Flutter vs. React Native

In this article, we will detail the Flutter vs React Native comparison and explain their similarities, differences, pros and cons.

Developing mobile applications has been one of the basic needs of the technology industry due to its popularity.

Choosing among mobile application development technologies is quite challenging.

We have to learn two different programming languages for Android and iOS.

These languages are developed by completely different teams, so there is always a possibility that there will be a problem between applications.

One of the most popular solutions to these problems is to create applications that give the closest performance to native applications.
The release of Google’s Flutter and Facebook’s React Native, which are among the strongest competitors, also creates a lot of confusion.

React Native is an open source project developed by Facebook in 2015. You need to know javascript language to learn React Native and develop applications on cross platform.

Flutter is a UI software development kit developed by Google in 2017. To learn Flutter and develop applications on cross platform, you need to know the javascript language.

The Quick Comparison Between Flutter and React Native

Key Differences Between Flutter and React Native

✅ Programming Language Difference

The main advantage of using cross platform mobile application development technology is the ability to use a single programming language to develop applications for both iOS and Android.

Flutter is built on the Dart language developed by Google. If you have any experience with object-oriented programming, learning Dart will be pretty easy for you.

React Native, on the other hand, uses JavaScript as its core language structure.
JavaScript is very popular because of its easy to learn and widespread use.

Because JavaScript is widely used by most web developers, React Native is easier to adopt.

✅ Architectural Structures

The architectural structure provides a practical framework for managing the complexity of the programming language and maintaining its integrity. When choosing a cross-platform mobile application development technology, it is very important to consider its technical architecture.

Flutter makes the situation unstable due to being so young. There are several architectures that are popular with the Flutter community. The most popular among them is the BLoC architecture.

React Native architecture, on the other hand, relies heavily on the JS runtime environment architecture, also known as JavaScript Bridge. JavaScript code is compiled to native code at runtime. React Native uses the Flux architecture from Facebook.

✅ UI Component and Development API

Native component support is essential when developing cross-platform mobile applications. Without the support of the native component, our application will not feel like a native application. It is very important for the framework to have an API to access native modules without any hassle.

React Native only provides UI rendering and device access APIs. To access most Native modules, React Native has to rely on third-party libraries. React Native is heavily dependent on third-party libraries. For this reason, React Native has fewer components.

Flutter is loaded with UI build components, device API access, navigation, testing, stateful management, and loads of libraries. This rich set of components eliminates the need to use third-party libraries. Flutter also has widgets for Material Design and Cupertino that allow developers to easily build the UI on both iOS and Android platform.

✅ Which is More Compatible for Creating Complex Apps?

If we talk about Flutter handling complex projects, the results would be unfavorable as Flutter cannot handle complex projects. However, startups can still think of considering flutter for complex projects in order to create MVP (minimal viable product).

As mentioned above, Flutter is best for creating faster prototypes just to put your idea into practice with minimal costs to see if it works.

Yes, React Native is useful for creating complex applications, but, at the same time, you need to take care of one thing: creating complex apps will be easier when you will involve native app development with React Native.

So, creating complex applications with React Native does not only involve JavaScript but native development skills also.

✅ Developer Efficiency

Since Flutter is a newer framework, as your application becomes more complex, it will be very difficult to get out of it. If you are not used to darts, you may have to waste time.

React Native develops from existing sources as it is based on JavaScript. Because JavaScript is fairly easy to learn, any new feature that needs to be implemented can be easily learned and implemented quickly.

✅ Ecosystem and Community Support

Since React Native was developed before Flutter was released, React Native’s ecosystem is more established, but Flutter has quickly caught up with React Native.

Learning and motivation processes can be further improved thanks to the community support behind the developers.

With the support of a company like Google, Flutter also has the confidence of many people to implement it in their projects. Currently, React Native has a much more diverse community, even hosting international meetups.

✅ Documentation

Flutter has very useful documentation for beginners with detailed and easy to understand documentation. If you follow the documents and perform the operations, you will get very successful results.

React Native’s beginner’s guide is inadequate and not user-friendly.
If we look at the difference between Flutter vs React Native, Flutter seems to be more advantageous here.

✅ Testing Processes

Software testing is the stage in a software to find faults.

Flutter provides the ability to be loaded with its own built-in test modules. The use of these modules is clearly explained in the documentation.

React Native is not as broad in testing as Flutter. It provides several unit testing functionality with JavaScript frameworks and snapshot testing can be done using tools like Jest. It depends on third-party apps for other types of testing.

✅ Size of the Application in Flutter and React Native

The size of a simple application created with Flutter is around 7.5 MB. Apart from Flutter, the virtual machine of Dart and the C/C++ engine also influence the size of your app. The best part is that Flutter has its own codes and assets to avoid issues related to size.

The size of applications created with React Native is about 7 MB before native dependencies are added, the size goes up to 14 MB after native dependencies.

React native is good at iterating applications when it comes to speed with minimalistic size, unlike flutter.

✅ Which Framework has a Stronger DevOps Support?

When it comes to having robust DevOps support, React native will get the majority of votes as Flutter lacks good community support, unlike React Native.

React native is linked with Facebook, due to which it has massive third-party libraries, third-party support, guides, and a lot more. So, React Native is a clear winner here.

✅ Who has More Clientele

React Native; It is actively used by companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix, Airbnb, PayPal, The New York Times, Coinbase, Discord, Yahoo, Walmart and Uber.

Flutter is used by companies such as Google, Etsy, Polygon, Philips, SpaceX, Tencent, Emaar, BMW, Groupon, eBay, AliBaba Group.