In the modern world full of advanced technologies, all companies aim to run their businesses online. Such a trend has increased the growth of mobile app development. Organizations intend to build innovative applications that users can easily access through different platforms. The relevant business requirements have also led to the increasing need for cross-platform app development, including Flutter and ReactJS development services.
Cross-platform applications are apps that perform on different platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, etc. Thus, software development companies like Exoft have to choose the right framework to create such apps appropriately. What should it be — ReactJS, Angular, or Flutter? Sometimes, making the correct choice is a challenging task. Below, we have compared the two most popular frameworks, ReactJS and Flutter. So let’s learn about both technologies in detail and determine which one will be perfect for your business.
ReactJS Overview
ReactJS is a JavaScript library serving as the core of the React Native framework. This framework built by Facebook is widely used for developing cross-platform mobile apps. React deals with various platforms, including the already mentioned ones and the Web.
Thanks to ReactJS, software engineers can control React for correlating with some functions offered by each platform. Its coding approach helps integrate the preferred features of all platforms with no effort. Also, ReactJS utilizes JavaScript for creating relevant apps. That enables developers to build user interfaces (UIs) containing elements that will look native to all platforms.
After all, ReactJS makes JavaScript coding easier since it helps programmers effectively handle dependencies and provides some excellent developer tools. This highly competent library offers outstanding support during the entire cross-platform development process.
Flutter Overview
Flutter is another framework used by developers to create responsive cross-platform apps. Meanwhile, this Google product depends on utilizing the Dart language.
Google continues to spend a lot of effort to make the relevant framework the ultimate tool for building cross-platform mobile applications. Such apps look equally good in both new and old versions of the particular device’s OS. Besides, there is almost no difference between their performance and the one shown by their native counterparts.
Finally, Flutter offers a significant coding style as well as a broad collection of different available widgets. The framework allows for saving a lot of time compared to developing native apps. That is because it provides faster code development.
ReactJs vs Flutter: Which is Better?
Now, let’s consider how these two technologies differ.
Programming Languages
Implementing cross-platform app development frameworks provides software developers with the opportunity to create a single code for different operating systems. For example, ReactJS depends on JavaScript as the programming language. As a dynamically typed language, it offers useful features that allow engineers to perform many necessary things. However, this approach is good and bad simultaneously.
Also, ReactJS uses JavaScript for building user interfaces. Since the relevant programming language is commonly utilized, there is no need for developers to learn it extensively. Thus, they find it easy to master and incorporate ReactJS.
What about Flutter — it depends on the Dart programming language. The particular language created by Google in 2011 serves as an efficient mix of JavaScript and Java in syntax. Therefore, software engineers with some understanding of JavaScript, C#, or some other object-oriented programming languages find it quite easy to learn Dart.
As Dart is considered more expressive, numerous cross-platform app developers prefer adopting Flutter. However, JavaScript has been existing in the market for many years, which makes it easy to utilize for many software engineers. So, depending on such an explanation, ReactJS seems to be a better option for this point.
Tech Architecture
When analyzing these two different frameworks, it is crucial to consider their tech architecture.
In the case of ReactJS, it utilizes the JavaScript bridge serving as the JavaScript runtime environment. The particular bridge provides a passage for communication with native modules. Since ReactJS uses Facebook’s Flux architecture, it can convert your JavaScript code into a native one during the runtime. Sometimes, the requirement to connect the native modules with the relevant JS code may affect the app speed. But the framework usually performs well, despite such an architecture.
On the other side, the majority of critical components are already integrated into Flutter. Thus, there is no need to create a bridge. Apart from the Skia C++ engine, Flutter also utilizes other frameworks, including Material Design and Cupertino. That helps provide all the necessary channels and protocols. Besides, the available assorted functions in Flutter allow for removing the need for programmers to implement other tech solutions for mobile app development.
So, when comparing Flutter VS ReactJS, the first makes it possible to build more stable and efficient apps.
UI Components & Development APIs
When creating cross-platform applications, software engineers require the support of the relevant native component. If they do not have such support, their mobile apps will not feel like native ones. Therefore, the framework should have an appropriate API, which allows for accessing the native modules with no discomfort.
With ReactJS, developers can build the native environment for platforms like Android and iOS using the JavaScript bridge. For this framework, it is vital to depend on third-party libraries since that helps access the majority of native modules. Unfortunately, the ReactJS components can behave differently across different platforms. Such a tendency makes them quite unpredictable.
Meanwhile, Flutter is a mix of UI rendering components, navigation, various libraries, and device API access. Thanks to this excellent suite of components, there is no need to use third-party libraries. Also, Flutter offers widgets for Material Design and Cupertino, which allows programmers to render user interfaces easily through Android and iOS systems.
To sum up, Flutter is richer in developing APIs and UI components. At the same time, ReactJS highly depends on third-party libraries.
Conclusion
So what technology should you select for your project — ReactJS or Flutter? The detailed comparison above can help you understand better the key advantages and disadvantages of both frameworks. They are robust if utilized correctly. Thus, the winner will depend on your unique project requirements and budget.
