Swift vs Rust Performance, Popularity, Salaries, Features, and Applications
If you want to build applications for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and other Apply applications, you should learn Swift.
Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for building applications for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Although Swift is a general-purpose programming language, it is primarily used for building apps for the Apple ecosystem.
On the other hand, if you are interested in building command line tools, network services, embedded systems, webAssembly, or systems programming, you should learn Rust.
Rust is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language that emphasizes performance, type safety, and concurrency.
Comparing programming languages and choosing which one to learn can be tricky, there are many factors to consider in order to choose the right programming language for the job you want to do.
Popularity, opportunities, types of projects, salaries, resources, learning curve, etc. are some of the factors that many people consider when comparing programming languages and choosing which one to learn.
Here are some of the comparisons and considerations you should make when choosing to learn a new programming language.
SWIFT VS RUST POPULARITY
Comparing the popularity of programming languages is not an easy task because each programming language is different and they all seek to solve different problems.
Plus, other programming languages have been around for a longer time than others, giving them more time to be tried and tested, so, bear that in mind.
If you want to learn a programming language solely for its popularity among developers, you should learn Rust over Swift.
Generally, Rust is more popular than Swift. According to a Stack Overflow survey of 2022, Rust is the 14th most commonly used programming language, it is used by 9.32% of developers.
On the other hand, Swift is the 19th most commonly used programming language, it is used by 4.91% of developers.
Rust is also more loved by developers than Swift within their respective communities. Actually, Rust has been the most loved programming language for seven years straight.
As of 2022, Rust is loved by 86.73% of developers versus 13.27% of developers who dreaded it.
On the other hand, Swift is loved by 62.88% of developers versus 37.12% of developers who dreaded it.
Ultimately, if your choice of which programming language to learn depends on popularity, you should learn Rust.
Also read Rust for Game Development
SWIFT VS RUST SALARY
Another popular criterion that many people use to compare programming languages and as an incentive to learn a new programming language is salary.
Salaries for developers differ from one company to the other and from one country to the other.
Experience is another factor that comes into play as far as salaries are concerned.
The more experience you have with a certain technology or programming language, the more likely you are of getting a higher salary.
Generally, Rust developers get higher salaries than Swift developers. According to Glassdoor, Rust developers with 1 – 3 years of experience get an estimated pay of $98,610 per year.
On the other hand, Swift developers with 1 – 3 years of experience get an estimated pay of $72,399 per year.
Similar estimates are also reflected in the Stack Overflow survey of top-paying programming languages.
According to the Stack Overflow survey, Rust developers get an average salary of $87,047 per year.
On the other hand, Swift developers get an average salary of $74,468 per year, about $12,000 less than Rust developers.
So, if the salary is your major incentive for learning a language, you should learn Rust over Swift, because you are more likely to get a higher salary as a Rust developer than as a Swift developer.
Here are 10 Programming Languages that Pay more than $90,000
SWIFT VS RUST WHICH ONE IS EASIER
Swift is generally easy to work with than Rust. Swift was designed to be relatively easy to learn and read, especially for those with a background in programming.
Swift has a clean syntax and offers modern features, making it an accessible language for beginners.
On the other hand, Rust has a steeper learning curve compared to Swift due to its focus on low-level programming concepts.
Rust can be quite challenging, especially for complete beginners. Some Rust concepts like ownership and borrowing add a little bit of complexity to the language.
But if you are familiar with systems programming, you will find Rust very easy and straightforward.
Especially when you are targeting low-resource devices, Rust will give you low-level control without giving up high-level conveniences, this makes it a little bit easy to work on systems.
The good news is that there are plenty of helpful resources for both Rust and Swift to help you learn the languages.
The Rust and Swift communities are very active and helpful, in case you get stuck with something.
Also read Can Swift be used for Game Development
SWIFT VS RUST PERFORMANCE
If you plan on working on applications where top-notch performance is critical, you should learn Rust over Swift.
Rust is known for its emphasis on performance and control over system resources.
It provides fine-grained control over memory management, and its ownership system enforces strict rules that prevent common bugs like null pointer dereferences and data races.
Rust’s zero-cost abstractions allow you to write high-level code without sacrificing performance. It also provides advanced features for concurrent programming.
As a result, Rust is often chosen for systems programming, networking, embedded systems, and other performance-critical applications.
One of the best features of Rust is how it handles memory.
While developers have to manually handle memory management in languages like C++ or use a garbage collector with languages like Swift, Go, Java, Scala, Kotlin, etc. Rust takes a unique approach;
Developers can still handle memory without shooting themselves in the foot with a concept of ownership and borrowing. This makes it easy and quick to build reliable and efficient software.
Since Rust does not perform garbage collection, it is often faster than other memory-safe languages like Swift.
SWIFT VS RUST FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS
SWIFT
Swift is the best language to create software for the Apple ecosystems, it has many great features that make development easy and straightforward.
Swift code is safe by design and produces software that runs lightning-fast. Swift helps developers to build applications quickly by taking care of some of the tasks.
For example, memory is automatically managed, and enforcement of exclusive access to memory guards against many programming mistakes.
Another great feature of Swift is its interoperability with other languages like Objective-C. This makes it easy to call Objective-C code in a Swift codebase and vice-versa.
Swift code can co-exist alongside existing Objective-C files in the same project, with full access to Objective-C API.
If you are coming from an Objective-C background, you will not have difficulties working with Swift.
Swift powers many complex applications developed specifically for iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and iPadOS.
Also read Can Swift be used for Game Development
RUST
Rust has great unique features that make it suitable for building command line tools, network services, embedded systems, and more. One of the best features of Rust is how it handles memory.
Rust can power performance-critical services, run on embedded devices, and easily integrate with other languages.
Rust can interface with other programming languages such as C and C++, it has a foreign function interface that can be used to call code written in C from Rust and to call Rust code from C.
Rust also has a library called CXX that can be used to call C++ code from Rust and to call Rust Code from C++.
There are many companies using Rust, some of the popular ones include Dropbox, Firefox, Cloudflare, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Discord, Mozilla, NPM, etc.
SHOULD I LEARN SWIFT OR RUST
If you are interested in a high-performance language that can help you in developing systems quickly, working on command line tools, network services, embedded systems, and webAssembly, you should learn Rust.
If you want to build applications for iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, iPadOS, and other Apple applications, you should straight away learn Swift.