Flutter vs Swift

Flutter or Swift? Betting on any of the two app development frameworks can be difficult as both are preferred technologies for organizations that consider building Android and iOS apps. 

Flutter and Swift are two of the most popular app development solutions to date. So, how to choose between Flutter and Swift? Let’s find out. 

Read through this article, compare the features and advantages of Flutter and Swift, and choose a framework that will work better for your business.

Flutter vs Swift | Comparison

FlutterSwift
DescriptionGoogle’s cross-platform development framework. Apple’s newest iOS programming language.
Programming LanguageDartSwift
Cross-PlatformYesNo
Native DevelopmentNoYes
PerformanceVery goodBest
Popularity Very popularPopular
User InterfaceClose to nativeNative
PriceFreeFree
TechnologyOpen-SourceOpen-Source
Documentation Very goodVery good
Development costCheaper for cross-platform development. Similar for iOS development only.More expensive for cross-platform development. Similar for iOS development only.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a Google-backed user interface toolkit that aids seamless development of cross-platform applications using a particular codebase. 

Since the launch of Flutter’s stable version Flutter, it has won the hearts of app developers worldwide. This robust and ambitious application development toolkit enables programmers to target both iOS and Android platforms. 

Source code maturities, functionalities, UI performance, and security tests are some areas where developers find it challenging to deliver A-class application. Flutter readily resolves these issues with convenience.

Flutter’s extremely powerful programming language is intuitive for both experienced and fresh application developers thanks to Flutter widgets.

Moreover, Flutter is written using Dart programming language that specifically solves productivity issues and aids easier object orientation, high performance, and faster application. 

Flutter Core Features

  • Open-source Solution: Being an open-source platform, Flutter helps you transform your creative application strategies into an elegant app solution cost-effectively with the support of a dependable Flutter application building company. Rich Cupertino widgets and motion APIs, and built-in material designs are quite useful for creating user-friendly applications. With all these pre-built, development-oriented designs and functions, Flutter makes itself worthy to be used by developers who can freely explore various functions while creating a fully customized app.
  • Hot Reload- Flutter gets an edge over other peers through this feature. Developers can change the app building process, including codes and ideas, and the Hot Reload feature of Flutter makes these changes visible to the screen instantly. It also reflects updates in the ongoing projects and enables developers to experiment easily and quickly, therefore, eliminating the concern of developers to create everything from scratch whenever they need to change the project. 
  • Rich Widgets– The core strategy of Flutter is based on the available widgets. Flutter’s widget-rich framework makes it an ideal choice for developers. Users can create an expressive and elegant UI by blending different widgets of choice. Flutter’s framework has range of widgets for structural and stylistic elements. Also, developers can create their custom widgets and incorporate them with the built apps, while remaining assured of the native performance of the application. 
  • Google Firebase Support– Developers can make the most of Google’s Firebase support as a backend. They can use this assistance for creating scalable and user-friendly apps. 

Advantages of Flutter

  • Language, Tooling, and Extension

Three of the most effective aspects that make Flutter a perfect app development framework is its strong language, robust tool chain, and amazing extensions.

Flutter is programmed using Dart, which is quite a powerful programming language. Flutter’s default tool chain has pub, a strong plugin manager and a host of other plugins available through the pub.dev repository.

Also, for developers who require a feature for which no plugin in Flutter exists, coding one up is not too difficult with creating.plugin extension. 

  • Performance

App performance is a vital aspect where Flutter is emerging as a winner. Flutter is under active development process which makes any performance optimizations task convenient with this app development framework.

  • Clean development process

Compared to other hybrid development frameworks, the development process of Flutter feels cleaner. 

  • Quick learning curve

Flutter has a pleasant surprise for developers as they can get the app development process started within minutes. It takes less than thirty minutes to complete the installation process and users can get the development environment set up within this time frame.

Flutter provides videos and tutorials, making it easy for users to learn and implement development strategies before they roll out apps in the market.

  • Popular editor integrations

Flutter offers easy-to-use and popular editor integrations, including Android Studio. Users have access to other available instructions required to set up VSCode, Emacs, or IntelliJ. 

What is Swift?

Swift is an intuitive and powerful programming language for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

Coding with Swift is fun and interactive, the syntax is expressive yet concise, and it includes various modern features that developers prefer. Swift code is secure by design options, yet also produces lightning-fast software. 

Swift is a general-purpose programming language built using the latest approach to software design, safety, and performance. The goal of Swift project is to create the best available programming language for users ranging from desktop and mobile applications to system programming and scaling up to cloud devices.

With Swift, writing codes and maintaining them is easier for the developers. Moreover, Swift’s tool ecosystem strives to integrate within the toolset of a developer to build apps quickly, enable communicative development experiences, and present excellent diagnostics to developers. 

Swift Core Features

The Swift app development framework includes a range of features that make it easier for programmers to read, write, and evaluate code, while giving them full control required in a true systems programming language.

Swift renders inferred types to make code transparent and less prone to errors, and modules reduce headers and offer namespaces. With Swift, memory is automatically managed, and developers need not type semi colons. Swift borrows from other programming languages, such as Objective-C.

For instance, Swift borrows named parameters from Objective-C and expresses them in a clean syntax that makes application programming interfaces in Swift convenient to read and maintain. 

Apart from the amazing features mentioned above, there are a few more that makes Swift a powerful programming language. These include:

  • Multiple return values
  • Concise iteration
  • Functional programming patterns, e.g., filter and map
  • Closures unified with function parameters
  • Generics
  • Structures that support protocols, methods, and extensions

Advantages of Swift

  • An incredible open-source community

An open-source language opens the gateway of chances for developers to build a user-friendly app.

The programmers for Apple apps can enhance their coding experience with Swift language by exploring various design features and functions, contributing to bug fixes, and adding exclusive platforms and features. Being an open-source development platform, Swift made itself evolve through time with the strong developer’s community.

  • Easy code readability and maintenance

Swift is a simple programming language that requires you to write a few lines of code, while having simple syntax throughout the coding process. For example, you do not need to add comas after or within parenthesis, so no loops, and you can easily continue writing codes without adding semi colons, so no errors. 

When it comes to maintaining code, no other language can beat Swift. Previously C language required developers to maintain two code files to enhance efficiency and build time, which was even forwarded in Objective-C.

With Swift, programmers need not maintain two code files and all the content of the implementation and header files are combined in one file. This speeds up the app development process and enhances efficiency. 

  • Compatible with Objective-C

Swift is interoperable with Objective-C. Interoperability is a feature that allows developers to write code in one language and use it conveniently in another language.

This interoperability is possible between Objective-C and Swift. Developers who build Apple apps import Objective-‘s framework and use its methods and classes using Swift syntax. So, developers can make use of Swift’s interoperability feature and utilize the APIs of Objective-C to build apps.

  • Supported by multiple devices

The Swift programming language built by Apple Inc. supports iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac devices. It goes beyond building applications for Apple devices and supports creating apps for Windows and Linux devices as well.

In fact, according to the latest news published by Google, Google’s upcoming operating system, Fuchsia will support Swift programming language of Apple. 

  • Improved performance

According to the announcement made by Apple, Swift is 3.4 times quicker than Objective-C. Other studies and researches of technology experts prove that code execution using Swift is faster than Objective-C.

Moreover, Swift programming language renders multiple devices and dynamic libraries that accelerate app development and updating processes. 

Conclusion

So, Swift or Flutter? If your company has prior experience in any of the two frameworks, choosing will become a lot easier. And if not, the information provided in this article will surely do.

Swift is properly fitted for the following scenarios:

  • iOS development
  • Apps managing memory footprints.
  • Long-term application maintenance consideration.

Flutter is favored in the following cases:

  • Cross-platform development
  • Limited budget for creating an app doe Android and iOS.
  • Have to use the hot reloading feature for more agile development.

Choose wisely between Flutter and Swift based on your perceived information and start building apps that scale faster and creates magic. 

FAQ

What is Flutter?

Google’s cross-platform development framework.

What is Swift?

Apple’s newest iOS programming language.

What are the differences between Flutter and Swift?

– Flutter allows cross-platform development
– Swift allows native iOS development
– Flutter provides very good performance on iOS and Android
– Swift provides the best perform on iOS
– Both Swift and iOS are open-source and free to use


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