Flutter vs. Ionic – The Appropriate Framework for Your Mobile App
Framework for Mobile App: Mobile applications have modified the way of thinking of people in this digitized world. For making their daily bases work simple and the way of living easy and appealing, humans have depended on the different mobile applications.
Several smartphones and handy devices in both android and ios platforms arrive in the market every month with enhanced and modernized features.
We all have noticed that most of the highly efficient apps with splendid designs and animations are downloaded the most.
This shows that if your mobile app is not performing well or it serves a terrible customer experience then you can be out from the competition.
In the end, you do not just wind up losing your beneficial customers but also affects your business & its value.
For enhancing the mobile application range up to more people in a simple go, it is essential that the mobile application would be compatible with all types of devices.
Framework for Mobile App -
For achieving this desire you will need to either build a native application for android and ios both or can develop a cross-platform application that will be compatible with android and ios both platforms.
When we start searching for the cross-platform mobile application, we find two best options for it which are Ionic and Flutter. These two names Ionic and Flutter are more in demand nowadays. Each and every platform has its own pros and cons which make differences between them. So, here based on that pros and cons we will see in Flutter and Ionic which mobile application platform will be better for your business.
Flutter Framework
Flutter is an open-source software development tool created by Google, for developing a high-performing native application for Android and iOS in a fixed time. Flutter is immeasurably growing its fame and becoming a solid part of the competition with Ionic and other mobile app development platforms or frameworks.
Flutter uses the Dart programming language as a backend, which has many advanced features and also made by Google. Flutter is a free and open-source framework that works with existing code and is easily used by many developers and organizations around the world.
It accelerates the development of mobile applications and lessens the cost and difficulty of app production across Android and iOS.
Benefits of Flutter Framework - Framework for Mobile App
These are some of the benefits which you will get from the Flutter framework:
- Flutter app delivers smooth and consistent scrolling experiences while in use, without much hangs or cuts.
- Flutter app UI and business logic don't modify depending on the platform
- With hot reload in a flutter framework, developers can instantly see all the changes they have made to the code in the app. Hot reload provides better teamwork between designers and developers when they improve the app's looks and effects immediately.
- This framework supports charts, advertisements, and inline videos.
- Also, the Flutter framework offers easy and smooth prototyping.
Limitations of Flutter Framework:
Although Flutter has made his position in the competition, it is still not as enhanced as other native applications. These are some limitations of the Flutter:
- Flutter is not supported by website browsers, it only assists mobile applications.
- Flutter is relatively a new framework, hence it has limited library and widgets. So, building these libraries from themselves is quite boring and tiring for developers.
- As Flutter is a comparatively new framework, it requires constant integration support through the maintenance of scripts.
Ionic Framework
Ionic Framework is an ultimate open-source software development kit that is used for building hybrid mobile applications using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. This app mainly concentrates on the look, feel and UI Interactions of an app.
In the Ionic framework, from a single shared codebase, you can deploy a native desktop app, native iOS or Android app, or web app. The UI of Ionic mobile app runs in a WebView, that is invisible to the user. In the desktop application, the Ionic framework runs inside a native desktop container like Electron, or directly in any mobile or desktop browser as a Progressive Web App. The main objective of the Ionic framework is to improve the frontend user experience.
Benefits of Ionic Framework:
Some advantage of using the Ionic Framework:
- Ionic Framework is based on popular technologies, like HTML5, CSS, and Angular, so many developers learn immediately that how to work with it.
- Ionic offers a wide range of libraries, plugins, and UI components.
- The ionic framework provides fully equipped documentation to the developers which are easily accessible and very detailed. So, it will give you full, detailed documentation and support.
Limitation of Ionic Framework:
- Ionic frameworks’ performance is quite low in front of some other native mobile applications.
- Ionic Framework is not perfect for creating a video game. This becomes a big disadvantage of this framework for some developers.
- Ionic apps are heavier than other native apps, as it provides a lot of coding, dependencies, and plugins.
- Developers will have to handle security problems in both web and native apps as an ionic framework may not provide as much security as the native application does.
These are the benefits and limitations of Flutter and Ionic frameworks that need to know before selecting them for your mobile application. Now, we will see in both the frameworks which will be the best framework for your mobile application on the basis of listed below points:
1. Code Portability
It is very difficult to select between the two frameworks in terms of code portability.
Flutter develops appealing mobile apps for Android and iOS from a single codebase but faces an issue with web browsers.
On the other hand, Ionic is based on web standards like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript and builds extraordinary apps for web, desktop, and mobile. So, if you want to develop your application as aProgressive Web App(PWA), you should go with the Ionic framework.
2. Performance
The efficiency of both frameworks Flutter and Ionic plays an important role in deciding which is suitable for your business in terms of performance. Performance is always about the way of coding. In brief, code quality plays an important role in deciding the performance of any framework. The performance of Flutter and ionic depends on the bundle size of the app.Ionic bundle size is 2,991 bytes. While Flutter requires heavy code even to create a simple basic app.
So, If you are searching for exclusive animation, you should go with Flutter, as this will be a brilliant option (FPS-60). Although, if you are preparing to develop a more consumer-facing application, Ionic provides the best performance.
3. Native Look and Feel
Within Flutter and Ionic, it is difficult to select which one appears more like a native. Neither Flutter nor Ionic uses the native UI elements of each platform.
Both Flutter and Ionic permits accessing native APIs and platform services via a library of prepared plugins.
Although, the native mobile execution of the Flutter framework is totally customized.
4. Knowledge & Skillset
This is the point where the difference between Ionic and Flutter really become visible. Ionic is a JavaScript framework which is known by almost every other developer while Flutter is not, Flutter requires Dart language in its backend. If you want to be a Flutter developer, you must know the Dart language.70% of the market is dominated by JS Developers and Dart Developers is of only 1.9% of the Current Market.
If you will learn JavaScript framework, you will easily work for all websites, mobile, and native development projects. Dart language is very difficult to learn as it has some constraints and limitations. The developer will only have to work in Flutter-empowered applications.
5. Sustainability and Flexibility
Sustainability and flexibility is a game-changing component in the clash of Flutter and Ionic. The Ionic framework is a very comfortable and sustainable platform for developing mobile applications.
When someone develops an application on Ionic, they chose a larger platform than Flutter.
On the contrary, Flutter is a closed ecosystem, and it’s still young. So, in terms of Sustainability and Flexibility Ionic is a winner and more preferable framework.
On the basis of all the above points, one can choose the best platform for their mobile application development as per the business requirement.Both the Flutter and Ionic framework builds a great-quality of mobile applicationsas per the user’s need.
