We at InterSources Inc. develop and deploy several applications each year. From cloud based solutions to PWAs and native applications, we engineer products that need to be maintainable and scalable.
One of the issues that we come across is the need to maintain multiple teams for cross platform development. This happens when our solution requires a specific Android or iOS API, with strict native deployment.
We tackled this challenge by involving our development teams with React Native and Flutter. This has made our development much more efficient and manageable, with little to no compromise on performance in most cases. Let’s see what our engineers think about both these awesome technologies, and let us know what you think about the current cross-development environments in the comments below!
What’s React Native?
React Native is perhaps the leading framework of cross-platform mobile development. It is a javascript framework built upon the React library, both created by Facebook, and it allows you to ship IOS and Android apps with a single code base. It’s used primarily by Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and many others. React Native started out as an internal hackathon project at Facebook back in 2013, and in 2015 it was released to the public.
What’s Flutter?
Flutter is a cross-platform mobile development framework that uses the Dart language. Dart and Flutter have been created by Google who’s using the framework for some of its biggest applications and is constantly pushing the framework towards being the ultimate solution for creating cross-platform apps. Its initial alpha release was back in May 2017 so it’s much younger than React Native.
Why We Love React Native?
- Full Stack Devs were able to churn production ready code since Day 1
- Easy access to Native API
- Reusable code and ready to use components
- Hot reload feature
- Ready to use code for both iOS and Android
- Open source and free technology with the backing of Facebook
- React Native support for building a web app
- Some of the leading apps that use React Native include Facebook, Bloomberg, Tesla, Skype, and many others.
Why We Love Flutter?
- Flutter is open source and free and has the backing of Google
- It offers a robust and comprehensive ecosystem, thanks to Dart
- Flutter offers optimum customization
- Flutter comes with Hot Reload feature
- Developers can access all the tools and key features for ensuring the native look and feel for both iOS and Android
- Some of the leading apps built with Flutter include Alibaba, OfflinePal, Hookle, Topline, and many others.
Why We Use React Native
Some of the key reasons to use React Native for cross-platform development include the following.
- Developers can enjoy faster development for both iOS and Android with a single codebase.
- React Native comes with Node Package manager to take care of packages.
- React Native offers a robust and ever-growing community of developers.
- React Native offers access to a number of high-quality third-party libraries.
Why We Use Flutter
Let’s have a look at the key reasons to use Flutter for cross-platform development.
- The low learning curve with great user experience.
- Faster code compilation.
- Ideal for small businesses and startups.
- Superb documentation covering every aspect.
- A fast-growing community of developers.
Using both React Native and Flutter in our development, we saw a great increase in developer productivity and outcome. Both the frameworks have an amazing documentation to get started with, and React Native will feel very familiar to most Full Stack Developers.
One of the main advantages Flutter has over React Native is the full use of native code, giving Flutter apps as much performance as a native app would. So if your application’s priority is performance, go with Flutter, or else sticking with React Native can be a wonderful choice. Either ways, you’ll be able to maintain only one code base and ship native applications to all platforms.
Want to check out all the awesome solutions we’ve built with React Native and Flutter? Get inspired or Consulted @ www.intersourcesinc.com
We help companies and businesses in becoming more efficient by leveraging the power of Automation and AI. InterSources Inc. is also a Google Cloud Partner and can help with migrating large chunks of on-prem data to cloud. Feel free to drop your information!
