Comparative Analysis of React Native, Kotlin, and Flutter for Cross-Platform Mobile Development
Riaz, Muhammad Usama · Doria (University of Helsinki) · 2025
With a growing need for cross-platform solutions that offer a native-like experience on both the iOS and Android platforms, mobile application development has changed dramatically in recent years. Three well-known mobile development frameworks—React Native, Kotlin, and Flutter—are compared in this thesis. JavaScript-based React Native has gained popularity because of its extensive ecosystem and cross-platform code reuse. Created as an Android language, Kotlin has broadened its appeal with Kotlin Multi-platform Mobile (KMM), which offers developers smooth Android compatibility and strong, platform-specific optimizations. Google created the Flutter UI toolkit, which stands out for using the Dart programming language and providing a soft, aesthetically pleasing experience on iOS and Android. This study examines these frameworks from several angles, such as developer productivity, ease of interaction with native APIs, performance benchmarks, and the strength of industry and community support. This study aims to give a thorough grasp of each framework's advantages and disadvantages as well as insights into how well-suited they are for various kinds of mobile applications by assessing these characteristics using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. When choosing a mobile development framework that meets the needs of a particular project, developers, project managers, and organizations will benefit from the comparison of the analysis. Ultimately, by pointing out trade-offs and the best applications for React Native, Kotlin, and Flutter, this study contributes to the state of the art on mobile technology.