ReactNative and Flutter are the two most widely used cross-platform app development frameworks that are known for their single code base for both iOS and Android. ReactNativeis an open-source framework that was launched by Facebook in 2015 while Flutter was launched by Google in 2017 and both the frameworks have gained much popularity in the app development industry. This blog will give you in-depth information on different aspects od ReactNative vs Flutter comparison and advantage that these frameworks offer to app developers. This will help them to be more specific with their development requirements and other tools to come up with a swift and foolproof app for clients.

Programming Language

ReactNative uses JavaScript to build cross-platform apps. The framework has a worldwide community and it allows developers to build robust cross-platform apps with least training. Moreover, JavaScript is a dynamic language that offers umpteen features and functionalities to incorporate desired features in an app without any trouble.

Flutter, on the other hand uses Dart as a programming language that was introduced by Google in 2011. Dart’s syntax is easily comprehensible by Java developers as it supports most of the object-oriented concepts. Its easy-to-follow documentation makes it a preferred programming language for mobile app developers.

However, Flutter reported with 20% lower performance in memory-intensive tests than ReactNative and in compute-intensive tasks also it remained lower than ReactNative.

Analysis: Considering this, it’s clear that React Native wins the point in the programming language category.

Technical Architecture

ReactNative architecture relies heavily on JavaScript runtime environment architecture that is known as JavaScript Bridge. Reactnative uses the Flux architecture where JavaScript code is compiled into Native code at runtime. ReactNative uses this JavaScript Bridge to communicate with the Native modules.

As Flutter uses Dart framework that has its components in-built and is also much bigger in size. As a result, it doesn’t require a bridge to communicate within its native modules. Dart also has many frameworks like Material design and Cupertino which are heavily loaded with all required technologies to build mobile apps. Dart uses Skia C ++ engine that has all the protocols. Compositions, and channels. Hence, if businesses hire Flutter app developer, they can make informed decisions for their project.

Analysis: Flutter engine exceeds ReactNative in terms of detailed framework and it supports better communication with native components without requiring any bridge.

Installation

ReactNative framework can be easily installed using the Node Package Manager. Developers from JavaScript background can easily install ReactNative while those who don’t have such background would need to learn the Node Package Manager. It can install packages both locally and globally where developers need to understand where exactly is Binary located. For installing ReactNative for MacOS, you need to have HomeBrew package manager.

Flutter can be installed by downloading the Binary for a specific platform from GitHub. To install Flutter on MacOS, you need to download Flutter.zip file and add it as a PATH variable.Flutter should improve the installation method by supporting package managers like Homebrew, MacPorts, YUM, APT, etc so that users wouldn’t need to perform these extra steps during installation.

Analysis: As ReactNative can be installed by just using the package managers and without any trouble of downloading binary from source, it gains an advantage over Flutter in installation.

Setup & Project Configuration

For ReactNative setup, developers must have required setup for developing iOS and Android apps. The X-code command line tools offer very little information that won’t be enough for non-Java background developers to get going. The documentation takes a leap towards creating a new project but there is no setup guide for android projects in ReactNative document.

The “Getting Started” guide of Flutter is much elaborative and has detailed information on IDE setup and platform setup for both iOS and Android. Flutter has a CLI tool called flutter doctor which can guide developers through the setup. It inspects which tools are installed on the local machine and which tools need to be configured. Once the flutter doctor command is happy, we can carry on with creating a new Flutter app.

Analysis: For setup and configuration, Flutter offers more detailed documentation and CLI support than ReactNative. You can get more information on top 10 flutter app development companies in India here.

UI Component & Development APIs

The core ReactNative framework offers UI rendering and device access APIs. It has to rely on third-party libraries to access most of the native modules. Whereas, Flutter’s framework is heavily loaded with UI rendering components, device API access, navigation, and testing. The rich set of components eliminates the requirement of third-party libraries Flutter also has widgets for Material Design and Cupertino that allow developers to easily render the UI on both iOS and Android platform.

Analysis: Flutter is rich in UI components and development APIs whereas ReactNative relies heavily on third-party libraries. Hence, Flutter remains ahead of ReactNative in this aspect.

Community Support

As mentioned earlier in the post that ReactNative was launched in 2015, so it has gained much popularity ever since then. The ReactNative community on GitHub where developers can access various meetups and conferences across the world. So, if businesses hire ReactNative app developer, they can assure timely project delivery as the community support remains a major factor in resolving development issues.

Flutter has just completed its fourth successful year but have still gained a lot of attention. The community is growing swiftly with meetups and conferences held online. The growing community offers enough resources for developers to resolve common issues in app development.

Analysis: ReactNative gains an extra edge over Flutter in terms of community support and popularity.

Hence in our overall analysis on ReactNative vs Flutter, Flutter seems to be much promising and as per industry experts, it is going to be the future of cross-platform app development.