Flutter has been introduced by Google to support the cross-platform development of mobile applications. While Android is sure to be putting Flutter to use, Google has hit the nail on the head with including support for iOS development also. Since native iOS app development was supported by the Objective C and Swift only, including the excellent support for cross-platform development Flutter has successfully kept itself in the buzz.
Though Flutter has been present here already the announcement by Google has resulted in the instant fame and surely the developers are loving it!! However, many still persist on native iOS development as it makes use of all the native features of the device and usually runs faster and provide better experience compared to the cross-platform applications. But Flutter has lots to offer to support better development of the iOS applications. With Swift in its competition, acquiring the global market is surely not easy for Flutter anyway.
Direct Competition with Swift
Flutter is surely competing for its permanent place in the market where Swift and Objective C are still popular for native development. Therefore, here are some points where Swift and Flutter compete directly.
Technology Stack
As native iOS app development is primarily supported by Objective C and Swift, Flutter uses an entirely different set of the technology stack that supports the development of the iOS application. However, the libraries to use for development are openly available on Github of Flutter, while Swift making an exception, only some are available on Apple’s Github account. Flutter uses Dart as the programming language for developing an application.
IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) used for developing the application are also different. Flutter uses Android Studio, IntelliJ Idea, or any text editor to construct an application. While native development of the iOS application is usually done in Xcode. Flutter has included every required resource in its Flutter engine to encourage the application to compete and stand tall with native applications.
Continuous Integration Support
Popularly known as CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Development) support, it basically adds up to the speed of the development and generally produces faster application results. XCode Server is currently supporting the concept of continuous integration and continuous development support which is, however, not much impressive. Swift has already boosted the native iOS development process but it is not enough to outrun Flutter.
While Google has partnered with NeverCode and has developed CodeMagic that extends the support for continuous integration and continuous delivery concept. CodeMagic allows the coded solution to be detected, built, tested and packaged at last to form an iOS application developed with Flutter. Therefore, observing the support Flutter extends, many development companies are also eager to hire ios developer who is great at working with Flutter and can ensure the cross-platform development of an application is done with putting the best efforts in the development with Flutter.
Designing UI
Applications designed with Flutter run on the framework and the rendering engine of Flutter. It uses the concept of widgets for developing and designing the user interface (UI) of an application. It constructs a tree structure of states for designing the widgets and constructs a user interface which enables a better view at solving the queries later and supports the complex design elements to be integrated right away.
Constructing a user interface for iOS applications is a comparatively complex task than constructing for Android. Therefore, the development of user interfaces is enabled with UIKit and it includes support for event-driven user interfaces and gesture support also.
Testing
Checking the developed application is necessary to ensure no faults are to remain when the application is launched in the market for the users. Therefore, ensuring no bugs and programming errors are there, the testing phase is executed. While there are many approaches to test a project, it is important to execute the testing in the defined hierarchy to assure no mistakes are there.
Apple offers the developers with XCTest framework, which is used for testing the native iOS applications thoroughly. Excluding the support for data-driven testing, XCTest rather limits the testing phase in a defined boundary. Therefore, there is another one available to execute the data-driven testing known as the JUnit framework.
On the other hand, Flutter implements the concept of widget testing, which makes it easier to test and check for the errors from the code. Allowing a better framework for implementing the testing on the developed project, Flutter holds the hand higher when it comes to performing rigorous testing of the code.
No matter what Flutter offers, Swift still has got brighter chances. As Flutter is just introduced and is continuously evolving, Swift is comparatively stable as it has been in the development field for longer duration and is used by many developers. Therefore, the ultimate decision of using Flutter or not depends upon the businesses and their specified requirements. In order to support faster development, Flutter becomes the ideal choice and must be chosen over native app development.
