React vs Flutter vs Xamarin

Cross-mobile app development is quite trending these days. It is used to develop apps for Android as well as iOS. It helps in the reduction of time and money for the development of the app.

We have heard a lot of buzz around React and Flutter, the two raging cross-platform apps for mobile app development. But we haven't compared it with the old player in the market, Xamnarin. So in this blog, we're going to do a comparison between the three.

To begin with, we will have an introduction to the three software.

Flutter

Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit created by Google. It is used to develop applications for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Google Fuchsia, and the web.

It allows the developers to create a native mobile application with only one codebase. In short, you can create applications for two different operating systems by using one programming language.

It is Google's UI toolkit for crafting beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It develops beautiful

Programming of Flutter is done in a programming language known as Dart, a quick, object-oriented programming language. It is new compared to other programming languages and easy to learn, specifically for those who have programming knowledge of C# and Java.

Advantages of Flutter

1. Beautiful Design - Flutter has its own widgets that are managed by its graphics engine. It has a beautiful UI which is good for viewing experience. Due to this, it makes beautiful looking designs.

2. Same UI across all devices - The UI of Flutter is the same on all devices, irrespective of their mobile version. In other words, a 3-year old phone will have the same experience for Flutter as a modern phone.

3. Productivity - With the help of Flutter, you can change the code and see the changes in real-time.

4. Less Testing - Flutter requires almost half the testing of the applications developed using it compared to the application developed by other frameworks.

React Native

React Native is an open-source mobile application framework created by Facebook. It is used to develop applications for Android, iOS, Web, and UWP by enabling developers to use React along with native platform capabilities.

It is one of the most preferred cross-platform software for app development. It was released in 2015, way before the release of Flutter. Since it's a cross-platform software, you can use the same code across the web and mobile.

Advantages of React Native

1. Community - React Native enjoys a large community support thanks to being the oldest cross-platform framework available in the market and the backing of Facebook. It gets timely updates and fixes.

2. Performance - Performance of React Native is very fast and gives a fluid feel thanks to its UI.

3. Cross-Platform Capabilities - App development in React Native is fast because it uses a single code to develop apps for different platforms.

4. Easy to Use - React Native is programmed in Javascript, a popular language for framework programming. Also, React Native is very similar to React. Therefore, anyone who has worked on React won't face any difficulties working with React Native.

Xamarin

Xamarin is a cross-platform software owned by Microsoft. With a C#-shared codebase, developers can use Xamarin tools to write native Android, iOS, and Windows apps with native user interfaces and share code across multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

1. User Interface - It gives the developer complete freedom to choose the User Interface layout, a great benefit while designing apps according to user interests.

2. Simplified Maintenance - Due to its cross-platform application, Xamarin makes maintenance and updates easier. You can simply deploy the changes or updates to the source file and they will be applied to both iOS and Android apps.

3. Native User experience and feel - Xamarin cross-platform app development tool (IDE) enables such C# coding that the result is a native look and feel of the mobile app. At the moment of app runtime, it converts UI components into platform-specific elements, resulting in native app-like experience.

4. API Integration flexibility - Xamarin mobile application development also stands out because of its utmost flexibility to use the same APIs and UI controls as found in developing Android, iOS, and Mac applications.

Now that we have discussed them individually, let us see how they compare against each other.

1. App size - The size of the app is the smallest in React native, followed by Xamarin and Flutter.

2. Learning Curve - The learning curve of React Native is the simplest due to its similarities with React and JavaScript. Flutter has a steeper learning curve as it requires Dart for its programming. Xamarin has the steepest curve because Xamarin requires separate configurations for iOS and Android- i.e Xamarin.iOS & Xamarin.Android.

3. Community Support - React native has the largest community support thanks to its developers timely updating it. Xamarin comes in second but it is more because of the fact that it has been present for long. Flutter is relatively new and gaining support slowly.

4. Programming Language - React Native is programmed using Javascript, a language found common in many frameworks. Flutter is programmed using Dart, which isn't a common language. Xamarin is programmed in C#, which is mainly used for web development.

5. Testing Support - React Native community has no official support for integration and UI level testing, while Flutter has great documentation and a rich set of testing features. Xamarin has good testing support but loses to Flutter as it has widget testing support and the ability to conduct tests at multiple levels.

6. Developer Productivity - React and Flutter have almost the same productivity as they both have Hot Reloading. Xamarin is better than the two because it has great developer support in terms of resources and tools.

7. UI Components & Development API - Flutter is rich in developing APIs and UI components whereas React Native is too dependent on third-party libraries. However, Flutter lags behind Xamarin because of Xamarin's rich set of documentation and a developer API.

8. Installation - Xamarin installation is dependent on the Visual Studio IDE, whereas Flutter installation is performed via the command line. Both Flutter and React Native lack simpler installation with native package managers for a specific OS.

Conclusion

With all that, we have completed the comparison between React Native, Flutter, and Xamarin. I hope it gave you some new insights into the three.

Thanks for reading.