Flutter · iOS Native · Android Native
Flutter vs native: when to use each?
The architecture decision that defines your app's cost.
+300
Projects delivered
15+
Years of experience
100%
Senior team
The architecture decision that defines your app's cost.
+300
Projects delivered
15+
Years of experience
100%
Senior team
Flutter isn't the answer for everything. When you need ARKit with custom rendering, access to system APIs Flutter doesn't expose, animations requiring Apple's Metal API at 100%, or highly specific Bluetooth BLE integrations — native development is the right answer. In all other cases — which is most — Flutter delivers the same result at 40% of the cost. See our Flutter vs React Native comparison for a complementary analysis.
Dribba develops in both Flutter and Swift/Kotlin native. Our recommendation always starts from the real use case, not the stack that benefits us most to bill. If your app needs native, we'll tell you. If Flutter is enough — and it probably is — we build it as the only Spanish agency in Google's official directory.
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Frequently asked questions
Flutter is the right choice for most apps: it covers iOS and Android with the same team and budget, and performance is indistinguishable from native for 95% of use cases. Native (Swift/Kotlin) makes sense when you need deep access to system APIs not exposed by Flutter, 3D rendering with Metal/Vulkan, or very specific BLE Bluetooth integrations.
In practice, yes. Flutter compiles to native ARM code — no JavaScript bridge. The Impeller rendering engine (enabled by default since Flutter 3.10) eliminates shader compilation stutters. Benchmarks show the difference with Swift or Kotlin is under 5% for most operations.
Yes. Flutter Add-to-App allows integrating Flutter as a module inside an existing iOS or Android app. It's a common strategy to gradually migrate native apps: screens are replaced by Flutter modules while keeping existing functionality.
The best approach is an honest technical assessment of the real use case. Dribba conducts this as part of Product Discovery: we analyse required features, hardware integration needs and team profile. The recommendation is always what's best for the project, not for the agency.
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