React Native vs Flutter? Which is better to learn for App Development in 2024?

Hello guys, if you are wondering whether to learn Flutter or React Native for App Development in 2024 then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shred best courses to learn Flutter and React Native and in this article, I will share my thoughts on which one is better suited for App development in 2024 and which mobile app development framework beginner should learn in 2024. In the recent decade, the mobile application community has grown tremendously. The total number of applications on the play store surpassed one million in the year 2013 and by mid-2020, it was estimated that there are more than 2.8 million applications on the google play store.

Similarly, Apple's app store has nearly two million applications. Mobile application platform share is dominated by Android and iOS platform. A successful application should work properly on both Android as well as iOS.

Today, instead of developing separate applications for different platforms, professionals choose cross-platform mobile applications. A cross-platform mobile application is an application that runs on multiple platforms.

Facebook's React Native and Google's Flutter are two popular cross-platform mobile application development frameworks. In this article, we will compare both these frameworks and conclude which is better.

Flutter vs React Native? Which one to learn in 2024

Now, let's compare both these technology on various parameters like maturity, underlying technology behind, community support, demand, jobs and career, development tools and performance to find out which one is better for app development in 2024.

1. Programming language

The scope of a framework, whether web or mobile, largely depends on the programming language it uses. If the programming language used is not user-friendly, or it is old or very new, then it will have a negative effect on the framework.

React Native is a JavaScript framework. It uses JavaScript to create mobile applications. Flutter uses Dart to create mobile applications. JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages while on other hand, Dart is very less popular. JavaScript is used heavily around the world, while Dart is rarely used.

To learn Flutter, a developer first needs to learn the Dart programming language while in the case of React Native, it is highly unlikely that the developer does not know JavaScript.

Dart vs JavaScript for React Native and Flutter

2. Installation

The very first step is to install the frameworks. Installation should not be complicated and time-consuming. It should be simple and easy.

Node Package Manager, or commonly known as NPM can be used for installing the React Native framework. To install Flutter, first, it is required to download the binary for a specific platform from Github.

Using NPM is simple and easy while in the case of Flutter, the process is a bit long and complicated.

3. Technical Architecture

Knowing the internal structure of a framework is very important. The technical architecture should be considered before choosing a framework.

React Native uses the Flux architecture of Facebook while Flutter uses Skia.

While React Native uses a bridge called JavaScript bridge to communicate between components, Flutter's architecture does not require any such bridge. Using the JavaScript bridge results in poor performance and because there is no such bridge in Flutter, it provides better performance.

4. Community

Community is also an important part of a framework. A strong community means more and more developers are joining the framework. This helps in learning from each other and solving problems.

Since its launch in 2015, React Native has gained immense popularity. Initially, not many people paid attention to Dart and Flutter, but its popularity increased when Google promoted it at the Google I/O conference in the year 2017.

React Native, being older of both, has a huge community. Flutter, on the other hand, is fairly new and its community is still growing

5. Ease of learning

By far, this is the most important factor, especially for beginners. If it is easy to learn, then it is fair to say, it is easy to develop.

For those who know JavaScript, learning React Native will not be that tough and for those who have worked with React.js, learning React Native will be quite easy because both of these frameworks resemble each other a lot. To learn Flutter, you first need to learn Dart.

But once you understand Dart, learning Flutter will not be that hard. You will need to understand native android and IOS development.

Learning React Native and Flutter largely depend on the developer. For beginners, both are going to be tough. But if you are experienced it won't be that hard.

And, now let's see what other developer are saying in terms of React Native and Flutter? This StackOverFlow survey shows the popular framework to learn in 2024 and you can see that React Native is just marginally ahead of Flutter, mainly due to JavaScript effect.

React Native vs Flutter? Which is better to learn for App Development i

Conclusion

Both of these frameworks are popular and more and more companies are using them. React Native is ahead of Flutter when it comes to current popularity. Thanks to the JavaScript programming languages and their similarities with React.js. But Flutter gives better performance because of its technical architecture.

Both of them have strong and growing communities. When it comes to learning, both are challenging if you are a beginner. But for experienced developers, learning either React Native or Flutter will not be that hard.

In the end, both of these frameworks are the best in the business. Both of them have an excellent future.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find this comparison between React Native and Flutter useful for app developers then please share them with your friends and colleagues. IF you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

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