Choose FlutterFlow for a fast, affordable cross-platform app with standard features. Choose React Native when you have a development team and expect significant custom work but still want one codebase. Choose fully native iOS and Android when the app depends on heavy device work, advanced graphics, or the newest platform features. All three produce real apps. They differ in how much you build by hand, how fast you get there, and what the app can ultimately do.
The three options in one line each
- FlutterFlow is a visual builder on top of Flutter. You assemble screens and logic, and it compiles to native iOS and Android from one project. Fastest and cheapest to a working app.
- React Native is a code framework where one JavaScript codebase produces both apps. Slower than FlutterFlow to a first version because it is code-first, but a normal engineering workflow with no visual-builder ceiling.
- Native means separate Swift and Kotlin codebases, one per platform. Most expensive and slowest, full access to everything each platform offers.
Speed and cost
For a first version:
- FlutterFlow: two to eight weeks, from about $1,499 with an agency. One project, both stores.
- React Native: typically two to four months for a comparable app, and a larger build bill, because screens and logic are written rather than assembled.
- Native: three to six months and often $25,000 or more, because everything is built twice.
The gap narrows over the life of a large app with a dedicated team, where React Native's code-first workflow pays off. For a first launch, FlutterFlow is usually the economical choice.
What FlutterFlow can and cannot do
It handles the things most business apps need: authentication, databases, lists and forms, camera and location, maps, push notifications, in-app purchases and payments. When the visual builder stops short, a developer drops into Flutter and Dart for a custom widget or integration, then keeps it in the same project. You can also export the Flutter code entirely if the app outgrows the builder.
Where it struggles: apps built around advanced real-time graphics or augmented reality, heavy on-device computation, very tight performance requirements, or a platform feature so new that no cross-platform tool has exposed it yet. Games and hardware-heavy apps are the usual examples.
How to choose
Ask three questions:
- How much custom native work does the app need? Little: FlutterFlow. A lot: React Native or native. Read FlutterFlow vs native for where the line sits.
- Do you have a development team now? If not, FlutterFlow keeps you moving without one. If yes, React Native fits an existing engineering workflow.
- What is the app for? A standard business or consumer app: FlutterFlow. A graphics-heavy or hardware-heavy app: native.
Starting on FlutterFlow and moving later
This is a legitimate path, not a compromise. Build on FlutterFlow to launch and learn what the product actually needs. Once it is proven and a team is in place, move to exported Flutter code or rebuild in React Native. Keeping the backend, usually Firebase or a separate API, clean and independent of the front end makes that move far less painful.
What we do
At MarkLogix we build on FlutterFlow for most first apps because it is the fastest honest route to both stores, and we say clearly when an app genuinely needs native work rather than take it on. Pricing is about $500 below the going agency rate and confirmed in writing after a free first meeting. For a recommendation on your app, tell us what you are building and you will get a written scope, not a sales call.