Technology has changed so many things and there is no full stop. Somehow it is beneficial to mankind only. The need for digitization is crucial and it is the need of the hour. As there enormous changes are taking place day by day businesses are searching a way to enhance their reach to potential customers.
Mobile applications are one of the great mediums to expand the growth of the business to a larger extent. Today we are highly dependent on Smartphone’s for many of the activities to perform. An average human being is spending 15 to 18 hours on their mobile phones as well as web applications.
Any of the software which is going to be develop by the developers must be liked by everyone and built in such a way that they are simple to access. With the population increase, there is also a tremendous increase in the demand for apps. Every business wants to develop apps that can bring benefits across all the platforms.
Talking about android as well as iOS these are completely different platforms as an app developed for iOS will not work for android and vice versa.
Developing mobile apps has always been a fundamental pillar of the tech industry, but having multiple platforms for which different apps must be developed has long been a problem. Apart from having to manage two teams, one for Android and the other for iOS, there is always a gap between the applications developed because they are created by two separate teams.
There are numerous types and solutions available, but the most popular at the moment is to create compiled apps that perform similarly to Native apps. At the moment, the most powerful competitors in that field are Google’s Flutter and Facebook’s React Native. Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of both Flutter and React Native, and compare them objectively.
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Flutter and React Native: An Overview
Let’s start with some basics first…….
What is Flutter?
A lot of time and money has been invested by Google for the development of Flutter until it was released in front of a large audience in 2017.
When it comes to creating mobile apps in a very limited time either it is for iOS or Android Flutter can be proven best here. Many of the developers have switched to Flutter because it works on a single codebase with higher flexibility.
It can be said as one of the robust open-source app development frameworks launched by Google. The versatility of Flutter is not limited to creating mobile apps as well as web apps only but also can be used for desktop apps building.
Although it is new, in a short period it has become very popular as the unique framework possesses a robust UI design with the object-oriented programming language Dart, and a robust, built-in toolset, for example. For cross-platform apps, 39 percent of developers prefer Flutter.
Flutter is the key to cross-platform app development’s upcoming future. Flutter is well popular for its Material Design support, access to OS-level features, and ability to create MVP apps.
What is React Native?
React Native is also a well popular framework cross-platform for mobile application development. It has been launched before the Flutter therefore it has a bigger community and wider area too. The first implementation of this framework was done by Facebook in the news feed section in 2011. And later it was also implemented in the Instagram feed.
This JavaScript framework has been built upon the principle of React library. This allows the shipment for a single code base of the iOS as well as the android apps. React native has been used on various platforms like Facebook, Airbnb, Instagram, and many more.
It was the year 2015 it was released in front of the public but the internal hackathon project by Facebook was launched in 2013 itself.
React Native vs. Flutter: The Complete Comparison
Flutter and React Native are two popular frameworks for creating cross-platform mobile apps. However, each one has its quirks. Let’s compare React Native and Flutter on eight different levels:
- The architecture of a programming language
- Initial configuration and installation
- Documentation and development tools
- The user interface (UI)
- Productivity of developers
- Support from the community
Support for Cl/CD
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The architecture of a programming language:
React Native applications use JavaScript because it is a complete library for creating user interfaces. It becomes much easier for web developers to carry out their tasks as a result of this. It has been a long time since this application has been highly appreciated by the developers to continue working with it for the past 8 years.
On the other hand, if we talk about Flutter then Dart programming language has to be used as it has been created by Google. The Dart is a client-optimized language consisting of various advantages. For e.g., productive app development is one of them.
Fortunately, Dart is very similar to other well popular OOP languages like Java and C++. You’ll be able to pick it up quickly and easily if you’re familiar with either of those. Dart is also more popular among developers than JavaScript, according to reports released by Stack Overflow.
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Initial configuration and installation:
The JavaScript connectivity in React Native allows communication between JavaScript and the Native language. This works by sending the JSON messages between the two parties. Because the messaging is asynchronous, the app’s UI should be fluid. The rendering speed of the bridge can be affect to make it stable.
Flutter, on the other hand, doesn’t require a bridge to make communication with Native components. It comprises everything, which includes frameworks such as Cupertino and Material Design. Apps built with Flutter are highly stable and predictable when compared with those built with React Native platforms.
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Documentation and development tools:
The documentation for React Native is quite good and impressive. Unfortunately, more experienced web developers who are already familiar with JavaScript mostly liked this, but there are a few gaps. For e.g. some of the crucially important features like navigation are poorly documented. Furthermore, if you have to locate information on how to create Native libraries it can be a little bit difficult and complicated.
Flutter has more documentation than React Native. It comprises graphics and video tutorials, as well as step-by-step instructions which will be very helpful for the further. The great thing about Flutter is that it has numerous tools such as a debugger and a Flutter inspector for the app development process.
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The user interface (UI):
With the help of React Native can use the Native components for each platform and all credit goes to the JavaScript bridge. This feature can be used for look modification for the Native Android and iOS apps. React Native provides various benefits but the major one is that it includes numerous pre-built components that can be used as building blocks.
But sometimes a lot of complications arise and it becomes very difficult to replicate the intricate React Native app. As the app have different features to work with the different platforms.
The Flutter consists of the UI widgets inside it that simply means it will be very easy to create Native applications in the long competitive run. No need to get worried about searching the third-party libraries as it already has a large framework.
Moreover, all the platforms are highly compatible with the Flutter.
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Productivity of Developers:
With the help of React Native, a lot of cross-platform code reuse processes can be performed. Furthermore, the team of developers has created many libraries that can be used as the strongest building blocks to initiate development. A hot reload feature is available with the help of which the relatable changes can be observed to your app without recompiling it.
The Flutter also consists of the hot reload feature; it simply means if there are any of the changes required then the iterations can be done immediately. The app compilation is no more a difficult task with Flutter.
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Support from the Community:
Whenever you want to come up with an open-source development framework, several people are need to make your project ahead in the queue. Fortunately, React Native is the one that possesses this property. After it was launched by Google in the year 2015. It has gained huge popularity among developers.
As Flutter has come into consideration in the year 2017 it is not that much larger in terms of community support but this new framework has worked a lot.
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Support for Cl/CD:
React Native lacks the CI/CD solutions for the app store or Google play delivery. Unfortunately, only manual deployment is documented for Google Play. There isn’t even a proper guide for submitting an app to the App Store. You’ll need to use a third-party solution like Fastlane or Bitrise to automate your delivery and deployment.
The Flutter is opposite to the React Native as it consists of a proper guide when it comes to building an iOS or Android application. The command-line interface will prove to be helpful to deploy the application. For advanced automation such as automated screenshots, third-party solutions can be used.
The comparison can be more understandable with this:
| Flutter | React Native |
| It uses Dart | It uses JavaScript |
| A few of the extra steps are require for e.g. Setting a path.
|
The installation can be perform easily with the help of NPM. |
| The date of release is May 2017 | The date of release is March 2015. |
| Is software development kit | Software development type |
Bottom Line:
As it is a little difficult to choose between React Native and Flutter, you can go with any of them. Both the frameworks have positive as well as negative sides. Both are opted depending upon the problems caused while the app development procedure.
