Are You Building Cross-Platform Apps? Which Tool To Opt For - Flutter or Ionic?

Posted by Appventurez Mobitech on October 30th, 2019

There are two types of applications - a high-performing mobile app and a mobile app. If you have ever checked the Google Play Store or Apple Play Store then you might be aware of millions of applications uploaded but never installed. It is the actual scenario of the current market where hundreds of applications are lost weekly to the customers. Between such circumstances, it is becoming difficult to launch an application and attract the audience to it.

The mobile app development company is now extremely focused on the performance of the application. The main reason behind this is that the high-performance application tends to attract the audience easily. If an application offers an unpleasant experience to the audience then they are more likely to find some alternative. This has a huge impact on the application impression and the company might lose some valuable customers. 

When it comes to performance, several factors are kept in mind including network, speed, execution, responsiveness, device, user experience, loading time, and execution. The answer to the problem in terms of performance is simple - Cross-platform mobile application development.

Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development

To obtain a cross-platform mobile application, the Mobile App Development Companies depend upon three major frameworks - Ionic, React Native, Xamarin and Flutter. These three platforms have offers a flawless development of an application allowing companies to target audiences with the highest performance. The React Native is the most common framework that is used by the developers and majorly everyone is aware of its advantages. So, let us understand what Flutter and Ionic application frameworks are.

Ionic

A single code base is used for multiple platforms that are a plus point for hybrid and cross-platform applications. Along with this, Ionic is an open-source and free platform that offers desktop and mobile-optimized components comprehensive library for JS, CSS, and HTML. Hence, it is easy to develop interactive and intuitive applications for Android and iOS platforms. 

Ionic framework usually goes around for look and feel of any application that results in friendly UI. Even the Mobile App Making Company depends on it for the front-end work up with rich library and UI components to develop and create responsive, high-performance, and beautiful designs. It can be integrated with several scripting languages including CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

The major advantages of this framework are angularJS, hybrid mobile, and rapid prototyping. The main drawbacks of Ionic is that it is not ideal for game applications, UI intensive, and high-performance application. 

Flutter

To come up with an ideal mobile application solution for iOS and Android platforms, the flutter SDK is used by designers and developers. The native application can be easily achieved with the help of Google flutter that has managed to change the overall development game. It has gained rapid popularity to reach a new level with the development tools. 

Flutter is an ideal interface kit that uses the single code Dart to achieve an application solution. For Android application development, Java Code is integrated with Flutter and for iOS, Swift and Objective C are integrated with Flutter. The platform is exclusively for Google and works using Dart. It contains several features that have taken it to new heights. 

There are many advantages of Flutter such as it is combined with the brand name Google, high-performance, hot reload, and Native C compiled. Apart from this, there are a few drawbacks of Flutter as well that include limited community support, knowledge regarding Dart is compulsory, limited friendly documentation and lack of promotion. 

Major Difference Between Flutter and Ionic

Since we have basic knowledge regarding both the frameworks, it is vital to know about its difference. Here are the major differences between Flutter and Ionic.

1. Programming Language - Ionic is ideal when it comes to working around web technologies including JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. This work with a plugin - Cordova that has made it easy for native application development with its containers. However, Flutter is different than this since it depends upon Dart for the development of application. It is an object-oriented, multi-paradigm, and modern language that has made it easy to develop desktop, mobile, and web applications.

2. Community - It has a huge effect on the overall development of an application. Ionic has a strong developer base that means a good community to help out in issues. This makes it easy to build an application on AngularJS with constant updates and quick solutions to errors. When it comes to Flutter, it doesn’t have a good community since developers have to get an insight into Dart before working with Flutter. In addition to this, the Google community is building slowly which helps to build a high-performance application. 

3. UI - The look and feel of application matters a lot to attract the target audience especially wit native application development. In addition to this, the mobile app making companies work with Flutter and Ionic to have Cupertino (iOS) and material design (Android). The native UI elements helps in making the overall development easy for both the platforms. The custom plugins are also added up in the library to make the services and native APIs accessible. Flutter and Ionic are mainly different in terms of opinion. Flutter is extremely opinionated which requires learning its ways.

Ionic and Flutter are two different platforms with their own sets of features. Ionic has a wide range of tools that are used to obtain high-performance applications. Whereas Flutter is the single-handed platform that requires a bit of modification in terms of toolsets, languages, and standards. While choosing the ideal framework solution between Flutter and Ionic, it is essential to keep platforms, size, time, and budget in mind.