The short answer
React Native and Flutter both build one app for iOS and Android from a single codebase, and both are mature enough for production apps. React Native, from Meta, is written in JavaScript or TypeScript and renders the platform's own interface components, which suits teams with React web developers and products that share logic with a website. Flutter, from Google, is written in Dart and draws its own interface, which suits apps with a highly custom, brand-led design that must look identical on every device. For most business apps the deciding factors are your team's skills and whether you also have a React website.
What is the difference between React Native and Flutter?
Both are cross-platform frameworks: you write the app once and ship it to the App Store and Google Play. The difference is how they draw the screen. React Native maps your components to the real iOS and Android interface elements, so a switch or a list behaves like every other app on the phone. Flutter paints every pixel itself with its own rendering engine, so the app looks exactly the same everywhere, by design.
If you are still deciding whether to go cross-platform at all, start with our guide to native vs cross-platform app development.
| React Native | Flutter | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Meta | |
| Language | JavaScript or TypeScript | Dart |
| How it draws the interface | Platform's own components | Its own rendering engine |
| Look and feel | Matches each platform | Identical on every device |
| Sharing with a website | Logic and developers shared with React web | Separate from most websites |
| Hiring | Very large JavaScript and React pool | Smaller, growing Dart pool |
When is React Native the better choice?
Choose React Native when your product already has, or will have, a React or Next.js website. Business logic, types, validation and even developers move between the web and the app, and one team can own both. It is also the safer choice for hiring, because the pool of JavaScript and React developers is very large.
- You have a React or Next.js website or web app.
- You want the app to feel like a standard iOS and Android app.
- You want to hire from the largest pool of developers.
- The app is mostly accounts, lists, forms, content and payments.
When is Flutter the better choice?
Choose Flutter when the design is the product: heavily branded interfaces, custom animation and visuals that must look identical on every phone. Because Flutter draws everything itself, it gives designers precise control and very consistent results across devices, including older Android phones.
- A highly custom, brand-led interface with lots of motion.
- Pixel-identical design across iOS, Android and other screens.
- A team that already writes Dart, or no existing web codebase to share with.
Which is faster?
For most business apps, users will not notice a difference between a well-built React Native app and a well-built Flutter app. Both render smoothly at 60 frames per second on modern phones when they are built well. Performance problems almost always come from how an app is built, such as heavy lists or unoptimised images, rather than from the framework.
React Native's newer architecture, now the default, removed much of the overhead that older comparisons were based on, so treat benchmarks from a few years ago with caution.
Which is cheaper to build and maintain?
The cost difference between the two is small compared with the difference between cross-platform and two native apps. The bigger saving comes from what you can share: with React Native, a team that already builds your React website can build the app too. Our cost guide has our starting prices for both.
What do we use?
We usually build with React Native, because most of our clients also have a React or Next.js website and the shared code and team make the whole product faster to build and cheaper to run. When a product is design-led enough that Flutter would serve it better, or needs native Swift and Kotlin, we recommend that instead. See our mobile app development service for how we build apps.