Top 5 Reasons to Choose Flutter Over React Native
Flutter and React Native are the major players in Cross-platform development, each with unique features and capabilities. While React Native, backed by Facebook, has been a popular choice for developers looking to build mobile applications using JavaScript, Flutter, developed by Google, has gained importance due to its distinctive approach and strong performance.
If you are not sure which one to choose between, Flutter and React Native, then here are some reasons why you should choose Flutter over React Native for your mobile app development project. If you are interested in exploring Flutter vs React Native on various parameters, check out the comprehensive blog post.
1. Performance and Speed
It is the architecture of Flutter that potentially creates this performance benefit by directly compiling native ARM code using a language called Dart. In doing so, Flutter removes the need for a JavaScript bridge, which imposes latency in the communication between it and the native part. This makes Flutter apps generally smoother for animations and faster at startup than those made with React Native, which has to use a bridge to communicate back and forth between JavaScript and the actual native components of the app.
2. Consistent UI Across Platforms
Another notable feature of Flutter is having a custom rendering engine itself, to make sure that the look and feel of the user interface is the same on the different platforms. Flutter utilizes the Skia graphics library to draw every pixel on the screen, so you have full control over the UI design. This removes the differences between iOS and Android, delivering a consistent look and feel that is otherwise hard to get right.
3. Hot Reload and Development Efficiency
Both Flutter and React Native have a feature called “hot reload,” which allows a developer to view changes on the fly without restarting the whole application. But, only Flutter is solid as a rock and blazingly fast. Due to the capacity of this much-talked-about feature, hot reloading can indeed yield tremendous efficiency in development because changes are easy to iteratively test and execute on the fly. This is one of the prime reasons Flutter is always the first choice for any project with a tight deadline.
4. Comprehensive Widget Library
Flutter has a rich set of built-in widgets that cover almost all requirements, from simple user interface elements like text or images to form buttons and complicated, very specialized components that are highly customizable. This framework has a rich set of pre-designed widgets that are built with Material Design and Cupertino. Using this feature ensures that, besides good performance on both platforms, the applications look great. Since this set of widgets is quite rich, the necessity for third-party libraries is reduced.
5. Growing Ecosystem and Community Support
Within a very short period, Flutter grew its ecosystem to include plugins, packages, and tools that would make the developer experience even smoother. Google’s consistent investment in Flutter brought a live community with lots of resources, tutorials, and help to developers. A good deal of documentation and community-driven contributions make it easy for new developers to start and experienced ones to solve challenging problems.
Conclusion
While Flutter and React Native both have their benefits, performance benefits, consistent UI rendering, reliable hot reload, comprehensive widget library, and growing ecosystem make Flutter an attractive choice for mobile app development. The strength of Flutter lies in its ability to help developers build high-quality, cross-platform applications that spell out great user experience.
