In the recent past, the interest in cross-platform solutions has increased manifold. In this increasingly competitive world of technology, cross-platform languages enable developers to create applications that run on multiple platforms without rewriting the code.
Among the cross-platform languages, React Native and Flutter are the two most prominent names. Both serve the same purpose, but it is vital to understand the underlying differences before selecting one. Let’s dig deeper to compare these widely used programming languages and discuss their pros and cons.
What is React Native?
React Native is an open-source framework for mobile app development that combines the strength of JavaScript and React. It allows developers to write code once and deploy it on both iOS and Android simultaneously, saving valuable time and effort in the process. React Native provides a native feel to the app by utilizing native components. The resulting apps are fast, responsive, and offer a user experience that feels like a traditional native app. The apps created using React Native can be downloaded from Google Play Store (Android Version) and Apple Store (IOS Version).
What is Flutter?
Developed by Google, Flutter is another open-source project for app development which allows developers to create attractive mobile, web, and desktop apps using a single codebase. Flutter uses Dart programming language and hosts an architecture that enables responsive design. Given the simplicity of its syntax, Flutter has gained massive popularity among novice developers for many reasons.
Flutter vs. React Native
Language
As mentioned earlier, Flutter is written in Dart language, while React Native is written in JavaScript. React Native has the upper hand here since JavaScript is one of the most widely used languages in the world, while developers rarely use Dart.
Performance
Flutter provides faster development speed and running time compared to React Native since the latter utilizes JavaScript bridging.
Code Reusability
If there’s one area where Flutter outperforms React Native with ease, it’s code reusability. Flutter enables the developers to create a single multi-purpose widget tree and reuse the same logic when required. Reusing the code is a fine practice that flutter developers usually follow to finish their tasks done easily on time.
Animations
Flutter is better in this department since creating animations using this framework is a straightforward and precise process. Flutter also boasts many more libraries supporting animations as compared to React Native.
Community Support
Given that React Native has been on the market since 2015, its community support is significantly larger than Flutter, whose beta version was launched in 2018.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that there is no framework that can be universally adopted. The approach you choose should depend on individual projects rather than following a rule of thumb. Both React Native and Flutter have their own advantages and pitfalls that should be considered while making the final decision.
