Native App or Flutter Based App: Which is Better?

According to research done by Statista, in the second quarter of 2020, there are 2.7 million applications on Google Play store and 1.82 million applications on Apple App Store.

It’s a huge number. Because of smartphones, we can say computers have come to our fingertips. Sitting anywhere at any time it has become very easy to connect with people across the globe and get anything, from food to appliances, clothes, furniture, and so much more.

And you can find apps for almost anything and everything. The phrase, “There’s an app for that” is absolutely true; there is an app for everything.

While apps are available on app stores for various platforms, Google’ Play Store and Apple’s App Store are the most popular stores for their respective operating systems. Apps are primarily made for them.

In this article, we are going to talk about native apps and Flutter based apps. Let’s understand what they are in brief, which one is better and why.

What is Native App Development?

Native Application Development involves building applications for a particular operating system using particular programming languages or SDKs. Majorly, native apps are created for either Android or iOS.

To create dedicated Android applications most developers use Java or Kotlin as SD and either Android Studio or IntelliJ IDEA as IDE (Integrated Development Kit).

Whereas, to create iOS applications developers use either Objective C or Swift programming language or SDK and Xcode or AppCode.
Like most of the applications, even native apps have their advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s see them in brief:

Advantages:

• Native apps provide speed, better UI, and flawless performance as they are developed using the dedicated framework and language of the respective OS.
• One of the major advantages of native based app development is the ease it brings to integrate with other hardware devices. As they are built in the same environment it does not need any third-party apps to integrate.
• Better security.
• Easy to push updates when and where needed.
• Two different codes are written for the same app. Hence, this makes it easy to launch in the App Store and Google Play Store. Another reason for easy launch is it does not require more back and forth with changing any codes or adding up any integrations.

Disadvantages:

• In building native apps we code it twice and compile multiple times, uploading both the apps on different servers, maintaining them differently. Businesses need to hire experts in both programming languages, buy different servers, upload, send updates, fix bugs, and many such things are done twice. Hence, all these things require lots of resources and investment.
• Difficult to develop cross-platform as it needs to write code twice in different IDEs, compile twice, test twice, basically do everything twice.
• Providing support to two different platforms becomes difficult. Each of the app i.e Android and iOS-based has different bugs and requires different times to fix them. This in turn requires lots of effort from developers.
• You have to follow different guidelines based on the respective store.
• To create a basic native app it takes upto three to nine months to develop but this time varies depending on the complexity of the application.

Looking at all the disadvantages and majoring twice in coding and compiling was creating cumbersome tasks for developers.

This is where Flutter comes in.

What is Flutter?

Google acquired Flutter from a year-old startup that was using it for gesture recognition technology. It is the cross-platform SDK developed by Google to help developers develop cross-platform applications using Dart, which is Google’s own programming language.

Not only that, but Flutter is also what powers Google’s new Fuchsia OS and Google Ads. Since the launch of Flutter 1.0 it has taken over the developers’ circle. With the latest release of Flutter 1.22, they are ready to provide support to Android 11 and iOS 14. Additionally, it easily supports iOS’s UI as well as Android’s Material Design UI.

With the help of Flutter’s single code base, they have made the term “write once, run anywhere” a reality for developers.

Pro-tip: Flutter is cross-platform but works natively once you compile it. This is the reason it provides your users with a native-like interface for your application.

Let’s see some of the advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• “Write once run anywhere” a nightmare for most of the developers has turned into a reality with FLutter. As you know you can create Web. Mobile, and Desktop apps with it, and it will have a native look and experience for your users.
• Your users will get better UI and layout. Regardless of their devices, they will get native apps’ experience and are very unlikely to see any flaws anywhere.
• “Stateful Hot Reload” is the biggest advantage of Flutter. Now, you can write the code and without compiling. Right in there check how your application will look. Create it within milliseconds using its rich set of libraries and widgets. This brings a playfulness to development as you can see all the little tweaks you make right there, contributing more fine tuning and experimentation in UI.
• Provides native performance and overcomes critical issues like icons, fonts, navigation, scrolling, etc.
• Google has a large base of the community for most of its products and with Flutter as well, they have done the same. Because of its open-source nature, it gets strong support from its community members. Here you can get any and every help and if you are proficient with Flutter then you can also contribute to it on Github.
• With the help of Flutter UI framework it takes only 250 hours to create an application i.e. 10 to 15 days. This is a huge difference between creating native app and the one you create using Flutter.

Disadvantages:

• Flutter and Dart are still immature framework and language compared to other languages available.
• There are no specific guidelines so many times it becomes difficult to create complex software.
• Dart and Flutter both are growing rapidly. This might result in instability. Hence, it’s better to use it if you are confident in handling all types of issues coming in your way.

Difference between native app development and Flutter based applications:

The major difference between these two is the environment they provide to the developers. In native based development, developers need to code, compile, fix bugs, and basically do everything twice.

Whereas, Flutter though it is unstable, provides an ease to developers. It is changing the way people develop applications. One of the major factors behind its success is cross-platform development and constant updates to make it better.

It decreases the number of resources (time and effort) needed.

Which is better and why?

Looking at all the shortcomings of native application development we would recommend going for Flutter based development. We can understand that the sudden transition can be difficult as you are developing in native frameworks for years. We think it is better to use Flutter and code once rather than coding multiple times. We hope you are convinced that decreasing the time and resources is important when it comes to providing a better UI and a great experience to your users.

Apart from all of those reasons, Flutter is predicted to get even more popular in the coming years. While there may be roadblocks in building something that is as nascent as this, it is the best time to get ahead of the competition now.

Flutter is used by many famous companies like Tencent, Alibaba, Hue, eBay, BMW, Philips, and more. So, what are you waiting for?

Create your next cross-platform app using Flutter and share your experience with us!