To scale the project for different device options, you can use cross-browser compatibility or native development. Each of these methods has its own advantages. But what to choose for a particular project? In this article, we will consider how cooperation with a Flutter app development company is different from cooperation with a company that uses native app development.
The essence of the approaches
Flutter appeared in 2018 and quickly gained popularity among developers. It makes it easy to create UX components and smooth animations.
The native app development is aimed at iOS and Android. It is created with the help of special languages and used on a specific operating system. For iOS, these languages are Swift and Objective-C. And for Android – Java, Kotlin.
Technology allows you to implement complex functionality. However, each platform has to be developed separately. Therefore, Flutter is increasingly used for development.
Flutter is more economical: developers write the same code for both platforms at once. At the same time, the code is simpler, even beginners can easily master it. And for native applications, the code should be unique for each platform.
If we compare the work of finished products, then loading a native application is much faster, but such an application uses much more device memory.
Technical support
Maintaining a native application is quite difficult:
- You need to make changes to the two codebases and make sure that they are up-to-date and work correctly.
- Updates also need to be developed for two applications.
- The complexity of support is affected by the number of devices that support the OS.
Supporting applications on Flutter is much easier, primarily because there is only one code and you need to look for errors only in this code. The Flutter code is quite simple because bugs are easily found there. This is facilitated by the presence of a large library, which describes all possible bugs and ways to solve them. Moreover, developers can also use Hot Reload technology to instantly fix errors.
Integrations with other services
The only moment that can cause difficulties for developers is the moment of integration. On Swift and Kotlin, you can quickly and safely integrate with all kinds of third-party services. Integration with Swift iOS is simpler and requires fewer configuration steps, although some third-party services integrate more easily on Android than on iOS.
On Flutter, integration can be done using third-party plugins, and libraries. However, some points can cause difficulties for novice developers.
Despite the shortcomings described, integration on Flutter can be faster, since it is enough to deal with one code and find one solution. Moreover, this problem is not relevant if experienced developers are involved in the development of the project.
Development cost and use cases
Logically, writing native applications requires 2 teams: those that specialize in iOS development, and those that design Android services. Flutter development means one team working together.
The choice of one or another development method depends on the variant of further use. Let’s consider the most common use cases for each approach.
Native development:
- Applications with augmented reality.
- Applications with complex UI.
- Applications based on artificial intelligence.
- Games.
- Applications for things (smart home, wallets, TV).
- Navigators.
- Using complex animation.
- Travel apps.
Native applications should be chosen for uniquely complex developments that require the integration of a large amount of data. However, if you need to quickly launch an application, then it is better to choose development on Flutter.
With the help of applications on Flutter, you can quickly implement financial and technical projects, which is facilitated by the security of banking platforms.
When is it better to choose native app development?
Native app development is usually used to write high-performance applications with advanced functionality. However, you need to consider the speed and cost of development and support. Let’s consider cases when it’s better to use native app development:
- sophisticated native applications with impeccable performance and speed;
- niche technology MVP;
- high-performance applications that interact closely with the device hardware through the OS;
- regular application updates in connection with the release of a new version of the OS;
- the need for the most reliable and secure features of high complexity;
- MVP of mobile applications;
- reactive applications with big data integration.
Cases, when it’s better not to use native app development:
- high cost of support and updates;
- compatibility with many different devices and related requirements;
- the need to quickly bring the application to market;
- development without large investments, with a less qualified team;
- development of a native application with a small number of payment methods inside the application.
Flutter – a good framework to develop cross-platform apps
In recent years, Flutter has gained wide popularity among cross-platform app developers around the world, as it is superior to other similar tools in many ways.
Resource-saving
Flutter allows you to save up to 40% of the budget by using a single code base for various operating systems. To create a user interface, uniform standards and language are used, which significantly reduces costs.
Development speed
Flutter uses the concept of hot reload, thanks to which you can significantly save development time.
Interface uniformity
Flutter has a set of ready-made widgets, collected in a separate library. This speeds up the creation of any mobile applications, including programs with complex animations.
Available support
Fixing bugs, expanding functionality, and releasing updates to app stores will be cheaper, as programmers will work with the same code for both platforms.
Security and performance
Application code is much less amenable to reverse engineering, which is additional protection for applications from hacking. The attacker will have to deal with instructions for the processor, which are very difficult to understand. Flutter does not provide a full guarantee against hacking, but it seriously increases the security level of software products.
Using Flutter makes applications faster and more productive. This is especially important for mobile solutions.
Summary
It cannot be said that development on Flutter is a universal solution or vice versa, that native app development is a perfect decision for business applications. The advantages of Flutter are in its rapid development and lower costs, for some projects this framework can be beneficial and convenient for the customer.
Perpetio specialists can develop both using a cross-browser framework and using native technologies. The choice of method depends on the goals of the customer. At the first meetings, company employees find out how they plan to use the application, what integrations need to be done, what services to connect, etc. Based on the information collected, the company will recommend one or another development method, explaining to the customer all its advantages for a particular project.
