Fluttervs
React Native
React Native: The other major cross-platform choice, rendering to real native components in JavaScript rather than drawing its own in Dart
Overview
What Flutter does
Flutter is an open-source framework from Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, desktop and embedded devices from a single codebase. It is written in Dart, a language Google designed for fast startup and ahead-of-time compilation. Flutter differs from most cross-platform toolkits in how it draws. Rather than mapping to the host platform’s native widgets, it renders its own with its own engine, which is why a Flutter app looks identical across platforms and why it can hit high frame rates consistently. That is also the main trade-off: the interface is Flutter’s, not the platform’s, unless you do the work to match each one. The framework is maintained by Google with a large open-source community. The framework is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence with code samples under the 3-Clause BSD licence.
What people use it for
- Shipping one app to iOS and Android with a small team
- Interfaces with heavy custom design that need to look identical on both platforms
- Adding web or desktop builds to an existing mobile codebase
- Prototyping quickly where hot reload shortens the design loop
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The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Flutter.
- Dart is used almost nowhere else, so the language itself is a hiring and learning cost
- Because Flutter draws its own widgets, apps can feel subtly unlike the platform unless deliberately styled per-platform
- Binary sizes are larger than equivalent native apps because the engine ships with the app
- Access to a brand-new platform API waits on a plugin, or on writing platform channel code yourself
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Flutter
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- FluttervsExpo
Expo: Wraps React Native with managed builds and over-the-air updates, competing on how little native setup you have to do
Pricing
What Flutter costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Flutter
Free
- Full framework
- All platform targets
- Dart toolchain
- DevTools suite
Capabilities
Features
Single codebase, many targets
iOS, Android, web, desktop and embedded from the same Dart source
Own rendering engine
Draws its own widgets rather than mapping to platform controls, so output is identical everywhere
Hot reload
Injects changed code into the running app, keeping state
Widget library
Material and Cupertino widget sets out of the box
Ahead-of-time compilation
Compiles to native machine code for release builds
DevTools
Layout inspector, performance profiler and memory view
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Flutter free?
Yes. Flutter is open source with no licence fee. The framework is under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence and its code samples under the 3-Clause BSD licence.
What language does Flutter use?
Dart, a language Google designed for fast startup and ahead-of-time compilation to native code.
Can Flutter build for more than mobile?
Yes. The same codebase targets iOS, Android, web, Windows, macOS, Linux and embedded devices, though mobile remains the most mature target.
How is Flutter different from React Native?
Flutter draws its own widgets with its own engine, so the result is pixel-identical across platforms. React Native renders to the real native components of each platform. Flutter uses Dart; React Native uses JavaScript and React.
Keep looking
Where to go from Flutter
- Flutter alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Flutter pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Flutter badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Mobile Development softwareThe full category
- Best Mobile Development softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Mobile Development software for
Compare Flutter with
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Detect, diagnose and resolve mobile app issues
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Flutter, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Flutter
Flutter alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Flutter pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Flutter
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Flutter badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Mobile Development software alternatives
Build native mobile apps with React and JavaScript
Open-source automation for building, testing, and releasing iOS and Android apps.
React Native framework and cloud platform for building and shipping apps
Mobile CI/CD platform for building, testing, and publishing apps
CI/CD built for Flutter and mobile apps
The mobile DevOps platform
Google's platform for building web and mobile applications with cloud backend