Flutter vs. Kotlin 

Last Updated on July 10, 2022 by

Cross-Platform mobile app development has made the world of apps more accessible to a wider range of small businesses, entrepreneurs, and other businesses due to its cost-effective approach to developing mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Although earlier cross-platform app development frameworks were only seen as a cheaper alternative to native app development, modern frontend frameworks like Flutter are changing this perception. Many big organizations like Alibaba and Google are powering their mobile apps using the Flutter cross-platform app development kit. However, most big companies that need highly secure, scalable, and robust apps still prefer Kotlin or Swift for their B2B/B2C app requirements.

Flutter vs. Kotlin Ultimate Comparison

Today, we will compare the differences between Flutter and Kotlin for Android app development. These platforms are great at powering Android apps of various categories or complexities. Without further ado, let’s get started on this comparison of Flutter vs. Kotlin.

1. Flutter vs. Kotlin – Introduction

Before getting into the technical differences between the two frameworks, we should understand what they are and how they function.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a free, open-source UI software development kit that allows developers to create fast, elegant, and natively compiled apps for mobile platforms, web, desktop, wearables, and tvOS. For Android development, it is integrated with inbuilt Java.

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin is a native programming language for Android. It is free, open-source, static, and has functional and OOP programming language features. Although it is primarily used for Android development, it supports multi-platform capabilities, allowing developers to bundle and share their business logic, code, and data layers with iOS, Android, and other platforms.

2.Flutter vs Kotlin Performance Comparison

When comparing two platforms against each other, one of the most important comparison points to be addressed is the performance capabilities. Both Kotlin and Flutter have their benefits and limitations as far as performance is concerned.

Flutter has the hot reload feature, which helps developers make changes to their code and see the effect of their coding in real-time, making the overall development faster and easier. However, Flutter cannot directly access native components of a user device such as Bluetooth and camera, and developers need to rely on third-party libraries written in native languages like Kotlin or Java to integrate such features.

Kotlin, on the other hand, provides easier access to native features and components. Also, Kotlin code is compiled in the same format of the platform it is written for, which results in unmatchable performance.3.Flutter vs Kotlin Cost of Development

Both these platforms are open-source and free to use. So, you don’t need to pay a licensing fee to leverage these platforms. However, you need to hire Flutter developer or Kotlin developers with experience working on these platforms to help you develop your app.

The cost of hiring Flutter developers is considerably higher due to lesser developer availability since Kotlin has been around for years. Kotlin developer availability is abundant, reducing the overall cost of their services.

4.Flutter vs. Kotlin Learning Curve

Flutter is based on Dart programming language used to develop mobile, web, desktop, wearables, tvOS, and other smart device apps. Dart was introduced and developed by Google, and it has a comparable learning curve to other programming languages like C++, Python, C#, JavaScript, and more. Although most developers wrongly perceive Dart as a difficult programming language since it isn’t based on JavaScript, it has a type-safe approach and is quite similar to JavaScript.

Kotlin’s more concise syntax can be compared to Java, Groovy, Scala, and Swift. Now the learning curve depends on who is learning Kotlin. If you are a Java developer, switching to Kotlin will be a cakewalk; it is still not as difficult if you are learning Kotlin as your first language.

Read more: The 5 Ways to Build a Mobile App: A Definitive Guide

5.  Flutter vs. Kotlin Testing Support

Flutter comes with many testing features such as widget testing, unit testing, and all forms of testing to ensure your app performs in the best manner possible, without any security vulnerabilities. Kotlin provides no ease of assistance for support testing in-built. Testing is important for ensuring an app’s success and proper functioning. If you need Kotlin apps to be tested thoroughly, you should hire Kotlin Developers from a trusted IT company with experience working with the Kotlin platform.

6. Flutter vs. Kotlin Faster Time to Market

Since Flutter has Hot Reload, developers can see the results of the changes they make in the app in almost real-time, which helps speed up the app development process significantly. It also follows a widget-based development approach and has a layered architecture and many Flutter packages to reduce the overall coding hours of the developers to integrate functions. This reduces the Flutter app’s time to market significantly.

With all these fancy features, Flutter seems faster than Kotlin regarding time to market. However, Kotlin has a more concise syntax and a heavy focus on code reusability, making it a close call in terms of time to market.

7. Flutter vs. Kotlin Community Participation

Flutter and Kotlin both have a huge and active community. However, Flutter is newer than Kotlin, and since Flutter development is dependent on third-party flutter packages, the level of engagement of the Flutter community is more active than Kotlin’s.

8. Flutter vs. Kotlin Project Setup and Config Time

Flutter also follows an excellent documentation process which helps fresher developers easily get familiar with its syntax, coding practices, and more.

Kotlin projects are set up on JetBrains IDE, including Android Studio. Flutter can be set up in multiple development environments like Visual Studio Code and Android Studio. Setting up the Flutter app and getting started with the app development process is faster than that of Kotlin.

Final Words

To develop your mobile app, you can use Flutter or Kotlin, depending on your project needs. Both platforms are scalable, secure, extensible, and robust to power any kind of mobile app you need. Suppose you are still confused about which platform to choose for your mobile app project. In that case, you should hire mobile app developers from a professional IT company that will help you decide on the right platform after understanding your project requirements.