What to choose: Flutter vs React Native

In BeKey, experts analyze the needs of a project and help clients make an educated technical decision about development tools that fit best to achieve their goals. In mobile app development, a lot depends on the framework.

Often, clients have to choose: to use React Native, a mature, popular tool for cross-platform app development, or to hire a Flutter developer. The latter is a young software development kit that, while released a few years ago, is already loved by the community.  We prefer Flutter, and in this article, we’ll explain why — and how our choice affects the clients’ product and our workflow.

KNOW THE FLUTTER 

Flutter is a cross-platform development tool that was created by Google. It uses new Dart language, every element in the framework is a widget and it draws native graphics from scratch, without much compiling, from a single codebase. So far, the biggest company that uses Flutter is Alibaba.

Flutter grows rapidly. It has been on a market for just a year, but it already has almost the same number of libraries and tutorials online as React Native. It’s widely used to develop apps on iOS and Android, and the tools to create desktop and mobile versions of the same app are already available in beta-version.

KNOW THE REACT NATIVE 

React Native was first created as a Facebook internal tool and was released to the market in 2015. It has a vast, experienced community with a lot of libraries and studying materials. It uses JavaScript as the main language, and JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages. Instagram, Facebook, Skype, and Tesla apps were built with React Native.

React Native is a tool that is also intended to create two apps from one code. It uses native components, which make the app look native to an OS. Unlike Flutter, React uses JavaScript bridge to build native graphic elements for iOS and Android, which often affects performance and overall time of development.

THE FLUTTER PROS 

Compatibility  

Flutter has its own set of components and widgets that are redrawn from UI styles of iOS and Android. In React Native, developers have to rely on third-party libraries to draw native graphics, which is more time-consuming in comparison to the Flutter. In Flutter developers themselves draw UI for both OS and don’t have to compromise in order to fit into styles from other sources, so it ends compromises between the intended look of the app and a resulting product. Or, at least largely cuts adaptation efforts.

Ready-to-use native widgets

One more pro of widgets is that they have various ready-to-use functions. React Native has only basic out-of-box components. A developer can use, however, the libraries created by the community, but most of the solutions are abandoned or may have shortcomings. That  means you would need more time to find and adapt components for the functionality needs of the app in comparison to Flutter.

Faster apps and faster development 

Apps made with Flutter use GPU to redraw the UI every time the view changes. That’s why users will have a seamless experience with the apps, without gaps in performance. Hot reload function also contributes to the deal if you have a time-sensitive project: it reduces compiling time to mere seconds and developers can see results of their work almost immediately after coding.

THE REACT NATIVE PROS 

The popularity of Java Script and large community

Not only the tool itself but JavaScript and React family exist for many years. Considering its popularity among developers, you’ll easily find professionals to handle your project. Extensive libraries and learning materials are also there for programmers, even though documentation for React Native lacks consistency.

We love Flutter. Our clients love it too  

The large con of Flutter is that this framework is very young, so many refuse to use it for their project. However, it offers a lot of new functionality for developers — functionality they’ve dreamt about for years — enrichens collaboration between designers and programmers, and cut developers’ time in half. We hope Flutter will gain more attention from the community and businesses, as it has an enormous potential to end arguments between time, quality, and costs of mobile app development.