Comparison analysis of Jetpack Compose and Flutter in Android-based application development using Technical Domain

Currently, the development of Android applications generally used native-based programming languages, such as Java or Kotlin. However, other programming languages have frameworks that can be applied across platforms, such as Dart. Unlike Dart which has a Flutter framework to develop Android applications, Kotlin requires integration with XML, making it complex enough to create just one view. That’s why Jetpack Compose was created. Despite belonging to the newly released technology, Jetpack Compose has been widely used by many large companies such as Twitter to Pinterest, which means that in terms of quality, it is already quite impeccable. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the two frameworks, which use technical domains (comparative domains) as a tool that helps in comparison, where the domains used are performance and testability. In the performance domain, the comparable parameters are application file size, CPU consumption and memory consumption. As for the domain testability, the comparison is the implementation of unit testing. In this study, the case studies used are the calculator application and the film list application. After conducting research, the results showed that there were differences in the results of both types of applications. In the performance domain, Flutter is superior in CPU consumption parameters, both in calculator and film list applications. While Jetpack Compose is better in memory consumption parameters, both in calculator applications and film listing applications. Then in application size parameters, Jetpack Compose is superior to the film listing app, while Flutter is superior to the calculator app. While in the domain of testability, Jetpack Compose is superior in the duration of the test unit on the calculator application although based on the higher deviation standard but the maximum duration is not more than the length of the testing unit owned by Flutter and the difference in duration between each test is not too wide. As far as Flutter is concerned, it is superior in the duration of the test unit on the film list application even though it is based on a higher deviation standard because the difference in duration between each test is quite wide. Based on the analysis, the difference in results in both types of applications can be due to several factors, such as the used rendering machine and compilation technology. But since both have their respective advantages and disadvantages, it is impossible to say that one is superior to the other. The choice between Jetpack Compose and Flutter depends on the needs and preferences of the developer. If developers are more familiar with the Kotlin language and want to use new technologies, then Jetpack Compose might be a better choice. However, if developers want to focus on performance and development speed as well as cost-effectiveness, then Flutter could be a better choice for development platform.