React Native Vs Flutter

Posted by Alex Riley on December 3rd, 2020

React Native by Facebook and Flutter by Google are two popular cross platforms that allow users to develop mobile apps that run smoothly across multiple platforms. According to Statista React Native was used by 42 percent of developers worldwide and on the other hand flutter has seen an increase in the number of developers in 2020 with 39 percent of developers using flutter worldwide compared to 30 percent users in 2019. Flutter has been growing steadily since 2017 and has become one of the top competitors to react-native as per Nordicapis.

React Native is across-development framework used for designing apps for android, ios, web, and UWP. With react, native developers can also design user interfaces that consist of elements that look native to other platforms.

Flutter is a cross-development framework mostly targeting IOS, Android, and web apps. Flutter also is an open-source platform. Developers can develop cross-platform apps that can run smoothly both on newer as well as an older version of the device's OS. Flutter has quite a large collection of widgets which makes apps feel great. Moreover, less time is required to develop an app on flutter compared to an app developed to react-native.

JavaScript Framework: React native uses JavaScript which is widely used for web development and many JavaScript developers are familiar with the React framework as

it shares many features with react native. And it becomes easier for web developers to develop mobile apps with a little bit of training and due to this benefit many companies opted for react native without a second thought.

Dart Framework: Flutter is based on the Dart programming language developed by Google. Dart coincides with JavaScript and it incorporates most of the object-oriented concepts which makes it easier for JavaScript or java developers to understand dart. Google has prepared easy documentation for understanding dart and uploaded it on Dart's website.

Flux Architecture: React Native is dependent on JavaScript runtime environment architecture also known as Javascript bridge. The Javascript code is compiled into native code during runtime. React Native uses Flux architecture from Facebook and it means that it is mandatory to connect native modules with javascript code, which can reduce the speed of the app at certain times.

Skia Architecture: Unlike react-native flutter doesn't require bridge to connect components with native modules as the components are bigger. Instead, Dart consists of frameworks, like Material Design and Cupertino, packed inside which provide all the required technologies needed to develop mobile apps. The Dart framework uses Skia C++ engine which has all the protocols, compositions and channels

Components

React Native: provides React native developers with the required elements to develop an app i.e. UI rendering capabilities and API access of the device. React however relies on third-party libraries for other functionalities including accessing the native modules which are time-consuming.

Flutter: It offers developers many libraries, navigation, testing tools, and other sets of widgets along with the standard device API access and UI rendering which allows creating appealing user interfaces with less efforts. However, react would rely on third-party libraries. Flutter comes with enough functionality that is sufficient to handle the necessary tasks and also serve the design requirements.

Community

React is older than flutter and has a larger community compared to flutter which contributes towards making react more useful. On the other hand, flutter started to grow recently since 2017 and has been growing at a steady pace.

Both Flutter and React Native are popular among developers worldwide and developers can use either to develop a cross-platform application by using different native tools.

In comparison with React Native, Flutter loses points to the familiarity of JavaScript, since Flutter uses Dart—a programming language that is rarely utilized by developers. Therefore, if you already have a team of experienced JS developers, React Native might be a better choice as per nordicapis. Moreover, flutter offers more customizable widgets compared to react and those widgets can be used for Android or IOS.

For more information on choosing between react native vs flutter navigate to React Native vs Flutter-Which One To Choose