In recent years, the demand for mobile app development has risen to a great extent. Till the second quarter of 2020, around 2.7 million new apps were introduced on the Android app store and 1.82 million apps on the iOS store.
The increasing penetration of mobile applications has started raising the concerns of mobile app developers. The matter is to which choice of framework to choose for iOS and Android app development. Basically, developing cross-platform apps to provide an enhanced level of a native experience.
Since several mobile app development frameworks are available, mainly React Native and Flutter. Thus, choosing the best one is another posing challenge for developers. Need not worry; we are here to clear the air between React Native and Flutter framework based on their features, pros, cons, and comparison.
But before, we dive deep into the much-needed comparison of React Native and Flutter frameworks. Just take a short glimpse as to where both the frameworks stand at present.
As per the 2020 report of Statista, 42% of mobile app developers prefer React Native where 39% have their complete inclination towards Flutter. Time after time, there has been a rising debate as to which one stands superior based on features, benefits, and capabilities.
What is React Native?
React Native is an open-source i.e. free to access cross-platform mobile app development framework. It was introduced by Facebook and released on GitHub covering the advanced functionalities of creating eCommerce, interactive, and robust level of enterprise app development. More importantly, it is a JavaScript framework that comprises of React library to create interactive mobile apps using a single codebase. It helps to use the code once, develop an app for the Android & iOS platform, and run anywhere you want in a hassle-free manner.
Top Features
* Open-Source: Free to access
* Cross-Platform: Create apps for Android & iOS
* UI Focussed: Highly responsive interface
* Hot Reloading: Fast changes in application
* Faster Development: Reuse code for speedy development
Pros
1. React Native app development ensures native rendering of the APIs without needing the external support of HTML or CSS markup.
2. Ensures optimum level of cross-platform app performance.
3. Rich set of debugging and error reporting tools.
4. Add new codes in the app without interfering with the existing functionalities.
Cons
1. In rare cases, native rendering of API in React Native might not offer comprehensive support.
2. Do not support third-party libraries.
3. React Native does not support parallel threading and multi-processing with the purpose of not slowing down the app performance.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a continuing rival of React Native framework. It is also an open-source and free technology for app development. In May 2017, Flutter was launched by Google and now manages ECMS standards. It has a UI toolkit for developing fast, beautiful, and natively compiled applications along with using Dart programming language.
Top Features
* Free and open-source
* Write once and maintain
* Hot reload
* Accessible native features
* Minimal code requirement
Pros
1. In-built UI widgets to follow the latest design guidelines and principles.
2. Easy integration with Java for Android platform and objective C or Swift for iOS platform.
3. Face-paced iteration cycle to save development time.
4. Easy and fast sharing of codes across multiple platforms.
Cons
1. Less range of libraries as compared to React Native.
2. Fail to bring compatibility for tvOS, watchOS, Android Auto, CarPlay, etc.
3. Standard release with no constant updates.
Real-Time Difference between React Native & Flutter
React Native has witnessed widespread popularity and acceptance among developers to build cross-platform apps in a fast and responsive manner. Whereas, Flutter has also been promoted heavily as one of the top-rated frameworks to develop Android and iOS apps. No matter what, you can decide to hire mobile app developers using the best development framework based on the following few key differences.
Language Stack
React Native: It uses JavaScript programming language which is widely use and accepted as the universal language for developing apps. React Native compiles the dynamic JS code to native view at runtime. It helps to reduce the code runs in the additional virtual machine.
Flutter: This framework uses Dart as a general-purpose programming language that only a few developers are aware of. It helps in client-side app development and is meant great fit for mobile and web apps.
Architecture
React Native: It uses Flux like Facebook does to build client-side web apps. Flux is responsible for unidirectional data flow. In this architecture, React takes care of the view part and Flux takes care of the programming model.
Flutter: The architecture of Flutter is much inspired by Facebook Flux and RefluxJS. It also implements a unidirectional data flow pattern comprised of StoreWatchers, Actions, and Stores.
User Interface (UI)
React Native: This framework uses third-party libraries without having any UI components library of its own. It uses various components like NativeBase, React Native Elements, and React Native material design as similar UI.
Flutter: This framework features in-built UI components like Material Design, Cupertino, and more. The widgets of the framework can be included in the application and existing ones can be modified accordingly.
Community Support
React Native: Being an open-source cross-platform app development framework, React Native is popular having widespread developer support. Currently, it has 68k on GitHub, 14.5k on subreddit, and 9000 users on Discord chat, and strong support of Stack Overflow.
Flutter: As compared to its rival, Flutter has 4.5k on subreddit, 30k on GitHub, and 740 users on Google Group along with Stack Overflow.
Testing
React Native: Developers have direct access to the JavaScript framework to perform comprehensive Unit testing.
Flutter: It is a new framework and uses Dart when it comes to Unit testing. As compared to React Native, Flutter also offers a decent testing advantage of cross-platform mobile applications.
Final Analysis
React Native and Flutter, both are top-notch mobile app development frameworks. While Flutter is the new entry in the arsenal, React Native has already made its prominent position being an open-source and JS programming language framework. Make the right choice by carefully evaluating the features, pros, cons, and overall performance.
