The holy grail of mobile development has always been simple: write once, run anywhere. React Native and Flutter represent two of the most popular frameworks for mobile apps. Both frameworks promise fast development, beautiful UIs, and cross-platform capabilities, but they take very different approaches under the hood.
Mobile app development is the top priority for entrepreneurs now who want their product to hit the market. Choosing the right technologies stack is one of the most important areas for the growth and success of an enterprise in the long run. As mobile continues eating the world in 2025, the decision between React Native vs Flutter has never carried higher stakes.
In this article, we’ll overview the two frameworks, React Native and Flutter, to help you understand the differences between them and choose the right one for you.
React Native
React Native is an open-source JavaScript framework, released by Meta in 2015, that grants you the ability to build native iOS and Android applications. It is a framework that takes all the advantages of native development to build mobile apps using JavaScript. Applications built with React Native can be deployed to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Within Meta’s ecosystem, React Native is at the core of building seamless mobile, web, and desktop experiences. App examples include Facebook, Instagram, Meta Horizon, Messenger Desktop, and Facebook Ads Manager. Major other apps built with React Native include Skype, Bloomberg, Walmart, Tesla, and more.
React Native Key Features
-
Cross-platform development
-
Declarative UI
-
Hot reloading
-
Native components
-
Rich ecosystem
-
Improved performance, especially with the new architecture
-
Reusable components
-
Compatibility with third-party extensions
Flutter
Flutter, on the other hand, is a framework for building natively compiled, multi-platform applications. It was created by Google in 2018 and since then, it has gained popularity for developers. Its speed, extensive collection of pre-built widgets, and ease of use make it perfect to build and deploy visually appealing, natively compiled mobile (iOS, Android), desktop, web, and embedded apps – from one codebase.
Flutter is being used by various top organizations such as Google and the most exemplary instances of Flutter are Google Ads, Google Pay, BMW, LG Electronics, Xiaomi, Wolt, and many others.
Flutter Key Features
-
Single codebase for Multiple Platforms
-
Hot reload
-
Rich widget library
-
Faster development
-
High-quality, flexible UI
-
Native-Like Performance
React Native and Flutter comparison
|
Technology |
React Native |
Flutter |
|
Language |
Fully written in JavaScript using React. |
Written using a language called Dart. |
|
UI Development |
Uses a declarative programming style. |
Is based on the reactive programming paradigm |
|
UI Approach |
React Native uses native UI components, ensuring that the look and feel align seamlessly with the underlying platform. |
Flutter takes a distinctive approach with its widget-based architecture, allowing for highly customizable and visually appealing user interfaces. |
|
Performance |
React Native previously relied on JavaScript bridges to interact with native components. However, starting with version 0.74, it adopts a Bridgeless New Architecture that removes this limitation and speeds up the development process. |
Flutter uses its own Skia rendering engine to compile directly to native ARM code, removing the need for a bridge. As of version 3.27, Impeller replaces Skia as the default rendering pipeline for both Android and iOS but is part of Flutter’s rendering stack. |
|
Ecosystem |
As a more mature and well-established framework, React Native has a larger community and a wider ecosystem of plugins. |
Flutter, thoughrelatively new, benefits from strong supportby Google and a rapidly growing community.
|
|
Reusability and Scalability of Code |
React Native enables strong code sharing between iOS and Android, and with React Native Web, much of that code can extend to the web. However, full cross-platform reuse may require extra libraries or workarounds. |
Flutter excels in code reusability, supporting Web and Desktop alongside mobile apps with minimal code adjustments for a truly cross-platform experience. |
|
Developer Experience and Learning Curve |
React Native has robust developer experience, particularly for web developers, because it utilizes JavaScript and React. It includes features such as hot reload and a massive ecosystem of third-party libraries to speed up development. |
Flutter’s “everything is a widget” philosophy offers deep customization at the cost of increased learning curve, particularly for new Dart developers. The silver lining is that there are tools like FlutterDevTools and rich documentation that facilitate simpler debugging and app development. |
React Native and Flutter popularity
Both React Native and Flutter have remainedpopular cross-platform mobile development frameworks in recent years. Both frameworks showed growth compared to previous years, with Flutter maintaining a slight lead and a faster adoption rate. According to Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey Flutter and React Nativeare nearly tied among professional developers, with 9.4 % for Flutter and 8.4 % for React Native.
Conclusion
React Native and Flutter are leading the way in building cross-platform mobile applications. Both frameworks are powerful frameworks that have made a name for themselves.
In short, React Native is perfect if you are already using React for your web development and want to use a similar framework for mobile development, have a need to develop an app quickly and easily, need to access a wide range of third-party libraries or you are targeting a wide range of devices.
Flutter is ideal when you need to develop a high-performance app, your project prioritizes unique designs, you want to create a mobile and a web app with a single codebase or want to use a framework that is still under active development.
Regardless of which framework you choose, both frameworks provide a viable path to successful cross-platform development.
Need more details? Contact us today to clarify any additional questions from our article!
