SwiftUI or UIKit in 2024 & 2025?
Article Summary
SwiftUI or UIKit? The iOS dev community is split, and new grads are caught in the middle trying to figure out which framework will actually land them a job.
A CS student about to graduate sparked a heated Reddit discussion in r/iOSProgramming about which iOS framework to learn first. The 40+ responses reveal how the industry is actually handling the transition from UIKit to SwiftUI in 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Most companies use hybrid approach: new features in SwiftUI, legacy code stays UIKit
- Junior devs need SwiftUI experience or risk seeming out of touch with ecosystem
- One multi-billion dollar company switched interview coding exercises from UIKit to SwiftUI
- SwiftUI still has limitations for complex UIs like custom PageViewControllers and CollectionViews
- You'll need both: SwiftUI apps still require UIKit for notifications and browser views
Critical Insight
Start with SwiftUI for modern development and job interviews, but expect to learn UIKit basics for interop and legacy codebases.
