Análise comparativa de arquiteturas mobile para aplicações iOS: MVC, MVVM e VIP-C

Abstract

Planning the development of mobile applications in the iOS ecosystem involves architectural decisions that can directly impact code organization, system evolution, and software quality over time. Among these decisions, the choice of software architecture plays a central role and must consider technical requirements, business objectives, and the intended growth of the project. In this context, the following research question arises: how do the MVC, MVVM, and VIP-C architectures influence software quality attributes, and in which project contexts is each architecture more suitable for iOS application development? The diversity of approaches adopted in practice reinforces the relevance of this investigation. The objective of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the Model–View–Controller (MVC), Model–View–ViewModel (MVVM), and View–Interactor–Presenter–Coordinator (VIP-C) architectures, identifying their impacts on quality attributes such as modularization, coupling, cohesion, data flow, testability, and maintainability, as well as to establish guidelines to support architectural decision-making across different project scenarios in the iOS context. To achieve this objective, a qualitative and analytical methodology was adopted, based on a review of scientific and technical literature, including empirical, conceptual, and applied studies. The selected works were analyzed comparatively, considering the distribution of responsibilities among components and the communication mechanisms between architectural layers. The results indicate that MVC is predominantly adopted in initial and low-complexity applications due to its structural simplicity and integration with native iOS frameworks; that MVVM is more suitable for small- to medium-sized projects, especially in the SwiftUI context, as it promotes a clearer separation between presentation logic and user interface; and that more segmented architectures, such as VIP-C, demonstrate superior performance in terms of modularization, testability, and maintainability in medium- and large-scale systems, at the cost of greater initial implementation effort.