Flutter vs React Native – which framework fits?

Cross-platform development has established itself as an economical alternative to dual native development for iOS and Android. The two dominant frameworks – Google's Flutter and Meta's React Native – pursue fundamentally different approaches, each bringing specific strengths and trade-offs. The right choice affects development speed, app performance, maintenance effort, and the long-term evolvability of your mobile application.

Flutter uses the Dart programming language and renders the entire user interface through its own rendering engine (Skia or Impeller), independent of the operating system's native UI components. The result is pixel-perfect identical interfaces on both platforms and exceptionally smooth performance. The widget system is powerful and consistent, and the Hot Reload feature significantly accelerates development. The downside: Flutter apps sometimes don't feel entirely native because they don't automatically adopt platform-specific UI conventions.

React Native, on the other hand, relies on JavaScript and renders through real native UI components. This means the app automatically adopts the look and feel of each platform – a button looks like an iOS button on iOS and an Android button on Android. For teams with web development experience, getting started is easier since React knowledge is directly transferable. The vast npm ecosystem offers libraries for almost every use case.

In our projects, we choose the framework based on concrete requirements: We recommend Flutter when a consistent, design-heavy interface on both platforms is desired, the app has high animation requirements, or the team is willing to learn Dart. We recommend React Native when existing React knowledge is available in the team, the app heavily relies on native platform features, or a gradual integration into an existing native app is planned.

Both frameworks are excellent for business apps, prototypes, and applications with moderate performance needs. For high-performance applications like games, AR experiences, or apps with very specific hardware requirements, we still recommend native development. We make this decision transparently with you during a technical concept phase, where we weigh your requirements against the strengths of both frameworks.