Are you still wondering which framework you should use to create your next mobile application? When it is time to choose the technology on which the application will be created, there are many variables to consider. But there are two main points to contemplate first. They are the time and cost of mobile app development. Nowadays, many frameworks reduce these two variables. One of the leading solutions is the Flutter development framework. In this article, you will get a view of why Flutter could be a good choice for you or your company.

1. Free and Open Source

First of all, Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit created by Google. The framework provides an easy way to post issues and access documentation from open developer forums. That means it helps app developers to learn and grow their skills. Another benefit of open source software is that everything is well documented and gives advantages like flexibility, quality, and freedom.

2. Cross-Platform Solution

When you create an application with Flutter, it allows you to write code once and then uses it on multiple platforms. This saves a lot of time and effort in writing code for different platforms, compared to native development frameworks. The total cost and development time are minimized. Currently, applications made with Flutter can be published on iOS, Android, the web, and desktop.

3. Powerful UI Engine

Flutter has a lot of widgets that help with UI implementation. The framework provides more than 1,000 in-built widgets. It makes designing beautiful user interfaces much easier and faster. Flutter also has two sets of design types (Cupertino and Material Design). It allows developers to create interfaces with a user experience that is closest to the native app.

4. Plenty of open source packages available

If your Flutter app requires more advanced features, there’s a huge chance you can find a package that will help you out with implementing them. Pub.dev contains a lot of ready-to-use libraries made by developers from across the globe. There you can find the simplest packages like buttons and switches or advanced ones like video players or maps. Developers constantly keep their packages updated and make them more extensive.

5. Performance

Flutter’s performance is one of the highest even in comparison to native programming languages, and it wins over other cross-platform technologies. The standard Flutter frame rate is 60 frames per second (FPS). The Flutter Dart’s code is drawn on the system canvas. This gives the application an additional performance boost. Everything lies in the architecture. Here is what Flutter architecture looks like compared to React Native (which is equally popular as Flutter) architecture.

Flutter architecture:

React Native architecture:

As it can be seen, React Native consists of two parts in the architecture – a JavaScript language bridge and Native components. A React Native application is built on JavaScript but interacts with native components like cameras or Bluetooth via a bridge. Flutter doesn’t need any bridge to connect the application with the native components, which causes the app’s running speed to be greatly faster in Flutter compared to React Native. Let’s keep in mind that Flutter is constantly being improved and that with each update, the framework’s performance gets better and better.

6. “Hot Reload”

The unique hot reload feature makes Flutter app development enjoyable and faster. With Flutter, there is no need to rebuild the mobile app every time you change something in your code to see the changes you make. You can easily see changes in your app in real-time, so you have more opportunities to experiment with the code and fix bugs in real-time.

7. Animations

When it comes to beautiful applications, they usually contain a lot of moving objects that make the application “alive”. Flutter was created with animations in mind and makes developers’ lives easier. Implementing and managing animations is easier than in native solutions, which makes mobile app development fun again. A perfect example of a Flutter application that contains various animations is Reflectly. This application shows the power of the Flutter engine in the best possible way. Recently, Michał wrote more about animations in Flutter, check it out here.

8. Less time spent on Quality Assurance

The Quality Assurance process has an impact on the time and cost of application development. In the case of the Flutter, this time is greatly reduced. A single codebase affects testing time. When an app has been tested on one system environment, then you can be sure that it will work correctly on the other environments as well. To sum up, you save time and money because automated tests have to be written only once for all platforms.

9. Startup-friendly 

Currently, the Flutter framework seems to be the most attractive cross-platform development option. It offers extremely quick time-to-market with the lowest possible costs. Flutter became a powerful engine to hit the niche fast with MVP products. App development with Flutter guarantees about twice a shorter time-to-market period.

Contact

Do you want to find out more about Flutter development?

Talk to us!

10. Growing Popularity and Developer Community

There is a powerful community of many developers who work to make Flutter better. These developers have published thousands of packages on pub.dev. Every package has at least one widget that you can implement in your application.

If you have any issues with Flutter, face errors while using the tool, or have questions about the framework, you will easily find a solution once you search for it on the web. There’s a big chance that there are GitHub issues or StackOverflow questions about what you are looking for. StackOverflow has a lot of Flutter developers willing to help you, so feel free to ask questions with the Flutter tag. As we previously compared the performance of Flutter and React Native, now we will compare the popularity of frameworks over the last 5 years.

Flutter’s popularity compared to React Native:

Flutter is the future of cross-platform mobile development

Here are many reasons why you should use Flutter. Keep in mind that Flutter is a young framework that is still evolving. Framework app development is going in the right direction, and more and more people are starting to love this tool. The big community also gives capabilities to increase developers’ skills. I believe that Flutter will rule the cross-platform mobile development sector.