Swift or Objective-C: Which is a better programming language for iOS app development in 2022

by Rob Stephen getaprogrammer

When it comes to iOS app development, there are two popular programming languages available, Swift and Objective-C. Here's an article to let you know which one is a better option for advanced iOS application development in 2022.

When you aim to build a perfect native iOS application, one of the most crucial things you need to consider is choosing the best programming language for your project. Well, in terms of native iOS app development there are mainly two programmer languages available, the next-gen Swift and the good old Objective-C.

Now, to choose the ideal programming language for your iOS application development needs, you need to have a clear idea about both and need to understand the differences between the two options you have on hand.

So, without further ado, let's go through the comparison between Objective-C and Swift here in this article and choose the better one for building an advanced iOS application in 2022.

Objective-C vs Swift

Here a detailed comparison between the two languages is shared based on some factors.

Development speed:

Performance of the app is a very crucial factor. And the app performance depends on the memory usage, compile time, and some more factors. In terms of the development speed, Swift is 2.5 times faster and efficient than Objective-C. Simpler syntax and the compile-time error fixing ensure faster and seamless coding and testing.

Interoperability:

Objective-C and Swift are interoperable to each other. You can have a single codebase for an iOS application and can use both the languages for it.

Objective-C is actually derived from the C programming language. This makes Objective-C interoperable to C. This also means that with Objective-C, you can make the most out of the extensive libraries of C++ and C. Swift code is not interoperable directly with C but can utilise the libraries through Objective-C.

Hence, it can be concluded that you can leverage more interoperability with Objective-C as it is interoperable to C, C++, as well as Swift.

Development environment:

You can use Integrated Development Environment or IDEs like XCode IDE for building iOS apps using both Swift and Objective-C. XCode offers everything you need to build a high-performing iOS application from APIs, SDKs, compilers, and frameworks to the in-built development libraries.

If you are using XCode for building iOS apps in Swift language, you get the access to advanced iOS application development solutions. Furthermore, you can use the Cocoa Touch for developing apps for Apple TV and Apple watch too.

Syntax:

Swift is a modern programming language for building iOs applications. Apple has particularly worked on it to enhance developer’s experience while coding or programming with Swift. This language comes with features like automatically inferring variables rather than explicitly defining the variables as in Objective-C language, easy string manipulation, and more. These features make it simpler to use the language. The concise syntax of Swift offers better maintainability of the source codes. Furthermore, developers also learn Swift faster and more easily than Objective-C.

Scalability of Objective-C vs Swift:

A scalable iOS application ensures that the performance is maintained even when the workload increases or more features are added to the application later on without redesigning the application. Swift offers better scalability as compared to Objective-C. It supports easy integraton of external libraries whenever required. Integration of these dynamic libraries help in keeping the original size of the codebase maintainable. With Swift, Object-oriented programming or OOP conventions, code usability, concise syntax, etc., further helps to add new application features easily.

On the other hand, Objective-C programming language does not offer as much scalability as Swift language. Although it does not support object-oriented conventions, difficult external library integration, complex syntax, no support for ARC, etc, make scaling of an iOS app built using Objective-C, difficult.

Memory use:

Some languages rely on the app developers for manually managing the memory usage factor through routines like garbage collection, etc. With Swift language, there’s no need to worry about memory usage management. This programming language uses an automatic feature known as Automatic Referencing Counting for this particular purpose.

This Automatic Referencing Counting feature of Swift language frees up the memory space help by the class instances when these are no longer needed. This feature automatically works for both object-oriented and procedural code paths.

Objective-C, on the other hand, uses only ARC for managing the memory usage in the Cocoa API. Other APIs like the Core graphics API do not support the Automatic Referencing Counting feature for memory usage management like Swift. Developers using Objective-C language for building iOS applications need to carefully manage the memory usage factor as the application can crash in case of improper and inaccurate memory management.

Developers Community:

Swift, being an open-source programming language for iOS application development, has got the support of a strong developers’ community who are always there to contribute to the efficient iOS application development process by writing required libraries, code dependencies, extensions, etc., and solving issues during the development process, which make coding effortless for the developers who are actually developing the applications.

Platforms like Google trends, StackOverflow, etc., show interest among iOS app developers. As per the Google trends, after the release of Swift, it became a more favoured choice than Objective-C for iOS app development.

The Github repositories have 17,000+ Objective-C projects and 1,89,000+ Swift projects. This clearly indicates the demand and popularity of Swift.

Planning for your iOS app project? Then keep these above factors in mind and choose the more advanced and upgraded language for your app.

Rob Stephen is a well-versed iOS application developer associated with the no.1 iOS app development company in Australia, GetAProgrammer. The author has written this article to let you know which is a better programming language, Swift or Objective-C, for building iOS applications in 2022.