Overview

Apache Flex

Stacks14

Followers14

Votes0

Flutter

Stacks17.7K

Followers16.8K

Votes1.2K

GitHub Stars173.7K

Forks29.4K

Apache Flex vs Flutter: What are the differences?

Introduction

Apache Flex and Flutter are two popular frameworks used for building cross-platform mobile applications. While both frameworks have their own unique features and advantages, there are several key differences between them. In this article, we will explore these differences in detail.

Language: Apache Flex uses ActionScript, a scripting language that is based on ECMAScript, whereas Flutter uses Dart, a modern, object-oriented language developed by Google. While both languages are effective for mobile app development, Dart offers additional features such as optional static typing and just-in-time (JIT) compilation, which can result in improved performance and productivity for developers.
User Interface Development: Apache Flex follows a declarative approach for building user interfaces, utilizing XML-based MXML files to define the structure and layout of UI components. On the other hand, Flutter uses a reactive framework that allows developers to build user interfaces by composing widgets. This widget-based approach in Flutter offers greater flexibility and control over the UI, enabling developers to create highly customized and visually appealing interfaces.
Cross-platform Support: Apache Flex primarily targets web browsers and desktop platforms, offering limited support for mobile app development. On the other hand, Flutter is specifically designed for cross-platform mobile app development, allowing developers to create apps that run seamlessly on both Android and iOS devices. Flutter achieves this through its own rendering engine, eliminating the need for platform-specific UI components.
Community and Ecosystem: Apache Flex has a well-established community of developers and a wide range of third-party libraries and components that can be used to enhance application development. However, the community and ecosystem around Flutter have rapidly grown in recent years, with extensive documentation, a large number of packages, and active community support. This vibrant ecosystem empowers Flutter developers with a wealth of resources and solutions to streamline their development process.
Performance: While both Apache Flex and Flutter are capable of delivering high-performance applications, Flutter's performance is often considered superior due to its use of a custom rendering engine. Flutter apps are compiled to native machine code and are not reliant on web-based technologies, resulting in faster and smoother performance across different platforms.
Integration with Native Features: Apache Flex relies on bridging technologies or wrappers to integrate with native platform features, which can introduce additional complexity and potential performance overhead. On the other hand, Flutter provides direct access to native APIs and native features through its extensive library called "Flutter SDK". This direct integration allows Flutter developers to leverage platform-specific features and functionality seamlessly.

In summary, Apache Flex and Flutter have distinct differences in terms of programming language, UI development approach, cross-platform support, community and ecosystem, performance, and integration with native features. These differences make each framework suitable for different use cases and developer preferences.

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Advice on Apache Flex, Flutter

Nick

CTO at Pickio

Jun 2, 2020

Decided

We built the first version of our app with RN and it turned out a mess in a while. A lot of bugs along with poor performance out of the box for a fairly large app. Many things, that native platform has, cannot be done with existing solutions for RN. For instance, large titles on iOS are not fully implemented in any of existing navigations libraries. Also there's painfully slow JSON bridge and many other small, yet annoying things. On the other hand Flutter became a really powerful and easy-to-use tool. A bit of a learning curve, of course, because of Dart, but it worth learning. Flutter offers TONS of built-in features, no JSON-bridge, AOT compilation for iOS.

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Comments

Anonymous

CEO at ME!

Jun 7, 2020

Decided

While with Ionic it is possible to make mobile applications with only web technologies, Flutter is more performant and is easy to use if you are willing to learn Dart, which is a fun language. Plus, it has awesome documentation and, while its ecosystem isn't near as big as JavaScript's is, it has a good package manager called Pub and its packages are generally high quality.

403k views403k

Comments

Thuan

FE Lead at SOLID ENGINEER

Jun 16, 2020

Decided

Javascripts is the most populated language in the world.
Easy to learn & deployed production
Fast development
Strong community
Completed Documents
Native performance with lower RAM used.
Easy to handle native issues by using native code like Java / Objective C
Powered by Facebook.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache Flex	Flutter
It is a software development kit for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform.	Flutter is a mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
UI components; Buttons; Forms; Containers; Lists; Data grids	Fast development - Flutter's "hot reload" helps you quickly and easily experiment, build UIs, add features, and fix bug faster. Experience sub-second reload times, without losing state, on emulators, simulators, and hardware for iOS and Android.;Expressive UIs - Delight your users with Flutter's built-in beautiful Material Design and Cupertino (iOS-flavor) widgets, rich motion APIs, smooth natural scrolling, and platform awareness.;Access native features and SDKs - Make your app come to life with platform APIs, 3rd party SDKs, and native code. Flutter lets you reuse your existing Java, Swift, and ObjC code, and access native features and SDKs on iOS and Android.
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 173.7K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 29.4K
Stacks 14	Stacks 17.7K
Followers 14	Followers 16.8K
Votes 0	Votes 1.2K
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 149 Hot Reload 126 Cross platform 107 Performance 90 Backed by Google 74 Compiled into Native Code Cons 29 Need to learn Dart 11 Lack of community support 10 No 3D Graphics Engine Support 8 Graphics programming 6 Lack of friendly documentation
Integrations
Bootstrap Ionic HTML5 CSS 3 .NET for Apache Spark	Android SDK Firebase Dart

What are some alternatives to Apache Flex, Flutter?

Ionic

Free and open source, Ionic offers a library of mobile and desktop-optimized HTML, CSS and JS components for building highly interactive apps. Use with Angular, React, Vue, or plain JavaScript.

React Native

React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.

Xamarin

Xamarin’s Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

NativeScript

NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms.

Apache Cordova

Apache Cordova is a set of device APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript. Combined with a UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or Dojo Mobile or Sencha Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Framework7

It is a free and open source mobile HTML framework to develop hybrid mobile apps or web apps with iOS native look and feel. All you need to make it work is a simple HTML layout and attached framework's CSS and JS files.

Qt

Qt, a leading cross-platform application and UI framework. With Qt, you can develop applications once and deploy to leading desktop, embedded & mobile targets.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a web platform that exposes native mobile device apis and data to JavaScript. PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

Expo

It is a framework and a platform for universal React applications. It is a set of tools and services built around React Native and native platforms that help you develop, build, deploy, and quickly iterate on iOS, Android, and web apps.

Vue Native

Vue Native is a mobile framework to build truly native mobile app using Vue.js. Its is designed to connect React Native and Vue.js. Vue Native is a wrapper around React Native APIs, which allows you to use Vue.js and compose rich mobile User Interface.