Dart vs Flutter Differences. What To Choose For Your Business?

Dart and Flutter are two intimately related solutions for cross-platform app development. While they’re typically used together for mobile app development, Dart and Flutter are not the same. Dart is a coding language for building Flutter apps, but it can also be used for other purposes like server-side development and web development. Flutter on the other hand is a mobile software development kit or framework.

For businesses looking for a solution dedicated to app development, the similarities between Dart and Flutter can make the choice difficult. In this post, we will explore the key differences between Dart and Flutter to help businesses make the right choice.

• Dart and Flutter are two intimately related solutions for building cross-platform apps.
• Dart is a coding language with other uses outside Flutter while Flutter is a software development framework that uses Dart as its foundation. 
• Dart and Flutter are not necessarily competing languages or frameworks as they’re most often used together to create powerful cross-platform apps.

Introduction to Dart

Dart is a coding language just like Python, JavaScript, C++, and countless others. In fact, the creators of this language invented it as an alternative to JavaScript. Dart is an open-source, general-purpose programming language that can be used for server-side programming, web development, and mobile app development. The first version of this type-safe programming language was released in 2013. To this day, over 45,000 websites have been built with Dart. 

Dart is famous for its intuitive C-style syntax which makes it relatively easy to learn especially for programmers that are already familiar with other languages like C++ and Java. Dart also offers a lot of developer productivity features that help developers build apps quickly and efficiently.  

To learn more about Dart and how it compares to other programming languages, you can read our article about Dart vs Kotlin or our Swift vs Dart comparison article. Both are available on our blog and provide further insights about this robust programming language. 

Benefits of Dart

Productivity & Ease of Use 

Dart comes with various tools that promote productivity and ease of use. The object-oriented programming language has a rich library of prebuilt functions and classes such as Math, Convert, Core and so on that can help speed up development time. 

The similarities between Dart and other popular programming languages like Java and C++ also make it quite easy to learn. Developers already familiar with other object-oriented programming languages will have no trouble mastering this language. 

Performance 

Apps built with Dart are known to run smoothly and efficiently due to how the language compiles. The programming language supports both Just-in-Time and Ahead-of-Time compilation, two attributes that ensure fast and efficient compilation of codes.

Dart also supports native compilation, which is why Flutter apps and other applications built with this programming language perform seamlessly across different operating systems despite being built on a single code base. 

Dart offers built-in support for asynchronous programming, with features like async/await that enable developers to write clean, non-blocking code. This feature improves the responsiveness of Dart apps quite significantly.

Versatility 

Although it is commonly associated with Flutter development, Dart is quite versatile and can be used for several other purposes beyond Flutter development. It is a general-purpose programming language which means it can be used for a broad range of programming tasks. In addition to building cross-platform apps with Flutter, Dart is also an efficient solution for building server-side apps and web applications. 

Security & Reliability

Dart’s strong typing can be an advantage because it helps developers avoid runtime errors, making their codes more reliable. Dart also supports static typing and helps to create stable bug-free applications. 

Dart features the null-safety as well, which prevents the introduction of null-pointer exceptions, one of the most common but difficult errors to debug. Automatic memory management in Dart development reduces the risk of memory leaks, another safety concern in building mobile applications. These security attributes add an extra layer of protection to applications built with this programming language. 

Disadvantages of Dart

• The Dart programming language is still in the developing phase. Although it is supported by an active community and has robust documentation, the language is still being actively updated so things that have been documented might change over time. 
• The Dart language has a smaller community compared to older and more established programming languages such as Java or JavaScript. 
• Dart lacks native browser support. This means developers must provide native support for each browser they are targeting for the Dart application to work seamlessly. 

Introduction to Flutter

Flutter is not a programming language like Dart. Instead, it is an open-source app development platform or framework developed by Google for cross-platform app development. This means Flutter has all the standard toolkits needed to create apps for iOS, Android, and desktop from just a single codebase. This makes it an alternative to native development frameworks like Swift and Kotlin.

Google released Flutter in 2017 and it quickly became one of the most popular frameworks for app development, widely adopted by developers and entrepreneurs. This software development toolkit is powered by Dart as its programming language, providing all the features needed to build logic and behavior for Flutter apps. 

Flutter also has an extensive range of pre-built widgets and tools for building robust user interfaces for applications. These widgets along with other convenient functionalities such as the hot reload feature help to simplify and accelerate the app development process.  The widgets also allow developers to give Flutter apps a native look and feel.

We have several articles on our blog to help you get a better understanding of Flutter and how it compares to other development frameworks and programming languages. For instance, to see how Flutter compares to native app development frameworks like Kotlin and Swift, you can read our Flutter vs Native article. For a more direct comparison, you can read our Flutter vs Kotlin and Flutter vs Swift articles. 

Our article on Flutter vs React Native also compares Flutter to React Native, a cross-platform mobile app development framework based on JavaScript. 

Benefits of Flutter

Cross-Platform Support 

Flutter’s main appeal is cross-platform development. It is considered a reliable platform for building mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices without writing codes for each one separately. Instead, the developers can write a single code and deploy it to multiple platforms. The resulting application is consistent across all the platforms where it will be deployed.  Also, any updates or changes made to the code only need to be done once. Once deployed, the modification will apply to the script on all platforms thanks to cross-platform compatibility. 

Ease of Use 

As a robust software development platform, Flutter comes with a complete set of development tools for designing UIs, debugging code, and optimizing code performance. Flutter allows developers to build MVPs and fully functional apps using a lot less code and in fewer scripting hours. The platform’s declarative UI API also plays a significant role in improving development speed. With Flutter, developers can easily combine different widgets to create a beautiful app interface within a short time. The combination of Flutter and the Dart programming language makes Flutter even easier to use and understand. 

High-Performance Apps 

Businesses looking to build fast, high-performing apps will find Flutter to be just the perfect platform for this purpose. Flutter apps are often more responsive compared to traditional mobile apps. These apps use an ahead-of-time (AOT) compiler to produce highly optimized machine code with smooth and native-like app performance.

Community Support 

Flutter is an open-source platform backed by a strong and active community of developers. This strong community support provides access to libraries, packages, widgets, and other resources needed by developers to build mobile and web apps. Flutter is also backed by Google. For instance, developers can access Google Firebase for backend support to build scalable Flutter apps.

Disadvantages of Flutter

• Flutter files are generally bulkier or heavier than native apps, which can be a problem for individuals with limited storage space on their devices. 
• Flutter’s third-party libraries are limited, especially when compared to other development frameworks like React Native. 
• The Flutter cross-platform app framework has a steep learning curve and the relative newness of this platform means you have a small talent pool to choose from.

Dart and Flutter Similarities

Dart and Flutter are a perfect combination. The Flutter development platform has Dart as its only official language. While the other purposes of this programming language (such as server-side programming) are starting to gain traction as well, its use for Flutter programming is still its most popular. Dart and Flutter share several similarities, which isn’t surprising since Dart is the foundation on which Flutter is built. The following are some of the similarities between these two platforms: 

Flutter Apps are Dart Apps 

The truth is that Draft and Flutter aren’t remarkably different from each other. Dart is the programming language, while Flutter is a framework that relies on this programming language. Consequently, it is safe to say that Dart apps are also Flutter apps in some ways. Flutter provides a set of tools and widgets for building the UI of mobile applications while Dart is used to program the logic and functionality of these apps. 

Performance

Both Dart and Flutter are known to support the development of fast and stable natively compiled applications. Dart being a compiled language means the apps built with it will always execute quickly and effectively. Flutter, on the other hand, has a component-based structure and compiles machine code so it creates high-performance applications with near-native speed and performance. 

Development Speed 

Dart’s clean syntax has been known to speed up development times. The programming language is also statically and strongly typed, this ensures that errors are caught during the development phase. This reduces how much time developers have to spend on debugging code, enhancing productivity quite significantly. 

Flutter enhances productivity as well. It is one of the fastest application development platforms. The framework’s hot reload feature is particularly famous because it enables developers to see changes they make in a code reflected right away in the app without reloading the app. Flutter also gives users access to a rich set of pre-built, ready-to-use components and UI widgets. Developers can use these widgets to enhance mobile UI development and achieve faster development cycles. 

Development Tools

Both Dart and Flutter present a robust range of development tools for a streamlined development process. As a client-side programming language, Dart offers developers various tools to boost productivity while creating apps including dynamic typing, classes, and hot reload. Flutter also comes with its own set of developer tools for designing, debugging, and optimizing app performance such as the Flutter SDK, Flutter Devtools, and Flutter Inspector. 

Community and Support

Both Dart and Flutter are backed by a strong community of developers. In fact, one could say that Dart and Flutter share the same community of users since Flutter programmers need to be familiar with Dart development as well. They’re both open-source, which means the community can contribute to their development and build resources to support them. 

Dart and Flutter Differences

Learning Curve

Dart is a relatively straightforward programming language that shares the same syntax with other object-oriented programming languages. This makes it relatively easy to learn, especially for developers already familiar with languages like Java and JavaScript. Flutter has a much slightly steeper learning curve, especially for beginners. In addition to mastering Dart, developers also have to master widget-specific development and reactive programming principles to use Flutter respectively. 

Flexibility and Use Cases 

Dart is a flexible programming language with lots of use cases outside Flutter. It can be used to develop web apps and for server-side development. On the other hand, Flutter is limited to cross-platform mobile app development with a primary focus on building user interfaces. Although Flutter offers some level of web support, the main focus of this software development framework is mobile development. 

UI Development

As mentioned above, Flutter is focused on UI development. The platform offers several pre-build UI widgets that allow developers to build and customize interfaces that deliver native-like performance. Although Dart also has a few tools for creating user interfaces, it is not as robust as what you get with Flutter. 

Community Support

Dart has been around since 2013 while Flutter was only released in 2017. So while both tools have an active community built around them, Flutter’s community is smaller compared to Dart’s. Consequently, Dart has more libraries and resources to assist programmers compared to Flutter. 

Debugging Tools

Both Dart and Flutter are known for their ability to help users build bug-free applications. While Dart’s debugging features are built into the language, Flutter uses third-party debuggers. Dart’s ready-to-use debugging tools are more robust compared to Flutter’s.

Comparison of Flutter vs Dart Mobile App Development

Flutter and Dart both support cross-platform mobile app development, allowing developers to build apps for multiple operating systems from a single codebase. They’re also used in tandem for this purpose. The table below summarizes the key differences between Flutter and Dart for mobile app development. 

When To Use Dart?

Although Dart code is a programming language optimized for Flutter mobile app development, it still has other use cases outside of this framework. Some of the scenarios you might want to use Dart without Flutter are highlighted below: 

• Building apps for multiple platforms
• Server-side programming
• Building command line tools
• Web development
• Web server apps

When to Use Flutter?

Flutter is not a standalone development framework. Dart code is the foundation of this mobile app development framework. The following are some of the typical use cases for this software development kit. 

• Cross-platform mobile apps
• Apps with visually appealing native-like user interfaces
• The rapid development of prototypes
• Media-rich applications

Conclusion

So which of these development solutions should you choose for your business? The truth is that you won’t have to choose in most cases. Dart and Flutter are not competing programming languages or frameworks. They’re often used together to create powerful cross-platform applications for mobile devices with Flutter providing an intuitive framework for building stunning user interfaces while Dart helps you program the app logic and functionality. 

Of course, if you’re looking to explore broader horizons like building server-side apps or web applications, then you’ll have to choose Dart as a standalone solution for such projects. Ready to build mobile and web applications for your business? CrustLab is a software development company that provides both Flutter and Dart development services. We build powerful cross-platform applications with Flutter and can help you leverage Dart for other use cases as well. Contact CrustLab today to discuss the details of your mobile app development project.