Flutter vs Native: What is Best for Your Project
The debate around «Flutter vs Native» remains current as native app development and maintenance for iOS and Android gets more expensive. Since 2018, Flutter’s cross-platform framework has been on the rise in many industries, including retail, fintech, and e-commerce.
If we are to compare native development vs Flutter, both provide high scalability and quality user experience. However, they greatly differ in terms of code maintenance, speed of deployment, app performance, development costs, and other criteria.
Our developers have been working with native technologies for more than 13 years. Since 2018, we have also made significant progress in making cross-platform apps. To assist you with decision-making, our experts have prepared the analysis of Flutter versus native performance along with other aspects. The article will help to choose between Flutter and native technologies according to your business goals.
Flutter vs Native: cross-platform framework explained
Before picking sides in the Flutter vs Native development debate, let’s explore both technologies in more detail. A cross-platform framework is a set of tools that enables the development of a mobile app suitable for both iOS and Android. At the same time, the major drawback of most cross-platform frameworks is the unpredictable behavior of interface elements as well as slow animations.
Flutter is an open-source cross-platform framework for web, desktop, and mobile development with a single code base, operating with Dart programming language. Launched in 2018 by Google, Flutter has proven itself a convenient toolkit, easy for creating animations and quality UI components. Despite being Google’s fresh take on cross-platform, Flutter provides smooth animations and user-friendly interface elements.
Learn more about Flutter and its benefits for business
Learn moreNative technologies explained
Unlike cross-platform tools, native application development is application-specific to either Android or iOS. Native apps are coded in languages that are supported by the device’s OS vendor:
- Android: Kotlin, Java, and Android Studio
- iOS: Swift, Objective-C, and Xcode
As a rule, native apps do not have serious drawbacks, and users can take full advantage of sophisticated features of their mobile devices such as accelerometer, camera, GPS, and others. Users can install native apps through major app stores such as Google Play and App Store.
At the same time, the development and support of native apps require significant investments. This is because developers have to adjust business logic, interface, and layout to the specifics of each platform. Hence, low-budget cross-platform development is becoming more popular with hi-tech businesses, compared to native technologies.
Flutter vs native app: Speed of development
Flutter provides developers with the capacity to create a single code for two different platforms, which significantly reduces development time and cost. Its code is easier to write compared to native ones. Even novice developers quickly grasp the framework’s basics, flattening the learning curve. As for native technologies, developers have to write two codes for Android and iOS, which inevitably takes more time.
According to our experts, Flutter development is 20-50% faster compared to the creation of two native mobile apps. Nevertheless, the actual development speed also depends on the complexity of the interface and the expected functions.
App performance
Based on the experience of the Surf team, the CPU usage in native apps is about 50% less compared to the Flutter app. On the other hand, React Native mobile applications are even more CPU-hungry for their computing operations. This confirms that while Flutter performance vs Native comparison is in the favor of native approach, the former still excels among other cross-platform technologies.
As for memory usage, native apps show the most efficient memory consumption. Flutter takes twice the memory expenses compared to native, while React Native shows even worse performance.
Code maintenance
In most cases, supporting native applications is more time-consuming. First, it takes serious efforts to maintain two separate codebases. Second, developers have to create different updates for each mobile platform as well as identify bugs. Third, the maintenance efforts grow proportionally with added OS-supported devices.
With a cross-platform approach, companies can get the upper hand: Flutter apps are more maintainable since there is just a single codebase for two applications. The simple code helps developers quickly detect issues, use third-party libraries, and source external tools. Besides, the framework’s Hot Reload feature helps to quickly edit and test the code in the development process.
Kotlin native vs Flutter: features and integrations
The majority of native frameworks for building iOS apps, including Swift, provide improved safety and fast integration opportunities. The same is true for Kotlin and Java for Android.
With Flutter, the integration of unique features of third-party plugins or libraries is not that challenging. Still, for the developers who are not aware of Dart’s functionality, it might be considered as difficult. Besides, the Flutter engine has certain limitations for integrating native modules via Xcode of Android Studio by default. Flutter’s documentation includes manual instructions to deal with possible complications and successfully integrate it for Android and iOS.
Swift for iOS vs Flutter: features and integrations
Swift remains among the most popular languages created by Apple for iOS, and many mobile developers praise it for exceptional simplicity and thorough documentation. Comparing Flutter and Swift native, the integration with Swift iOS is simpler and involves less maintenance. At the same time, Swift might have poor integration with certain third-party tools. As for Flutter, its code suits multiple platforms, including Android. Besides, the cross-platform framework offers more rapid code writing, which really makes it an excellent choice for mobile MVPs.
App developers availability
The labor market for Flutter technology is expanding but many mobile developers are still new to Flutter. While the amount of Flutter projects worldwide gradually increases, hiring a strong team with more than five Flutter developers might take some time.
The professional experience of a prospective Flutter team might also require extra attention. Generally, learning Dart and writing a few samples is not sufficient to start a full-fledged Flutter project. A qualified dev has to understand the limitations of mobile development in general as well as the features of both Android and iOS platforms.
App development cost
Native development is way more expensive since two codes have to be written for two different mobile platforms with separate functionalities, also resulting in hiring more devs and other professionals, as illustrated by the figure below.
From the experience of our teams, the use of Flutter offers unparalleled cost efficiency and might save you 45% on development, 70% on QA taking into account the use of autotests, and 33% on app design. However, projects are different. In some cases, the framework can save up to 15% of the budget, but sometimes up to 50%. As a result, the choice to build native mobile apps with Flutter brings benefits already at the development stage: the standard team is smaller, and the time-to-market is reduced.
Use cases for Flutter and native technologies
The choice between Flutter and native development largely depends on business goals. The present-day use of Flutter mostly ranges from medium to large businesses, including the apps for Alibaba, Airbnb, and Uber. As for native technologies, developers apply them to create sophisticated niche apps with advanced features. The table below illustrates the use cases for Flutter and native technologies.
When to choose native technologies
There are cases when the choice of more expensive native technologies remains unquestioned. Typically, the most popular examples of native apps include top-performance solutions with more sophisticated features, as illustrated by the table below. At the same time, investors should avoid native technologies if they wish to decrease development and maintenance costs.
When to choose Flutter
Our team has worked on several large Flutter projects for various industries, including the first Flutter banking app in Europe, a mobile pharmacy app, a video streaming platform, and a corporate mobile app for KFC. Our experts recommend the framework for development tasks in retail, banks & fintech, ecommerce, and other corporate domains.
The use of Flutter can be particularly interesting for the banking sector. It might even be more suitable compared to native apps since its source codes are compiled into native code, impossible for human reading.
In addition, Flutter applications can effectively access the security technologies of the mobile device itself, including Touch ID, Face ID, or a fingerprint scanner. The largest digital bank Nubank (more than 20 million customers outside Asia) is already sharing a successful case of using Flutter for its mobile application.
At the same time, Flutter development does not suit brand-specific apps focused on native features, as illustrated above.
Bottom line
Speaking of Flutter vs iOS native as well as Flutter vs native Android, we’ve reached the following conclusions:
- Neither Flutter nor native technologies will provide a magic wand for your particular projects and business needs since each case is individual.
- Flutter is a very promising cross-platform framework in terms of development speed and budget reduction.
- It is possible to create MVP applications on Flutter in 2-3 months. The full-fledged development costs on average 30% less than creating two native mobile apps.
- Native technologies suit better the development of sophisticated niche applications with advanced features, such as GPS or rich animation.
At Surf, we believe that, in the future, more companies are likely to choose cross-platform mobile development for their projects for rapid and optimized online expansion and stronger digital presence.
If you are looking for a way to develop mobile applications for iOS and Android on a tight deadline and budget without compromising the quality, give Flutter a chance now — contact us.
