Choosing the Right Mobile Framework: Flutter vs Ionic
When it comes to building mobile apps, developers have a plethora of frameworks to choose from. Two popular options are Flutter and Ionic, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we’ll delve into the world of mobile app development and explore the pros and cons of Flutter and Ionic.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a cross-platform software development kit (SDK) developed by Google. It allows developers to build apps in Dart, using a widgets-tree-based layout. Flutter doesn’t use web-based or platform-specific UI elements, instead, it uses an inbuilt UI toolkit and renders graphics via the Skia cross-platform graphics library.
What is Ionic?
Ionic is a hybrid mobile application development framework developed by Max Lynch and Ben Sperry. It allows developers to build mobile apps with Angular, React, Vue.js, and Stencil frontend libraries. Ionic doesn’t use native platform-specific UI elements, instead, it uses native-like, web component-based UI elements and renders them in a webview component.
Popularity and Market Share
Both Flutter and Ionic have impressive usage statistics. According to Statista, Flutter’s popularity has increased from 30% to 42% from 2019 to 2021. Meanwhile, Ionic’s official website claims that nearly 5 million developers have built about 5 million apps with Ionic.
Internal Framework Architecture
Understanding a framework’s internal architecture is crucial for technical decision-making. Flutter has three main layers: Dart-based framework, C++-based engine, and platform-specific embedder app. Ionic, on the other hand, has three main layers: web components-based widgets framework, JavaScript-to-Native bridge, and the host application.
Development Workflow Comparison
The development workflow is a critical comparison factor, as it directly affects developer productivity. Flutter requires setting up two components: the Flutter CLI and the platform-specific SDK. Ionic, on the other hand, requires setting up three software components: Node.js with a package manager, the Ionic CLI, and the platform-specific SDK.
User Experience
Flutter offers a native UI experience, while Ionic provides a native-like UI experience. Flutter renders widgets efficiently, even on low-end devices, due to AOT compilation and the high-performance Skia library. Ionic’s UI rendering performance depends on the platform’s specific webview HTML rendering performance.
Performance and Resources Usage
Neither Flutter nor Ionic directly calls native platform SDKs. Instead, each framework runtime uses different approaches to communicate with native SDKs. Flutter uses a binary messaging protocol, while Ionic uses a JavaScript bridge concept.
Desktop Application Generation Support
Flutter officially supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and Fuchsia desktop platforms. Ionic, on the other hand, doesn’t officially support desktop platforms, but the Ionic community has created a project to turn Ionic apps into hybrid desktop apps with the Electron framework.
Web Application Generation Support
Ionic apps are already web apps, so no extra effort is required to convert them to web apps. Flutter also supports web application generation via two different renderers: HTML renderer and CanvasKit.
Which Framework is Better?
Ultimately, the choice between Flutter and Ionic depends on your project’s primary requirements. Both frameworks offer impressive features, but also come with several drawbacks. Here’s a summarized pros and cons table to help you make an informed decision:
| Framework | Pros | Cons |
| — | — | — |
| Flutter | Consistent native UI, near-native performance, official desktop support | Steeper learning curve, plugins ecosystem is not large |
| Ionic | Native-like UI, web developers can easily start development, large-scale apps may perform slowly on low-end devices | Performance issues in JavaScript bridge, developer tooling requires further improvements |
Use Cases
Here are some scenarios where you might want to use Flutter or Ionic:
- Use Flutter if your primary product is a complex mobile app, you care about performance and beautiful UI, or your application end-users wish to use your app from low-end mobile devices, embedded devices, and/or desktop devices.
- Use Ionic if your primary product is a less-complex mobile app, you need to convert a web app to a hybrid mobile app, performance is somewhat less important compared to a beautiful UI, or your engineers (or you) wouldn’t like to switch from the web development environment to native application development environment by changing tech stacks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both Flutter and Ionic are good mobile frameworks, but they cater to different needs and requirements. By understanding the pros and cons of each framework, you can make an informed decision about which one to use for your next mobile app project.