Today, we have two popular solutions for cross-platform software development of mobile apps: React Native and Flutter. Both tools are superb solutions that allow programmers to create a single code base for Android and iOS-based devices. Moreover, both solutions reduce the time required for building the app. Therefore, a new mobile app can hit the market faster and on a smaller budget. That’s why Flutter and React Native became widely used by modern developers. Furthermore, their adoption rate is gradually growing. But which one is better? In this post, we’ll review Flutter vs React Native 2020 and try to define what framework has more benefits. We’ll review both tools according to different characteristics.
Performance: What Tool Is More Effective?
First, let’s analyze the architecture of both frameworks. React Native is a more complicated tool in this case. For executing the source code from JavaScript to the native environment on this framework, a “bridge” is required. The main goal of the bridge is to exchange data between two environments. However, this bridge is an additional agent that needs some time and resources for processing.
When it comes to Flutter, everything is more comfortable in this case. This framework can easily access native options of the mobile device without the use of additional interlayers. The tool runs quicker and needs fewer resources to execute the code. All this means that developers can release the app faster. Moreover, this tool guarantees faster performance and the ability to use complex animations that load more quickly.
However, you shouldn’t think that React can’t process too complex algorithms, but Flutter can do this Faster.
What about the User Interface?
Both frameworks have superb graphical options, but they use absolutely different approaches to show user interface. When React Native is used, all visual elements such as buttons, menus, or others will look slightly different on iOS and Android.
The main benefit of Flutter is that this framework guarantees a consistent experience. The application will look the same on all devices (no matter what operating system you are using). Flutter uses C++ graphics that broadcast the image to the screen. As a result, it is easier to make animations.
What Development Resources Are Required for React and Native?
Both frameworks have cross-platform nature that allows them to save the time of developers. Simply put, they allow programmers to reuse code if necessary (there’s no need to write separate apps for Android and iOS). As a result, investment in hiring more developers with different skills is also not needed. Let’s take a look at both frameworks.
React Native hit the market earlier, and that’s why it has a more significant community and more useful libraries and packages. However, there’s one disadvantage – the majority of these packages were not updated for a long time. Therefore, some of them can’t be used today. Besides, React is contingent on the support of its community.
Flutter was launched only three years ago. But this tool is supported by Google programmers from the beginning. This means that this framework has more pre-set host packages that are updated on an ongoing basis. In some instances, React needs the use of third-party libraries. Flutter is more reliable in this case and has more cool options that run smoothly. As a result, Flutter offers better functionality and needs less time to build the application.
What Framework Is More Reliable?
React Native was created by Facebook, Flutter was developed by Google. But both solutions are open-source. Users need to buy a license to start using the tool. Today, both IT giants are used by millions of developers from all over the globe. That’s why both are much concerned with the reliability of the frameworks.
React is contingent on native elements of a particular device and requires additional efforts to build iOS and Android supported apps. Unfortunately, some firmware updates can make changes to the application. Though this doesn’t happen frequently, but each update of the firmware results in some bugs. To fix all of them, programmers need to do lots of QA tests and also update the mobile app. Programmers that use this tool know about these issues and usually provide the tech support for their mobile apps. We can’t tell that this is a significant disadvantage of this framework, but still, professional programmers should know this.
In this case, Flutter is more reliable. This tool is resistant to changes and the updates of the operating system. Besides, this framework has lots of sophisticated and powerful testing tools that can help easily solve the issue. Flutter vs React is better because there’s no need to use third-party software to test the mobile app.
Overall, we can see that in terms of performance, reliability, and productivity, Flutter is much better. But sometimes, it is hard to find a developer that knows how to work with this framework. When it comes to finding a professional developer, React Native is much better. But for some software development companies, it is still the question of major concern when it comes to choosing between these two frameworks.
