According to a recent survey, Flutter surpassed React Native to become the most widely used cross-platform mobile app development framework. If Flutter is getting so much attention, then there will definitely be valid reasons for it. Being a leading Flutter development company, we have used Flutter for various development projects and reaped its benefits as well. So in this Flutter vs React Native blog, we’ll be analyzing the features that made Flutter achieve this feat. what makes both these frameworks great and how you can choose the best one that fits your needs. But before we proceed to the nitty gritty details, let’s first briefly introduce Flutter and React Native.
Flutter
Flutter can be described as a lightweight UI toolkit or as a Software Development Kit (SDK) filled with useful widgets and tools for developing cross-platform apps. Despite its large popularity, it is a fairly new Mobile Application SDK among developers. Flutter is created using Dart Programming language from a single codebase. One of the aspects that have caused the rapid growth of Flutter is its ability to let developers use a single codebase to create applications for Google Fuchsia, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web.
React Native
Unlike Flutter, React Native is an open-source UI framework. It can be used to develop genuine mobile apps that are equal to those created with Swift or Java. Since React Native makes use of the same essential UI building pieces that are utilized by iOS and Android, the components are simply combined using JavaScript and React.
In order to understand the core differences between the two, let’s first understand how an SDK differs from a Framework and then head to the in-depth Flutter vs React Native comparison.
Difference between SDK and Framework
Framework
In general, a software framework is an abstraction that enables user code to selectively override shared code that provides general functionality. Both software libraries and frameworks consist of reusable abstractions of code encased in clear APIs. Contrary to libraries, the framework controls the whole program’s flow of control rather than the caller. The distinctive quality of software frameworks is this inversion of control.
SDK
A software development kit (SDK or “devkit”) is generally a collection of programming tools that enables a software engineer to produce software for a certain software package, framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or other platforms. It could be anything as basic as an application programming interface in the form of a few files, an interface to a certain programming language, or it might contain complex hardware to connect with a specific embedded system.
Common tools include utilities and debugging aids, which are frequently displayed in an IDE. Additionally, sample code, technical notes, and other supplementary documentation are usually included in SDKs to assist in elucidating concepts from the core reference material.
Flutter vs React Native: Key Highlights
| Feature | Flutter | React Native |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | It uses a Skia graphics engine and has a layered architecture | The real-time code compilation is facilitated by the component that is referred to as a JavaScript Bridge. |
| Programming Language | The Dart programming language created by Google is used by Flutter. | It employs the widely used JavaScript programming language, which is extensively used in web technology. It is challenging for mobile app developers to adapt to Javascript. Framework. |
| Performance | Flutter has native components that improve the performance | The performance of the entire program is impacted by the use of the JavaScript Bridge to allow communication between native components. |
| Code Maintenance | The code of Flutter applications is quite simple, and external debugging tools are readily available, making code maintenance quite simple. | It’s difficult to debug React Native applications. Utilizing third-party libraries might result in compatibility problems that are challenging to troubleshoot. |
| Community Support | Although the Flutter community is smaller than the React Native community, they still provide prompt and efficient support. | There is a sizable community for React Native that is very active and willing to support React Native developers. |
The Major Convenience in Flutter
As previously stated in our Flutter vs React Native blog, Flutter is built using the quick object-oriented programming language Dart. It is fresh and simple to learn, especially if you are a seasoned professional who is more accustomed to Java and C#.
Even if you are new to software development, Flutter has great documentation that makes it extremely easy to understand what widgets are available and where to find them. Dart also provides the null safety feature that prevents errors caused due to unintentional access of variables set to null.
As Flutter supports cross-platform app development, it speeds up the development process and gets the project into production very fastly. It offers programmers a simple approach to creating and distributing aesthetically appealing, natively-compiling apps for desktop, web, and mobile (iOS, Android), all from a single codebase. It also enables the developer to publish the app in the Play store as well as the App Store. This creates a distinctive approach to developing apps in the current industry.
Flutter’s Web App Capabilities
Next up in our Flutter Vs React Native blog, we will be focusing on the Web App development capabilities of Flutter. With Flutter’s web support, users can enjoy the same mobile-like experiences online. It implies that you can now create apps for Android, iOS, and browsers using the same codebase.
So you will be able to develop Progressive Web Apps (PWA) that are integrated with the user’s environment and Single Page Applications (SPAs). Flutter’s web support has a browser-based delivery model for mobile apps already developed with the framework.
Flutter Vs React Native: How They Differ?
In contrast to React Native, Flutter uses a widget as its building block. It employs native components, which results in simpler and more distinctive code. This will result in the complication of a mobile developer finding it difficult to adapt code for the web components. And that is where Dart programming in Flutter comes into the picture as it makes it easier to adapt such code.
When it comes to React Native, it is totally different. The developer’s code is typically interpreted by Javascript. Then, the element sequences begin to join in a manner like a bridge and get natively compiled. As the code is written in JS and then has to be transpiled to the native code of the mobile platform, it impacts React Native’s performance.
Who Should Choose Flutter?
A developer can choose to work as a flutter developer if they are well-versed in Java or don’t have any prior web programming expertise. The primary reason is that Dart, the programming language used in Flutter is very similar to Java. The techniques utilized here are similar to Java’s usage of inheritance, polymorphism, and object-oriented programming.
Flutter vs React Native: The Architecture
The objective of Flutter is to make it possible for developers to create high-performance applications that work seamlessly across various platforms by embracing differences where they are present and utilizing as much code sharing as possible. Now let’s find out how Flutter achieves this with its 3-layer architecture.
- Framework
- Engine
- Embedder
Flutter intends to achieve its goal by having an expandable and layered structure. It exists as a collection of separate libraries, each of which is dependent on the base layer. Every component of the framework level is intended to be optional and changeable. Additionally, no layer has special access to a layer below it. Now let’s look at each of these layers in our Flutter Vs React Native blog.
Framework Layer:
It provides a responsive and contemporary framework based in Dart programming when the developer interacts with this level. It is made up of several layers and includes the majority of the platform, layout, and basic libraries.
Flutter has
- Basic classes and building block services that provide widely used abstractions over the underlying base include animation, painting, and gestures.
- The rendering layer helps you create a tree of renderable objects that can be dynamically changed. The tree will also adapt to the changes that you will be making.
- There is a class in the widgets layer for each rendered object in the rendering layer. In the widgets layer, you will be able to define the reusable class combinations. This is where the reactive programming happens.
- The complete control sets provided by the Material and Cupertino libraries help us implement the Material or iOS design languages using the widget layer’s composition primitives.
Engine Layer:
The engine conducts input, output, and network tasks as well as manages the different rendering transitions in this layer. The engine is responsible for rasterizing the new frames that have to be painted. And Flutter makes use of Skia to achieve this by converting the C++ code into classes in Dart.
Embedder Layer:
A platform-specific embedder acts as an entry point and collaborates with the underlying operating system to access services like input, rendering surfaces, and accessibility. A platform-specific language, such as Java or C++ for Android, Objective-C or Objective-C++ for iOS and macOS, or C++ for Windows and Linux, is used to create the embedder. Using the embedder, Flutter code may be added to an existing application as a module or as the entire application’s content.
The Benefits of the Architecture
Now that we have seen in-depth about Flutter’s architecture, let’s next focus on the benefits in our Flutter Vs React Native blog. Flutter renders the UI design with its own set of packages, and it converts the same design with native code. But in React Native, it varies with different designs for both iOS and Android.
Without writing a ton of code, Flutter architecture enables you to develop a truly native app. However, React Native involves a lot of components and it is really so tough to change the global component, which was declared so early.
The Flutter MVP architecture offers all the required features and is not significantly different from a native app architecture. Flutter is a great option if you need to quickly develop a mobile application for investors. Since you don’t have to concurrently develop two mobile apps for iOS and Android, it is substantially less expensive.
Foremost, the usability of Flutter comes from its Widget. It has huge compatibility and is used everywhere in the app. This confirms that the widget is so easy to use and easy to access the properties with different classes. We can have Parent and child class relationships in Flutter by using this architecture.
Conclusion:
We hope you now have a clear understanding of why Flutter is better than React Native after reading our Flutter vs React Native blog. We have delved down deep to even discuss how Flutter differs at an architectural level. Being a leading software development company, we will be publishing more insightful articles. So we recommend you subscribe to our Newsletter to stay up to date with all our latest updates. Thanks for reading.
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