Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Flutter VS Kivy

Compare Flutter VS Kivy and see what are their differences

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Flutter logo Flutter

Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀

Kivy logo Kivy

Open source Python framework for rapid development of applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps. Installation on WindowsInstallation on Windows. Installation; What are wheels .
  • Flutter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-14
  • Kivy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-15

Flutter features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Flutter allows you to create applications that run on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, web, and desktop, using a single codebase, thereby significantly reducing development time and effort.
  • Hot Reload
    The Hot Reload feature allows developers to see the results of their code changes almost instantly without a full restart, boosting productivity and making the debugging process more efficient.
  • Rich Set of Pre-Built Widgets
    Flutter offers a comprehensive collection of customizable widgets that follow modern design guidelines, allowing developers to build attractive and consistent UIs effortlessly.
  • Performance
    Flutter applications are compiled directly to native ARM code, which can result in superior performance comparable to native applications.
  • Strong Community Support
    As an open-source project, Flutter has a large and active community, providing abundant resources, third-party libraries, and plugins to accelerate development.

Possible disadvantages of Flutter

  • Large App Size
    Flutter apps tend to have a larger file size compared to native apps, which could be a concern for users with limited storage space or slow internet connections.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    While Flutter is growing rapidly, its ecosystem is not yet as mature as those of more established frameworks, meaning that certain third-party libraries, tools, and plugins might be lacking or underdeveloped.
  • Platform-Specific APIs
    Despite its cross-platform capabilities, Flutter may require the development of custom platform-specific code for certain functionalities, which could complicate the development process.
  • Learning Curve
    Flutter uses Dart, a programming language that is less commonly used compared to JavaScript, Java, or Swift, which may result in a steeper learning curve for new developers.
  • State Management Complexity
    Managing states effectively in large applications can be challenging in Flutter, potentially leading to convoluted code if not handled properly.

Kivy features and specs

  • Cross-Platform
    Kivy allows you to write your application code once and run it on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, reducing development time and effort.
  • Open Source
    Kivy is an open-source framework, which means it is free to use and has a community-driven development model. This also allows developers to contribute to its improvement.
  • Rich User Interface
    Kivy provides a wide range of widgets and controls that can be customized to create highly interactive and attractive user interfaces.
  • Touch Support
    Kivy is designed with built-in support for multitouch events, making it a good choice for applications that require touch interactions.
  • Dynamic and Fast
    Thanks to its use of Cython, Kivy applications can achieve high performance and responsiveness.
  • Consistent Look and Feel
    Kivy apps maintain a consistent look and feel across all supported platforms, which can lead to a better user experience.

Possible disadvantages of Kivy

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Kivy can be challenging for beginners due to its custom language (Kv) and lack of extensive documentation.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to more established frameworks, Kivy has a smaller user community, which can make finding help and resources more difficult.
  • Lagging behind in Platform Integration
    Kivy may not offer the same level of integration with native platform features (such as navigation and notifications) as other frameworks like React Native or Flutter.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging Kivy applications can be complex, especially when dealing with cross-platform issues, as the error messages are not always straightforward.
  • Performance Issues on Some Platforms
    Performance may not be consistent across all platforms, particularly on iOS devices where Kivy apps might suffer from performance degradation.
  • Limited Third-Party Libraries
    The ecosystem of third-party libraries and plugins is not as extensive as those available for other popular frameworks, which might limit functionality.

Flutter videos

beginning of flutter youtube channel

Kivy videos

Kivy Intro - Mobile and Desktop App Dev w/ Python

More videos:

  • Review - Starting on a GUI: WXpython vs Kivy #MP55

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Flutter and Kivy)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
71 71%
29% 29
Game Engine
0 0%
100% 100
JavaScript Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Flutter and Kivy

Flutter Reviews

Explore 9 Top Eclipse Alternatives for 2024
With Flutter 2’s release in 2021, developers now have full support to construct intuitive Windows apps, marking another milestone in Flutter’s inclusive cross-platform vision.
Source: aircada.com
Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
So, above are some of the Flutter alternatives you can consider for your upcoming projects. To make the right selection, you should analyze the characteristics of your applications, which will help you make the most appropriate selection. You can also get in touch with a Flutter development company to go with the right option.
Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
Qt’s native capabilities contribute to its good app performance and size. Compared to Flutter, Flutter apps tend to be larger than native apps. However, the framework’s features and language are designed to boost Flutter app performance.
Source: www.miquido.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Beyond official Flutter built by Google, Flutter Community is an open-source fork-adding capability and component. Flutter Community has specifically expanded device testing coverage beyond Google’s in-house capabilities. With contributors volunteering devices for testing worldwide, Flutter Community tracks compatibility across over 3000 device variants spanning multiple...
Top 10 Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Flutter is a framework that is used by stack developers to build multi-platform apps from a single codebase. It is an open-source project which was developed by Google to build app UI.

Kivy Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
Unlike PyQt, Kivy is free and open-source, isn’t a wrapper around an external UI library, and is licensed under the MIT license, which means you can ship and monetize your Kivy apps.
Source: kinsta.com
Which Python GUI library should you use? Comparing the Python GUI libraries available in 2023
The look and feel of Kivy is extremely customizable, allowing it to be used as an alternative to libraries like Pygame (for making games with Python). The developers have also released a number of separate libraries for Kivy. Some provide Kivy with better integration and access to certain platform-specific features, or help package your application for distribution on...
10 Best Python Libraries for GUI
Kivy was written with a mix of Python and Cython, and it helps build some of the most intuitive user interfaces with multi-touch applications. These multi-touch applications help implement Natural User Interface (NUI), which is a type of interface where the user naturally learns about the various interactions while they’re usually invisible.
Source: www.unite.ai
Top 6 Python Framework for Game Development | by Ankur Kumar | unikaksha | Medium
Kivy is a Python game development framework for businesses. It’s an open-source Python library that lets programmers easily construct apps with unique user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps. Kivy assists in developing apps for Windows, Linux, and iOS devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Android devices such as phones and tablets.
Source: medium.com
Top 10 Python GUI Frameworks for Developers
With Kivy, interface designers can code once and deploy to multiple platforms, while the built-in support for OpenGL ES 2 allows them to use modern and powerful graphics and design techniques. The most common use of the Kivy GUI framework in the real-world can be seen in our Android and iOS applications. Other widespread implementations of the framework can be seen in the...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Flutter should be more popular than Kivy. It has been mentiond 363 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Flutter mentions (363)

  • 🚀 iOS vs Android Development: Which One Should You Learn First? (The Truth No One Tells You!)
    🎯 Still confused? Start with Flutter, which lets you build both iOS & Android apps with one codebase! Check it out here. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Writing and Reading NFC in Flutter | Comprehensive Guide
    Flutter provides robust support for NFC through third-party packages, making implementation seamless. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Building cost-effective AI-driven MVPs with Flutter development services
    Flutter is a powerful, popular, and open-source platform known for its developer-friendly environment, wide ecosystem of libraries, extensions and other tools. A key feature of Flutter app development services is that it promotes the development of cross-platform applications without needing to build or write two or three different codebases. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Build a CRUD Application Using Flutter & Strapi
    In this tutorial, I'll show you how to build a full-featured mobile CRUD application with Flutter and Strapi 5. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • React v19 has been released
    I don't agree but if you're looking for something that renderers everything in a canvas it's called Flutter https://flutter.dev/, and strangely it's made by Google, even though Flutter's success means the end of scraping the web for search. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
View more

Kivy mentions (47)

  • Plain – a web framework for building products with Python
    There are some things available, and people are working on it. Coincidentally, one of those people is Russell Keith-Magee of Django fame, who founded the BeeWare project. https://beeware.org/ https://beeware.org/about/team/freakboy3742/ https://kivy.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • How to Develop a User Data Storage Registration Form Using Python.
    We will create this complete Python registration form using Kivy. We get started by installing Kivy, a powerful Python framework for building interactive applications. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Can I create a mobile and Web App using Python/Python Framework?
    For reference, YouTube runs on Python[1,2,3]: > 1. Python and Django: YouTube’s backend is predominantly written in Python, offering a balance of performance and readability. > 2. Google Cloud Platform... > 3. Java and C++: YouTube also utilizes Java and C++ for specific backend services, as they provide better performance for certain tasks. --- A long time ago, I looked into these Python frameworks: -... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Python GUI libraries? <3
    I suggest you use kivy which is suitable for the desktop but also has the advantage of being one of few options for creating Python based native(ish) mobile apps (for IoS and Android app stores). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Best framework to build a GUI app in Python for windows and macOS?
    I think the best one right now for python is "beeware": https://beeware.org/ You also have Kivy which is prety good: https://kivy.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Flutter and Kivy, you can also consider the following products

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Blender - Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

import.io - Import. io helps its users find the internet data they need, organize and store it, and transform it into a format that provides them with the context they need.

Unity - The multiplatform game creation tools for everyone.

Ionic Framework - A front-end SDK to develop applications with HTML5 , CSS3 and JavaScript.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.