React Native or Flutter – Which One to Choose For Mobile App Development in 2021?

No matter what business you are dealing with, making a good interaction with customers is needed to improve brand loyalty. One of the best ways that enable several companies to connect with their customers is to build a mobile app for expanding their business & unlocking market reach. Businesses are changing the way they work with the help of mobile apps offering immense benefits in keeping them connected with customers.

As everyone is busy with hectic life schedules, developing apps at a shorter time with reduced costs can be a great advantage. That is where the cross-platform app development comes into action. The two names that may come up to your mind for building mobile apps that run smoothly across multiple platforms are React Native and Flutter. If you are wondering which technology to choose, then you have come to the right place.

Flutter vs. React Native

We know that Flutter & React Native are two leading players in the cross-platform app development world but finding out which framework best fits your project needs can be a difficult task. Both technologies have a lot of similarities such as developing cross-platform apps using one codebase, hot reloading, great UI, amazing tools, native features, etc. but they have their differences.

Let’s find out the difference between the two to help you choose the suitable one.

– Language

React Native is based on JavaScript using React, which means it is a great benefit as JavaScript ranks among the best programming languages in the world. As many developers can code in JavaScript, learning React Native is very easy for any JavaScript developer.

Talking about Flutter, it is the language based on Dart, which is quite easy to pick up and a good programming language but not as popular as JavaScript. Developers who are interested to work with Flutter must learn Dart & developers with a C++/Java background can grasp the Flutter language easily.

The winner is React Native in terms of language as learning Dart for Flutter can be quite challenging.

– Corporate Backing

React Native is the language backed by Facebook and was open-sourced by Facebook in the year 2015. It can be a good choice as Facebook has a dedicated team of engineers working on React Native and many internal Facebook products are coded in this language.

Flutter is a new framework if we compare it with React Native but it is backed by Google. Known as Google’s open-source SDK for developing apps for Android & iOS using a single codebase, Flutter is backed up by Google similar to React Native backed by Facebook.

React Native & Flutter is a winner as both frameworks are backed by tech giants, Facebook & Google respectively.

– Popularity

If we talk about the ranking of these two frameworks, Flutter ranks higher with 75.4% while React Native ranks with 62.5% as per the research conducted by StackOverflow Survey of 2019. The ranking may be because React Native has been used by many developers for many years while Flutter is still new in the market but is gaining huge popularity among developers.

Flutter is a winner as per the stat mentioned above.

– Performance

One of the main reasons why many believed that Flutter performs better than React Native is because Flutter doesn’t depend on JavaScript Bridge like React Native for the interaction with native components. Flutter depends on Dart code, which is easily compiled to native machine code without the need of JavaScript Bridge. This is why Flutter performs better in comparison to React Native that depends on JavaScript Bridge.

Flutter is a winner when it comes to performance.

– Use Cases

As it is quite easy to adopt React Native, many developers can use this framework to develop React Native mobile apps. Some of the best examples are Facebook, Uber Eats, Instagram, Bloomberg, Tesla, etc.

One of the plus points of Flutter is Google, the backer of Flutter. Some of the top examples are Alibaba, the online shopping brand, Hamilton Music and Google Ads. As this framework is new, not many mobile apps are there in the app store.

The winner is React Native as there is more adoption of it for app development than Flutter.

– Scope for Developers

We know that React Native uses two popular options (JavaScript & React), which can be a good reason for better job prospects in the development field. Research by StackOverflow Survey of 2019 says React Native is more wanted than Flutter with React Native ranking at 13.1% and Flutter at 6.7%.

One research is not enough to conclude that React Native is better than Flutter as there is a high chance that the demand for Flutter may grow in times to come. But if we talk about the current situation React Native is more popular among the two.

The winner is React Native.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, you must have figured out that React Native and Flutter offer more than just faster development but also help in reducing costs to a huge extent. Delivering projects on time is one of the most crucial aspects of mobile & web app development, which is why many companies prefer cross-platform app development through these technologies for reduced time-to-market. With the help of third-party libraries & ready-to-use component, React Native and Flutter comes as an efficient means for building apps.

Finding out whether which framework is the best fit for your project depends on the requirements of your project & the expertise of your team’s skills. If your developers are good in Dart and brand-first design is your main concern, programming with Flutter would be the best choice. On the other hand, if developers are fluent in JavaScript and plan to build the app’s GUI using native UI components, choose React Native. Both frameworks have their pros and cons, which is why you should discuss your project needs with the expert team having experience in flutter & react native app development to find out the best fit for your business.