result, your time-to-market is shortened and your maintenance requirements are reduced.
Cost Effective: According to statistics, React Native can save up to 50% of your cost to when you are developing an app. The app doesn’t need to be developed by two separate Android and iOS dev teams. Additionally, React Native has a lot of pre-built components that speed up development even more.
It’s Open-Source: The fact that React Native is open-source is a wonderful part of developing React Native applications. All frameworks and libraries are available to developers without any charge. Even Reactive Native is covered by the MIT license, which places relatively few limitations on how software can be used and reused. Additionally, the developers are provided with legal protection.
Faster Development: The launch date of a mobile app should be your top priority while looking for development. With React Native, the app creation process is expedited by the developers’ ability to utilize pre-existing codes for many platforms.
Huge Community: According to statistics, 42% of developers use React Native to develop cross-platform applications. Because of its efficiency, open-source opportunities, & easy to learn options, there is a huge community of react native developers. This community support makes react native more attractive to new developers.

Disadvantages of React Native

Slower Debugging Process: React Native-based mobile apps are incredibly challenging to debug. Developers need to be well-versed in the platform’s native language. Developers of React Native applications must enable integration with Flipper, a program that facilitates debugging React Native applications on iOS and Android platforms.
Complex UI System: Mobile apps with complex gestures are not built using React Native. This is because iOS and Android apps have a unified API which is quite different from each other. Though React Native has a gesture responder system that will run the entire lifecycle of all gestures in mobile applications, still you might face a lot of difficulties if you don’t have a great knowledge of UI.
Lack of Resources: As React Native is new, its resources are not rich as expected. Though there are a lot of modules are available, it needs to be enriched day by day.
Upgrading Issues: The upgrading procedure in React Native is complex. You need to depend on other apps and plugins to avoid upgrading issues.

Pros & Cons List of React Native

Pros	Cons
Cost Effective	Slower Debugging
Cross Platform Development	Lack of Resources
Open Source	Complex Interface
Faster Development	Upgrading Issues
Huge Community	Needs Vas Javascript Knowledge

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a cross-platform app development framework created by Google. It allows developers to create native-looking Android and iOS apps with a single codebase. Additionally, Flutter provides a rich set of features and widgets that can be used to create beautiful and interactive user interfaces. Organizations like Amazon, Alibaba, Google Pay, and BMW are using flutter to develop their apps.

Advantages of Flutter:

Attractive UI Widgets: When it comes to the matter of beautiful and natural-looking UI widgets, no one can compete with Flutter. Flutter is an open-source development tool for building beautiful user interfaces with ready-made widgets. The Flutter framework doesn’t separate layouts, views, or other properties, it has a unified object model, called the widget. Users also can create complex custom widgets that are used for screens and apps.
Fast & Efficient: With Flutter, developers may immediately view changes to the application after making code changes. Hot-reload speeds up app development and enables the testing of new features. It promotes improved teamwork and aids in the alignment of the team’s members (designers and developers).
Cross-Platform Development: In flutter, developers can build the same app for Android and iOS simultaneously. The widgets and designs of Flutter enable the use of the same app on both iOS and Android. Hot restart and reload capabilities also drastically cut down on development time because they allow developers to see all changes right away. Dart language enables quicker code compilation.
Web & Desktop App Development: You can do much more with Flutter than just create mobile apps. Flutter for Web and Flutter Desktop Embeddings are now available as well. Flutter now allows you to create desktop and web applications, setting it apart from existing cross-platform frameworks. With this advancement, Flutter becomes a full-fledged cross-platform development tool instead of just a framework for mobile apps.

Disadvantages of Flutter

Larger App: Because of a lot of large-sized widgets, Flutter is a comparatively heavy and large app that ultimately leads to a slower loading speed. There is more to package into applications because the widgets and engine of the framework must be included. Even some rival frameworks are capable of producing similar apps with a smaller footprint. Due to strict footprint constraints, this flaw alone almost entirely prevents Flutter from being used to target instant apps.
Lack of Resources: Flutter is a comparatively new framework. Though it’s improving day by day, it has a lot of limitations. For example, importing JavaScript libraries into Flutter apps is more difficult than it is for other frameworks that are free to do so. Although there has been significant improvement in this area in recent months and years, it will probably continue to have a significant impact on technology for the foreseeable future.

Pros & Cons of Flutter

Pros	Cons
Faster & Efficient	Lot of Widget Dependency
Single Code & Cross Platform	Lack of Browser Compatibility
Need Smaller Team	Lack of Prebuilt Modules
Faster Bug Fixing	Needs Vast Dart Knowledge
Great UI/UX	Larger Memory Consumption

Similarities Between Flutter & React Native

Both give you cross-platform development opportunity
Both have amazing widgets and UI
Both gives you fast and efficient app
Both are open-source and free to use
Both have low-code development opportunities
Both are built on dart language

Differences Between Flutter & React Native

React Native apps have limited option compared to flutter when it comes to the point of UI options.
Flutter uses Getlt as the library whereas React Native uses React.
React has a larger community compared to Flutter
Flutter is more widget dependent compared to React Native
Flutter has web & desktop app building options which React Native doesn’t have.

Detailed Comparison of React Native Vs Flutter

Parameters	React Native	Flutter
Language	Java Script	Dart
Developed by	Meta	Google
Speed	Slower than Flutter	Comparatively Faster
Documentation	Poor Documentation	Rich Documentation
UI Components	OS’s Native Components	Own UI Components
Complicated Apps Development	Highly Recommended	Not Recommended
Ease of Learning	Easy to Learn	Relatively Tough for Beginners
Community	Huge Community	Smaller Community

Final Thoughts

React Native and Flutter have their own pros and cons in their own way. You can choose one of them depending on your need. For example, if you are a startup and need a simple app, you can choose flutter for faster and low-cost development. On the other hand, if you need big and complicated app then surely React Native is the best option for you. React Native needs pure developers with vast experience in coding. At TechCare, we usually work with large and complex app development projects. So, we prefer React Native for app development, but we can help you with both React and Flutter apps. We provide both custom apps and remote developers for businesses. If you need React or Flutter developers or custom app development services, feel free to contact us.