Flutter vs. React Native: Which One to Choose in 2024?

You can make the same chat app with both Flutter and React Native. What is the difference?

If you are building a cross platform mobile app today, there are two platforms competing for your mindshare - Flutter from Google and React Native from Facebook. These tools can achieve the same fundamental goals, build apps for multiple platforms - iOS, Android and Web, from a single codebase but there is a world of difference in how they work and what developers’ experience. No matter what you choose the other one automatically becomes your arch analysis. There are subtle differences in between features, tooling, developers experience, performance and the code. By the end of this blog you will get to know which one fits best according to your ideology.

Let’s start by understanding the programming languages amongst these two frameworks. In React Native, we code apps in JavaScript. It also supports TypeScript if you want to add a type system on top of JavaScript. JavaScript was never really designed to build mobile apps, so Flutter was implemented with a different language called DART which is a language compiled by implementing two platforms - with ahead in time and just in time combinations. That results in various performance advantages but it’s a language that not many people know outside of development.

React Native and Flutter are popular choices for creating mobile applications that work across platforms. Both share a large community and have been improving from time to time. They are highly performant. React Native is being used by a large number of companies like FaceBook, Airbnb, Instagram, etc. It keeps on working to add new features.

What is React Native?

React is a good choice for developing applications as it is suitable for creating simple as well as complex applications. It makes use of virtual DOM to update the user interface, which makes it fast. Being quite old, it has a large and active community, which also suggests that many resources are available to help beginners learn fast. The presence of reusable components helps developers use those components at multiple places within an application. Declarative programming style makes it easy to create complex user interfaces. With exaggerating it further - React is easy to learn, easy to use, SEO-friendly, scalable, and testable.

React is the basis of all new open-source JavaScript frameworks. It often merges with (1) Swift, (2) Flutter, (3) Native Script, (4) Ionic, (5) Apache Cordova, (6) Sencha, and (7) Xamarin but it has emerged from all of them surprisingly well. Its free and open nature makes the app developers stick around for long, keeping the cost of app development less.

Also, React Native apps are compiled to native code, which means that they perform just like the apps built with Objective - C or Java. ReactJS apps are rendered using a web view, which can lead to slower performance.

A Bit about ReactJS

React Native and React JS are both JavaScript libraries for building user interfaces. Both are hugely popular and have large and active communities of developers, which means that there are plenty of resources available to help beginners get started and troubleshoot the problems they encounter.

React Native Trends

When a code is used across platforms, it implies savings on cost, resources, and time. Coined in 2015, the future still looks bright for React Native. There are a number of exciting trends that we are expected to see.

● React Native Fabric is a new architecture that promises to improve performance and stability.

● Serverless architecture (a cloud computing model) allows developers to build and run applications without having to manage servers. React Native can be integrated with serverless architecture to create scalable and cost-effective applications.

● Redux and TypeScript are becoming increasingly popular.

● React facilitates interactiveness within the app.

● Additionally, React is attested with a number of tools and libraries that make the React Native Development more efficient and productive.

● We will also see React hooks in action with simplified stateful logic and functional components to manage state and side effects.

● Without forgetting, React Native has the additional pressure of improving user experience with the presence of cross - platform tools like Flutter, Jetpack Compose, and .NET MAUI.

In 2024, we can expect more advancements in React Tools and Libraries which will enable developers to create top React Native Apps.

What should React Native developer should know?

A React Native Developer is required to have knowledge of:

(1) Coding Tools/Editors: Visual Studio Code, Android Studio, Xcode, .Net

(2) Version Control: GitLab, SVN

(3) All relatable React Native frameworks

(4) Operating Systems: Mac, Windows

(5) Payment Gateways: Paystack, Flutterwave, Braintree, Stripe

(6) CMS: CakePHP, PHP

(7) Programming Languages: Objective-C, Swift,

(8) Scripting Languages: JavaScript, React.js, JSX

(9) Design Pattern: Redux, MVC, MVVM

(10) Database Systems: SQLite, Core Data, SQL Server 2008

(11) SDK’s: Portsip, Twilio, Sinch, Socket.io, AWS, Firebase, CocoaPods, Google-Mobile-Ads, Google Maps, Google Analytics, Crashlytics, Facebook, Google+, Twitter Kit, Tumblr.

(12) Third-Party API's: Google Search Places, Facebook Graph, AFNetworking/Alamofire, SDWebImage, MBProgressHUD, SSZipArchive, SFHFKeychainUtils, Instagram

(13) Additional Professional Competencies: MVC, KVC(KVO), Memory Management, Multithreading, Concurrency, Blocks Programming, GCD, Operation Queue, RESTful, JSON/XML/SOAP Web Services, VOIP/PSTN Calling, Core Animations, InApp Purchase, Agile Development, Software Development Lifecycle(SDLC), Call Kit, Sprite Kit, Apple/Google Maps, Clustering.

What is Flutter?

The cross-platform compatibility, high performance, code reuse, cost-effectiveness - everything is similar to React, just that Flutter is an open source framework from Google. React Native is from Facebook. While React is used for developing frontend of applications, Flutter acts on both backend as well as on frontend, making full stack developers use it even more. It faciliates native app development and complies with mobile, web, and other platforms. Companies like (1) Alibaba Group, (2) eBay, (3) Toyota, (4) BMW, (5) iRobot, (6) Tencent, (7) eBay Motors, (8) New York Times, (9) Hamilton Musical, (10) MyBMW, (11) Xianyu, (12) Nubank, (13) Realtor.com, and (14) Flydirekt have been using Flutter.

Flutter apps have short development time span, accelerating time to market. It is highly adaptable and can be used for developing apps on all platforms, and is being used for creating all types of applications including AR and VR. It is not quite conducive to creating gaming applications.

Trend in Flutter App Development 2024

● Flutter comes with improved user interface capabilities. More customizable and animated interfaces.

● There's a growing trend towards using more robust and scalable state management solutions.

● This is becoming more prevalent to create more intelligent and adaptive applications.

● Flutter is expanding into desktop OS such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.

● Flutter is improving its stability and support for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and delivering superior performance and rendering capabilities for web applications.

● This project intends to launch Flutter's capabilities to the web platform.

● These are being extended to embedded devices such as smart homes, smart cities, or more IoT devices.

● Augmented reality (AR)

● Virtual reality (VR)

● On-demand apps

● Null safety

● Animations plus

Technology Stack Flutter

Flutter Developers should be aware of openapi-generator-cli, Firebase, Genymotion, Android Studio, Node.js + express.js, Django or Flask (Python), Spring Boot (Java), AWS Serverless backends with SST or SDK, Supabase/Amplify (BaaS), Golang Gin for a classical Rest API, State management, Riverpod, Firestore, Stripe for payment, Twilio for text messages;

Difference between Flutter and React Native

Flutter and React Native both frameworks offer powerful development solutions for cross-platform mobile applications. Basic differences are as follows:

Difference between Flutter and React Native

Which is Better Flutter vs. React Native?

React Native is a popular choice for mobile app development companies because it offers a number of advantages over other frameworks, including performance, cross-platform development, a large community, and ease of learning.

Flutter App development companies prefer using it due to its high performance, ease of use, and extensive library of pre-built widgets.

Conclusion

React Native will stay right where it is as the basic building block of all new - modern - competitive mobile and web development frameworks. The reason for its popularity is its consistency and resourcefulness. With time we may expect some changes and version upgrades. And with the release of new trends, React Native developers are well-positioned to create the next generation of mobile apps. No good developer intentionally creates non-unique applications, but react native development companies help ensure hackneyed or cliché apps are avoided. While results and performance of the app matters while using cross platform app development frameworks, it is equally important to track, and report various metrics like (1) market demand, (2) available skillset, (3) rankings, (4) impressions, (5) clicks, (6) bounce rate, (7) dwell time, (8) time to market, (9) testing across multiple stages, (10) comments post deployment, and (11) sales.