Flutter vs React Native: which one is better in 2020

Nowadays there is a huge competition between Flutter and React Native in the market, both frameworks are used to develop cross-platform mobile app development. In other words, you need to write the code only once and it can be used to develop apps for iOS as well as Android.

While some programmers suggest Flutter, others recommend React Native as the better option for the future. But the question still remains, which should we choose for ourselves? And in which framework should we start the mobile application development? Normally, we cannot decide directly that React Native will be better or Flutter will be better. Thus, we are going to compare both of them on the basis of the following criteria.

1. Launch Date
2. Performance
3. Hot Reload
4. Component
5. Language
6. Documentation
7. Native Look
8. Industry Adoption
9. Community Support
10. State Management
11. Choice

1.Launch Date

React Native released in the first quarter of the year 2015. The initial release of React Native was on March 26, 2015, and now the React Native is completely stable.

On the other hand, Flutter released in the second quarter of the year 2017. The initial release of Flutter was in May 2017, and it is also completely stable now.

In terms of release, React Native takes the lead since it came first and got the advantage of community support.

2. Performance

When it comes to performance, Flutter takes the point. React Native leverages the power of JavaScript for bridging with the native components while Flutter avoids the bridge to interact with the native components. For this reason, Flutter is the winner here.

So here the clear winner is Flutter in terms of speed and performance.

3. Hot Reload

Both Flutter and React Native supports Hot Reload functionality. Hot Reloading basically gives you the functionality to keep the app running while you can inject new versions of the files that you edited at runtime. That means you can make changes in the app and show them on the mobile when you are debugging the app.

Therefore, it is a stalemate. Since both Flutter and react-native support Hot Reload.

4. Component

On the basis of component, Flutter comes slightly on top here. React Native uses third-party components whereas Flutter comes with all its components. Using third-party components might be better for the side projects or for a company but in long terms, programmers will mostly prefer Flutter.

Therefore, Flutter comes on top of React Native but only by a little.

5. Language

Now choosing a language can be a bit tough. Where Java might be better for someone and python might be better for another.

First, let’s talk about React Native, It uses JavaScript to develop a mobile application. On the other hand, Flutter uses dart as the programming language. But here the choice can vary from person to person. For someone, JavaScript might be super easy whereas for someone dart might be. But in the coding industry, almost every programmer is familiar with JavaScript.

If we talk about language then there no one is a clear winner but React Native can be called more favorable since it uses JavaScript. There is a huge community of JavaScript programmers so it will be easy for them to switch mobile development. Dart is also a super easy language but, learning a new language can be a little difficult.

6. Documentation

The documentation of Flutter is really amazing and simple. On the other hand, React Native doesn’t provide the best documentation, and programmers have to rely on third-party documentation. But it doesn’t mean that Flutter is the winner. Sometimes it can be confusing to use the validator and forms in Flutter. While Flutter can be complex and confusing at times, the documentation certainly helps the programmers to understand the things better. All things considered, Flutter comes out on top by a small margin.

7. Native Look

Native look refers to the appearance of your app and how closely it resembles your default operating system(iOS or Android).

Out of React Native and Flutter, React Native looks more closer to an operating system. That means components such as widgets, buttons, and seek bar of the app will look similar to default widgets, button, seek bar of iOS and Android.

As noted above, React Native looks more native than Flutter. As a result, React Native wins this round.

8. Industry Adoption

While some say the industry is adopting Flutter, others say the industry is adopting React Native. Many companies have started using Flutter but a huge industry is still choosing React Native to develop apps.

If some industry is thinking of moving from native app to cross-platform, then flutter is more preferable that the two as it is faster to build even from scratch. And also the bridging mechanism in react native makes it complicated to use device hardware. For this reason, Flutter is preferred for any apps using device hardware.

Here, in the criteria of industry adoption React Native is slightly better. Because the industry prefers to use React Native than Flutter yet.

9. Community Support

Without any doubt, the React Native has bigger community support in the market. Google is doing hard work to make larger community support for the Flutter. React Native takes advantage here because of the early launch, React Native came early in the market so that the developer adopts the React Native. It doesn’t mean that Flutter has no community support, the community around Flutter is rising day by day and is doing great. But still, React Native has a larger community support than Flutter.

In terms of community support, React Native wins this.

10. State Management

This is an important thing for a developer, both of those working life cycles and models are based on the state management but still, the state management is not the best in both of them. They can manage all types of state management but it increases the code complexity.

Hence, no one is the winner as both are based on state management. But that’s the reason, that developers still love to use Redux for State Management. Redux is fully supported by React Native as well as Flutter. 

11. Choice

This is last but not the least. It is most important amongst all these criteria. It is important to choose the framework in which you are interested.

Bottom Line

I hope you got an idea and all your doubts are clear by now. In the end, what matters the most is that you choose the one in which you are more comfortable, it can be either React Native or Flutter. But remember, choose the option in which you are comfortable to code with.

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