Optimizing architecture in iOS development : a comparative study of MVVM and VIPER using SwiftUI
Moloudi, Behzad (2025)
2025
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121737405
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121737405
Tiivistelmä
The selection of the appropriate software architecture is a very important choice in the contemporary iOS development since it influences maintainability, scalability and long-term performance. In this thesis, a comparative analysis of two popular iOS architecture patterns, namely Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) and View-Interactor-Presenter-Entity-Router (VIPER), is performed when applied to a news reader app written in SwiftUI.
The comparison is based on five architectural dimensions: (1) ease of implementation, including development effort and build stability; (2) code complexity and maintainability; (3) separation of responsibilities across architectural layers; (4) testability, measured using component isolation and coverage; and (5) runtime performance, measured using a custom microprofiler. The analysis shows that MVVM can be developed faster and results in a compact implementation that can be used in small to medium SwiftUI applications. VIPER has additional overhead structure but offers a better separation of concerns and better modularity, which is more appropriate to larger or long-lived projects where maintainability and testability are paramount.
This thesis emphasizes that the decision between MVVM and VIPER is based on the size of the project and the long-term demands instead of the technical excellence.
The comparison is based on five architectural dimensions: (1) ease of implementation, including development effort and build stability; (2) code complexity and maintainability; (3) separation of responsibilities across architectural layers; (4) testability, measured using component isolation and coverage; and (5) runtime performance, measured using a custom microprofiler. The analysis shows that MVVM can be developed faster and results in a compact implementation that can be used in small to medium SwiftUI applications. VIPER has additional overhead structure but offers a better separation of concerns and better modularity, which is more appropriate to larger or long-lived projects where maintainability and testability are paramount.
This thesis emphasizes that the decision between MVVM and VIPER is based on the size of the project and the long-term demands instead of the technical excellence.