The world needs Web Development and Mobile App Development more than you think. There are thousands of businesses that start their journey every day, and all of them want to establish their presence on the web to stay ahead of the competition. Be it a product, service, or anything in general, an application is seen to be the most effective way to offer a good user experience to customers and clients. React and Flutter both have come a long way, catering to these requirements of being helpful for developers in creating powerful and aesthetically pleasing applications.
In this Flutter vs React Native blog, we will discuss the following aspects:
Check out our React Native vs Flutter video on YouTube:
Let’s begin!
Introduction to React Native
React is one of the world’s most popular frameworks that is used to build web applications and mobile applications. It uses JavaScript to go about with the programming side of things.
React Native is complementary to React in a way it helps in building native applications easily. It has numerous advantages, and the important thing to be stated here is that React Native comprises all of the advantages of React and then some more!
All in all, React Native does is that it provides a means to compile native app components to help build up native mobile apps.
What about its syntax in comparison to React? Well, React is still the base abstraction of React Native; hence, the syntax is mostly the same. The difference lies in the components and their usage.
Here’s the major deal: The logic layer that governs the app can be reused to build the exact same application for both Android and iOS without having to need separate development.
Next up on this React Native vs Flutter comparison, let’s take a look at Flutter and what it has to offer.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is again another popular open-source framework that is ideal for Android, web, iOS, and desktop-based application development.
There are many things that Flutter is extremely good at doing.
For example, Flutter can help in building minimum viable products (MVPs) that can go from a prototype or scratch to a production-ready application without having to put much effort into using complex methodologies, tools, and techniques.
Quick changes to the code are possible with Flutter, as complementary to the previous point, which ensures that developers have a straightforward and easy way for either making changes to existing code or even adding on new modules, functionality, and more.
Implementing and integrating new features comes easy with Flutter as it was one of the concepts that were looked into when Flutter was designed from the ground up.
Flutter supports Google Firebase natively. Being a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) application development platform, it provides Flutter Developers to integrate their applications with real-time databases, cloud storage, and more for the local files.
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Flutter vs React Native
Now, let us have a look at the difference between React Native and Flutter:
| Comparison Factor | Flutter | React Native |
| Programming Language | Flutter uses the Dart programming language, the easy-to-understand OOP with similar syntax as JavaScript | React Native uses JavaScript for its development, thereby making it easy for developers to get started |
| Architecture | Flutter is a complete SDK and uses the Dart framework and Flutter Engine needed for development | React Native makes use of the Flux architecture from Facebook to compile JavaScript code into native code at the run time |
| Installation | Flutter can be easily installed by downloading the binary from GitHub and setting it up without a hassle | React Native can be installed by using Node Package Manager (NPM), which requires a background in JavaScript |
| Documentation | Flutter has better documentation, which is a common consensus reached by beginners and experienced developers across the globe | React Native can be a little difficult to get started with due to the complexity of the documentation |
| Components | Flutter has a plethora of components for a variety of tasks viz. navigation, testing, stateful management, etc. | React Native heavily depends on third-party libraries as Native just provides device access and UI rendering APIs |
| Productivity | Flutter has a hot reload, but since it is with Dart, it takes a bit of effort to get started and begin being efficient | React Native helps immensely with the hot reload that saves a lot of time while developing and testing the UI |
| Community | Flutter is gaining rapid growth among developer communities and seeing a steep increase in interest and usage | React Native has been around since 2015 and has a good amount of developers using it across the globe |
| Testing | Flutter is rich in testing features at any required level of abstraction, even in providing facilities for widget testing | React Native depends on third-party tools, viz. Detox and Appium, for testing unofficial Native apps and Jest for snapshot tests |
| Build and Release | Flutter provides a CLI that can be used to take care of the build and deploy operations very easily | React Native has to depend on third-party apps like Fastlane to deploy Android and iOS apps, which is a manual process |
| CI/CD Support | In its documentation, Flutter has a detailed section on linking to external sources to set up pipelines easily | React Native does not offer any official documentation on how to setup CI/CD pipelines for deployment |
Conclusion
I hope you got the complete picture of the Flutter vs React Native comparison. Now, you might have the question: Flutter or React Native? Well, it depends on a lot of factors.
For instance, React Native has been around for a while and has a bigger community and more third-party support in general.
However, Flutter is also flourishing quickly, and this, along with the features of Flutter, has led experts to believe that Flutter is the future of mobile application development.
So, which do you think is the correct pick for you? Is it React Native or Flutter? Head to the comments section and let us know.