Flutter vs. React Native: Choose the Best for your App in 2022

Flutter vs. React Native: Choose the Best for your App in 2022 The framework used for a mobile application development project greatly influences its chances of success. It goes without saying that a badly constructed app will regularly crash, load slowly, stop responding, and annoy the user experience. In this respect, the popular dilemma between the choice of native and cross-platform development comes into the picture. Well, some cross-platform development frameworks became popular because they promise to deliver a native user experience without undermining the benefits of reusing a single codebase. The most well-known of these frameworks are Flutter and React Native. Naturally, the Flutter vs. React Native comparison has gained so much popularity among developers.  Before we conclude finding one better than the other, let us first get an overview of these two frameworks, their use cases, best-known apps, and their respective pros and cons. Then we can get into a more detailed comparison.  Flutter Launched by Google in 2018, Flutter rose to popularity as a cross-platform UI development kit for building native-looking apps faster for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, web, and desktop.  The expert team of Flutter developers uses Dart, an object-oriented programming language known for clean coding conventions and quality solutions. Flutter comes with an extensive repository of modular UI widgets for shaping the user interface specific to each platform.  Some leading apps that use Flutter include Google Ads, eBay, Alibaba, BMW, Tencent, and others.  Flutter App development: Pros and Cons  Like everything in the world, despite being popular, Flutter has its own pros and cons. Let’s have a quick look. Pros Fast-paced development because of modular widgets and one shareable codebase. Flutter’s cross-platform development capability goes well beyond mobile OS and allows building apps for web and desktop platforms as well.  Faster testing and development cycles thanks to an instant evaluation of the code through running the app is a great advantage of Flutter.  Flutter comes with very extensive documentation to guide new and aspiring developers.  The widget-based UI development without relying on the native UI layer ensures faster and modular development.  Cons Flutter has its own darker sides as well. Let’s see them briefly.  Flutter apps take a lot longer than other frameworks.  Flutter apps have a footprint and hence need a separate hosting solution.  For complex and data-rich apps, Flutter often creates performance issues. Dart is still a relatively new and less known programming language in the developer community.  Read More: React v18.0: A guide to its new features and updates Which types of app projects should use Flutter? Flutter is excellent for specific app projects while proving its shortcomings for certain app projects. Startup app projects and all projects having shorter development timelines and smaller budgets find Flutter a befitting technology. App projects focused on user interface design and needed frequent iteration to find Flutter great for its modular widgets and Hot Reload protocol.  React Native Launched by Facebook in 2014, React Native is a component-based, open-source JavaScript framework for developing cross-platform apps that can run on iOS and Android.  Based on JavaScript language, React Native allows developers to compile code from different languages such as Swift, Objective-C, Java, and JavaScript.  Some leading apps built using React Native include Facebook, Instagram, Bloomberg, Walmart, and many others.  React Native App development: Pros and Cons  React Native made cross-platform development popular and reigned for years in the app development space. But its greatness is balanced by some shortcomings as well.  Pros It offers an extensive range of ready-to-use JavaScript packages. By connecting native UI layers of respective platforms achieves a fully native user experience. Component-based modular architecture and access to many third-party tools make it a versatile framework.  Being the most popular cross-platform technology, it has a large developer community behind it. React has a lower learning curve because it uses widely popular JavaScript.  Cons Despite being a cross-platform framework, React still requires native development skills for platform-specific UI building.  React depending on the JavaScript bridge to connect the native UI layer can cause performance issues. React comes with a smaller range of out-of-the-box tools and needs to depend more on third-party tools. React Native apps are generally bigger in footprint than native apps.  What types of app projects find React Native more suitable? React Native is more suitable for large, complex, and multifaceted cross-platform app projects. On the other hand, excellent community support allows any new developers to get the necessary help for their app projects. Looking to hire ReactJS developers? Contact us now See here Key differences between the: Flutter vs. React Native Now that you understand the capabilities of both frameworks as well as their primary advantages and disadvantages, it is time to shine some light on each area and choose which framework is best for a certain area. Let's look at the key differences between Flutter and React Native.  Performance As Flutter and React Native come head-to-head, we must highlight the most significant difference. React Native needing a JavaScript bridge for connecting the native UI layer can have performance issues for the app. On the other hand, by offering UI widgets to shape the look and feel of the app, Flutter offers a high-performance technology choice.  UI Design and look React Native, instead of relying on out-of-the-box UI components for a native look, always depends on third-party UI components. On the other hand, Flutter comes with an extensive repository of built-in native UI widgets. Naturally, Flutter apps are fast-loading and high-performance-focused.  Development cost and resource availability Since JavaScript is widely popular for resource availability, React Native has an edge. But Flutter, with its modular widget-based development, costs less. React Native development is comparatively more expensive despite offering too many skilled developers. On the other hand, despite offering fewer resources, Flutter development involves a lesser development cost.  App Security As far as the security of the app and its data is concerned, both lack enough advanced security protocols. Hence using third-party security tools is common in most Flutter and React Native projects. Community support A major area of difference between the two frameworks is community support. Since React Native is older and has the largest developer community worldwide, it is backed by continuous support for every passing development issue and challenge. React Native community is also highly active across developer platforms and continuously provides feedback and help for every app project. Flutter now only has a budding community of developers who fast extend their footprints across many projects.  Summing it up For those who believe that the rivalry between frameworks is sufficient for pushing the boundaries of innovation and originality, both Flutter and React provide enormous value. There is no simple answer to deciding. It is determined by the app project's length, complexity, budget, and development time. 

Kapil Panchal

A passionate Technical writer and an SEO freak working as a Content Development Manager at iFour Technolab, USA. With extensive experience in IT, Services, and Product sectors, I relish writing about technology and love sharing exceptional insights on various platforms. I believe in constant learning and am passionate about being better every day.