When considering creating a brand-new application, a few business owners and developers have often come across the dilemma of React Native or Flutter.

While both these platforms are equally sturdy, there has been great competition between the two platforms.

According to this Google Trends view, both these platforms have been close competitors during the past twelve months. And from here, the questions that arise are:

– Why are these two platforms close competitors?

– How must one differentiate between these two platforms and make the right choice for their business?

– Is the opportunity cost worth it?

Let’s begin by answering the last question first;

Yes! When you choose either of the platforms, you’ve ensured that your choice is a result of carefully examined options that well suit your business.

Given the lucrative and cut-throat business arena and the confidence that data science solutions and AI offer, it has ensured that there is only a clear winner when it comes to business decisions.

To answer the rest, let’s go through a series of crisply-answers, well-guided points to ensure you make the right decision.

React Native – A Scalable & Lightweight Platform With Visionary APIs

According to this visual report, it is no secret that React Native has been the popular choice in 2019 and remains one in 2020. Leading as the developer’s favorite choice with a leading 42% share, React Native positively has a strong foothold in cross-platform development.

We know that React Native is an open-source, cross-platform framework launched by Facebook after its introduction during a hackathon hosted by the social media giant. RN’s power lies in how it’s created; it leverages Javascript and React to create powerful mobile applications with the same code that works across Andriod and iOS.

The idea is simple – it lets React Native developers write codes in Javascript and then have its compiler convert it best suited for Android and iOS.

Such automation makes it easy for the developers to work efficiently and have a quicker product turn-around time.

Flutter – A Quick, Flexible, and Cost-Effective Solution

When you quickly refer to the above graph, you shall notice that Flutter’s market saw a significant leap from 2019. Needless to say, the developer community is in constant search for quick and cost-effective solutions, and when Flutter checked all the right boxes, it had to be the right choice.

Very similar to React Native, Flutter is an open-source framework that allows cross-platform development. The difference lies in its architecture, performance, building complex applications, Testing process, and a few more.

Flutter essentially works in two parts;

• A Software Development Kit, and
• A Framework

It leverages these two parts with the help of its programming language called Dart. A significant advantage of using Flutter is its expertise in UI development of your application. So, when you choose Flutter, you’re sure to get a GREAT UI for your application. Also, if you’re a Javascript pro, Drat should be easy to adapt since it has a similar syntax.

React Native Vs. Flutter – The Right Choice For Your Business!

Now that we’ve been introduced to both these platforms and know where their core strengths lie, let’s dive deeper into how they function and the right choice for your business.

1) Performance

React Native’s performance has been under the spotlight and not for the right reasons.

Since it uses a bridge to let the Javascript and Native thread communicate, multiple iterations of sending messages over the bridge can lower the application’s performance – making it slow.

In some cases, it took more than sixteen milliseconds to render the request and display a result. And in the business arena, it is long enough to lose your customers.

On the other hand, Flutter has a better performance graph than React Native because it eliminates the bridge altogether. All the native components are built into the framework, making it easier for the application to carry out heavy tasks without worrying about any performance-lag.

Just because React Native seems to have a potential problem due to its architecture, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to solve the issues. With a few third-party libraries and elements like Slowlog, its performance can always be rectified.

2) Suitable For Building Complex Applications

Ideally, React Native is suitable for building complex applications due to the many third-party integrations available and its architecture.

When you hire a React Native developer, they are already versed with Javascript and know their way around to create a fast application.

Since Flutter has a steeper learning curve, it might be tedious for transitioning developers to learn the language and then understand the platform’s ways.

React Native allows you a quicker way by embedding the native code of the application to suit your client’s requirements and not have to re-code from scratch.

3) Enhancing Developer Productivity

Hands down, the winner here is React Native!

A major disadvantage of Flutter is that as the size of the application grows, Flutter’s complexity also grows. And this would require developers to learn to cope with the complexity and adapt to it quickly to ensure that the final product is due in time.

With React Native, developers don’t have to worry about growing complexity because they’re already handy with the language – Javascript!

React Native’s hot reload feature ensures that developers do not invest too much time testing any UI changes.

4) Community Support

Since React Native is two years elder to Flutter, it has a broader and more loyal community than the latter. Flutter is also coming up as a community by holding major events worldwide, but React Native has more strong community support. Any time that a React Native developer you’ve hired has an issue with some function, they can quickly navigate the community forum and find a quick solution.

5) Hot Reload

This feature is not more of a difference but a similarity, but it’s too crucial not to mention.

Hot reload speeds up the development process because it lets the developers inject new codes into a running application. Pair it up with live updates, and you’ve got yourself a happy combination.

Here is where React Native one-ups Flutter!

Its fast refresh feature allows hot reload and real-time updates that ensure that it is an updated version every time you open the application.

How To Choose The Right Platform?

Let me quickly break it down for you;

If you’re looking for an application that;

• Is scalable
• Is absolutely lightweight
• Has a highly responsive user interface, and
• Has a quick time-to-market

Then you must hire a React Native developer immediately.

Flutter is an equally brilliant option, but only if you’re looking for a simple application with flexible and quick features!