React Native vs Flutter for a Business App

The facts quoted here come from each project's own documentation: React Native's getting started page, core components, TypeScript, native platform, out-of-tree platforms and performance pages; flutter.dev, Flutter's architectural overview, platform channels, supported platforms, web support and app size pages; the Dart overview; and the Expo documentation. Where we give our own opinion, we say so.

The short answer

Our view: for a typical business app (accounts, lists, forms, maps, payments, notifications) either one will do the job well, and the better choice is usually the one your team, or the team you hire, already knows. Lean towards React Native if you have JavaScript or React developers, or a React website whose skills and code you want to share. Lean towards Flutter if you want the app to look the same on every device down to the pixel, or need a custom, heavily branded interface. If the app lives on heavy graphics or deep device integration, consider fully native instead.

What each one is

React Native is maintained by Meta. Its documentation says: "React Native allows developers who know React to create native apps." You write components in JavaScript or TypeScript, and "At runtime, React Native creates the corresponding Android and iOS views for those components."

Flutter is supported by Google. Its home page calls it "an open-source framework for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase." Its architecture overview adds: "For release, Flutter apps are compiled directly to machine code, whether Intel x64 or ARM instructions, or to JavaScript if targeting the web."

Language and team

React Native uses JavaScript, the language of the web, with TypeScript as the default: "New React Native projects target TypeScript by default, but also support JavaScript and Flow." React web developers will recognise most of the code.

Flutter uses Dart, which its own site describes as "a client-optimized language for developing fast apps on any platform." Our view: Dart is easy to pick up for anyone who knows Java, Kotlin, Swift or TypeScript, but outside Flutter it is less widely used, so a Flutter app is usually built by a Flutter team rather than web developers crossing over.

How the interface is drawn

This is the real technical difference. React Native maps its components to the platform's own views: a React Native <Text> becomes an Android TextView and an iOS UITextView. The documentation says that because the components are backed by the same views, React Native apps "look, feel, and perform like any other apps."

Flutter does the opposite. "Flutter has its own implementations of each UI control, rather than deferring to those provided by the system," and it draws them with its own engine: "Impeller is shipped along with the application." In practice (our view) a Flutter app looks the same on an old Android phone and a new iPhone, which suits a strongly branded design, while matching each platform's native look takes deliberate design work.

Device features and native code

Both reach the camera, location, notifications, payments and Bluetooth through ready-made libraries, and both let a developer write native code when no library fits.

• React Native calls these Native Modules (described as "native libraries that have no User Interface (UI) for the user", such as storage and notifications) and Native Components, which bring platform views into the app. They can reuse existing Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin, Java or C++ code.
• Flutter passes messages to Android and iOS code through platform channels, though its docs now say "Pigeon, FFIgen, and JNIgen are recommended for new projects." To show a native screen element such as a map or browser view inside the app, Flutter uses platform view widgets (AndroidView and UiKitView).

Our view: check early that every device feature you need has a maintained library, and budget for some native code either way.

Web and desktop

Flutter targets mobile, web and desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux) from the core project. Its web page is candid about limits: "Not every HTML scenario is ideally suited for Flutter at this time," and "text-rich, flow-based, static content such as blog articles benefit from the document-centric model that the web is built around." So a Flutter web build suits an app behind a login, not your marketing site.

React Native's core covers Android and iOS. Its docs note it "is not only for Android and iOS devices": partners maintain React Native for macOS and Windows, and the community maintains React Native Web. With Expo, one project can target Android, iOS and the web.

Our view: if you already have a website, keep it as a normal website (see mobile app vs web app) and use either framework for the app.

Expo and React Native frameworks

React Native now steers new projects towards a framework: "if you’re building a new app with React Native, we recommend using a Framework." It names one: "Expo is a production-grade React Native Framework," which adds file-based routing, a standard library of native modules and plugins that change native code without hand-editing native files. Expo's documentation sums it up as "one JavaScript/TypeScript project that runs natively on all your users' devices." The Expo team also offers Expo Application Services (EAS), which React Native's docs describe as "an optional set of services that complements Expo", for example for builds and store submissions.

Performance and app size

We have not found a head-to-head benchmark from either project, and we will not invent one. What the docs do say:

• React Native aims for "at least 60 frames per second." Its performance page warns that heavy work on the JavaScript thread can make the interface drop frames and respond slowly to taps, so expensive work has to be planned.
• Flutter compiles to machine code for release. Its app size page notes a Flutter app is "self-contained and holds all the code and assets needed to run the app," and that a debug build is large because of debugging overhead, so measure a release build before judging size.

Our view: for forms, lists and maps both run smoothly when built well; the quality of the code matters more than the framework. Build a small prototype of your heaviest screen if performance is a real worry.

Hiring and maintenance

Whichever you pick, the app needs regular work after launch: framework upgrades, new iOS and Android versions, store policy changes and library updates. Our mobile app maintenance guide covers what that involves. A few points that are specific to this choice (our view):

• Upgrades are easier on an app that keeps up. Skipping several framework versions turns a routine update into a project.
• Every third-party library is a dependency someone has to keep updating. Fewer, well-maintained libraries age better.
• Make sure the code, the store accounts and the build setup are in your name, so another team can take over.

When native is the better call

Fully native apps (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android) make sense when the app depends on demanding graphics, very deep device integration, a platform feature on the day it ships, or when you will keep a separate team per platform for the long term. They cost two codebases. Before choosing any of the three, check whether you need an app at all: our mobile app vs web app guide covers when a website or web app is enough, and app development cost explains what drives the budget.

If you would like help choosing and building, see our mobile app development service; we explain the reasoning for your case rather than defaulting to one camp.

Frequently asked questions

Is Flutter or React Native better for a startup?

Neither wins in general. Pick the one your developers already know; that saves more time than any technical difference. If you are hiring from scratch, ask candidates to show apps they have shipped and maintained.

Can I switch from React Native to Flutter later?

Not without rewriting the app, since they use different languages and interface code. Your backend, API and design can stay, so the switch is a rebuild of the app layer only.

Do React Native and Flutter apps get into the App Store and Google Play?

Yes. Both build normal iOS and Android apps that go through the same store review and rules as apps written with Apple's and Google's own tools.