Flutter or Swift

Swift and Flutter are two popular technologies for mobile app development, created by two giants – Apple and Google, which are most often considered when creating projects for iOS and Android. But which one is better to choose for your business? In this article we will try to answer this question, but first – some statistics.

According to Statista, in 2020, users from all over the world downloaded more than 218 billion mobile apps, and the average consumer spending reached $ 5.31. The demand for convenient and user-friendly applications has never been so high, so the lack of a business of its own application today is beginning to arouse suspicion and can lead to loss of profit.

Swift is the native IOS programming language developed by Apple engineers as a successor to Objective-C. Today it is actively used by Apple itself, and can also be used by third-party developers to create their own software products.

In 2020, Apple made it possible to use the Swift language not only for IOS, but also for creating applications for other platforms – Android and Windows.

Swift was released in 2014 and has been improved many times through updates during that time. Today it has many advantages:

• high-quality documentation;

• easy-to-read syntax;
• free and open source;
• safety;
• high speed;
• modern features;
• support for dynamic libraries.

Flutter is Google’s cross-platform SDK that lets you build apps that run on multiple platforms at the same time:

• iOS;
• Android;
• Linux;
• Windows;
• Mac;
• Google Fuchsia;
• web applications.

While Flutter is not a programming language, unlike Swift, it combines Dart, also developed by Google, and compatible widgets for building apps.

Flutter advantages:

• open source;
• huge developer community;
• good documentation;
• graphics engine;
• high performance;
• widgets that simplify the creation of graphical interfaces;
• Hot Reload;
• support for old devices;
• a large number of tools that significantly speed up the development process.

To determine which tool is better to choose in 2021 – Swift or Flutter, let’s compare them at the most significant points.

Development speed
Of course, this is a plus in favor of Flutter, since it allows you to write code that runs simultaneously on multiple platforms. At the same time, if the application is written in Swift, its Android version will have to be created manually and separately, which increases the development time and cost.

It is worth noting that the code written in Flutter is compiled by each OS independently. This means that applications built on the SDK will work perfectly on different platforms.

Moreover, Flutter significantly speeds up the process of creating an application. It is supported by several IDEs, including Visual Studio Code, which provides a huge amount of Android Studio and IntelliJ functionality, but requires much fewer resources. For example, it may take just a couple of months to create a minimal prototype, after which you can immediately add all the necessary functionality to it. At the same time, there is no need to wait for the full development of the application, which can take 6 months, a year, or even more.

Compilation speed
Swift is the native language for the IOS platform, so building applications for this particular OS on it will be faster compared to Flutter. However, if we talk about build speed on Android or about incremental compilation, then Dart looks much more competitive here.

Additions and code reuse
Since the source code written in Flutter can be used on multiple platforms, this significantly speeds up testing and launching applications on different OSes. This makes the SDK a more attractive tool compared to Swift. In addition, there are a huge number of add-ons for Flutter that further simplify and speed up software development.

Performance
Swift’s native capabilities allow it to make the most of device resources, which makes it more attractive in terms of performance. At least when it comes to developing for IOS. At the same time, it should be understood that for increased performance, you will have to develop native applications for each platform, which is associated with additional costs.

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that cross-platform applications on Flutter are compiled into the native code of each platform and do not require an interpreter, which is why their performance is not much inferior to native ones.

Popularity and Applications

Swift and Flutter are two popular tools, each with an army of supporters. Plus, both of them are widely used by popular companies. Therefore, it is simply impossible to single out a clear winner here.

Such well-known projects have been developed on Swift:

• Social network Linkedin.
• Firefox browser.
• SlideShare hosting service.
• American event management project Eventbrite.
• Lyft Taxi Aggregator.

Flutter created:

• Google Ads.
• Alibaba.
• Ebay.
• SpaceX Go.
• Realtor.com.

Flutter excels at a wide variety of tasks. It is applicable in the financial sector, retail, healthcare, logistics and other business areas. But, it has some limitations that should be considered when choosing a platform.

In particular, it is better to refuse using Flutter if:

• The size of the application plays a role.
  Cross-platform solutions are always “heavier” than native ones. In some projects, this can be critical.
• Hot Reload is planned.
  Hot code loading allows you to get rid of the moderation process in the App Store when downloading updates.
• Development of mobile games is planned.

Flutter is focused on building commercial applications. Although it is suitable for elementary games and simple mechanics, it will be problematic to create an impressive game on it.

Flutter is a great solution for low budgets. With it, you can quickly create applications that will run on multiple platforms at once. But, if budget and deadlines allow, it is better to give preference to Swift.

If you are planning to launch a mobile application, but do not know which platform and technology stack to choose, contact us. AVADA MEDIA uses both Flutter and Swift in its work. We will help you make the right choice based on the goals and objectives of your project.