Flutter or Xamarin – what cross-platform technology is right for you

Flutter and Xamarin are both popular cross-platform tools used to build mobiles apps. They allow developers to use the same code base to save time and resources for developers and in turn, save costs for businesses for development and long-term maintenance. Flutter is an offering from Google and is considered fairly new with it being launched in 2017, especially when compared to the veteran Xamarin. Created by Microsoft, Xamarin has been around for over a decade and revolutionised cross-platform mobile app development. According to Statista, Flutter is the most used cross-platform app mobile framework by developers across the world in 2021.

Ardent mobile app developers have worked with both technologies to build a variety of cross-platform apps for our clients. From our longstanding experience, we have found that they both provide a number of benefits and come with certain limitations, which we will explore further in this article. Here is the breakdown of Flutter Vs Xamarin that will help you decide how to choose the right technology for your mobile app project.

Benefits of using Flutter

There are several benefits of Flutter that make it increasingly popular with developers and they include:

• Cross-platform development – create apps for multiple platforms with a single code base, saving both time and cost.
• Easy to use programming language – The app development framework is based on Dart which is a simple programming language. Developers will find it straightforward, especially if they have had a good experience working with Java.
• High performance – Dart is considered to be a high performing language because it can compile into code for Android and iOS. Paired with its ability to reduce communication between the app and the mobile platform via widgets making it incredibly high performing for a cross-platform app.
• Hot reload – changes can be seen within seconds, almost in real-time which increases efficiency and reduces time spent making changes.
• Backed by Google – The SDK (Software Development Kit) is created by one of the biggest companies in the world, therefore, you can expect continued growth and investment into the technology.
• Strong community support – the community of Flutter developers is growing and there is strong community support for developers.
• Clear documentation – Flutter provides very clear accessible documentation.

Limitations of using Flutter

There are also some limitations to Flutter, that both developers and businesses need to take into consideration.

• UX (user experiencer) compared to native apps – cross-platforms offer many benefits making them popular, however, the UX cannot match those of native apps.
• Young technology – Flutter has been around since 2017, which makes it a relatively young technology, it is in the early stages of development when it comes to advanced features to compete with native apps.
• Large apps – Usually apps created on Flutter will be large, therefore, they will take up more space and will take longer downloading and updating.

Benefits of using Xamarin

Over time Xamarin has established itself as one of the leading cross-platform technologies and this is due to the number of benefits it offers.

• Cross-platform technology – Xamarin is a well-established cross-platform technology that offers the key benefits of reducing the time during development and ultimately reducing overall costs.
• Well-known programming languages – Xamarin uses both C# and .Net which are some of the most widely known programming languages, making it easy for even beginners to develop apps on Xamarin. They both are powerful technologies that offer flexibility to developers.
• Established technology – Xamarin is a veteran cross-platform technology that is well established and has been used for over a decade by developers across the world.
• Speedy development and testing – The ability to test on over 2,000 devices, enabling a speedy development and testing of the apps.
• High performance – The technology offers native API access to developers allowing them to create a high performing app.
• Microsoft support – Having been backed by of the leading technology companies in the world, Microsoft offers robust support with Xamarin, from the Xamarin test cloud to an up to date platform.
• UI (User Interface) – Although it may not match native standards, Xamarin.Forms enable you to create UI’s that comply with platform-specific guidelines in order to create apps to compete with native app UI’s.

Limitations of using Xamarin

There are also some limitations of using Xamarin that you need to take into consideration.

• High costs – Although Xamarin is an open-source free framework, if it is being used commercially then it will require the license and purchase of Microsoft Visual Studio IDE which can be costly.
• Smaller community – The community is much smaller than its counterpart, as research found that only 11% of apps were built with Xamarin compared to the 42% of Flutter.
• Large apps – Similar to Flutter, the apps created with Xamarin will typically be larger and will use more space and take more time when downloading and updating.
• Updates take time – Developers will face lagging because API updates take time when new packages are released.

Flutter Vs Xamarin

Both Flutter and Xamarin are globally used cross-platform technologies and provide unparalleled benefits, however, in recent years, Flutter has faced a huge surge in popularity. Although it’s a fairly new platform, with Google backing it, developers can expect to see further developments and benefits to come in the upcoming years. Our mobile app developers have expertise in both and have found over the years that each technology provides unique advantages to specific customer requirements. Therefore, we continue to use both technologies to meet our client's unique needs and goals.  

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Ardents cross-platform mobile app development expertise

Ardent’s highly experienced mobile app developers have used both Flutter and Xamarin to build user-friendly, secure, scalable apps for a wide variety of our clients ranging from a research-focused highly engaging app for a pharmaceutical company to a logistics app for a technology company. If you are looking to build an app for your organisation, then get in touch to find out how our highly skilled mobile app developers can help