Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PySide VS Flutter

Compare PySide VS Flutter and see what are their differences

PySide logo PySide

Qt for Python - Qt Wiki

Flutter logo Flutter

Build beautiful native apps in record time 🚀
  • PySide Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27
  • Flutter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-14

PySide features and specs

  • Official Support
    PySide is officially supported by the Qt Company, ensuring regular updates and a reliable source of information for developers.
  • Cross-Platform
    PySide allows developers to create applications that run on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, with little to no code modification.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    PySide is backed by extensive and well-maintained documentation, making it easier for developers to find solutions and learn the framework effectively.
  • Open Source
    PySide is available under the LGPL license, allowing developers to use it in open-source and commercial projects without licensing fees.
  • Bindings for QT Libraries
    Provides Python bindings to the Qt libraries, which are highly reputable for their performance and extensive functionality in GUI development.

Possible disadvantages of PySide

  • Potential Licensing Issues
    While PySide is LGPL licensed, understanding its requirements for dynamic linking and distribution can be complex for some projects.
  • Memory Consumption
    Applications developed using PySide can sometimes consume more memory compared to other lightweight frameworks, impacting performance in resource-constrained environments.
  • Complexity for Beginners
    The vast array of features and options available in PySide might be overwhelming for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve to master.
  • Community Size
    PySide's community is smaller compared to other Python GUI frameworks like Tkinter or PyQt, possibly leading to fewer third-party resources and community support.
  • Size of Deployment
    Qt libraries can be large, resulting in increased application size, which can be problematic for users with limited bandwidth or storage.

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.

Analysis of Flutter

Overall verdict

  • Flutter is generally considered to be a good framework, particularly for developers who prioritize building cross-platform applications with a consistent look and feel across devices. Its performance is comparable to native applications, and its flexibility and ease of use make it a worthy choice for both beginners and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • Flutter is a UI toolkit developed by Google that allows developers to create natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. Its primary strengths include fast development cycles enabled by features like hot reload, a rich set of pre-designed widgets that follow Google's Material Design guidelines, and its use of Dart language which offers excellent performance. Furthermore, Flutter has a strong community and backing by Google, ensuring regular updates and long-term support.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to create applications for multiple platforms from a single codebase.
  • Those who appreciate material design and need a rich set of customizable widgets.
  • Teams that value rapid iteration and hot reload features for quicker testing and updates.
  • Projects that require good community support and regular updates from a major tech company.

PySide videos

python tutorials - A More Practical PySide Example

More videos:

  • Review - Pyside2 Introduction & Installation | Qt For Python | Python GUI Development | Pyside2 Vs PyQt5

Flutter videos

beginning of flutter youtube channel

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PySide and Flutter)
Development Tools
5 5%
95% 95
Rapid Application Development
Developer Tools
7 7%
93% 93
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

PySide Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
It’s a great option for creating simple and easy-to-use graphical user interfaces in Python and allows you to add a GUI to your already working scripts pretty easily. PySimpleGUI wraps the power of 4 different GUI libraries, PySide, Tkinter, wxPython, and Remi.
Source: kinsta.com
Which Python GUI library should you use? Comparing the Python GUI libraries available in 2023
Before the Qt Company (under Nokia) released the officially supported PySide library in 2009, Riverbank Computing had released PyQt in 1998. The main difference between these two libraries is in licensing. The free-to-use version of PyQt is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) v3 but PySide is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This means...
Top 10 Python GUI Frameworks for Developers
PySide2 is built by the same company that gave us the widely popular application development framework Qt. Upon looking closely, you’ll come across the term “Qt for Python Project”, which is nothing but the task of porting PySide to support Qt5, whereas the framework itself is now being called PySide2.

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.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Flutter seems to be more popular. 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.

PySide mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of PySide yet. Tracking of PySide recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 / 3 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 / 3 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 / 4 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 / 5 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 / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

PyQt - Riverbank | Software | PyQt | What is PyQt?

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

PySimpleGUI - A simple to use GUI that can create custom GUIs

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.

GTK - GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.

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