React Native or Flutter: Which One Should You Pick?

Long gone are the days when cross-platform app development was an option; nowadays, it's a necessity for businesses. Right now, two of the strongest cross-platform mobile app development frameworks in the market are Flutter by Google and React Native by Facebook. In this article, we will be comparing both of these cross-platform app development frameworks from an app developer's perspective on different factors. While React Native is a well-explored framework used globally, the demand for flutter app developers is also increasing in the market, slowly and steadily. React Native is an open-source mobile application framework that mainly uses JavaScript whereas Flutter is a portable UI (User Interface) toolkit that can be utilized as a comprehensive SDK (Software Development Kit) along with additional tools and widgets for building an app. Some popular apps created by React Native and Flutter are as follows: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Skype, Tesla, and Bloomberg are some of the mobile applications that are built on React Native. On the other hand, Google Ads, Reflectly, Hamilton and Xianyu are some of the applications that are developed on Flutter. Now that we have covered the basic definitions, let's move on with the comparison of React Native and Flutter.

Quick Comparison: React Native & Flutter Framework

Without any further ado, let’s compare the flutter framework with React Native on the below-mentioned factors:

1. Programming Language

As you might already know, the biggest benefit of using a cross-platform framework is the option to use a particular programming language for the purpose of building mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms. In the case of React Native, app developers use JavaScript (JS), a programming language that hundreds and thousands of developers are familiar with. However, flutter uses Google's Dart programming language that is comparatively new to the market and not a lot of app developers are familiar with its basics.

2. Architecture

Speaking of the technical architecture of a cross-platform development framework, it is important for a mobile app developer to be familiar with the internals of the framework. The architecture of the React Native framework mainly depends on the JavaScript run-time environment i.e., JS Bridge. Here, the flux architecture from Facebook is used. In the flutter framework, there is no requirement for the JavaScript Bridge as Dart programming language is used, which also means most of the components are inbuilt which eliminates the need for any sort of bridging. This is the part where React Native lacks behind the flutter framework.

3. UI Component

Next comes the UI (User Interface) component section. When an app developer builds a cross-platform application; it requires the support of native components because, without it, the look and feel of the app will not be native in nature. To make this possible, every app development framework consists of an API that can help in accessing the native modules. The react native framework consists of fewer components whereas, there are more components in the flutter framework. That's why the React Native framework relies on the third-party libraries for smooth functioning, making the flutter a better cross-development framework in terms of UI components.

4. Community & Support

Presently, it is common to have support groups and online communities dedicated to a particular programming language, app development tool, or in this case, a cross-platform mobile app development framework. A strong community not only guides the app developers about using that particular technology but also keeps them updated about the new version releases, event announcements or any other news related to it. React Native was released in the year 2015 and ever since then, there's been no stopping this framework as its popularity is growing quickly. The React Native community on the platform of GitHub is huge and a number of meetups and conferences are announced globally on a regular basis. In comparison to the React Native, the Flutter framework is a newbie in town. But since it is being promoted by the tech giant Google, it has been a center of attention for mobile app developers. Even though the Flutter community is growing with a good rate of speed, there are still not many resources above for the app developers, especially for solving the issues they are facing while exploring the flutter framework.

Final Thoughts

So this was the comparison of two of the strongest cross-platform mobile app development frameworks i.e., React Native and Flutter frameworks. We hope that the above-mentioned points will help you in choosing the right app development framework for your next app project. In addition to this, as an app developer, you also need to brush up on your React concepts that have evolved over the years. This is an important step if you want to thrive in the app development industry.