Is Flutter ready for the web yet? - A live coding comparison between Flutter and React

We benchmarked Flutter and React head-to-head. One crushed the initial load time, but the other delivered flawless 60fps animations. See the results.

#1about 2 minutes

Understanding the basics of Flutter and React

A foundational overview of Flutter as a UI SDK from Google and React as a JavaScript library from Meta for front-end development.

#2about 3 minutes

Comparing the core concepts of Flutter and React

Both frameworks use declarative programming and a component-based architecture, but differ in language (Dart vs JavaScript) and how they render to the DOM.

#3about 1 minute

Defining the comparison criteria for web development

The comparison is based on developer experience, including tooling and testing, and user experience, covering performance, responsive design, and accessibility.

#4about 5 minutes

Live coding a basic app and inspecting the DOM

A side-by-side demonstration shows how React renders native HTML elements while Flutter draws its UI on an HTML canvas, making direct element inspection impossible.

#5about 2 minutes

Comparing initial load performance with Lighthouse

Lighthouse reports show React has a significantly faster time-to-interactive for a basic app compared to Flutter, which has a noticeable startup overhead.

#6about 8 minutes

Building a header with data fetching and state

A live coding example demonstrates fetching data and managing component state using `useEffect` and `useState` in React versus `setState` in a StatefulWidget in Flutter.

#7about 2 minutes

Handling complex state updates with user input

A demonstration of a more complex state update shows how user input from a modal dialog can trigger a backend call and a UI refresh in both frameworks.

#8about 3 minutes

Bundling applications for production deployment

Both React (`npm run build`) and Flutter (`flutter build web`) offer simple command-line tools to create a static build ready for deployment on a web server.

#9about 2 minutes

Final performance comparison of the full application

Lighthouse results for the complete application confirm that Flutter's initial load time remains slower than React's, though the performance gap does not widen significantly.

#10about 4 minutes

Comparing developer experience and ecosystem maturity

React benefits from a mature and extensive ecosystem, while Flutter's is still growing, and its tooling differs with the Flutter Inspector replacing browser dev tools.

#11about 3 minutes

Comparing user experience and accessibility features

React provides excellent performance and accessibility through native HTML, whereas Flutter has a startup delay but excels at animations and is improving its accessibility support.

#12about 2 minutes

Final recommendations on when to use Flutter or React

Choose Flutter for PWAs, companion apps, or cross-platform projects with heavy UI, and stick with React for web-primary applications or when leveraging an existing web ecosystem.

#13about 4 minutes

Q&A on accessibility, responsiveness, and adoption

The speakers answer audience questions about Flutter's accessibility with screen readers, implementing responsive layouts, and real-world adoption challenges.