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So, what was the mobile app development story before Flutter?

Let's consider mobile application development in 2016.

To develop an iPhone app, you needed a different codebase, and the Android app required another framework. And then there was a tedious browser war, wherein developers brainstormed how to optimize the Chrome browser. This brainstorming led to removing CSS from the browser engine, and to their surprise, it spiked performance levels. 

Realizing the potential of a cross-platform mobile app development browser, developers focused on bringing this notion to reality. And this led to Google presenting their first such product, Flutter, to the market. 

This guide covers Flutter's necessary information, its benefits, and how to use it to build incredible apps within a short time. Altogether, you'll get a view of how Flutter is the right solution for your mobile application development company.  

The Much-Needed Mobile App Development Platform: Flutter 

Wondering whether Flutter is the right platform for your next mobile app development project and whether your business will gain something out of it?

Regardless of whether you're a CEO, CTO, or a technical lead, you’ll find Flutter blessed with benefits that elevate performance and decrease project delivery time. More so, it invites developers to incorporate modern technologies into their applications. 

So, what is Flutter?

For every new mobile app development project, developers face the challenge of choosing what instrument to use and what platform to choose. True that every project is different, but there is one thing uniting them: the resulting app must run on as many devices and platforms as possible. Before Flutter, developers tediously build prototypes for different app platforms, which, to be honest, was very frustrating.

And that is why Flutter was a game-changer in the mobile application development arenas. 

Introduced by Google in December 2018, Flutter is an open-source technology used for coding and building native apps for Android and iOS. It is a cross-platform mobile app development platform that allows coding apps for mobile, web, and desktop effortless and easy, through a single codebase. 

Although it is relatively new in the mobile app development world; it is highly recognized and known worldwide. 

Flutter simplifies coding while adjusting to the visual consistency of an app between platforms. 

Its programming language, Dart, was initially thought of as a replacement to JavaScript. 

Its open-source and free nature make it equally popular with React Native on GitHub and Stack Overflow.

Currently, Google employs Flutter for its Assistant modules and Google Home user interface. More so, there are more than 50,000 Flutter apps available on Google Play Store, and this value is heavily increasing. Even popular e-commerce channels like the Alibaba Group, eBay, Groupon, etc., use Flutter to give their web, mobile, and desktop apps a unique and uniform look. 

As per Tim Sneath, Group Product Manager at Google, Flutter is the result of developers dreaming about a powerful, general-purpose, and open UI toolkit to build incredible application experiences on the web, desktop, mobile, and beyond. 

Do you need a cross-platform mobile app development platform?

Before Flutter came into existence, cross-development mobile app development platforms had an unworthy reputation: coding issues, slow performance, and too much maintenance. Developers said the cross-platform platform lacked native capabilities to access the coding device's microphone, camera, and geolocation services. 

While a mobile app development company was skeptical whether to invest in cross-platform development or not, Google introduced Flutter as the gleaming product for such prospects. More so, Flutter is faster than your common development platform, is superbly cost-effective, and solves a crucial need in the market: coding mobile apps for several platforms with a singular codebase. 

Is Flutter worth my next mobile app development project?

Answering the question you landed on this blog for, is Flutter a considerable choice for your mobile application development project?

Well, right there are Flutter competitors to consider, and every cross-development mobile app development platform has some unique features; the former is way better than the latter options. 

Therefore, let's take a close look at what makes Flutter better than other frameworks. And then you'll be able to decide whether you should or should not choose Flutter. 

Same logic and UI for every platform 

Mobile app development service experts have known that every cross-platform framework has a way to share the codebase between target platforms. However, except Flutter, there is no other cross-platform framework that allows developers to share the UI code and the UI. 

To illustrate it better, let's consider the following example. 

It is how the UI rendering process allows features to stay compatible in every platform. However, UI rendering of platform-specific components requires property mapping for platform widgets and widget data synchronization. That means a developer has to map every animation into a platform-specific device. Complicated: isn't it!

Coming back to Flutter, you don't need any platform-specific UI components for UI rendering. Instead, the application UI only needs a canvas to draw from Flutter. It makes your framework standout, and you don't have to worry about maintaining consistency and performance on different platforms. 

It saves time, effort, and the mental sanity of a developer! 

Reduce coding time:

Developers would agree that shipping an Android app onto a test device takes so much time. And sometimes, changing a small visual aspect in a layout can take so many days. Before you bring Android Studio's preview layout into this discussion, let us tell you the feature is limited and doesn't always work well as expected, especially when it comes to custom views. 

And this is where Flutter's hot reload feature comes into the picture. 

It allows you to see changes made instantaneously without losing its refined application look. It is why Flutter is the perfect choice for a mobile app development company since it has a blazingly fast development speed.  

It has several ready-to-use widgets in its framework, which are easy to customize and saves a lot of development time. Its creative core layout widgets make it better than any other cross-platform mobile app development framework. All in all, it makes the mobile app development process more straightforward, hassle-free, and less worrisome. 

Faster time-to-market speed:

Once and for all, Flutter's development framework is incredibly faster than its alternatives. Developing an app using Flutter is 2X times faster than that of iOS and Android app development. 

Why so?

It's dead simple: you don't have to write platform-specific code but a single codebase that'll adjust its visuals for different app frameworks. You can add 2D-based specific UI in Flutter without disturbing its native counterpart. 

More so, Flutter's API for UI building boosts your app's performance. When it comes to visual adjustments, nothing beats the changing layout speed of Flutter. Subsequently, it improves your app's performance. 

Better than the Native app Performance: 

We all know how crucial an app's UI is for its end performance. While there is no end cap on how better Flutter's app performance is; however, it is for sure better than a native app and even better during complex UI animation. 

Unlike its other cross-platform frameworks, Flutter does not need an intermediate code representation or an interpretation. Its code is directly built into machine code, eliminating any performance bugs encountered during the interpretation process. 

In time, you'll release an application compiled for modern speed and needs. 

Customize anything and everything: 

One of the biggest reasons mobile app development companies prefer using Flutter is its innate customization ability for any UI, irrespective of its complexity. While you can customize UI for other native platforms, the time required differs by a colossal magnitude. 

Flutter, however, makes the entire UI customization process versatile and flexible to your needs. Be it shared element transition, color changes, shadow manipulations, and shape changes, Flutter can do anything and everything for you in the least possible time. 

It has its rendering engine:

Flutter's rendering engine Skia helps code apps that look incredible and feels smooth. It is a robust cross-platform mobile app development framework that allows you to adjust the UI and transfer it to another platform, simplifying the development process. 

Platform-specific logic:

Other than the UI, several other app components require advanced logic. For example, GPS coordinates, Bluetooth communication, accumulating sensor data, permission handling, storing app credentials, etc. Several of these are already available to a developer, thanks to Flutter's ready-to-use plugins. 

Well, of course, there might be features not available as a Flutter plugin, but don't worry! You're covered here as well. 

Flutter eases the communication between a platform-specific code and Dart via platform channels. This way, you can get so much with your Flutter app than any native app framework. 

Not limited by web, desktop, and mobile but beyond:

With Flutter, you don't just focus on mobile app development but beyond. You can employ Flutter for the web or Flutter for Desktop as well. And since it's a Google product, you can expect several other noteworthy updates in the future. 

For instance, Google presented Flutter Web's technical preview and how it makes it possible to run Flutter apps in a web browser without requiring any source-code modification. 

Such innovations in mobile application development mark it different from any other cross-platform mobile app development platform. With Flutter, a mobile app development company has a robust cross-platform development tool within its reach. 

More so, an experienced Flutter developer can run a Flutter app on any platform: Android, iOS, Browser, Windows, macOS, Linux, and other embedded devices. Thanks to its Dart code, you don't have to stress about app performance and user experience. 

Does Flutter have any cons?

True that Flutter is quite versatile in mobile app development; it still isn't immune to limitations. A mobile app development company might face some restrictions while employing its general-purpose and open-source solutions. 

Impressive but not rich libraries and support 

Google framework for Flutter is incredible. It consists of several helpful libraries and functionalities that are ready-for-use. However, you might not find all features you're looking for. It means, sometimes, a developer might need to build some functionalities, which is a rather time-consuming process. 

However, Flutter evolves rapidly, and Google will fix most of these issues by the time you think of incorporating them into your mobile app development process. 

Not widely supported by continuous integration platforms:

As of now, several CI platforms like Travis and Jenkins do not support Flutter. Therefore, automatic building, testing, and deployment require custom script maintenance. However, knowing Google, Flutter will undergo some rapid transformations. 

For example, Google announced a new CI/CD platform called Codemagic in 2018. More so, Bitrise declared its full-featured support to the Flutter CI.

React Native better in some prospects:

If a mobile app development company needs a prototype or a single-page application, React Native is a better solution than Flutter. 

Not a proud choice for high-load apps:

Although Flutter apps are known for outstanding performances; however, if you want to code a high-load app to stream trade data or incorporate an AI component, Flutter or React Native aren't the best choices. 

Is Flutter the right choice from a mobile app development company's perspective?

As a mobile app development company, you only want to invest in platforms that add value to the process. Flutter's exceptional stability during cross-development, ever-growing UI tools, and lightspeed performance guarantees improvement and enriching customer experience. 

Suppose you're considering Flutter for your next mobile application development project; it's worth it. Flutter lowers risks and complications as:

• Seamless product development is in the future since Google is working on Fuchsia OS that amalgamates perfectly with Flutter.
• There is a vast pool of developers using Flutter for mobile app development. Hence, there is no shortage of talent. 
• The list of companies employing Flutter for their web, app, and browser apps keeps on growing. The top representatives include Alibaba, Google Ads, AppTree, My Leaf, Reflect, and more. 

All such aspects make Flutter the right choice for your next mobile app development service. Compared to its counterparts, it lowers business risks and empowers products with a modern Google engine. 

So, should you try Flutter?

Yes, you definitely should! 

The top advantages include:

• business logic and app UI doesn't change with the platform 
• faster time-to-market speed 
• faster code development 
• similar to native app performance 
• Customize UI and tools 
• zero dependence on platform-specific UI components 
• suitable for all target platforms 
• lowers business risks and losses 
• own rendering engine 

In conclusion, Flutter is a well-performing cross-platform mobile app development platform. It is only a matter of time before Flutter surpasses all its competitors.