The Best Flutter Alternatives

This blog post will present an overview of Flutter and the best ten alternatives for this cross-platform framework.

In the present highly Darwinian and disruptive mobile application world, businesses can’t risk missing their presence on either Apple Store and Google Play platforms.

While going for native applications for multiple platforms, budgeting can be an important problem. That’s where cross-platform mobile applications come up as an unrivaled choice for businesses that are aiming to ensure their presence on iOS and android platforms effectively.

However, with the sea of cross-platform mobile application development frameworks, choosing the best can be a bit daunting. But knowing the best alternatives to Flutter, a Google-backed cross-platform mobile application development framework, can be the best option.

Ready to know more about the best Flutter alternatives?

Flutter Overview

Flutter is an open-source and free mobile SDK that is effective in developing native-looking cross-platform applications. It will help you produce creative mobile applications for Android and iOS platforms with the same codebase by using a modern and reactive framework.

Flutter applications are being built using a programming language called Dart. However, the core idea of Flutter is revolving around widgets. Users can develop the entire user interface using widgets. These have been defined as a structural element, a stylistic element, an aspect of UI layout, and so on.

It is providing its own ready-to-use widgets that look native on both iOS and Android. However, multiple things are holding back developers from Flutter. Some of the most common thing that’s holding back the developers from Flutter are given below:

• As the platform is based on Dart development, developers need to spend some time learning a new programming language.

• Flutter isn’t suitable for you if you want to develop applications with device-specific features.

• Also, some developers claim that Flutter isn’t effective in developing commercial complex applications.

For all these reasons, looking for the best alternative to Flutter can be an intelligent move for sure.

The best 4 alternatives to Flutter

Do you want to know about the best Flutter alternatives to make your app development process easier? Let’s have a look at some of the best options given below in this regard:

• React Native
• Xamarin
• Ionic
• Cordova

Ready to know more? Keep reading below:

1.       React Native

RN or React Native is a popular JavaScript-based cross-platform framework that can let you develop effective natively rendered applications for both Android and iOS platforms, and it is the first choice as a Flutter alternative. 

With this framework, you can get an opportunity to develop the best applications for multiple platforms via a single codebase only.

React Native Framework was released in 2015 as an open-source, cross-platform mobile framework. Due to its amazing features and benefits, within a few years, it has become one of the best platforms for cross-platform mobile apps.

However, a growing number of developers rely on React Native to build highly effective cross-platform applications.

Key Features

• Open-source platform
• Live React
• Code reusability
• Modular and intuitive architecture

Pros

• React Native is being supported by a massive community of developers.

• Native modules and controls are meant to enhance the platform’s performance.

• Code reusability is making your application development processes more cost-effective.

2.       Xamarin

Xamarin is a C# based framework meant to develop effective cross-platform applications, and it is a Flutter similar framework. The use of C# Language to build applications is making this framework different from others.

This application framework is offering effective runtime and helping developers to run their applications across platforms.

Key Features

• Binding for underlying SDKs
• Robust BCL
• Modern IDE
• Test Cloud
• Modern language constructs

Pros

• To design amazing cross-platform applications, developers are allowed to choose their UI layout with the Xamarin framework.

• It can let you share app logic by writing it once and deploying it across platforms.

• The framework offers a massive collection of themes, charts, graphs, UI controls, and much more to make your applications feature-rich.

Please read the article Xamarin Alternatives to learn the best options to replace this framework.

3.       Ionic Framework

Ionic framework is an open-source SDK designed for easier cross-platform application development. The first version of this framework was developed in 2013, based on Angular JS and Apache Cordova, and it is a great option that is similar to Flutter in some regards. 

The recent release of this framework is based on the web component’s set. It allows its users to utilize any of their required user-interface frameworks, just like React, Angular, or VU.js.

Surprisingly, the latest version of this framework is allowing Ionic users to utilize its components without any interface even.

Key Features

• Quick and easier application development
• Command line interface
• CSS components
• JS components

Pros

• It is an amazing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS-based platform meant to develop cross-platform applications.

• Developers can create highly efficient and effective cross-platform applications using one language only via the Ionic framework.

• This effective framework can help you in developing mobile applications for multiple platforms, including Windows, iOS, and Android.

4.       Cordova

Cordova is another useful application development framework that Nitobi has developed. However, in 2011 Adobe Systems purchased and rebranded Nitobi and released this framework’s open-source version.

Developers can develop hybrid applications using CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript. You can experience extended features of JS and HTML5 with mobile development to enjoy more effectiveness. However, the applications that you are going to create with Cordova are neither completely web-based nor native.

Cordova applications are packaged as mobile device applications with access to the native devices’ APIs. This framework is also offering the possibility of combining native and hybrid code snippets.

Key Features:

• Command Line Interface
• Core components availability
• Licensed framework
• Plugins available for native mobile functions

Pros

• Cordova is helping developers accelerate their application development processes more effectively.

• As the framework is based on HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript programming languages, you don’t have to spend time learning a new programming language.

• Cordova can let you integrate community add-ons to the application to enhance convenience.

• With Cordova, it has become super easy to manage images and other media for multiple platforms.

Conclusion

So, these are some of the best alternatives to Flutter that you can consider developing convenient and outstanding cross-platform applications.

However, before making a selection, it is essential to consider your app’s features because it lets you know which framework is better suitable for it.

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