Flutter vs Kotlin – Which is better?

The future is definitely in the hands of mobile applications! Amidst the crisis, organizations are trying their best to reduce cost, increase their online presence, and speed up the time to market through applications.

Therefore, organizations must develop apps that stand out in the market if they want to survive in a competitive ecosystem. But while developing an app the entrepreneur faces a choice. Which app development technology to choose for building an application?

Here are the two of the most used app development frameworks by the modern era developers- Flutter and Kotlin. Read through the features and advantages of both the frameworks and choose the one that fulfils your requirement. 

Key Takeaways

• Flutter and Kotlin are cross-platform technologies

• Flutter and Kotlin support Android and iOS development

• Both technologies are open-source and free to use

• Kotlin is a programming language that is Java interoperable

• Flutter is a framework based on the Dart programming language

Keep reading to know more.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source and free-to-use software development kit backed by Google that helps you create beautiful and fully native applications in record time. Google designed and released this UI framework in May 2017. 

With Flutter, you can create apps that run on various platforms with a single codebase. This solely means that you can develop two different apps (for Android and iOS) with a particular codebase and a particular programming language.

App development is convenient with Flutter as it allows you to paint your apps in milliseconds with the Hot Reload feature. Besides, you can ship other attractive features to deliver an application that contributes effectively to the end-user experience.

Use Flutter’s unmatched set of customizable widgets and layered architecture to create native interfaces and flexible designs in no time. Also, Flutter’s rich-set of widgets incorporate all vital platform differences such as icons, scrolling, navigation, and fonts with the newly built app. 

Flutter Core Features

• Hot Reload

Considered as one of the best features of Flutter, the Hot Reload offers an edge to Flutter users. Hot Reload simplifies the developer’s task for changing and checking code without the need to shut down the entire application and doing everything from scratch.

Also, programmers can add innovative features in the code, and Hot Reload mirrors the changes almost instantly on the programmer’s screen. 

• Cross-platform Development

Another impressive reason that makes flutter a preferred choice for developers is its ability to create an app for different platforms with a particular codebase.

You can use a single codebase and reuse it the number of times you want to. This saves a significant amount of time for you. With Flutter, you can build apps for several platforms including Android, Web, MacOS, Google Fuchsia, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. 

• Widgets

Widgets form the most essential part of Flutter. Widgets are the core building blocks that form a vital part of the Dart programming language (the language used with which developers designed Flutter). With these safe building blocks, developers can compose an amazing user interface in Flutter.

• Google Firebase Support

Flutter has the support of Google Firebase, an application that helps developers create cross-platform apps. With Firebase, developers can ship some interesting features into apps reliably such as searching analytics, fixing crashes, and more.

Advantages of Flutter

• Same business logic and UI in all platforms

Flutter framework is the only app development platform that enables sharing both the UI and the UI code itself. It does not require any platform-specific user interface components to support its UI.

All it requires showing the app user interface is a canvas to draw onto. In brief, sharing business logic and UI is conveniently possible with Flutter that saves the developer’s time and effort while not affecting the end-product performance.

• Decreased code development time

Developers can make the required changes in the application code and they can do it without requiring to start everything from scratch. Sounds impossible, but it is not. The Hot Reload feature of Flutter allows developers to change the code and helps them view changes on the screen instantly. 

• Simple logic implementation

Flutter is a Google-backed framework that supports a ready-to-use, Google supported plugin. Developers benefit from this plugin as they can build apps by incorporating many real-life and advanced plugin features, such as Bluetooth communication, permission handling, fetching GPS coordinates, and working with credentials in the app. 

• Own rendering engine

Most of the features offered by Flutter would not be possible without a powerful cross-platform rendering engine. It uses Skia for supporting itself onto a platform-specific canvas. It is this engine that allows Flutter to launch UI on virtually any platform. 

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin is a statically typed, open-source, cross-platform programming language that is exclusively designed to inter-operate fully with Java and it continues to stay updated with modern Java features including dynamic invocations. 

Kotlin essentially tries to overcome a range of drawbacks of Java, which is also considered the main reason behind its popularity. Also, it is compatible with Java, which means developers can use it in their existing cross-platform applications while writing server-side code in Kotlin.

It is an advanced programming language used by over sixty percent of app developers. Kotlin helps you to write better applications faster that improves productivity, code safety, and developer’s satisfaction. 

Kotlin Core Features

• Efficiency

Kotlin is a clear and concise programming language with a relatively low learning curve. It helps you to create an application with a minimum volume of code.

In terms of both coding the application and learning the language, Kotlin enables you to do things faster. It offers better chances when compared to other programming languages like Java for delivering higher quality apps.

• Null safety

One of the most beneficial aspects of Kotlin is its null safety feature that every developer finds helpful. NullPointerException is an element that every Java developer has to deal with.

While this element examines the software quality, it pulls down the app development efficiency and speed drastically. This complicates the app development process.

On the other hand, Kotlin’s Null safety feature stands out by saving developers a lot of time and effort. With Kotlin, the compiler offers null safety that reduces the risk of facing runtime exceptions for developers. 

• Lazy loading

The most vital criterion required for developing any application is faster loading speed. And this feature is looked after and maintained by Kotlin’s lazy loading feature.

With this feature, Kotlin loads the initial content of an app faster to reduce the start-up time, while steadily loading the other necessary contents down the page. Thanks to the lazy loading feature, developers can now store primary and secondary resources in primary and secondary memories, respectively. 

• Extensions functions

Extension functions or Standard Library Function, as named by Kotlin developers, is a feature that allows programmers to incorporate a new function within a prevailing class without making it complicated for them to access ready-to-use parts.

This is made possible with Kotlin’s extension functions that enables programmers to use these functions as extensions. You can add functions easily to the existing classes as extensions. Also, you can choose from a wide range of standard functions and incorporate them within a class.

Advantages of Kotlin

• Enhanced productivity

Kotlin is a Java-based programming language that can generate codes that effectively run on Java Virtual Machine. However, it makes app development a convenient process for developers by eliminating aggravations and obsolescence of Java.

It is a dynamic programming language that increases the productivity of the developer’s team as they can deploy it faster and takes little time to code.

• Inter-operates with Java

Kotlin is persistent with a range of programming languages including Java. It is interoperable with Java codes. So switching to a programming language like Kotlin is easier for developers.

If you are building an app that cannot only be written in Kotlin, you can code the app using your preferred language and use both of them together conveniently. 

• Easy maintenance

Kotlin has the support of many integrated development environments or IDEs including Android Studio and other software development kits.

With such robust support, developers can easily maintain Kotlin while writing code. By this, Kotlin can also enhance developer’s productivity by continuously dealing with toolkits that they are using.

• Less buggy

Kotlin is a compact codebase that does not leave space for making mistakes. Also, it provides more stable code in app development. And even after you make any mistake, the compiler of Kotlin will detect it at the time of compilation.

• Reliable

Kotlin is the most sophisticated programing language developed to date. Till the time it has been developed and launched, it has undergone a range of Alfa and Beta stages to delivering its final version. 

Flutter vs Kotlin Comparison

Conclusion

No technology is perfect. Both Flutter and Kotlin offers an unmatched performance that saves the developer’s energy and time and both has its own set of limitations.

Flutter is a great choice for dual iOS/Android cross-platform development, reducing development costs and accelerating time to market.

Kotlin is a great choice for native Android development, best-in-class performance, and flexibility it provides.

Technology selection majorly depends on the organization’s requirements and several other factors. Therefore, you need to choose a language from which you can benefit the most.

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