Native (iOS + Android) vs React Native vs Flutter

Native is still fastest, but the gap to React Native (since the new architecture / Fabric renderer) and Flutter is smaller than people remember. For 90%+ of apps — productivity apps, marketplaces, social, e-commerce — users cannot tell the difference.

The gap matters in three scenarios: heavy real-time graphics or AR (native wins clearly), highly-animated complex UIs at 120Hz (Flutter and native are roughly equal, React Native trails slightly), and battery-sensitive long-running apps where milliseconds compound over hours (native edge).

Building two native apps means roughly 1.8x the engineering hours of one cross-platform app — never quite 2x because design and product work is shared, but close. Maintenance is similar — every feature is built twice, tested twice, released twice.

React Native and Flutter both deliver real shared-codebase savings — typically 40–55% of native total cost over 3 years, including the inevitable platform-specific bridge work.

Where the cost calculation flips: if you already have native iOS and Android teams in place and they’re busy, the right answer is often “keep doing what you’re doing”.

The talent pool tells: there are roughly 5–10x more JavaScript/TypeScript developers globally than native mobile developers. Almost any React team can pick up React Native in weeks, dramatically expanding who you can hire.

Flutter’s hiring pool is smaller and more specialised (Dart is not used widely outside Flutter), but Flutter engineers tend to be deliberate self-selectors — the people who chose Flutter usually love mobile and care about UI craft.

Native iOS and Android engineers are the smallest specialist pool. The good ones are excellent and command higher rates.

Native is the lowest-risk for the long term — iOS and Android are not going anywhere, and Apple and Google support them indefinitely.

React Native’s direction depends on Meta’s continued investment, which has been steady but is not Meta’s only mobile bet. Flutter’s direction depends on Google’s continued investment, which has been strong but Google’s history with developer products is mixed.

Both frameworks have large external communities that would carry them forward if the original backer stepped back. Both are unlikely to disappear in the 5–7 year horizon most app investments need.