Dart or Kotlin for Your Cross-Platform App Development? An Analysis.
Cross platform app development is increasingly capturing the imagination of many mobile app development companies thanks to its versatility. It aids you in building and deploying an app over various platforms, including the web. In other words, when you build a single app, you are maximising its reach by targeting the iOS and Android platforms as well.
Dart is a preferred programming language for cross platform app development, while Kotlin for Android mobile app development among many other competing programming languages. Flutter, powered by Dart, is widely considered as the silver bullet of cross-platform app development.
Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) is Kotlin’s answer to cross platform app development. It enables a single codebase for the business logic of iOS and Android apps. There are lots of discussions going on for which language for which kinds of mobile apps, and Dart vs. Kotlin is gaining momentum thanks to its popularity.
Let’s find out the most suitable framework for your mobile app development project by doing a quick analysis of Dart and Kotlin.
About Dart
Google developed Dart as a user-oriented programming language. It is particularly designed to deliver optimized client apps and ease the mobile app development process. Since its release in 2011, it has demonstrated its prowess to be ahead of time.
As “a new web programming language with libraries, a virtual machine, and tools”, it allows you to write anything from simple scripts to full-featured apps. With user-friendly interfaces and excellent performance on different platforms and devices Dart has managed to build excellent web and mobile applications. It is usually used with the Flutter framework. Many developers prefer Dart thanks to its Google backing. Read another insightful comparison between Flutter and React Native.
About Kotlin
Developed by JetBrains, a leading-edge software vendor, Kotlin is a modern object-oriented programming language. It was initially built to be a simpler language than Java and hence as a substitute for Java. It runs on JVM (Java virtual machine) and supports Java’s libraries. Many mobile app development professionals prefer Kotlin thanks to its “Interoperable with Java” characteristic feature. Its prominence has grown far and wide and has become all the more popular after Google’s announcement in 2019 making it the preferred language for android app developers.
Dart vs. Kotlin — A Multi-factor Comparison
It is essential to choose the right programming language for your mobile app development project. But how do you do it? The best way is to compare your shortlisted languages on diverse aspects such as their acceptance, market share, learning curve, and app development costs. Let’s dive into it right now!
Public Acceptance
Public acceptance is the approval or popularity of these technologies with the mobile app developers. The popularity is also a yardstick to know how easy it is to hire developers. There has been a snowballing interest in both languages for the last couple of years. According to the Google Trends graph, Google users show more interest in Dart.
As per the StackShare community, Kotlin has a larger approval: it is mentioned in 268 company stacks & 208 developers’ stacks. Whereas, Dart is listed in 19 company stacks and 78 developer stacks. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020 states that 78% of the developers use Kotlin, while Dart is used by 4% of them. TechRepublic’s list of top five programming languages gives equal space for both Dart and Kotlin.
Market Share
In market share analysis, the common comparison comes between Flutter and Kotlin. Flutter is a cross platform app development framework based on Dart programming language. In overall market share, Kotlin has 17.41% of apps, and Flutter has 1.82% of apps.
Learning Curve
When developers consider learning a new programming language for mobile app development, it’s rational to consider the learning curve of each language. Clients also find it sensible when they plan to pull together a project team. The easier languages make the availability of developers easier.
Kotlin is considered as a rather easy to learn language thanks to the detailed documentation on it by Google. Kotlin Multiplatform has relatively scant limited resources compared to Flutter and Dart in the cross platform mobile app development landscape. But we need to also consider the relative newness of this platform.
App Development Costs
When it comes to mobile app development costs, both Dart and Kotlin are on similar scales. Being open-source languages, both give free access to the original code and the right to change them. As both are capable cross platform app development languages, developers can roll out MVP faster. As both Android and iOS applications from a single code base it reduces the cost of hiring. It also saves cost and time as two different versions for two operating systems need not be built.
Are Dart and Kotlin. Technical Differences.
· Kotlin and Dart language syntax share many similarities.
· Both have the same rules for writing comments and handling white spaces
· Both are Object-Oriented Programming Languages
· These two are statically typed programming languages with a bunch of rules that confirms the consistent integration of all parts.
Dart vs. Kotlin: Cross platform Support
The cross platform app development landscape has profound familiarity with the Flutter-Dart coding combo. It keeps receiving high performance and great native support.
Kotlin Multiplatform is also touted as a great language for cross platform app development. Its multi-platform programming calibre cuts down the time spent on writing and maintaining the same code for different platforms.
When it comes to performance analysis with regard to cross-platform development, Flutter owes its great performance to the Hot Reload feature. It permits you to change the code and see the effect instantly. Code modularity and testability are Kotlin’s performance key.
In point of fact, you cannot reach a cut and dry conclusion as to what programming language you should use for cross platform mobile app development. Many consider Flutter as an admirable low-cost language for startups. But experts are also of the view that Kotlin could be your best if you work with any pre-existing Java code that can be altered to Dart.
Concluding Remark
We’ve done a comprehensive analysis of Dart vs. Kotlin. Do you feel that any one language can become the ultimate winner? It’s confusing, right?
Both of them have admirable benefits, but Dart with Flutter takes the overriding position. The reason could be its better known position in the market. So, let’s wait and see if Kotlin overtakes or keeps pace with it as a programming language for cross platform app development.
