Flutter vs Kotlin: Which One is More Suitable for Development?

Quick Summary

Are you planning to develop a cross-platform application but have doubts about the ideal platform? Don’t worry we have covered everything for you.

Kotlin and Flutter are two of the main technologies used to develop mobile applications. Flutter vs Kotlin is one of the most common topics for debate and each cross-platform technology is trying to stay ahead of another.

In a short time, cross-platform app development has gained a lot of popularity. Flutter and Kotlin are the most commonly used platforms to build mobile applications for iOS and Android.

To see a clear comparison of Kotlin vs flutter, you need to understand that Kotlin is a programming language while flutter is a framework.

Now let’s see the comparison between Flutter vs Kotlin so that you can decide which one is more suitable for development.

Overview of Kotlin

None other than JetBrains created this general-purpose programming language named Kotlin in the year 2016.

Kotlin is very focused on interoperability, clarity, and safety. Some well-known companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Uber use Kotlin.

Many developers prefer to use Kotlin because it offers a multiplatform feature where the developer can easily reuse the code for iOS and Android by changing the design and user interface of the app.

Overview of Flutter

Google introduced a cross-platform and open-source UI development tool named flutter in the year 2017 and since then it has gained popularity among developers.

Google’s Flutter framework follows Ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation method and it uses Dart programming language. Flutter architecture can be divided into three categories: Platform, Engine, and Framework.

The Ultimate Technical Kotlin Vs. Flutter Comparison – 2023

Now that you did get the overview of Flutter and Kotlin, let’s see a detailed technical difference of Kotlin vs Flutter. This comparison between flutter and kotlin will help you to understand which technology is best suited for mobile app development.

1. Popularity and Market Share

Both Kolin and Flutter are popular among developers for mobile app development.

There are many reasons why flutter stands out for mobile app development and many developers prefer to choose kotlin because it offers various functionalities and features with top mobile app development tools.

While you are comparing them in terms of popularity, Kotlin has 44.4k stars and 5.5k forks on Github. While Flutter has 152k stars and 25k forks on Github.

So Flutter is more popular than Kotlin on Github among developers.

Google Trends Comparison Between Kotlin Vs Flutter

• Here you can see the comparison of them based on Google Trends. You can see how Flutter is more trending on google trends than Kotlin.

StackOverflow Stats – Kotlin Vs Flutter

• As per the StackOverflow stats, Kotlin is used by approximately 9.16% of developers, while flutter is still among the top three most loved technologies among the developers used for mobile app development.

2. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Learning Curve

Developers always try to find the best programming language that is easy to learn. Kotlin is considered easy to learn because Google offers many detailed courses.

Plus, Kotlin is also compatible with Java. But Kotlin has less documentation and resources compared to Flutter. 

Developers feel that Flutter has a better learning curve than Kotlin because Flutter offers better documentation and resources.

The clear winner for this round of Kotlin Vs. Flutter is Flutter.

3. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Performance

In Flutter, the Dart programming language is used to create apps quickly as they are directly compiled into machine code. When comparing Dart vs Kotlin, Dart stands out for its simplicity and efficiency in building cross-platform applications, while Kotlin is commonly used for native Android development.

Flutter performance is good because of its own rendering engines to render view components. Various typefaces, navigations, and other UI elements for all-inclusive widget collection.

While comparing Kotlin vs Dart performance, Flutter tends to be slightly better. In the comparison of Flutter vs Kotlin performance, you can say that both have their own advantages.

But kotlin performance is good as the application’s user interface performs well with Flutter. The main disadvantage of flutter is that it mainly focuses on the frontend of the app.

So this round of Kotlin vs. Flutter is considered a draw as both are quite similar.

4. Flutter Vs Kotlin: User Experience – UX perspective

Flutter is a cross-platform framework that mainly focuses on widgets. Flutter developers can easily create fully functional and highly scalable applications with plenty of customization options. 

Kotlin is a general-purpose programming language and developers can easily use it to create cross-platform applications.

Kotlin developers can easily create an amazing UI of the app to ensure that users get the best experience.

In this round of Flutter vs Kotlin, both are considered the same.

5. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Third-party libraries and Tools Integration

Flutter is an open-source and cross-platform software development toolkit (SDK) and the developers can easily integrate third-party UI development tools while creating an app.

Kotlin is a programming language that uses SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose to develop cross-platform applications with native-like features.

The winner between Kotlin vs Flutter for this round is Kotlin.

6. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Scope in Backend Development

Flutter is backed by none other than Google so flutter developers use firebase as a backend platform to write the backend code of the application.

Kotlin is a multiplatform technology where the developers can easily write the backend code while developing an application.

Kotlin is a clear winner when it comes to Kotlin vs flutter in backend development.

7. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Pricing

Comparison of kotlin and flutter frameworks for app development cost can be hard. Because both flutter and kotlin are open-source and free-to-use platforms. 

The developers use flutter to create a minimal viable product (MVP) in the fastest possible way.

It also reduces the app development time as developers can easily create android and ios apps using the same codebase in a flutter.

Kotlin is an open-source programming language that developers can download from Github and use for app development.

It’s a draw between kotlin vs flutter in terms of pricing.

8. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Support for Testing

The developers can easily conduct unit testing, widget testing, and app integration in a flutter. Flutter can be easily integrated into iOS and Android platforms.

Its well-documented support ensures that developers can easily use firebase as a backend platform for the app.

Kotlin is a multiplatform programming language where developers can use native frameworks without worrying about integration. So developers can use native tools while building cross-platform applications.

The winner for this round of Kotlin vs Flutter for testing support is Kotlin.

9. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Documentation and Community

If you compare Flutter and Kotlin then Flutter is the latest and constantly growing platform that is popular among developers because it offers extensive and impressive documentation.

Flutter has 1177 contributors on Github.

Kotlin has good documentation and is trying to update it for the ease of developers. It has 579 contributors on Github.

Clearly, this round goes to Flutter as it has better community and documentation than kotlin.

10. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Time-To-Market

Flutter provides Hot Reload features to improve the UI development speed and developers use various widgets, customizable architecture, and layered designs to build apps that offer a native-like experience for the users.

Kotlin’s code reusability and clear syntax make sure to provide faster app development service.

Both reduce app development time because of a single codebase but the development time can be different based on the complexity of the app.

11. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Job Opportunity

Let’s compare Flutter with Kotlin to see which one offers better job opportunities. As a fresher, you can get confused in flutter or kotlin and you may wonder which app development platform is best for you.

To decide that you need to explore the job opportunities, market share, and current trends.

12. Flutter Vs Kotlin: Purpose

Flutter is a mobile app development framework where developers can easily create the most appealing and high-performing apps with a single codebase.

Many developers prefer to choose flutter because they can easily create fully responsive applications. Flutter is used to create native Android and iOS applications.

Kotlin is mainly used to create different types of android applications as well as software. It is also gaining popularity among developers as an alternative to Java. Kotlin is a modern and more expressive programming language that developers can use for the development of applications.

Kotlin’s null-safety and functional programming helps to speed up the development process.

13. Flutter Vs. Kotlin: Development Time

The development time of the application also depends on the capabilities of the developers along with the right technology. 

Flutter’s hot reload capability helps with the rapid development of the application. The developers can change the code and it will be immediately reflected in the app.

In general, Kotlin and Flutter both include capabilities that can accelerate the development process.

You also need to remember that the development time also depends on the characteristics and functionalities of the application and the expertise of the developers.

Kotlin Vs. Flutter: Head-to-Head Comparison

Here you can explore the difference between Kotlin and Flutter so that you can choose the right technology for your next project. Flutter and kotlin both have amazing features for mobile app developers and here you can see the comparison between them.

When to use Kotlin?

There are many reasons to use Kotlin for app development and here you can see some of the main points of when you can use Kotlin.

• If you desire a robust mobile application.

• It is an ideal choice for you when you are building an app for retail establishments.

• When building an app for banks and Fintech Kotlin is a preferable choice.

• Developers prefer to use Kotlin when an application must be created with a stricter timeframe and limited resources.

Developers prefer to use Flutter for its outstanding hot-reload capability. A developer may use flutter to rapidly verify the source code changes they make.

Making an MVP product or prototype to present to potential investors is easy using Flutter.

While choosing the best platform among Kotlin and Flutter, depends upon the type of app you want to build.

Conclusion

As we can see from the examples above, Kotlin and Flutter are both capable platforms for creating effective cross-platform apps.

Some developers may want to see the comparison between flutter vs ionic. They both offer the market various advantages and disadvantages.

Furthermore, because Kotlin is a programming language, we can’t firmly determine a winner in the debatable Kotlin vs. Flutter argument. Each platform has some major benefits.

You can hire Flutter developers if you are trying to have a fully featured application for your business.

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