A practical comparison based on 12 shipped apps — what the benchmarks do not tell you.

By David Friedman , Founder of AppBrewers

I have shipped 12 cross-platform mobile apps in the last three years. Six with React Native. Six with Flutter. Here is what I wish someone had told me before I started.

The Short Answer

Factor React Native Flutter Winner

Time to first screen 2–3 days 1–2 days Flutter

Hiring pool Massive (React developers) Growing fast React Native

UI consistency Platform-native look Pixel-perfect custom Tie

Performance Good Better for animations Flutter

Long-term maintenance Facebook backs it Google backs it Tie

Best for Teams with React experience Custom UI-heavy apps Depends

When React Native Wins

1. Your Team Already Knows React

If you have React developers, they are 80% of the way to React Native. JSX, hooks, and npm packages all transfer. Flutter requires learning Dart — a fine language, but a new one.

2.…