Flutter vs Compose Multiplatform

If you’re here, chances are you’re either planning to start developing a mobile app from scratch or considering migrating your existing app to a new technology. One of the biggest questions at the beginning of any project is which technology to choose.

In recent years, cross-platform frameworks have gained increasing popularity, due to versatility and significantly increased speed of development. With a single codebase, you can develop both iOS and Android apps at once, which is a major advantage for startups and businesses that want to build their app quickly while keeping budgets under control.

Choosing which technology to use is not such simple though. Each cross-platform framework comes with its own set of benefits and disadvantages. As Flutter and Compose Multiplatform are one of the first choices, let’s have a closer look.

In this blog, you will read about the strengths and weaknesses of these technologies, which will help you understand when it makes sense to choose one over the other.

Flutter

The first stable version of Flutter was introduced in 2018, and since then, it has rapidly grown and become a leading choice for cross-platform development for Flutter is a modern UI toolkit built on the Dart programming language, designed to streamline cross-platform development.

At the heart of Flutter’s architecture lies a widget-based system, where every component, from a single button to an entire screen, is treated as a widget. This unified structure simplifies the development process and promotes consistency across platforms. On top of this, declarative coding style makes it enjoyable for programmers working with framework.

During development, Flutter utilizes JIT (Just-in-Time) compilation for a feature known as „hot reload.” This allows developers to see code changes reflected on the screen almost instantly, which dramatically accelerates the iteration and debugging process.

For rendering, Flutter uses its own engine (Impeller or SKIA) to draw the UI directly to the screen. This means the app’s appearance is perfectly consistent across all platforms, ensuring a high-quality, pixel-perfect design that doesn’t rely on native UI components.

Advantages of Using Flutter

Developing a mobile app with Flutter can be easier because it offers:

Vast Community and Ecosystem

With strong backing from Google and a large global developer base, Flutter provides extensive resources, plugins and third-party libraries that simplify and speed up development.

Flexible UI and Design Capabilities

The framework includes a wide set of ready-to-use widgets and a powerful toolkit. This allows developers to create beautiful, dynamic and highly customized user interfaces.

Consistency

Flutter uses its rendering engine to draw every pixel. This guarantees that the user interface will look absolutely identical on every platform, regardless of the operating system. This is a huge advantage for designers and teams who want a pixel-perfect, consistent look without needing to adjust for platform specifics.

Disadvantages of Using Flutter

Even with its many benefits, Flutter has some drawbacks compared to other solutions:

Larger App Size

Flutter apps are often larger than native apps. This can be a disadvantage for users with limited phone storage or slow internet speeds.

Performance Limitations

While Flutter is fast, native development may still offer better performance in certain cases. This includes tasks that require very intensive calculations or rely heavily on device-specific features.

When Is Flutter the Right Choice?

Flutter is the best fit for projects that prioritize a consistent, visually rich interface across multiple platforms. Flutter is ideal when:

• Fast development and quick iteration of UI are needed
• The app requires custom, highly branded designs and animations
• You want full control over the look and feel without relying on native components
• You prefer a mature ecosystem with numerous ready-to-use plugins and widgets

Compose Multiplatform

Compose Multiplatform (CMP) has been on the market for some time. But recently it has been gathering more and more traction. With beginning of May 2025, JetBrains announced that CMP is stable for iOS. It means you are ready to write production-level mobile apps for Android and iOS with CMP.

What’s worth noting, when choosing JetBrain’s ecosystem you get access to powerful tools allowing to build more than just frontend using same language – Kotlin. Kotlin Multiplatform allows developers to share core business logic across platforms, while Compose Multiplatform builds on that idea by bringing Jetpack Compose to cross-platform UI.

When looking at Kotlin Multiplatform vs Compose Multiplatform, the key difference is that KMP focuses on the shared logic layer, while CMP makes it possible to share the UI as well. With Compose Multiplatform, you can write UI and business logic in Kotlin and share it between Android and iOS, which makes development faster and more consistent.

Advantages of Compose Multiplatform

If you want to create a cross-platform mobile app, Compose Multiplatform offers several key benefits:

Kotlin Ecosystem

Compose Multiplatform uses Kotlin, the same language as native Android. Teams with Android experience can adopt it easily and use their existing skills.

Performance

Compose Multiplatform gives native-level performance, which is useful for animations or demanding features. It uses the native UI toolkit on each platform, so the app runs smoothly and responds quickly.

Direct Access to Platform Features

Because it works closely with the native platform, accessing platform-specific APIs is easier. You don’t usually need extra plugins or custom bridge code.

Disadvantages of Compose Multiplatform

Compose Multiplatform is still fairly new. Its community, libraries, and tutorials are smaller than those for Flutter or React Native, which can make development slower and finding help harder.

When to Use Compose Multiplatform

You should consider Compose Multiplatform when your project fits the followingcriteria:

• Your team already knows Kotlin
• You need native navigation and platform-specific UI
• You want to use existing Kotlin code
• Your app needs platform-level performance and compliance

Conclusion

When deciding between Flutter and Compose Multiplatform for mobile app development, there is no single “best” option. Both frameworks offer powerful benefits. Flutter is an excellent choice if your goal is to deliver visually consistent apps on both Android and iOS quickly, with the added advantage of a large ecosystem and community support.

Compose Multiplatform, on the other hand, is especially effective for teams already invested in Kotlin who want to extend their Android expertise to iOS and share the codebase.