Nowadays many mobile app development companies are using the hybrid platform to develop mobile app due to many reasons. Some startup companies have budget problems and want to develop mobile apps in less time.

To meet these factors, they opt for flutter app development which has become a new trend and completely different from native Android and iOS development. In a situation when you want to develop an iOS app and are confused about choosing the best framework for app development, don't worry.

In this blog, we will compare the difference between Swift and Flutter Framework so that you can choose the right one for app development.

But before diving into the topic, let us have a brief idea of ​​both the flutter and the Swift outlines.

Swift Introduction

The Swift programming language has made native iOS app development more interesting and that is why iOS app developers look for an opportunity in native iOS app development.

Swift is a type of safe, fast, modern and great language that is still emerging and some new features are developing every day. Apple provides some exceptional tools, documentation and frameworks to the community of developers so that they can easily develop iOS apps with native devices.

Flutter Introduction

Flutter is considered by Google as a currently launched multi-platform, open-source mobile SDK, so that developers can build mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms from single source code.

Flutter uses Dart programming languages ​​to build iOS and Android applications with the availability of great documentation. Flutter is similar to reactive native but with full support for native features.

Compare Swift and Flutter in detail

Each iOS app is different and includes some special features, settings, and technologies. So, the comparison does not require the creation of a complex application.

With the use of both techniques it is necessary to develop a uniform application so that it is easy to justify all comparison points.

Let us dive into the comparative points to choose the best platform between Swift and Flutter for iOS app development:

1. Onboarding process

We know that Swift is a platform for developing native iOS apps, but uses the Flutter Dart programming language. Therefore, the two platforms require different setups.

Swift

To proceed, iOS app development requires native tools and you will use Xcode as an IDE, the basic development kit included in Xcode. You need a MacOS device and need to install Xcode.

After that, you have to create a new project in Xcode by choosing the following options - File> New> Project> iOS Single View App, and then you can name an app and choose Swift as the programming language.

After filling all the required details, Xcode will create the iOS template code and you can start building an iOS app. When you have written the code in provocative, you will find a button named 'Press Me' on the screen and you have to press it.

Flutter

For Xcode as well as flutter iOS development, you should also install Flutter binary. There are many other options that include Android Studio or Intel IDEA, whichever you find better.

After going through the setup process, you can use some commands to build a new Flutter app, for example native-compare.

$ flutter create native_compare

$ cd app_name

On using this command, you will get the details of the flutter project. You can apply the button to the lib / main.dart file with the Flutter Raised Button widget.

After applying the button, you can run the application with the $ Flutter run command. Also, keep in mind that you need a simulator to open the app.

Analysis

Comparing Swift iOS app building and pulsating iOS development, the integration process for Swift iOS development appears to involve less configuration and to be very stressful.

2. Development Time

After you've developed the app for comparison, dig into each app and analyze development times for both the Swift and Flutter platforms. We are going to compare both clean builds by erasing all incremental builds and derived data.

Swift

For native iOS apps, you can easily measure build time using the xcodebuild command line tool or Xcode. In Xcode, you can run the following command to allow build timing summary:

$ defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode ShowBuildOperationDuration -bool YES

You can also delete the build folder or derived data to analyze the build time for a clean build. In Xcode, you can erase the derived data by selecting Product> Clean Build Folder. In Xcode, after running the build command from the product menu, it will display the build time.

In Xcode, a clean build tool takes about 13.334 seconds, while a consistent build takes less than a second. You can do the same experiment with the xcodebuild command from the command line.

Flutter

Developers can create a Flutter app for iOS in debug mode with the following command:

$ flutter build iOS –debug –no-codesign –simulator

You can implement the aforementioned command to get clean build time by erasing the derived data from the build directory.

Clean build of Flutter iOS app takes about 33 seconds and then 10 seconds, 8 seconds etc. for a continuous build. Given this, a clean build of your Flutter app takes about 30 to 45 seconds.

Analysis

With the comparison of Swift and Flutter app development time, Flutter development takes slightly longer for clean builds. When developed additionally, the flutters gain momentum. For additional builds, Xcode has a build time superfast.

3. App Reloading

 

Developers make more frequent code changes in iOS app development and test it on a simulator or device. This testing process is called app reloading which is important in mobile app development.

Swift

If you need to rename the button, you need to rename the interface element from the storyboard, which presumably needs data and access changes.

After renaming the element, you will need to recreate the application to check if changes are being seen on the simulator or device. In Xcode, this process takes 7 to 12 seconds.

Flutter

Flutter comes with a great hot reload feature that helps you make changes to the apps and reload it according to your feasibility. You will see these changes on the simulator within a few seconds.

In the above comparison, you will need to update the text from Press Me to Click Me to Click Me and reload your application. The pulsing app building platform completes the entire process in just 3 seconds.

Analysis

This clearly means that reloading the Flutter app is faster than developing the Swift app.

4. Profiling

 

It is a dynamic analysis process that analyzes the CPU, resources, memory, and other performance factors of the application. Both the Swift and Flutter tools provide amazing support for app profiling.

Swift

You can profile an app in Xcode using Instruments. You get the option to profile an app with Product> Profile from Xcode. This will introduce an instrument app where you can measure the app by several criteria.

For profiling, you can select any template. When you select the button multiple times you can choose the Time Profiler to analyze CPU threads. Once you launch Time Profiler, you can start recording and select the button multiple times.

Flutter

In Flutter, you can profile iOS applications with the IDE or from the command line. In fact, the Flutter documentation has a wonderful guide on profiling the Flutter app.

To create an outline of an application from the command line, you should run the following command:

$ flutter build iOS –profile –no-codesign

This command will measure the time it takes for flutter app profiling. The construction time of the flutter is approximately 149 seconds.

Analysis

The profiling is very large and many flavors are available for the Swift and Flutter iOS app benchmarking. It depends on the devices and each app. Both Flutter and Xcode seem to have a lot of support for profiling and debugging iOS apps.

Xcode has a dedicated app while Flutter has a lighter way of using apps that use a browser.

5. Access

In one app, the accessibility feature improves the user experience of people with a disability. Being an iOS app developer, you should contribute with some effort by making iOS app accessible to everyone.

Let's see how easy it is to add accessibility features to the Swift and Flutter apps!

Swift

Swift iOS tools have access to the UIFT framework. Therefore, there is no need to import any other framework to allow accessibility support in Swift apps. Apple offers accessibility APIs, but developers are required to provide accurate access data for each UI component in the iOS app, which uses the UIability protocol.

In your iOS app, you can add accessibility traits, identifiers and labels using code. You can also use the interface builder and storyboard to give accessibility information to the user.

Flutter

Flutter does not support adding iOS application accessibility. Instead, the Flutter documentation recommends measuring the iOS app using Xcode's Accessibility Inspector tool. There is a problem of adding accessibility identifiers for testing, but it is still in progress.

Analysis

In terms of the accessibility feature, Flutter requires enhancements to create better apps for people with disabilities. There should be something on the flutter roadmap to improve this support of pulsing applications.

Which one to choose for iOS app development between Swift and Flutter?

From which it can be concluded that Swift is the clear winner. Undoubtedly, the flutter provides quick reloads but the Swift is still better. Therefore, choosing Swift can be a right choice, although this option depends on you and your business requirement.