Why would I choose Compose Multiplatform/Kotlin over Flutter/Dart?

[martin-braun]

Hi, been looking into this and have immediate questions. In the FAQ it states:

What happens when my mobile OS updates and changes the visual style of the system components or their behavior?

Your UI will stay the same after OS updates because all the components are drawn on a canvas. If you embed native iOS components into your screen, updates may affect their appearance.

Working with Flutter regularly, I see a very similar approach when it comes to rendering the UI components. Say I don't want to embed native SwiftUI components on iOS, why would I choose an unstable Compose Multiplatform over a (mostly) bullet-proof Flutter?

The only benefit I see is that the Kotlin business logic will run natively on the device and I also have a Material UI style, though why would I want to use it for iOS targets and let iOS users feel unfamiliar on their own devices?

If I need native speeds in the business logic, I could also bridge Rust logic into Dart, so what is the unique goal of this project, what does it try to solve that Flutter can't?

[pjBooms]

Hi,

why would I choose an unstable Compose Multiplatform

First of all, we don't recommend to use unstable Compose Multiplatform in production. The primary goal of alpha version for iOS is to let users experiment with it and provide us feedback to move us forward to a stable version.

Compose Multiplatform is a value-add to Kotlin Multiplatform and is based on it.
Target audience of Kotlin Multiplatform differs a bit from target audience of Flutter but of course has non-zero intersection with it and the intersection may become bigger once Compose Multiplatform comes to stable.

We see the following strong points of Compose Multiplatform:

1. You are native on Android. Compose Multiplatform is just Jetpack Compose on Android. It means if you decide to rewrite your UI in SwiftUI for iOS, you should not rewrite UI for Android.

2. Knowledge and skills re-use. Android developers that are familiar with Jetpack Compose (this audience rapidly grows independently from our efforts) can easy start writing Compose Multiplatform applications.

3. Android developers in general. It is still easier to find experienced Android developer than Flutter developer.

4. Kotlin. Yes, we believe in Kotlin. Once you have a back-end in Kotlin (or JVM based), you are becoming full stack with Kotlin Multiplatform.

5. Flexibility and freedom. If we talk about iOS you have a plenty of choices on how to use Kotlin Multiplatform: just share some code, share business logic, share a part of UI via Compose Multiplatform, write the whole application in Compose Multiplatform.

though why would I want to use it for iOS targets and let iOS users feel unfamiliar on their own devices?

It is one of our goals to do our best for iOS users feeling familiar for the majority of scenarios. And you have ways to resolve uncovered scenarios using Kotlin interop.

[SudoDios]

Are they different in performance and support?