Flutter or React Native: Which can be a better option in 2022?

With the increased usage of mobile phones, the mobile app development industry is seamlessly moving to upcoming phases. Moreover, they have also become cost-effective and come up with exceptional features to grab the audience and make their lives easy!  

On the other hand, mobile app development companies are reaping profits with every download by users. For the year 2022, a couple of frameworks, Flutter and React Native, are taking the stages for mobile app development.   

If you are unsure which one to choose, this blog is a must-read! We have framed a few things that would help you cherry-pick the right one! 

Putting Flutter & React Native together: 

Before we get started, here are some basics that you must know about these two frameworks. 

Flutter is an open-source mobile app framework that supports cross-platform. Google released Flutter in May 2017. Multiple applications prevalent in the industry have used the Flutter framework. Dart programming language, with a popularity of around 139,650 (until the date of April 2022), is used to develop Flutter. 
 

While React Native is released by Facebook in 2015. React Native is also an open-source cross-platform framework. It is leveraged by the developers to build fully-responsive mobile applications. React Native comes with JavaScript language by adopting a popularity of around 102,634 (until the date of April 2022).  
 

Both these frameworks are developed with a single concept of having a codebase of multiple Operating Systems such as Android, iOS, Windows, etc. Moreover, these frameworks come with great native performance. 

Flutter vs React Native: Everything you should know: 

When coming to the comparison of choosing the best one, here are a few things which can be considered: 

1. Popularity 
   To get started, both these frameworks are well-popular among developers. The latest data from Google trends state that the popularity score of Flutter is 85, while that of React Native is 45 as of May 2021. In the race of searches on google for Flutter and React Native, Ireland leads for search results with 83% searches for Flutter and the rest 17% for React Native. Around 45% of developers use Flutter while 85% of developers go with React Native to develop a mobile application. 

   Undoubtedly, React Native has had a very large community since it was launched a couple of years before Flutter. However, since Flutter is a google product, most of the developers love the security factor here. Flutter is popular in countries like China, Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, etc. While most countries like Argentina, Canada, and Ireland use React Native for mobile app development. 

2. Productivity
   

   When it comes to coding them, both remain to be hassle-free and robust. However, they have a separate process of installation and configuration. Flutter comes with a premium software development feature with hassle-free installation and configuration setup. On the other hand, React Native too comes with an easy installation but requires package creation.  
   

   As discussed, Flutter uses the Dart programming language where developers can make the required customizations, and widgets can be reused. But the case of React Native is with JavaScript programming language where developers can separately execute the codes and styles. Additionally, both frameworks come with a hot reloading feature where you can make instant changes. 

3. Performance 
   

   While looking to invest in mobile app development solutions, one should consider the performance of the frameworks. Flutter has a very good performance than React Native. Though React Native is a feature-packed one, it is slower than Flutter.  

   React Native is made with JavaScript where people can add different features as per the requirements. As Flutter makes use of the Dart language, it uses C++ programming which can enhance the performance of the web application.

4. UI & API  
   When it comes to components or UI and Development, here are the major things in which they differ. The flutter framework consists of rich components and libraries to support the developers in developing mobile applications. This has been pretty easy for both Android and iOS development.  
   

   On the other hand, React Native comes with a UI rendering and device access with APIs. Moreover, this framework depends on most third-party libraries to perform the development process. We can conclude that Flutter has feature-packed components without relying on libraries when compared to React Native. 
   

5. Community Support  
   React Native is a widely explored and well-known cross-platform framework that has a broad community of contributors and is critical to success in open-source development. In 2018, React Native had the 2nd highest number of contributors for any repository on GitHub. Today, React Native is supported by contributions from individuals and companies around the world including Callstack, Expo, Infinite Red, Microsoft, and Software Mansion. React Native community is always shipping exciting new projects and exploring platforms beyond Android and iOS with repos like React Native Windows, React Native macOS and React Native Web. 

   Flutter is new compared to React Native, but in the span of the journey of Flutter development, it is quicker in the market though time by time the community is building up, and there are several aspects that affect the Flutter community to get popular in the market. As per the latest data, on 10th May 2022, Flutter has 138k stars on GitHub, 178k Followers on Twitter, and 60k members on Meetup which makes the Flutter community get enhanced in the current market trend. 

Which one to choose? Flutter vs React Native: 

On the whole, we draw the conclusion that both these technologies are performing well with their functionalities. Though both these share equal merits and demerits, Flutter comes with rich benefits that are enhancing the application. Most of the industry experts also support Flutter to be the future of mobile app development. 

React Native takes a short period for development. Hence, considering your business requirements like deadlines, features, etc. you can choose the perfect one for your project. As a mobile app development company, we people are here to turn your business dreams into reality. Reach out today! 

This blog is written by Saumil Vaghela, Tech Lead – Android at Tridhya Innovation