Is Flutter the Next Alternative to React Native?

In the Mobile App Development community, there are always rivalries goes for choosing the better framework. Usually, most mobile app development relies on two major frameworks.

Flutter and React Native are not only two of the most used app developments but also have a huge fan base around the globe.

Finally, the question is, which is better? It is pretty difficult to answer the better between the two frameworks. Because it depends on various key factors like scope, development experience, performance, UI experience, and much more.

Although developers prefer both as per their convenience yet, we can try to differentiate Flutter and React on the base of the below-mentioned criteria.

Development Experience:

When it comes to development experience, Flutter gains more numbers in comparison to React. Moreover, setting the developer environment on Flutter is comparatively easy to React Native.

Not only Flutter is easy to set up but also it has a variety of tools for debugging, profiling, and managing other tasks.

On the other hand, Flutter offers better in-the-built end-to-end-testing tools which seem better to React Native’s Detox.

Thus, we can say that from the development experience perspective, Flutter seems to have better points than React Native.

Performance:

The second and most important aspect that helps community to community to compare the frameworks is performance.

Yet, when we put Flutter and React on the comparison table, things get complicated as no one seems to be the winner.

Somehow, in this aspect also, Flutter seems to be in a better position than React native.

On the other hand, React is going to introduce concurrent communication between Native and JS, which surely will push React’s performance to the next level. Although Flutter is the winner by a small margin, it is claimed that soon React’s performance is going to boost with the upcoming architecture update.

User Interface:

In the user interface, part Flutter depends on Skia and provides various modification options to create the desired layout.

Whether, React UI is based on UIKit for iOS app design, DOM for web design, and Android for taking care of Android APK designs.

Undoubtedly the Android or iOS mobile apps developed with React show approx. the same layout but still got some varieties in designs.

Also, Flutter provides user interface modifications based on built-in hooks. Although, Google has done an incredible job with Flutter from a UI aspect, still React wins the following game.

Integrations:

React Native shows a bit of code complexity when it comes to native integrations. The reason behind the same is the old React code structures.

Whereas, Flutter provides completion with Dart codes using platform channels. Not only do Platform channels allow the app developers native synchronization but also they can write codes in Swift and Kotlin.

Localization and Globalization:

It will not be a fair idea to judge both frameworks based on Localization and Globalization. Flutter comes with built-in I18N (Internationalization) which makes it independent from third-party integrations.

While React needs to take assistance from the other tools and integrators for Internationalization.

But in the end, the following factor barely makes a difference because both Flutter and React do a good job here.

Libraries:

Libraries and tools that developers use in React apps were usually designed for JavaScript. For instance, we can put the name redux, ramada, jest, etc.

On the other hand, Flutter has a very limited number of libraries.

Of course, there are some Dart libraries available for Flutter mobile app development, but in the end, Flutter relies on made-for-Flutter libraries.

Code Execution Time:

If you are looking for a comparison based on code execution time, then both Flutter and React Native is good enough.

Although React and Flutter share a lot of coding similarities, yet, it is difficult to compare the frameworks based on code execution time.

But, Applications developed on Flutter usually are bigger in size than applications built with React Native.

Is Flutter the next alternative to React?

It might be difficult to describe Flutter as an alternative to React. Although the Flutter technology is brand new and gained popularity in a very short period. Yet, in some aspects, React provides better options to the development community.

Surely, various eCommerce app development companies are adopting Flutter because of its time-saving benefits.

But in the end, if you know Java/Kotlin, then Flutter might be the perfect option for you. Because the basic code structure of Flutter shows similarities with Dart.

In the end,

Both Flutter and React have their benefits and drawbacks. Yet, if you are a comparatively small organization then Flutter is the best option to go with.

The other reason is that you will not have to write the logic code again for Android or iOS apps. As flutter shares the same code base in the case of Android and iOS Mobile App Development.

You can also contact us for Android and iOS Mobile App Development at support@knowband.com.