React Native vs. Flutter: Which Is More Cost-Effective in 2024?
Building a new app? Maximize your reach and make user experiences seamless by using cross-platform mobile frameworks. These frameworks cut down development time and cost while enabling you to build apps that can be accessed on multiple platforms.
Now the question is, which framework is best for mobile app development? Two frameworks top the list when it comes to mobile dev: React Native and Flutter. Which one is more cost-effective? It depends on your specific needs.
In this article, we provide a detailed comparison of the two frameworks so you can make an informed decision on which one fits your development needs.
Overview: React Native vs. Flutter
React Native
Launched in 2015 by Facebook, React Native is an open-source framework that allows developers to build Android, iOS, UWP, and other mobile apps using React.
With React Native, you can write mobile applications in JavaScript using react.js and then render React primitives to native UI components. This means your app can integrate seamlessly with different operating systems and access the full range of capabilities and features on multiple devices.
Flutter
Google released Flutter in 2017 to provide developers with a framework that prioritized app performance. It uses Dart, a relatively new programming language, to build fast and responsive user interfaces. Its compiled-to-native approach eliminates the performance overhead of interpreted languages and ensures apps achieve native-like performance on mobile platforms.
Snapshot Comparison: React Native vs. Flutter
| React Native | Flutter | |
| Best for | Cross-platform mobile development | Fast and customizable UI development |
| Programming Language | JavaScript (react.js) | Dart |
| Development Time | Relatively fast development due to reusable components, hot reloading feature, and familiarity with JavaScript but may be prone to runtime errors and bugs in large codebases | Fast development due to widget-based architecture, stateful hot reload, and declarative UI but requires developers to learn Dart code before app development |
| App Performance | Native performance achieved through native code rendering | Native-like performance with a compiled-to-native approach |
| Scalability | Highly scalable framework with component-based architecture, code reusability, and performance optimization features | Offers scalability through widgets, hot reload, and highly customizable UI toolkit |
| Popularity | Widely adopted among developers and has been used to build many well-known apps | Growing popularity, especially among developers seeking cutting-edge UI experiences |
| Community Support | Strong support from a large community with frequent updates and libraries for different use cases | Growing community with regular updates and packages available on open-source communities |
Point-by-Point Comparison: React Native vs. Flutter
When evaluating for cost-effectiveness, we’re not just looking at the upfront development fees. We’d have to look beyond immediate costs and assess time-to-market, app performance, scalability, community support, and other factors.
Development Time
Both React Native and Flutter streamline the development process and reduce time-to-market. However, developer familiarity and project complexity impact the actual development time.
According to Statista, 3 in 5 developers use JavaScript. These developers can leverage their existing knowledge and fast-track development on React Native.
In contrast, only around 6% of developers use Dart. However, Dart has features that can help catch errors early and improve code quality. Once a developer masters Dart, development time and quality are significantly reduced in the long run.
In other aspects of development, such as hot reload for fast iterations and a single codebase for cross-platform use, React Native vs. Flutter is a draw.
App Performance
When it comes to app performance, those built on Flutter tend to be faster compared with React Native apps. React Native uses a JavaScript bridge to connect to native components. This layer of additional communication impacts performance as it slows rendering speeds.
In contrast, Flutter eliminates the need for this bridge through its compiled-to-native approach. Flutter apps are compiled directly into native machine code for fast rendering, even for complex UIs or animations.
For app performance, Flutter wins the round in the React Native vs. Flutter fight.
Scalability
The two frameworks’ approaches to scalability are markedly different. React Native offers scalability through code reusability, while Flutter highlights modularity for ease of building large-scale apps.
The component-based architecture of React Native allows developers to break down UI components into reusable codes. These can be used to add new features to existing apps, refactor components, and maintain code consistency. The vast JavaScript ecosystem also supports scalability through access to libraries and tools that extend app functionalities.
Flutter also offers scalability through its widget-based architecture. UI elements are represented as widgets that can be used or reused to build large and complex apps with ease. Like React Native, it enables integration with other APIs and services for broad platform compatibility.
Popularity
React Native has been widely adopted by developers, and many well-known apps have been built using the framework. The use of JavaScript and the ability to reuse codes make it a compelling choice for many developers.
However, Flutter has been gaining more attention in the past few years. According to Statista, it has become the most popular framework for cross-platform development, with 46% of software developers using it to build their apps.
In a Statista report, Flutter also ranked higher than React Native in the list of most used libraries and frameworks. However, the difference isn’t significantly high.
It’s a tie for the React Native vs. Flutter popularity match-up.
Community Support
Hands down, React Native has a larger community and ecosystem than Flutter. This broad support makes it easy for developers to accelerate the development process and find solutions to problems they encounter. If you get stuck on a code, there are thousands of developers and vast libraries to help you figure things out.
At GitHub, there are 686K repositories for Flutter, but only 18.6K are for mobile app development. This pales in comparison with React Native’s 487K repositories.
Although Flutter has a smaller community compared with React Native, its community is rapidly growing and its ecosystem is steadily expanding. This growth is bound to support scalable application development on the framework.
React Native vs. Flutter: Which Is More Cost-Effective?
So in the Flutter vs. React Native match-up, which is the more cost-effective option for you? Well, that depends on your development team’s expertise, project requirements, and long-term considerations.
If JavaScript is your main programming language, using Flutter would entail training costs since you would have to learn Dart. If you’re hiring mobile app developers, the pool of React Native users is undoubtedly bigger, giving you higher chances of finding ones with competitive rates.
When it comes to maintaining your apps, Flutter apps tend to require less debugging and maintenance. It also has less chance of encountering runtime errors. React Native may need more development and maintenance costs due to its dynamic nature and susceptibility to debugging challenges and errors.
If you’re still unsure which is best for developing your mobile app, give Taazaa a call. We’re happy to help you with all your mobile app development needs.
