Flutter and React Native are two of the most popular cross-platform mobile app development frameworks used by developers to create high-quality mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms. Flutter is a UI toolkit created by Google that uses the Dart programming language, while React Native is a JavaScript framework developed by Facebook.

Small businesses looking to develop mobile apps can benefit from using Flutter and React Native as these platforms allow for fast, cost-effective and efficient development of mobile apps. Cross-platform development helps businesses save time and money by allowing them to create apps that can be used across different operating systems, which can increase their reach and customer base. Small businesses can leverage these platforms to create high-quality mobile apps that provide a great user experience, which can help improve customer engagement and drive business growth.

Flutter is an open-source mobile app development framework created by Google in 2017. Flutter App Development allows developers to build high-performance mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms with a single codebase. Flutter uses the Dart programming language, which is easy to learn and has a fast development cycle. Flutter provides a rich set of pre-built widgets and tools that can be used to create beautiful and responsive user interfaces. Flutter also has a Hot Reload feature that allows developers to make changes to the app’s code and see the results in real-time, which can speed up the development process.

React Native app development is a popular open-source mobile app development framework created by Facebook in 2015. It allows developers to create cross-platform mobile apps using the JavaScript programming language. React Native uses a native rendering engine to render the user interface, which provides a native look and feel to the app. React Native has a large and active community of developers, which has resulted in a wide range of third-party libraries and tools that can be used to create complex mobile apps.

Both Flutter and React Native are cross-platform development frameworks that allow developers to create high-quality mobile apps for both Android and iOS platforms. They both have their own set of advantages and limitations. One major difference is the programming language used – Flutter uses Dart, while React Native uses JavaScript. Another difference is the user interface rendering engine – Flutter uses its own rendering engine, while React Native uses the native rendering engine. Flutter has a widget-based architecture, which makes it easier for developers to build complex user interfaces, while React Native is known for its flexibility and ease of use. In terms of performance, Flutter is known to be faster than React Native in most cases, but React Native has improved significantly in recent years. Ultimately, the choice between Flutter and React Native depends on the specific needs and preferences of the project, and the skills and experience of the development team.

Advantages of Flutter

Performance

Flutter is known for its high-performance capabilities. It has a fast development cycle, which allows developers to make changes to the code and see the results in real-time. Flutter uses a Skia graphics engine that provides fast rendering and smooth animations, which contributes to the overall performance of the app. The platform also has a feature called Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation, which can help improve the app’s startup time and reduce its overall size.

User Interface (UI) Design

Flutter provides a rich set of pre-built widgets and tools that can be used to create beautiful and responsive user interfaces. Its widget-based architecture makes it easier for developers to build complex user interfaces. Flutter also has a feature called Flutter Inspector, which allows developers to easily debug and test the UI elements of the app.

Development Speed and Productivity Flutter’s Hot Reload feature allows developers to make changes to the app’s code and see the results in real-time, which can speed up the development process. Flutter’s Dart programming language is also easy to learn and has a fast development cycle, which can increase productivity and reduce development time.

Widget-based Architecture

Flutter’s widget-based architecture makes it easier for developers to build complex user interfaces. Each widget is a separate and reusable component that can be used to build different parts of the user interface. This can help reduce development time and make the code more maintainable.

Compatibility With Various Platforms

Flutter is compatible with different platforms, including Android, iOS, web, and desktop. This allows developers to create apps that can be used across different platforms, which can increase the app’s reach and customer base. Flutter also has a growing ecosystem of third-party libraries and tools that can be used to create complex and feature-rich apps.

Overall, Flutter’s high-performance capabilities, rich set of widgets, fast development cycle, and compatibility with various platforms make it a popular choice for developers looking to create high-quality mobile apps.

Limitations of Flutter

Limited Availability of Third-Party Libraries and Tools

Flutter has a growing ecosystem of third-party libraries and tools, but it is still not as extensive as React Native’s. This can limit the functionality and features that developers can add to their apps. It can also make it more challenging for small business owners to find pre-built components and functionality to help speed up their development process.

Limited Support for Web Development

Flutter is primarily designed for mobile app development, and while it does have support for web development, it is not as extensive as React Native’s. This can make it challenging for small business owners who are looking to develop cross-platform web and mobile apps.

Requires More Memory and Storage Space

Flutter apps require more memory and storage space compared to native apps, which can be a concern for users with devices that have limited resources. This can also make the app slower and less responsive, which can affect the user experience.

Overall, while Flutter has many advantages, it also has some limitations that small business owners should consider before choosing it for their mobile app development. These include the limited availability of third-party libraries and tools, limited support for web development, and the potential impact on device resources.

Limitations of React Native

Performance Issues

In some cases While React Native is known for its performance, it can face performance issues in some cases, particularly when it comes to complex and resource-intensive apps. This can affect the user experience and may require additional optimization to improve app performance.

Compatibility Issues with Certain Devices

React Native can face compatibility issues with certain devices, particularly those with lower processing power or older operating systems. This can make it challenging for small business owners who want to reach a wide audience of users across different devices.

Limited Support for Certain Native Features

While React Native has support for many native features, it may not have support for all features of a particular platform. This can limit the functionality and features that developers can add to their apps. It can also make it more challenging for small business owners who are looking to create more complex apps that require a wide range of native features.

Overall, while React Native has many advantages, it also has some limitations that small business owners should consider before choosing it for their mobile app development. These include the potential for performance issues in some cases, compatibility issues with certain devices, and limited support for certain native features.

Factors to Consider for Small Business Owners

Budget

One of the most critical factors for small business owners when choosing between Flutter and React Native is budget. Small business owners need to consider the costs of development, including hiring developers, purchasing software and tools, and ongoing maintenance and updates. Flutter and React Native have different development costs, and small business owners need to weigh these costs against their budget and resources.

Target Platform and Device Compatibility

Small business owners need to consider the target platform and device compatibility when choosing between Flutter and React Native. Flutter and React Native both have support for iOS and Android, but Flutter also has support for web and desktop. If the small business owner plans to develop cross-platform apps, they should consider choosing Flutter. They should also consider the target devices for their apps, including device specifications and operating system versions, and choose a technology that is compatible with their target devices.

Development Team Skills and Experience

Small business owners need to consider the skills and experience of their development team when choosing between Flutter and React Native. If the team has experience with JavaScript, React Native may be a better option, as it is built on JavaScript. On the other hand, if the team has experience with object-oriented programming, Flutter may be a better option, as it uses Dart, which is an object-oriented language.

Project Timeline and Requirements

Small business owners need to consider the project timeline and requirements when choosing between Flutter and React Native. Flutter is known for its fast development speed, so it may be a better option for small business owners with a tight project timeline. React Native, on the other hand, may be a better option for small business owners with more complex app requirements that require more native features.

Maintenance and Future Updates

Small business owners need to consider the maintenance and future updates when choosing between Flutter and React Native. Both technologies require ongoing maintenance and updates, including bug fixes and security patches. Small business owners need to consider the support available for each technology, including the community and the availability of third-party libraries and tools.

Overall, small business owners need to consider multiple factors when choosing between Flutter and React Native, including budget, target platform and device compatibility, development team skills and experience, project timeline and requirements, and maintenance and future updates. By weighing these factors, small business owners can choose the technology that is the best fit for their mobile app development needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when it comes to choosing between Flutter and React Native for small business mobile app development, there are several factors to consider. Both technologies have their advantages and limitations, and small business owners need to weigh these factors against their budget, target platform and device compatibility, development team skills and experience, project timeline and requirements, and maintenance and future updates. By carefully considering these factors, small business owners can choose the technology that best meets their needs and create mobile apps that are both high-performing and visually appealing, helping them to reach and engage with their customers more effectively.

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The majority of useful iOS or Android apps serve as Internet portals, linking users to social networking, media, and informational websites. The majority of apps perform at their peak while connected to WiFi or the Internet. However, when the app has a vast directory of information—a grocery store app, for instance—poor connectivity might lead to a slow and uncomfortable user experience.

A development strategy known as “offline-first” guarantees that an app will function just as well offline as it does online. In the correct circumstances, developing an offline-only app can guarantee a more dependable and quick experience, retaining users, and offering a better user experience for your client.

Why do we need the “Offline First “ app?

The majority of online programs have the drawback of requiring a strong internet connection. The app is probably going to be slower and less responsive if you don’t have one.

This is not always the case. They frequently have access to data that doesn’t change frequently and doesn’t call for frequent changes. An “always-on” connection to the server is not required in these circumstances.

Content can be transferred from the server to the phone using apps that are designed to operate offline. A program will run faster and more reliably if it only needs to access the server sometimes rather than constantly. This is especially important when users need quick access to content that doesn’t update frequently.

Consider the grocery shopping app you’re attempting to use in your kitchen, which has poor WiFi reception. A standard online programme must constantly re-connect to the server in order to complete your cart, which is slow and annoying due to the connection’s poor performance.

Offline-first transfers the content (the supermarket’s product directory) to the app, accelerating the shopping process. To finish the payment and schedule the delivery, you only need to go online. The entire user experience is made faster, more streamlined, and more dependable by shifting some of the material from the server to the app.

How Offline First Works?

You might be wondering how offline-first apps function without an internet connection. When a user is offline, is data updated and saved in the app? You can comprehend the fundamentals underlying such apps’ activities if you have come across various offline-only applications. You needn’t worry, though, if you haven’t encountered one. Let’s explore the distinctions between offline and online apps to better comprehend them.

Online apps operate in a simple and understandable manner. Typically, the application’s constituent servers house the data for the application, making all application-related data centralized. The user benefits from seamless synchronization with the existence of an internet connection thanks to this method of app data storage.

On the other hand, offline programs don’t need to be updated frequently. As a result, there is no need to keep asking the server for updated data. Thus, a comprehensive collection of data is kept on the user’s device. As a result, the user accesses the information that has already been downloaded and made available on the device.

Figure 2 : The basic concept behind Offline First App  Source

How to create an offline app architecture?

Most individuals typically adhere to the widespread misunderstanding that the creation of offline-first apps simply depends on the local storage of data. When developing apps that are meant to be used offline first, many strategies are used.

The methods consist of:

1. Achieving a balance between offline and internet sync.

Another crucial method that it provides is the ability for users to edit data offline, change it as needed, and add requirements. The app can instantly become visible and start receiving updates once internet connectivity has been established. Consider a situation where you could modify the app’s data without necessarily using the internet.

2. Offline data storage

One great method for enabling users to access info when offline is caching. Data is cached on a local server and kept there as long as the device has access to it. One of the most successful offline-first development strategies, it enables the user to have a cutting-edge experience while using an application more quickly than any other. However, the user must invest in a significant amount of storage space because the majority of programmes require a lot of it.

Figure 3: Generic Flow of Offline-first application from Kitemaker

Considerations for creating offline applications

There are several considerations to ponder before developing an offline application. The requirements are essential to guarantee the successful operation of the offline application.

When creating an offline application, the following factors are crucial:

• Describing your most flexible plan and identifying the best way to cache your app’s data.

• Establishing a trustworthy caching technique and developing methods for resolving data conflicts.

Libraries Which used to implement Offline-First in React Native

Followings are the various libraries which help to build offline-first apps :

1. SQL Lite

   • For side projects and hobby apps, this is a good choice. It is also an easy approach to develop a React Native app prototype. The idea is really straightforward: just use SQLite to store data locally, then sync the database to the cloud using a service like Dropbox.

   • Use the react-native-sqlite-storage npm package for the SQLite component of the problem.

2. Realm

   • The MongoDB Realm React Native SDK makes it reasonably easy to create a React Native app if you decide to use Realm. With the use of built-in user management in Realm, users can be created and authenticated across devices using a range of authentication methods, such as email and password, JWT, Facebook, Google, and Apple. The SDK includes a functionality that allows you to sync your data to a MongoDB that is hosted in the cloud.

   • WatermelonDB might not be the ideal choice if your data-intensive programme employs non-relational data. A better option might be MongoDB Realm. You can use the Realm database, a local NoSQL database, in your React Native application. MongoDB Atlas may be integrated with it.

3. Watermelon Db

   • WatermelonDB is a good choice if you need a more robust SQL database to support your more complicated apps. All data is saved and accessed locally in a SQLite database using a different native thread when using WatermelonDB. Also slothful is watermelon. Since data is only loaded when necessary, requests are answered promptly

   • Although WatermelonDB is only a local database, you may use its sync primitives and sync adapters to synchronize local data with your remote database. You must set up two API endpoints on your backend—one for pushing updates and one for retrieving changes in order to use WatermelonDB to sync your data. Additionally, you’ll need to develop your own logic to choose when to sync this data. Check out how to use WatermelonDB for offline data sync for more details on how this functions.

4. Redux Offline

   • Because it uses Redux to manage the online versus offline functionality, the npm redux-offline package is similar to react-native-offline but accomplishes things a little differently. The redux-offline store enhancer is first added to the root reducer.

   • The react-native-offline package is a collection of tools made especially for React Native applications. We want an app that can do all of its internet functionality offline and sync changes when it detects a connection.

   • Unlike react-native-offline, redux-offline uses redux-persist by default, so you don’t need to worry about building your own implementation of it. Redux-offline, however, also checks the connection using the shaky NetInfo API. The NetInfo API makes the assumption that if you have a public IP address, you are connected to the Internet. However, this isn’t necessarily true because an application’s connection may break after getting an IP address.

Conclusion

• Your React Native app’s user experience may be altered by using offline-first, especially if it is utilized in an environment where network connections are erratic. But there isn’t a straightforward fix that works for everyone.

• Not even all solutions were discussed in this essay. Any of these alternatives are available if you are starting from scratch. Unless you already use Redux to handle all of your states, you will most likely need to make some architectural changes to an existing project, though.

• However, for all of your specific development requirements, we do advise that you hire a group of knowledgeable React Native app developers. Our skilled React Native team can work with you to create a market-dominating app that meets your requirements. Please contact us to discuss your concept in greater detail under a solid NDA.

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What is Hermes Engine?

Hermes is an open source JavaScript engine designed for React Native App Development.  While compared to JSC(JavaScriptCore), many apps will start up faster, use less memory, and be smaller when using Hermes. Make sure you are using React Native 0.64 because Hermes is used by default and no additional setting is needed to make it work.

JavaScript will provide a HermesInternal global variable that can be used to confirm that Hermes is active:

const isHermes = () => !!global.HermesInternal;

Make a release build or deployment of your software to compare the advantages of Hermes. For instance:

npx react-native run-android --variant release

or for iOS:

npx react-native run-ios --configuration Release

This will accelerate the startup of your app on the device by converting JavaScript to bytecode at build time.

Integration of Hermes and React Native

By fixing a persistent issue that frequently arises while releasing new React Native versions and has caused compatibility problems: It is possible for React Native to have API or ABI incompatibilities because Hermes was a dependency that was used to build pre-built binaries that were distributed through CocoaPods and npm. Hermes is integrated into every version of React Native as of React Native 0.69 in order to address this issue. This guarantees complete compatibility with every React Native version. Additionally, it results in a considerably tighter integration. It allows for quick iteration times to create features or release bug fixes and will boost our confidence that significant changes to Hermes will be implemented properly. The new integration update is covered in greater detail here.

iOS Intl

By completing the iOS equivalent of the ECMAScript Internationalization API, or Intl, which offers a wide range of language-sensitive capabilities. Some developers had a long-standing problem that prevented them from using Hermes. In collaboration with Microsoft, the Android implementation was released in React Native 0.65. Developers will have native support for both platforms with React Native 0.70.

The majority of Intl implementations call for the importation of massive lookup tables or data like Unicode CLDR. To minimise increasing the binary size of Hermes, we implemented Intl by making use of iOS’s own APIs because doing otherwise can result in a costly size increase of up to 6MB. This implies that we may make use of all the locale and internationalisation information that is already included with iOS.

Work That Is Still Being Done

We want to let the community know what our top goals are as we continue to develop Hermes: enhancing the developer experience and ensuring that no one shies away from using Hermes because it doesn’t support JavaScript features. To be more precise, we are

1. Allowing developers to use the Chrome dev tools UI to launch the sample profiler directly.
2. Adding BigInt support is a long-standing community request that might prevent some developers from utilizing Hermes because it cannot be polyfilled.

Including WeakRef support will provide developers access to new memory management capabilities.

Does Hermes really make React Native faster?

Yes, and Hermes is the fastest JavaScript engine for creating React Native applications, is the long and short of it (according to research conducted by maintainers of React Native). Time to Interactive (TTI), binary size, and consumption size were chosen as the three criteria that the research focused on since they are significant to developers.

1. Time to Interactive (TTI) measures how long it takes for a user to interact with an app once it has been opened.
2. The bundled React Native application’s binary size is represented by its APK (Android) or APA file size.
3. The size of an application after it has been installed on a device is its memory consumption.

The process of creating an application using Hermes is quite simple; in fact, Hermes can be set up and operated with just three lines of code:

use_react_native!(

 :path => config[:reactNativePath],

 :hermes_enabled => true

)

Keep in mind that Hermes on iOS is still in its infancy and hasn’t achieved complete reliability. Visit the official React Native GitHub repo to file a bug report if you encounter one.

How Hermes Engine improves overall React Native performance?

Let’s go over the advantages of using Hermes as your default compilation engine before selecting Hermes as the JavaScript engine for your React Native application:

1. Precompilation: Before startup time, Hermes precompiles an app’s source code to bytecode.
2. Faster TTI: Hermes shortens the time required for interaction, improving the user experience.
3. Smaller app bundle size: Applications created using Hermes are somewhat less in size than those created with other JavaScript engines.

Here’s how Hermes works behind the scenes:

The Hermes playground’s code input is in the left pane, while the right pane shows the output as bytecode. Also displayed is the load time. In this instance, compiling and running the sum function took 60ms.

Enabling Hermes on Android (React Native < 0.64)

Open your newly formed project in your choice code editor and change the android/app/build.gradle file to the following to enable Hermes on Android:

project.ext.react = [

 entryFile: "index.js",

 enableHermes: true

]

Next, run the project on Android:

npx react-native run-android

Enabling Hermes Engine  on iOS (React Native < 0.64)

To activate Hermes on iOS, open your newly created project in your preferred code editor, update your Podfile, and set hermes enabled to true. Check out the code below:

use_react_native!(

 :path => config[:reactNativePath],

 :hermes_enabled => true

)

Next, run pod install.

cd ios && pod install

Finally, run your iOS app:

npx react-native run-ios

Your app should look like this:

Hermes is noted as the app’s engine at the top-right corner, as you’ll see. This demonstrates that Hermes is operating.

After finishing the Hermes setup, let’s move on to creating our application.

Conclusion

The fact that Hermes is the default engine has signalized the beginning of a lengthy journey. The community will be able to create effective apps for many years to come because of the additional features that developers are now working on. This blog post examined Hermes and the benefits of using it as the JavaScript engine for your React Native application. Performance optimization for mobile apps has been considerably simpler with React Native because of Hermes’s compact JavaScript engine.

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There are many reasons why React native may be preferred over other languages. In this article, we try to look at the reasons why React Native may be preferred, why it may prove to be a disadvantage and why developers make these common mistakes when undertaking React Native Development.

Benefits of React Native

Here are the major benefits of React Native app development.

Easier Adaption Due To Javascript

As Javascript is one of the first languages most developers learn, they have an easier time adopting to React Native as its Javascript based framework is quite familiar.

Build Native Like Apps

React Native allows developers to use native elements and provide a native like feel by using platform specific indicators like activity indicator.

Quick Installs

The React Native framework can be installed using the Node package manager. Developers well versed in javascript can download and install it easily.

Productivity Increase

Developers can quickly adapt to Javascript based code and can use and IDE or text editor. This flexibility can allow developers to quickly setup and start coding.

Community Backed Development

When a developer needs an answer he can refer to the massive community of React Native developers who might have already encountered the issue and have solved it. This aspect of React Native allows developers to solve development challenges quickly and develop more robust applications.

Cross Platform

React Native can be used to develop apps for mobile phones, TVs, AR/VR headsets and desktop and smart watches. React Native is truly platform independent.

While the benefits are huge, there are challenges to React Native app development.

Challenges of React Native App Development

Native Development Needs

While Javascript makes adaptation easier, for hard computations and major development related coding, native developers of React Native are needed.

Limitations in Increasing Functionality

There are limitations in React Native with the abstract layer such as with identifying and rectifying bugs, third party services and libraries dependence and dependency on implementing custom designs.

No Parallel Processing

React Native framework doesn’t support parallel processing which poses development challenges for developers looking for that functionality in the app.

Harder iOS Deployment

Testing on iOS is difficult and requires Apple’s proprietary Testflight. Unlike Android where the deployment and testing is much much easier.

Common Mistakes When Using React Native

Estimation Errors

As developers are estimating for multiple devices and platforms they can make mistakes while estimating as they will need to configure the app and dedicated components of the app for multiple platforms. This creates confusion as components to be used could be unique or reusable.

Correctly configuring the database requirements so that it responds well to requests from all platforms is also a challenge.

Improper Redux Store Planning

Redux helps in correct storage of data and helps in debugging app states when needed. It is a handy tool to manage app data when needed but it is not suitable for small app projects as it will require long lines of coding.

Not Analyzing External Codes

By analyzing external codes, developers can make sure that the code matches the app code being written and there aren’t adaptability issues with the code.

Mutation of State in Render Function

React Native constantly compares new object sate from the datastore and compared to the previous state using setState() function. Each new state is merged with the previous state for consistency and data integrity.

Any discrepancy due to coding in the states could create a cascade of mutated states and lifecycle is disrupted which can lead to app crashing or bugs and errors and delivering an unmanageable code.

Not Removing Console.log Statements from Code

Console.log statements can help you debug the app but if you leave the statements inside the code then you risk creating a slow buggy app.

Not Optimizing Images

Ideally developers should resize the images and host it in a cloud server for faster loading and delivery.

Using Too Many Renders

Using too many renders can slow down the app. Renders should be used wisely and judiciously.

Conclusion

React Native provides truly native features that can be used by developers for developing truly cross platform apps. If you are looking to develop a robust React native app do drop us a line below.

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