Mobile phones are an essential part of our life. We use these devices for different purposes such as paying bills, shopping, finding locations via the map, gaming, watching movies and many others. Millions of people across the world have a smartphone in their hands, and this is rapidly increasing.
Above mentioned, all purposes are fulfilled with the help of mobile apps. Mobile apps are a channel between the users and mobile devices that allows them to perform different tasks of their need.
Apps are one of the best ways to market your product and services. Thousands of new apps are being launched every day to help users in different manners. Having a mobile app is essential these days to stay ahead from your competitors as well.
To develop highly functional and profitable mobile apps, it is essential to choose the best and most suitable language for the development purpose. Java and Kotlin are the most demanding languages today, used for mobile app development.
However, which one is perfect to meet your app objectives can be identified by the professional app development companies. In this writing, we will help you know the difference between Java VS Kotlin. Additionally, which one you should pick for your Android app development. Let’s start.
Brief introduction of Java
Java was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995. It is equipped with lots of syntaxes derived from C and C++. Java is a globally used programming language used that is object-oriented, class-based, simultaneous. It was basically designed for embedded systems.
It helps developers with the concept of “write once, run anywhere” (WORA). It tends that developers can efficiently utilize the same code on different platforms without any need for recompilation.
It is highly popular among the developers due to flawless and high-level security features. It has its unique runtime environment, compiler and interpreter as well. Java has lots of advantages over the other programming languages. It is easy to write, easy to utilize and easy to learn.
Java has lots of features, and some of them are enlisted below:
- Java allows developers to create programs to run within web browsers.
- Java offers network-oriented programming.
- Developers can create apps for online forums, HTML forms, stores etc.
- Java allows developers to create modular programs.
- Java offers high-security features along with robust performance.
- It is a programmer efficient, dynamic and robust programming language.
- It is perfect for the web as it follows the concept of “write once, run anywhere” (WORA).
- It is easy to learn and platform-independent.
What is Kotlin – A Brief Overview?
Kotlin is a general-purpose, open-source, cross-platform and statically typed programming language that includes type inference.
It is based on JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Kotlin can interoperate with Java Class Library and JVM. It is now associated with the latest version 3.0 of Android Studio. It may also compile to JavaScript or native.
Kotlin was released in 2011 by JetBrains, which is based on JVM. According to Dmitry Jemerov, most of the coding languages didn’t provide faster compile time like Java and other desired functional features except Scala. Therefore, the main motto of Kotlin is to offer faster compile time like Java.
The first known stable version of Kotlin v1.0 was released on February 15. In 2017, after the release of Android Studio 3.0 Kotlin got backing from Google for Android app development. As Kotlin has support from the search engine giant Google, it is getting popularity across the globe for Android app development.
On October 29, 2018, the next version of Kotlin released and brought coroutines to support asynchronous coding. One more plus is that in 2019 Google announced Kotlins as its most preferred programming language for Android app development.
Some of the features of Kotlin are as follows:
- It makes the app development process easier.
- Less coding is required as compared to other languages.
- It has an easy learning curve.
- It has zero built-in security.
- Its compiler allows the two languages to work together for the same app development task.
So, what’s your pick for Android app development? To get the best answer to this question, let’s start with a comparison between Java and Kotlin.
Java vs Kotlin
Less Coding
Java is a great language that has JVM, lots of libraries and the frameworks; however, all these features are also available with Kotlin. What is one plus advantage with Kotlin?
There is less coding required for this language. For example, if a program needs 100 lines code in Java, then in Kotlin it can be written in 70 to 80 lines code.
In this way, Kotlin decreases the chances of errors to creep in as the code written is crisp and concise. So, no wonder why developers across the world are moving towards it.
Easy Learning Curve
Kotlin is much easier to learn as compared to Java. Therefore, if you have expertise in the Java language, then it is easy for you to develop apps using Kotlin.
Kotlin has an intuitive and lean syntax that is easy to learn for Java developers. We can say that Kotlin is nothing for a developer having proficiency in Java.
Static Members
Java provides full support for static members and keyword static. In this way, developers need to create them once only and share them with all classes. On the other hand, there are no static members and feature ads in Kotlin.
Robust and High Performance
Kotlin provides a high runtime environment and assists developers to test the apps in less time as compared to Java. However, its complication speed is slower than Java.
Safety and Security – Null Safety
Such type of safety, also termed as void safety. This is a big issue in older languages like Java and others. Don’t surprise, if we say, Kotlin is a bit safer than Java.
As its compiler automatically alienates the errors. So, you can also defer typical errors like NullPointExceptions. In Kotlin, developers can check the null conditions.
NullPointerException is a big factor that is responsible for lots of development errors. Kotlin has zero built-in security; however, it solves the issues of Null by inherent null security. In this way, it also solves issues of writing additional codes for problem-solving purposes.
Community
Java is two decades older than Kotlin. It provides massive community support to its developers that help them get the best solution for the development issues.
Kotlin also has a strong community; however; it is not as big as Java has. This tends that it is not easy to find the answers for the specific questions in Kotlin. But, don’t worry, it is growing, and the size of its community will increase with time.
Interoperability
The key motto of the inception of Kotlin was to provide interoperability to the developers. Now, with Kotlin, you can use two different coding languages in the same project that is not possible with Java.
By scooping a Bytecode, its compiler enables two programming languages to work in the same project in unison. So, there is no need to change the existing code. With Kotlin, developers can provide existing experience and knowledge in the project.
Wrapping up
With the above discussion, we can say that Kotlin is more advantageous from Java due to its innovative and unique coding features. It is also better than Java in terms of speed and coding lines.
However, the decision of choosing between both depends on the requirements of the project. To make a better choice between Kotlin and Java, you should contact a proficient and experienced Android app development company.
Author Bio
Ankur is a CTO at Webs Optimization Software Solution. Being a passionate leader with analytical thinking and technical expertise in Java Application Development, he never fails to provide the best technical solutions. One would always find Ankur with ample energy and enthusiasm to explore new technologies.
