01. Flutter or React Native?

Native app development
For my project I need to build a cross-platform application. After some research I discovered two leading frameworks. Flutter and React Native. Both seems to have their pros and cons. In this blog I will write down why I think I should be using the one or the other. Since at this moment I have no idea which one to use…
Why should I use Flutter?
Flutter is a young upcoming framework that is still growing it’s popularity. But it is growing fast. It is not that famous yet, but it has a lot of documentation and starts to goes around very well.
Flutter is written in a language called Dart. But, Dart is relatively easy to pick up and appears to be a good programming language. So that’s a first ‘must’, learning Dart.
Advantages:
- Flutter has native components in the framework itself.
- Has better documentation
Disadvantages:
- new coding language, less known by developers
- No javascript
- to my opinion, if I look at some example code, I find it hard to see any ‘structure’ in the code itself.
Why should I use React Native?
React Native uses JavaScript to build cross-platform apps. Thanks to React Native, web developers can build mobile apps with a little bit of training. Developers who are familiar with React adapt to React Native very easily.
Advantages:
- Very adaptable, uses javascript
- Already familiar to React. So it’s a very good basis to begin with.
- More trusted in the world of coding (better for jobs)
Disadvantages:
- Doesn’t have a lot of build-in components
- Needs a bridge to get acces to native components
- Lacks (good) documentation
Conclusion
It appears both frameworks have benefits. And the many blogs and articles I’ve read has different opinions. All the articles recommend to compare the two frameworks again after a few years, since Flutter is still very young. But they all agree on two things.
Flutter is still young but is very popular at a very young age. Biggest advantage here, it has a lot of components build-in. But the biggest downfall, it uses a language that is not very known, Dart.
React Native is very easy and trusted to use for javascript developers (and developers familiar with React). The biggest downfall, there isn’t much documentation.
To end, it looks like the choice to be made doesn’t have to be made by the pros and cons. But mostly in what language you want to make an effort to learn. But I will go with React Native, mostly because I’m familiar with React. And I already wanted to become better at React. So, two for one price.
Sources
Big thank you to the authors of these articles!
Your articles helped me a lot!
See you later, people!
Giancarlo.
