React Native vs Flutter: Choose on Rendering Model, Not Benchmarks

Most framework comparisons end in a benchmark table nobody acts on. React Native renders through real native components, while Flutter ships its own engine and paints every pixel onto a canvas. Almost every practical trade off follows from that single difference. React Native inherits platform feel for free, the keyboard behaviour, scroll physics and text selection, and a TypeScript team can read the codebase on day one. Flutter wins where the interface is custom and must look identical on both platforms, and where low end Android performance has to be predictable, at the cost of Dart hiring and a larger app size. The question that actually decides it is who maintains this in eighteen months, because a framework choice is really a hiring choice. Before the first sprint, settle the minimum supported OS versions, the cheapest test device, and whether offline writes are required, since that changes the data layer far more than the framework does.