What is Lynx? Flutter vs Lynx vs React Native

Today it’s 5th of March 2025 and there’s a new cross-platform framework announcement. Well, maybe not brand new. It’s actually open sourced. The team says they’re starting with the v3 version and just moving their work to a GitHub repository (2k stars already!) and opening up the code. Lynx says it’s battle-tested already by TikTok itself.

As we can read:

Today, Lynx powers an extremely wide spectrum of surfaces—from the lightweight, high-frequency Search panel to full-fledged TikTok Studio app; from complex e-commerce storefronts like Shop that demand reliability and trust, to highly engaging experiences like LIVE, as well as powering high-profile events and cultural moments such as Disney100 on TikTok and The Met Gala on TikTok.

OK. Let’s see what they have there.

So what’s Lynx?

Lynx is a React Native, Chromium, and Flutter-engine inspired framework for building cross-platform apps. Or I should rather say embedded apps or views.

Let me quote why:

Currently, Lynx is not suitable for building a new application from scratch. You need to integrate Lynx (engine) with your native mobile app or web app, and load Lynx apps through Lynx views. With a few steps, you can start developing with Lynx in your application.

As we can read in their documentation, this clearly states its purpose. If you have an app and want to do shared views, Lynx is a way to go. In contrast, React Native and Flutter allow you to create apps from scratch. So that’s the first significant difference. Maybe Lynx will allow that in the future, but clearly it doesn’t now.

Lynx is for Android, iOS and Web

Lynx Engine allows creating LynxViews on Android, iOS, and Web, or pixel-perfect consistency via custom renderer.

Lynx is fast 🎸

What’s really important for LynxViews is that they’re rendered natively, as the creators promise:

For the generation of digital natives, mobile phones—and the apps on them—are their first digital experiences. For these app-centric users, a non-native experience isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a red flag. A blank screen, a 0.1s lag in a 'like’ animation, or an unfamiliar UI pattern can make an interface feel 'cheap’ or untrustworthy. We believe that native primitives and responsiveness aren’t just nice-to-haves—native is a necessity.

Programming experience

Lynx embraces the familiarity of web development, allowing developers to write markup and CSS just as they would for the web. So Lynx will be a perfect fit for developers already familiar with React especially, but also with web technologies in general.

Sample code for Lynx:

import { root } from "@lynx-js/react"; 

function App() { 
  return ( 
    <view style={{ 
      marginTop: "50%", 
      transform: "translate(-50%, -50%)", 
      marginLeft: "50%", 
      width: "150px", 
      height: "150px", 
    }} > 
      <view style={{ 
        flexDirection: "column", 
        background: "radial-gradient(circle at top left, rgb(255,53,26), rgb(0,235,235))", 
        width: "100%", 
        height: "100%", 
        maskImage: "radial-gradient(circle 75px, black 75%, transparent)", 
        position: "absolute", 
      }} > 
        <text style={{ 
          fontSize: "32px", 
          fontWeight: "bold", 
          alignSelf: "center", 
          color: "white", 
          marginTop: "50%", 
          transform: "translateY(-50%)", 
        }} > 
          LYNX 
        </text> 
      </view> 
    </view> 
  ); 
} 

root.render(<App />); 

if (import.meta.webpackHot) { 
  import.meta.webpackHot.accept(); 
}

2 threads of power

Lynx implements a strategically designed two-thread architecture that separates UI processing into distinct execution environments. This architectural approach creates:

1. Instant First-Frame Rendering (IFR): Backed by usability research, if rendering is fast enough—and Lynx is—no special intermediate feedback is needed. By briefly blocking the main thread until the first frame is fully rendered, Lynx eliminates blank screens, creating a perceived instant experience.
2. Main-Thread Scripting (MTS): A small, statically scheduled piece of code, privileged to run on the main thread, handles high-priority events and gestures—making it ideal for implementing silky-smooth, highly responsive interfaces that feels native.

Is Lynx the Next Big Thing in cross-platform development?

Lynx is here, and it looks pretty promising.

Flutter struggles on the web—it forces developers to use Dart, has accessibility issues, and doesn’t work well with the DOM. React Native also faces pressure to support web properly. The fact that react-native-web exists proves this, but many developers act like it’s not a big deal.

Lynx might finally be the solution—a React-based framework that works everywhere and uses the DOM properly.

Let’s see what happens. It takes a lot to take a place in the React Native vs Flutter race. Fingers crossed!