KOTLIN vs JAVA — Which One Is Better For Android App Development?
By: Amyra Sheldon
Tags: Kotlin Vs Java, Hire Java Programmers, Hire Java Developer, Hire Kotlin Developer, Kotlin And Java

Kotlin vs Java war; this will help businesses choose the best between Kotlin and Java technology for Android app development.

KOTLIN vs JAVA — Which One Is Better For Android App Development?

Here, Kotlin vs Java parameters are mentioned, those will help your business choose the best programming language for Android app development.

Developing Android applications is a fabulous option to attain success in your business, but along with that picking up the best programming language is the real challenge. In the market “n” numbers of technologies are there and choosing the best among them is like searching for the needle in the grass.

Here I will talk about only two trending technologies that are Kotlin and Java. Well, these two technologies are very famous for Android app development, but the difficulty arises when businesses need to choose anyone between Kotlin and Java. Just because of this startup, SMEs and even large enterprises met with several queries remain in their mind until its development such as:

Which is better: Kotlin vs Java for Android Development

Is Java technology faster than Kotlin?

Java or Kotlin for building leading business applications in 2021?

Can we use Kotlin and Java at the same time?

Which technology is easier: Kotlin or Java?

Never Ending List…

Picking the best for Android app development is a difficult task; however, it can be simplified by making a comparison between both Java and Kotlin. Let’s view who will win the Kotlin vs Java war.

Kotlin vs Java War Begins

In order to begin the war, it is crucial to know the vital factors of Kotlin and Java; that’s why firstly I will give technologies overview. Well, knowing about the technologies and choosing the best is just not enough, as to handle the Android app development process efficiently, it is really important to hire Android app developers from the top software outsourcing company.

Kotlin Overview

Kotlin is a more advanced programming language inspired by Java; it is an enhanced version of it with so many supplementary features. Kotlin is clean, comparatively easy, and includes fewer formalities and rules related to Java and other technologies.

Why Choose Kotlin?

827 organizations are using Kotlin in their tech stacks. (Stackshare) Kotlin is an open-source tool with 34.1K GitHub stars. Pinterest, Evernote, Twitter are the most popular apps using Kotlin.

Pros

Code penned in Kotlin is much smaller than the code written in Java. Less code means fewer bugs.

Kotlin Application Deployment is quicker to assemble and prevent applications from expanding size.

Kotlin script can be utilized to align projects in Android Studio for auto-completion.

Kotlin assembles the code to a bytecode that can be executed in the JVM.

Cons

It has a small support community compared with Java. Additionally, it has fewer libraries.

Kotlin resembles weak patterns, and code readability becomes quite hard to read and understand.

Kotlin has a steep learning curve.

Fewer Kotlin programmers are available in the market. So, finding an experienced one is difficult.

Java Overview

Java is the object-oriented programming language built by Sun Microsystems. It is the native language allowed to build any program and supports Android, Windows, and Linux.

Why Choose Java?

9465 organizations are utilizing Java in their tech stacks. Java is an open-source tool with 32.5K GitHub stars. Spotify, Twitter, Google and more are very famous apps using Java.

Pros

Java can work on any device, server or operating system

This programming language can easily create modular applications and reuse the parts.

While examining Kotlin vs Java performance, Java is simple to use, compiling, and making debugging.

Java several libraries are managed by trusted organizations like Google, Apache, and others.

Cons

The syntax that Java uses is complicated compared with other languages ​​like C + or Python.

With Java, it is difficult to access some content that may be inappropriate with the devices being used.

In Java test-driven development, more code writing is required and carries a higher risk of programming errors and bugs.

Java is slower compared with other programming languages.

Java vs Kotlin: Which One Is Best Kotlin or Java?

Advantages of using Kotlin over Java and Java over Kotlin will help in analyzing the result of Kotlin vs Java war.

Advantage of using Kotlin over Java

Source: Google

Kotlin is a one-stop language for all application development. It supports lots of IDEs, Android Studio, in comparison with Java.

Nullability is the major issue faced by Java programmers. But if I talk about Kotlin, then it can address nullability issues by placing null right in its type system.

In Kotlin shorter codes are written; this decreases the chances of creating bugs. Whereas in Java, long codes are used, that’s why the bug causing rate gets higher.

Benefits of using Java over Kotlin

Source: Google

In Kotlin, there is a steep learning curve. It's extremely compact syntax and that’s why it requires some learning upfront.

Kotlin presents a slower compilation speed than Java in several cases.

The Kotlin community is still growing and learning, so it is hard to find problems to answer.

Android Studio few features like auto-complete and compilation run slower in Kotlin in comparison to Java.

Kotlin vs Java: Comparison Between Kotlin and Java

The comparison between Java and Kotlin (Java vs Kotlin) will help businesses in choosing the best technology for Android app development. Both whether it is Java or Kotlin includes multiple features and sometimes it is quite difficult for normal users to make correct use of it and to resolve such things you can hire Kotlin app developers or hire Java app developers from the top Android app development company.

What Java has that Kotlin does not?

Checked Exceptions

Examination of short programs leads to the conclusion that wanting exception specifications could improve developer productivity and code quality. But experience with extensive software projects suggests a mixed result; this decreases productivity and code quality.

Kotlin does not include checked exceptions. There are reasons for this, but here I discussed a simple example.

The following example is of JDK implemented by StringBuilder class: What does this signature say? It says that all time I add a string to something (a StringBuilder is sort of a log, a console, etc.) and have to catch those IOExceptions. Why? Because it might be performing IO and it results in this sort of code all across the place:

Coding Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/exceptions.html

This is no good but can be corrected using Java.

Primitive type arrays

Kotlin has specialized classes to express arrays of primitive types (means Kotlin does not have direct functionality of primitive types arrays) without boxing overhead: ByteArray, IntArray, ShortArray, and more. These classes have no inheritance connection to the Array class. Each of them also has a similar factory function:

Coding Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/basic-types.html

Wildcard Types

This is the most complex part of the Java type system. The wildcard type in Java controls the type safety of the use of generic types. It can be employed in variable declarations and instantiations as well as in method definitions.

Kotlin does not include any of the Wildcard Types. Apart from this Kotlin does not include Static members, Ternary-operator a ? b:c.

What Kotlin has that Java does not?

Extensions

Kotlin allows you to extend a class with new functionality without using design patterns like Decorator. This is achieved via special codes called extensions; this mechanism is called extension function. For example, Kotlin developers can write new functions for a class from a third-party library that developers can’t change.

2. Null Safety

The most common mesh in many programming languages, including Java, is that obtaining a member of a null reference result in a null reference exception.

Whereas, Kotlin’s type system is intended to exclude Null Pointer Exceptions from our code. Android chiefly relies on Null to describe the absence of a value, but it can simply destroy an application. Kotlin efficiently resolves this obstacle by adding inbuilt null safety.

3. Range expressions

Kotlin allows you to produce ranges of values utilizing the rangeTo() function from the kotlin.ranges package and its operator form … Ordinarily, rangeTo() is complemented by in or !in functions.

Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/ranges.html

Data Classes

We often create classes whose chief purpose is to hold data. In such a class, some usual functionality and utility functions are mechanically obtainable from the data. In Kotlin, this is known as data class and is labeled as data:

Image Source: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/data-classes.html

Kotlin also includes Lambda expressions + Inline functions, Smart casts, String templates, Properties, Primary constructors, First-class delegation, Singletons, Declaration-site variance & Type projections, and more features.

Kotlin vs Java Comparison Table

Ending Words: Who Took The Crown?

By observing different parameters of Java and Kotlin, I found Kotlin leading the Kotlin vs Java race. This is so because Kotlin interworks with Java and presents incremental modification of code and excellent type systems to Java.

In order to make the right use of Kotlin in Android app development hire Kotlin developers from a reputed Android app development company. This will help the startups, SMEs and large enterprises get reliable app development solutions and meet the business goal in less time frame.