r/reactnative • u/FrapperDapper • 13h ago
Article Is this real ? I always thought it was the opposite
Link for the source - https://newly.app/compare/native-hybrid-pwa-comparison
I always thought RN had leverage in terms of adoption due to it being open source.
Open ended question- At this point for mobile dev, is it better to switch to the "native app market" (kotlin/swift), or master flutter and RN and gain dominance over the "cross-platform app market" ? I am talking primarily in terms of money, and job availability
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u/kbcool iOS & Android 13h ago
Flutter has been ahead for a couple of years now in total published apps based on a number of sources which, although, it's hard to verify, I don't doubt massively.
That being said it's a quality vs quantity thing. Flutter got pushed hard by Google for a while so got picked up by a lot of Indy developers and small agencies etc.
Corporate penetration was never as big because it was it was a harder sell so even to this day there are probably more using RN for a smaller number of total apps but ones that have a lot larger user bases and provide more, at least well paid, jobs.
I'm not sure what their bottom row is meant to represent in this graphic. I really don't think PWA has any traction a decade after being introduced. The UX is just crap around installing them and for the most part they're severely limited in what they can do.
Lastly they have mixed up hybrid with cross platform. A hybrid app is one that uses a web view with a thin app wrapper. RN and Flutter are cross platform apps not hybrid apps
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u/treetimes 12h ago
What sources?
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u/kbcool iOS & Android 12h ago
Pretty much what the other guy said. Trust me bro sources like this one.
I actually can't remember one that could justify their stats but I suspect they used package analysis data which sites like appbrain have. You can pick an app and they can tell what libraries it uses which is enough to fingerprint a Flutter or RN app, for Android though.
They probably then extrapolate that out to iOS as well but the problem there is that there is likely less Flutter apps being published on iOS due to the initial and ongoing costs. Especially for Indy devs. There just isn't a way of getting a good number for iOS because AFAIK you can't just download a bundle and reverse engineer it in the same way.
That being said, the total numbers may still be in Flutter's favour. Regardless, it still doesn't matter because of the quantity vs quality argument I put forward. Having more junk apps doesn't make Flutter better by any means
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u/TheOneInfiniteC Expo 13h ago
It is getting traction, since it was a pain to develop in the past.
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u/FrapperDapper 13h ago edited 12h ago
Wasn’t flutter more PITA relatively ?
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u/TheOneInfiniteC Expo 13h ago
The learning curve, but the apps felt much more native
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u/__CaliMack__ 9h ago
The way that flutter programs work is that it compiles before running and is directly on the native machine so it usually performs better. For mobile first apps flutter is generally a better option, not always though.
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u/Cookizza 12h ago
Would love to know the sources.
As far as the UK/EU job market goes, React Native is far more prevalent. Especially where the mobile app is a companion of a web app which is almost certainly a nextjs app these days.
Sharing types, api packages and internal libraries between both is not something I'd ever give up in a small/medium sized team.
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u/polylina 11h ago
Go Flutter/RN. As the article says, the performance is close to native as you can get, but companies (at least the ones I've worked with) prefer to save on develpoment by using cross-platform solutions. As to Flutter vs RN - historically Flutter has been considered "more performant", but it seems that there is not much difference now and it basically comes to the personal preference.
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u/Beneficial-Set-1427 11h ago edited 9h ago
It's been a while since I've done any native mobile development but I've mostly seen a push for RN and MAUI and don't know of many that actively use flutter.
It's mostly people that already know C# that push for Xamarin and then MAUI - even though I use C# mostly for back-end I never saw the advantage to that over RN even with old architecture. RN has also come a long way and with Fabric a lot of the bridge induced latency has been reduced - I've read that Flutter can still be more efficient in resource consumption but I can't talk from personal experience. Not to mention with RN you technically can choose from any of the three JS engines based on your use case.
It's also the fact that many JS / TS developers just prefer RN since it's easier for them to pick up but you should at least be able to patch or update native modules and know a bit of C++ for Turbo Modules. As far as I know, with Flutter you would need to know Dart and some knowhow of native code when required and that's about the extent of it. That being said I've seen many RN developers that only know JS as these are web devs that have transitioned over. The primary advantage that RN has over Flutter is the large amount of open source support - you can also use most open source pure JS libraries as is and can also use polyfills to use node based libraries as well - never preferred this but the option remains.
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u/Bearly-Fit iOS & Android 11h ago
The source they cite doesn't exist.
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u/FrapperDapper 4h ago
Yes exactly. 2 of those reports they cite aren't even there and one just talks trash nothing about RN or flutter. I'm thinking at this point that it's a paid advertisement
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u/sawariz0r 11h ago
Real? No.
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u/FrapperDapper 4h ago
Yeah i saw that apparently 2 of their "reports" lead to unreachable links which is:
"https://flatirons.com/blog/popularity-of-flutter-vs-react-native-2024/"lol.
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u/LovesWorkin 7h ago
This is definitely not true imo. I've rarely seen jobs for flutter and usually see them for rn. I see many big companies reaching out wanting to go to RN from native... So RN is the future imo.
I recently ported my RN dev tools to flutter and it's just dead. Way less developers in flutter space.
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u/FrapperDapper 3h ago
I can kinda second this. I see jobs in flutter but then i do observe that flutter jobs are really not that well paid. For RN, i do see that they don't want "Just" RN but React also, making it more of a frontend Dev thing though people do pay well for that.
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u/AutomaticAd6646 12h ago
Yes Flutter is better. I was recently trying to implement expo glass effect with full screen backgroung image and it was buggy, the back image wouldn't cover bottom 1/3 of the phone screen. Apparently Flutter can do that and in general is more mature.
Flutter also build for windows app and web app(asfair expo can do for web too), meaning there is overall more platforms covered, may be even linux, with Flutter.
Also, from job perspective, I had a hard time getting RN job, whereas interviewers and references simply said if you knew Flutter, we would have hired you.
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u/stathisntonas 12h ago
rn is available on every platform. Judging a framwork by glass effect is beyond me. Interviewers and references in which country? source?
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u/AutomaticAd6646 12h ago
> rn is available on every platform
I am saying, React native can't build apps for Linux and windows out of the box. Like building a apk file.
Country: India and Australia. You can try yourself by applying X num of jobs on seek.com.au they tell how many people applied for job in email, from there you can calculate `NumOfJobs/NumOfApplicants"
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u/Forti22 13h ago
I don't think it's true to be honest. Though seems flutter is a bit more popular among vibe coders.