Flutter and React Native is one of the most popular and top cross-platform development structures available today. These technologies enable users to develop Android and iOS applications with one codebase. However, they aren’t interchangeable.
While Flutter enables developers to make material design-like applications, React Native has an active hub of open source subscribers and contributors, making it easily modifiable to meet any need. This article will examine a comprehensive React Native vs Flutter comparison. We will cover the features of both technologies.
About Flutter
Flutter is an open-source mobile development framework that allows developers to create high-grade and high-quality Android and iOS applications easily. It has a library full of widgets to develop the user interface of any application without the platform that supports it. Flutter has been able to extend the scope of mobile application development by allowing developers to create applications on all platforms without the restrictions of the limitations of mobile development.
This technology started as an internal project in 2015 at Google and was first released to the public in 2018. Since its creation, the primary aim of Google has been to deliver a usable and simplistic programming language that will help to develop high-grade apps and replace Javascript. Some of the apps that developers have used Flutter to build include Alibaba, eBay, Google Ads, and BMW.
About React Native
React Native is widely known among developers because it is easy to use with JS code. Facebook built this framework to resolve cross-platform app development through React. Facebook launched React Native in 2015 at their React.js. Conference. React Native helps developers to build high-tech and high-end mobile apps using Javascript and React developer tools. It is incredibly useful for increasing the speed process of building mobile applications.
React Native also employs Javascript’s outstanding features while still giving excellent performance. This framework has numerous exciting features that allow developers to build spirited gestures and animations that are usually unavailable on the native program. Some top organizations globally that have adopted React Native include Facebook, Tesla, Instagram, Shopify, and Salesforce.
React Native Vs Flutter: Detailed Comparison
In this section, we are going to do a comprehensive Flutter vs React Native comparison. Here’s how both React Native and Flutter fare against each other.
Learning Curve
React Native’s learning curve is not as steep as Flutter’s. However, Both can be learned within a reasonable period. Let’s look at what it takes to learn Flutter and React Native.
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Flutter
Flutter’s learning curve is steeper than that of React Native. You must have basic knowledge about the concepts of iOS development and native Android before you can learn Flutter. You must also have experience in Java, Objective -C, Kotlin for Android, or Swift for iOS. This can be a bit challenging if you already use new programming languages without generics and type casts. However, learning these skills can help to improve your development process significantly. Flutter offers excellent documentation of its APIs. So, you can easily refer to them anytime you want.
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React Native
Javascript is the language of React Native. So, you will be able to use React Native if you can use Javascript. However, this framework is different from developing web apps. As a mobile developer, getting used to this framework can take some time. Nonetheless, even newbies can learn React Native within a short time. This is because there are lots of resources that are easily accessible online and offline. These include learning resources, FAQs, guides, and documentation. All these can be found on React Native website.
Design Capabilities
Both Flutter and React Native have various design capabilities. Let’s look at both:
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Flutter
This framework is a toolkit for developing high-grade, high-performance, and high-end mobile applications for Android and iOS. Flutter can be used with existing codes because it is free and open source. This is one of the reasons why it is preferred by most companies and developers globally. Flutter provides a regular neutral style.
Flutter comes with its widgets libraries such as Cupertino and Material Design components. While the Cupertino kit contains widgets that look like the ones on iOS, the ones on the Material package are for Android. Any Flutter app uses Material widgets by default. If you want to use Cupertino widgets, you have to import them.
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React Native
UI elements look natural to both Android and iOS platforms in React Native. Developers find it easier to use these UI elements to create mobile apps because they only need to write them one time. Additionally, lots of these elements render on each platform natively. So, users experience an interface that looks and feels more seamless and native while delivering the ability to customize the application’s feel and look.
Community
Both React Native and Flutter have active communities. They have extensive documentation and support. Both of them also have active GitHub repositories. Undoubtedly, they have both come a long way. Let’s look at their communities:
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Flutter
Although Flutter has an active community, its community is smaller than React Native. And that’s understandable because it launched more than two years after Native React. However, Flutter is slowly but surely growing in its community. It currently has 667 contributors, with close to 14,000 projects completed.
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React Native
React Native has a more active community than Flutter. This is because the Facebook community uses this framework since it’s their product. Since its launch in 2015, over 1,162 developers have contributed to React Native on GitHub. Additionally, the number of changes done to the framework has increased with time. Currently, close to 20,000 projects have been done on React Native.
Final Thoughts
So, which is better, Flutter or React Native? It all comes down to preferences. This React Native vs Flutter comparison shows that both are outstanding cross-platform application development frameworks. So, it’s better to consider your preferences before choosing any of the two to build a mobile application. Do you need more clarification? Reach out to us!
