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| Swift app development company |
Every mobile application created for iOS has a great deal of work behind it, including a very thorough application development process. The app development process includes everything from initial planning for the app, coding, putting together strong mobile app security, and robust testing. And one area in particular that is always high on an app development company’s radar is the programming language that will be used.
When it comes to iOS app development projects, there are two major tech stacks that are consistently battling back and forth in the development space. Flutter and Swift are two of the most popular tech stacks that are used in Ohio iPhone app development services across the board, whether a mobile application is being developed for the healthcare industry or as an online storefront.
Swift is a programming language that was created by Apple specifically for use with all of their operating systems, including iOS, while Flutter is an open source framework from Google that is used for developing multi-platform applications. Both bring a great deal to the table in terms of what a developer could get out of them. So, which one best fits for your next iOS app development project?
What is Swift?
Before we get into a more detailed comparison of Flutter vs. Swift, we want to take a closer look at what exactly Swift and Flutter are independently from each other. According to Apple, Swift is a “powerful and intuitive programming language for all Apple platforms.” It is a relatively easy tech stack to get started with. It also provides modern features, such as expressing named parameters in a clean syntax, and it has been designed for safety, eliminating classes of unsafe codes that other languages may still depend on.
Swift was built to be fast from its earliest planning. It achieves this quick and powerful status by using high performance LLVM compiler technology. Offering a clean syntax, mobile applications developed with Swift tend to require both a reduced time investment and cost.
What is Flutter?
Flutter, as described on its homepage, is an “an open source framework by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase.” With Flutter, a Flutter app development company or an individual developer can easily create applications that can be deployed across all types of platforms, from mobile phones to embedded devices with a single codebase. This means that a developer can reuse code between different operating systems, including both iOS and Android.
Powered by Dart, a programming language developed by Google, Flutter also has a very active and global open source community behind it as well. Flutter is also well-known for its easy maintenance, hot reloading capabilities, and fully customizable widgets – that range from the very basics like AppBar and ElevatedButton to text and styling.
A Comparison of Swift vs. Flutter
So, in a world where the Apple App Store continues to dominate the mobile application market (it accumulated 83 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2022), which tech stack makes the most sense for developers to utilize for their next iOS project?
Whether you are a Swift app development company or a developer who is more familiar with Flutter, there are pros and cons to both. Below, we take a closer look at what features both have in common and what framework would work best for your next project.
Detail Flutter Swift
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Cross Platform Compatibility | Yes | No |
| Code Reusability | A main feature due to its single codebase which can be used across Android, iOS, Linux, Windows and more. | No. Swift supports Apple Platforms and Linux only. |
| Hot Reload | Yes, Flutter has a hot reload feature for easily fixing bugs and adding new features. | No, there is no built in feature for hot reload. |
| Native App Development | Can be used to develop a native-like application. | Is a native programming language. |
| Cost | If you want to develop an iOS app with the potential to deploy that app on other platforms, Flutter is the more cost-effective choice. | If you are looking to only develop an app for iOS, Swift is a great option. |
| Development Time | Fast, allowing a Flutter app development company to easily develop apps with UI widgets and address errors with the hot reload feature. | Fast, but may require additional development time to address issues like bugs and errors. |
| Testing Capabilities | Built-in testing framework that allows easy and quick testing for a range of tests. | Uses Apple’s testing framework, XCTest. A range of tests can be completed. |
As we can see, both Flutter and Swift have both crossover and differences in what they bring to the table. Depending on what exactly you want out of your next iOS app development project, understanding the little details can help impact your decision on which framework will work best for you.
When it comes to making that decision, consider the following:
- Swift: This is the choice to make if you want a robust, high functioning iOS application. Swift is perfect to use when a developer or an app development company is working on an app with a complicated architecture or something that is only intended to be available on iOS or other Apple operating systems. Swift is the optimal choice if you want to create a native app as well.
- Flutter: This framework is the choice if you want to create a strong iOS mobile application with the potential to deploy it on other platforms in the future. If multi-platform accessibility is not a priority, Flutter still makes a great choice if you want to be able to develop an application quicker and often in a more cost-effective manner.
At the end of the day, both Flutter and Swift make fantastic options to choose for your next iOS app development project. It really will depend on what you need out of a framework, the type of app you are developing, and what features in a framework are the most important to you.
Split Reef is a leader in the Florida and Ohio mobile app development services space. With offices located in both Jacksonville, Florida and Columbus, Ohio, Split Reef is an experienced Swift and Flutter app development company that offers their clients a full suite of services ranging from custom web application development and professional SEO all the way to mobile app development and reputation management. Their team is made up of technical experts that keep up to date on the ever evolving strategies and tools in the mobile app development space. You can connect with Split Reef over the phone or online to learn more about how they can help.
