Introduction
The ever-increasing demand for cheaper, faster, more secure and more user-friendly technology in the world of mobile app development continues, with entrepreneurs striving to achieve their ultimate business objectives, all the while keeping up with the latest technological trends and developments. Web and mobile development technologies are in a race to improve their performance with every passing year, reducing the gap between imagination and technology. Choosing the right cross-platform app development framework is the first crucial step for businesses looking to create robust, scalable apps. In this article, we take a look at Flutter and Native Base, as two of the most popular technologies in use for creating useful and engaging mobile and web applications.
What’s Flutter And What’s It Used For?
Released in 2018 by Google, Flutter is a free open-source UI software development kit for coding and creating cross-platform mobile, desktop, and web applications. Flutter allows developers to build high-performance, scalable apps, using a single codebase and a programming language called Dart, which makes building both iOS and Android apps faster and simpler.
As Tim Sneath, Group Product Manager at Google, says, “ Our vision for Flutter is something that many of us have been dreaming for years – a powerful, general-purpose, open UI tool kit for building stunning experiences on any device-embedded, mobile, desktop or beyond.”
How Mature Is Flutter?
Considering its relatively short history, Flutter has gained immense popularity as a cross-platform app development technology, the major territories for Flutter developers being the US, China, India, Brazil, and the EU. Research shows that Flutter has been used to develop apps across segments, ranging from lifestyle and social apps to finance and banking apps. The newest version of Flutter, Flutter 3, boasts improved performance and even better productivity.
Pros and cons of Flutter App Development
“ Flutter significantly reduced the time we needed to develop new features from 1 month down to 2 weeks.” – Bruce Chen (Engineer, Alibaba).
Pros Of Flutter App Development
- “It’s all widgets” – Flutter uses widgets; everything in Flutter is a widget, be it a button or a padding or a font. Users can customize these widgets, or even make their own, to use as building blocks while creating a user interface. In cross-platform app development, this UI customization takes a minimum amount of time, while producing stunning visuals.
- Hot Reload – Fixing errors and making changes to the code in Flutter is a breeze with this feature. You get instant updates on errors and fix them in real time, without restarting the whole process.
- Dart – The programming language Flutter is based on, Dart, is relatively new and easy to learn for developers familiar with Java and C#. A single codebase powers both android and iOS platforms.
- Flutter 3 – Flutter’s latest update allows you to build eye-catching and dynamic experiences on foldable mobile devices. With its variable refresh rate support on iOS devices, scrolling experience will become smoother for users. The latest web app updates include new APIs for image decoding, ensuring better performance than before.
- The Google Guarantee – Flutter is backed up and used by Google, ensuring that the high performance, portable tool kit has constant support. This is also why Flutter has plugins such as geolocation and mapping, developed by Google.
Cons Of Flutter App Development
- Large app size – This may lead to issues, as users tend to have limited storage on their phones.
- Limited Plugins and Packages – Since Flutter is relatively new, this issue is to be expected.
- Dart, Again – There is a relatively small community of developers coding in Dart, compared to JavaScript.
What popular apps have been made with Flutter?
Ever since its introduction, Flutter has been the tech stack of choice for mobile app and web development across industries, ranging from fintech and healthcare, businesses, utility and entertainment, to shopping and fitness. Popular businesses that have used Flutter include Tencent, Google Ads, Nubank, BMW, Philips Hue, Google Assistant, eBay, Alibaba, The New York Times, and Toyota, among others.
What is React Native and What is it used for?
React Native is an open-source cross platform UI software framework, developed by Facebbok, released in 2015. React Native uses JavaScript to create mobile applications for Android and iOS, using a single codebase much like Flutter. In 2021, 38% of developers reportedly used React Native for cross-platform app development.
How mature is React Native?
React Native has gained immense popularity over the years, owing to its flexibility-it allows developers to use React and JavaScript side by side, to create complex native apps. This has made it a favorite among developers as well as several important online companies.According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, React Native takes the 6th spot with 14.51% of all respondents’ votes, proving its popularity among developers.
Pros and cons of React Native App Development
“ Learn once, write anywhere.”
Pros of React Native App Development
- “Bridge” Concept – React Native apps use natively written codes, as opposed to web-based cross-platform solutions. Codes do not lag, giving it a near-native experience.
- Hot Reload – New codes can be injected directly into a running application, in real-time. In the 0.61 version, a new feature called Fast Refresh had been included, improving the developer experience even further.
- Single Codebase – JavaScript is a programming language that is well-known by developers. Much like Flutter, a single codebase helps write cross-platform apps.
- Mature – React Native was officially released more than five years ago. Since then, the Facebook team has had time to stabilize the API and fix issues.
- Freedom of Choice – React Native allows developers to build cross-platform apps according to the developer’s choice as much as the project’s requirements.
Cons of React Native App Development
- Still Not Native – React Native is still unable to use all the offerings of a specific platform.
- Design – Complicated designs and advanced interactions still work better on native development.
- Lack of custom modules – Even though many are already available, you may have to build your own module if need arises.
What popular apps have been made with React Native?
The React Native framework has been used by startups and established enterprises alike to build applications. Some of the largest companies to use React Native include Facebook, Skype, Walmart, Airbnb, UberEats, Instagram, Tesla, and Wix.
Flutter And React Native App Development Comparison And Summary 2022
As open-source frameworks developed by leading companies, Flutter and React Native are similar in many ways. While choosing between Flutter and React Native as a cross-platform app development framework for apps, it should be kept in mind that the cross-platform nature of both Flutter and React Native saves time and reduces cost. Their third-party libraries make it more efficient to use them to build apps. What is essential while choosing the correct framework for web or mobile app development, is discussing your project with an experienced team of developers.
The Following Is A Comprehensive Comparison Between What React Native & Flutter Has To Offer In The Mobile Development Space:
| Feature | Flutter | React Native |
| Programming language | Dart | JavaScript |
| Ease of learning | Easy to pick for developers familiar with Java and C# | Strictly based on JavaScript ; no need to pick up a new language |
| Maturity | Relatively new | Been around for longer than Flutter |
| Community Support | Growing, as it is relatively new | Massive community support |
| Architecture | BloC | Flux and Redux |
| Components library | Smaller than React Native | Large and inclusive |
Predicting The Future Of Flutter And React Native In App Development
Flutter and React Native are ever-evolving technologies, and since they are both open source,they will always be relevant to the development community. While React Native is becoming more stable with each iteration, Flutter is growing and developing at a steady pace as well, with new versions to look forward to. As already established, the requirements of a project and the decision of the rest of the tech in the stack govern the choice between Flutter and React Native.
Being early adopters of both technologies and having made major contributions to both Flutter (open source projects and contribution to the documentation) and React Native
(NativeBase, NativeBase Startup+, Formst and other open source contributions), GeekyAnts has always been a known name in the Flutter and React Native space and continues to innovate and build products to test the limits of these frameworks.
GeekyAnts- React and Flutter App Development Company has collaborated with clients worldwide, using Flutter and React Native to create customized solutions. These include a secure location sharing and event creation app for the @company, USA, a crypto payments wallet app for Zapit, Hong Kong, a carbon footprint tracker app for Greenr, UK, an e-sports gaming platform for MPL, India, a real-estate app for Torii, USA, and a subscription based delivery app for Link, Kuwait.
While the comparison between Flutter and React Native prevails, we are headed towards equal acceptance and mutual expertise of the two technologies within the community.
This Article was written by Ahona Das, a technical Content writer at GeekyAnts India Pvt. Ltd.