Flutter versus React Native: um estudo de caso considerando consumo de recursos, aspectos da interface gráfica e tempos de inicialização e resposta

Abstract

This work presents a comparative study between the Flutter and React Native frameworks, wi- dely used in cross-platform mobile application development. The main objective was to analyze and compare the performance of both technologies across different performance metrics, including CPU usage, graphical interface fluidity, memory consumption, startup time, interface rendering time, input latency, and response time to requests made to a local Application Programming Interface (API). For this purpose, a case study was conducted, consisting of seven test cases, each related to one of the analyzed metrics, which involved applications developed equivalently in both frameworks and executed on the Android operating system. The use of the applications was automated through PowerShell scripts responsible for executing Android De- bug Bridge (ADB) commands related to gestures. Metric collection was performed using ADB commands automated by Python scripts, in addition to framework-specific tools, such as Flut- ter DevTools, and instrumentation directly in the source code. Subsequently, the collected data were analyzed using Python, enabling the consolidation of results and the generation of graphs used in the comparative analysis. The results indicated that React Native achieved better perfor- mance in memory consumption and startup time, while Flutter outperformed in interface fluidity, rendering time, input latency, and response time to API requests. Regarding CPU usage, both platforms demonstrated efficient performance, with minimal differences. It is therefore concluded that each technology presents specific advantages, and the choice between them depends on the requirements and characteristics of each project.