In the world of mobile application development, developers often come across situations where they have to choose the correct platform to build their mobile applications. In such a situation mobile app developers have two choices: either go for a cross-platform option where developers can create Android and iOS applications using a single code base only or choose native development where a separate code base is required for each platform.
For developing applications with native languages developers have to choose platform-specific languages like Java or Kotlin for Android development and Objective C or Swift for iOS applications development, while for developing apps using cross-platform language developers have choices like Flutter, React Native, Xamarin, etc. Whichever platform developer chooses it has its own benefits and drawbacks as well as needs. In this article, we will discuss both approaches for mobile application development – Flutter and Native.
Today in this article we will have a deep look into the Advantages and disadvantages in terms of performance, development cycle, community, etc.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a very popular open-source cross-platform that allows developers to build natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and even desktop from a single codebase. Flutter is developed by Google (that is also one of the reasons for its huge audience acceptance) and it has received tremendous response from mobile developers. Flutters uses a dart language that is again developed by and easy to learn as it is very similar to other programming languages like java, and java-script.
Advantages:
- Multi-Platform Support: Mobile developers can develop Android and iOS apps with a single codebase with consistency. It also allows the development of Web and Cloud applications with some extra effort.
- Hot-Reload: Unlike native Android and iOS application developers don’t need to wait to check small changes. With the Hot-Reload feature users can test code changes immediately.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Since a single code-base allows developers to develop Android and iOS it helps to reduce the overall cost of project development. That is one of the reasons for migration from Native to Flutter.
- Community Adoption: Although it’s been only a few years the flutter community has been constantly growing year on year.
Disadvantages:
- Limited platform-specific feature – Flutter gives support to platform-specific features like sensors and Bluetooth in some contexts, but it still does not give the same efficiency as native development gives.
- Learning Curve: As Flutter uses Dart which was introduced a few years back it requires developers to spend good time learning.
What is Native?
Native development involves use of platform specific tools and language. It also depends on the operating system(For iOS it requires MAC). For Android development, developers use Java or Kotlin with Android Studio while for iOS development, iOS developers use Swift or Objective C with XCode. Native development has its own advantages like using platform specific features or features where hardware integration is required.
Advantages:
- Platform-specific Optimisation: Native development allows for optimal performance as apps are fine-tuned for the specific platform, critical for resource-intensive applications.
- Native look and feel: Applications developed with flutter look exactly as applications developed with native but native gives best result in look and feel.
- Easy hardware integration: Since native don’t have any additional layer, it gives seamless to hardware with front end applications.
- Rich Library support: Native languages are well established already and a rich set of library and plugins are already available which results in reducing project duration.
Disadvantages:
- Higher development cost: Developing applications in native – Android and iOS require separate developers for platform specific apps which results in higher application cost.
- Development Time: Maintaining separate code bases for Android and iOS can lead to longer development timelines and increased resource requirements.
Flutter vs Native Deep Analysis
Let’s have a look around key differences between Flutter and Native by keeping various aspects in mind.
|
Flutter |
Native |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Development Environment |
Flutter provides a single codebase for android and iOS applications which prompts faster development cycle and gives flexibility of code reusability. |
Native development has its specific requirements – Android development requires Java/Kotlin language knowing developers, Android Studio as IDE while iOS development requires Objective-C/Swift language knowing developers, Xcode IDE for development. Which results in a longer development cycle. |
|
User Interface |
Flutter provides its own set of rich widget for UI design which gives consistency across the platform, but due to this support achieving pixel perfect design would be harder than native. |
Native development platform provides platform specific UI controls which fits best in UI visualising. It also follows platform specific guidelines which help to look the same in all devices. Material design is the best example of this. |
|
Performance |
Flutter compiles to native ARM code which gives remarkable performance but still there is always a thin line due to additional layers between flutter code and native platform. |
Apps developed in their native platform are always optimised and that’s why it ensures best performance compared to cross platform apps. |
|
Community |
Flutter is an evolving platform for cross platform application, still has built a huge community which contributes useful widget libraries and plugins. |
Native platforms, specifically Java for Android and Objective C for iOS, have been ruling the market for many decades. It has a well established and larger community. |
|
IDE and Operating System supports |
Flutter developers use IDE Android Studio or Visual code and It is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. |
Native Android – Developers use IDE Android Studio, Eclipse or IntelIJ for android apps development. Native iOS – Developers use IDE Xcode which is compatible with MAC OS only. |
|
Cost consideration |
Cross platform support makes flutter development cost efficient |
Separate developer requirements for specific platform leads native app development to higher cost. |
|
Code reduction |
Due to declarative UI support Flutter allows developers to have business logic and UI in the same file which results in less code. You can refer to this article for better understanding. |
Native development requires separate files for UI and business logic(for Android XML and Java/Kotlin) which results in a large number of files. |
Use Cases Of Flutter and Native
To choose between Flutter and Native we need to consider many different aspects. Below we will have a look into common use cases which will make it easy for us to know what platform we should go for.
Use Cases for Flutter
- Cross-Platform Development is primary requirement: Flutter would be the correct choice if you want to deploy Android and iOS applications with a single code base. It allows developers to write once and run it on multiple platforms.
- Faster Development Cycle: Projects with large size which comes with tight deadlines and frequent iteration than flutter is best choice for this place. Its Hot Reload allows developers to check code changes immediately which makes development faster.
- Resources Availability: Scenario when you want to reduce your resources allocation for platform specific development and reduce overall project cost then flutter is right choice.
- Consistent UI experience: Flutter comes up with a rich set of widget which support cross platform and gives a similar UI look across the platform. In such scenarios flutter is food fit.
Use Cases for Native(Android and iOS)
- Performance Optimisation: In large scale applications like E-commerce, Medical or Banking domain where high performance is priority because of large user engagement than native development is best to go for. Flutter may not give best/expected UI/UX experience in those cases.
- Requirement of platform specific feature: If Apps requirement is mostly platform specific features like BLE, hardware sensors, then native allows seamless integration with accuracy.
- Design guidelines are essential: Applications where following design guidelines are essential or there is a need for pixel perfect design(Material guidelines for Android and Human Interface guidelines for iOS), native would be perfect choice for such applications.
- Resources with expertise in native language: If you have a development team which is well versed in native languages like Kotlin/Java for Android or Swift/Objective C then the preferable platform would be native to receive best results and faster development.
Conclusion
The choice between Flutter and Native(Android/iOS) purely depends on requirements, priority, constraints, resources of projects. Flutter is a perfect choice where cross platform development, faster and rapid development cycle or consistency design is essential across all platforms. Flutter can be taken into consideration when cost constraints need to be addressed in a project. While for projects where following design guidelines, long term maintenance plan, easy platform integration are essential then Native would be the right choice to go for.
Careful consideration for each factor like project requirement, budget, resources will help developers to achieve best results.