When it comes to hybrid mobile app development, there are two main options: React Native and Flutter. Both of these options have their own pros and cons, and in this article, we will be comparing them in order to help you decide which one is the best choice for your next mobile app project.

React Native

React Native is a cross-platform app development framework created by Facebook. It allows developers to create native apps for both iOS and Android using the React framework. React Native has been around since 2015 and has become one of the most popular choices for cross-platform app development.

Pros:

React Native is a mobile app development platform created by Facebook. It allows developers to create cross-platform mobile apps using JavaScript, which makes it a great choice for developers who want to create apps quickly and easily.

React Native apps are built using an approach called modularity, which lets you divide your app into small, manageable pieces. This makes it easy to add new features and scale your app as needed. Flutter lacks there, in Flutter there are widgets to create user interfaces. With more widgets code can become difficult to maintain and read.

React Native apps were a little slow as compared to Flutter before Facebook introduced Hermes but now after releasing Hermes Engine for react-native the performance of React Native apps has been increased.

Facebook recently released the Hermes engine for React Native. Hermes is an open-source JavaScript engine optimized for React Native. For many apps, enabling Hermes will result in improved start-up time, decreased memory usage, and a smaller app size.

React Native apps can be created for both Android and iOS devices. This makes it a great platform for developing cross-platform apps. That means you don’t need to write two separate codes for android and IOS apps.

Apps built with React Native can be indistinguishable from apps built using Swift or Java.

React Native documentation is very easy to follow.

React Native apps are easy and quick to test and build. Expo is an amazing tool for React Native. Expo allows testing apps easily on phones without building the app file. For those who do not have a powerful PC that can run Android Studio efficiently then Expo is a great option for them because with Expo you can build android and IOS apps completely free on the cloud without installing XCode or Android Studio on your system.

Expo is one of the main reasons why many developers prefer React Native over Flutter. Unfortunately, there is no similar tool available for Flutter as of now.

React Native is maintained by one of the biggest tech companies Facebook, so don’t worry React Native is not going anywhere!

Cons:

• Requires knowledge of React and Javascript
• Without the Hermes engine, React Native performance is not like Flutter.
• Apps can end up being larger in size than if they were built using platform-specific languages.

Flutter

Flutter is a cross-platform app development framework created by Google. It allows developers to create native apps for both iOS and Android using the Dart programming language. Flutter was released in 2017 and has quickly become a popular choice for cross-platform app development.

Pros:

Because Flutter allows you to develop your app for both iOS and Android from a single codebase, you can save a lot of money on development costs. You won’t need to hire separate teams of developers for each platform, which can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Flutter’s rich set of features and libraries allows you to create a high-quality app with an improved user experience. The platform is constantly being updated with new features and libraries, which can help to improve the overall user experience of your app.

Flutter is built around the Dart programming language, which is very quick to compile. This means that you can see the results of your changes almost instantly, without having to wait for a long build process.

Flutter supports Dart programming. If you are coming from C or Java background it will be easy for you to learn the Dart programming language.

The Flutter team has done an amazing job of creating comprehensive documentation that covers everything from getting started to more advanced topics. This makes it easy to get up and running with Flutter, and it also means that you can find answers to your questions quickly.

Flutter is developed by Google, which means that it benefits from the resources of one of the largest tech companies in the world. This includes access to top-notch engineers and a large community of developers.

With Flutter, you can also build websites with a single codebase. React Native does not have this feature but one of the tools of React Native Expo has this feature. Honestly speaking after using it I can say that it is not good as Flutter websites.

Cons:

• Not as many libraries and tools available as React Native.
• Dart can be difficult to read for developers coming from other languages. (from Javascript or python)
• Flutter Widgets can make the code look ugly and if you have lots of widgets in your app, it will become very hard for you to maintain.

So, which one should you choose?

React Native and Flutter both have their pros and cons, and there is no clear winner. It really depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you need a mature framework with a large community and many available libraries and tools, then React Native is the best choice. If you’re looking for something that is easy to learn and you don’t want to learn javascript and React then Flutter is the best choice.

Additionally, React Native is more popular than Flutter, with more developers using it. However, Flutter has some advantages, such as its potential for performance and UI libraries that are available for Flutter.

Personally, I prefer React Native as a Full Stack web developer because React Native also helps me in React apps. As React Native is similar to React and uses Javascript so I have never faced any need of learning React Native from scratch, whereas in flutter, I need to learn a completely new language Dart.