Cross-platform App Development Battle: React Native Vs Flutter, Ionic & Xamarin

When it comes to cross-platform app development, react native framework is a name everyone knows. Created by the team of Facebook, it is a cross-platform app development framework that went on and changed the app development world scenario forever.

But still, the react-native framework is not the final word in the world of the cross-platform app development sector. There are three other quite strong competitors of react native, and in this article, we are going to see how much of a fight they are giving react native framework.

React Native Vs Flutter

When the react native platform emerged in 2015, it became the last word in the matter of cross-platform app development. That was until 2018 when Google announced its own cross-platform SDK called Flutter . The open war between the two platforms has created much stir in the technology world, and all we can do is to compare the two platforms and decide which one is better for us.

User interface

When it comes to the design of the UI, React Native is known for using third-party components to tap into native iOS and Android components. Whereas Flutter is using 100% customized proprietary widget. These widgets are both in Cupertino design for iOS and material design for Android .

The comparison makes it clear that when it comes to UI, Flutter is definitely ahead of React Native.

Javascript vs dart

React native runs on Javascript while Flutter runs on Dart, a new programming language. While dart is extremely easy to learn and write codes in, JavaScript has been widely accepted by the developer community everywhere. However, Dart is a new language and Google has a tendency of killing off new languages like Angularjs . And that’s why the adoption rate is not very high for Dart.

Even though Dart is easier to use than Javascript, it still has a long way to go. So in the matter of programing language, React Native wins against Flutter.

React Native Vs Ionic

Another competition for React Native is Ionic. Developed by Drifty in 2013, it is an open source platform made for hybrid app development, using Javascript, CSS, and HTML5. Apps created with Ionic focuses on appearance and UI. it also offers tools like Sass, HTML5, and CSS to create hybrid apps that can be run by Android or iOS. So what happens when we compare these two?

Design

As we already mentioned before, Ionic based apps focus more on appearance and UI. so it is obvious when we are comparing the two platforms based on design components, Ionic is going to take the crown.

The ionic platform offers pre-developed elegant components to the developers which are unavailable in react native framework. So if appearance is your first concern when developing a cross-platform app, then Ionic should be your first choice.

Performance

In the case of app performance, React Native wins against Ionic. The reason is that Ionic uses web-view in the mobile application development, so even though they are beautifully designed, ionic apps are still not good enough in case of app performance than the React native apps.

React Native Vs Xamarin

Xamarin is an open source app development tool for cross-platform app development. The developers can easily use it to develop apps for Android, iOS and wearable device with a native interface.

Xamarin was a paid tool back in 2011, but after being acquired by Microsoft in 2016 , it became an open source platform for hybrid apps development. There are many reasons why developers go for Xamarin instead of React Native. So which is better? Let’s see.

Programming language

As a framework, React Native enables the developers to use programming languages like Objective-C, Java, Swift, and Kotlin. Even though React Native uses Javascript primarily, the developers need enough knowledge of all the programming languages to use the platform in an effective way.

For Xamarin however, developers need expertise in C# and .NET framework. C# can perform all the process that is performed by Objective-C, Swift, Java. or Kotlin. Basically, the use of Xamarin lowers the need to know other programming languages.

Development environment

For app development with Xamarin Framework, the developers have to install Microsoft Visual Studio or the Visual Studio Community edition. Not to mention to develop apps based on Xamarin you need a Mac.

For React Native there is no need for any specific development environment. Developers can just install Node and start using any development environment like Visual Studio code, Nuclide, Deco IDE, Atom, Spacemace Editor, etc.

So as we can see, there is no clear winner between the main cross-platform framework leaders today. Each platform favors one feature while failing in another. So the choice making process is going to be pretty hard. The best way to choose between a react native app development company and any other framework is to consider your app development needs and choose according to that.