7 reasons why mobile developers love Flutter

Every day, thousands of new mobile apps are released into the app stores, making mobile app development an ever-growing part of the software development industry.

With so much activity, it should come as no surprise that there is such a wide array of different languages and frameworks that can be used to develop mobile apps. 

This begs the question: with all the options out there, which is the best technology for mobile app development? Unfortunately, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” answer, but there’s definitely a few front-runners that stand out from the pack.

That is certainly the case with Flutter, one of our favorite frameworks when it comes to developing mobile apps. In fact, we’re far from alone in our love of Flutter. According to Stack Overflow’s 2020 developers survey, Flutter is the most loved mobile development framework for developers. Not only that, but it is also the third most loved framework overall in the “Other Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools” category.

So, is Flutter really that great? We sure think so and, whether you’re a developer looking to learn something new, or a business owner trying to decide on the right technology for their project, we hope this article will shed some light on why this framework is so loved.

First things first: what is Flutter?

Developed by Google and released in 2017, Flutter is a free, open-source framework designed to build cross-platform mobile apps. It uses an object-oriented language called Dart (also developed by Google) to produce apps that work on the most popular mobile operating systems.

It consists of both an SDK (a Software Development Kit) with tools that help developers build and compile applications, and a UI library with a series of reusable elements that help build user interfaces that follow Google and Apple’s design guidelines.

All of this makes it one of the best frameworks for developing mobile apps. Still not convinced? Let’s take a deeper look and discuss 7 reasons we (and most developers) love Flutter.

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1. Flutter is free to use and easy to set up

One of the great things about Flutter is that you will be able to quickly set up your development environment and start coding in no time and with minimum effort. In fact, Flutter’s documentation will take you from zero to your first test app in just three quick steps.

As if that wasn’t good enough, Flutter is also open-source and completely free to use. So, whether you’re part of a big tech company or just a freelancer with limited resources, you’ll be able to take equally full advantage of the framework and all it has to offer.

2. It is clearly and thoroughly documented

You might think that the fact that Flutter uses Dart, a language that is not as widely spread among developers, would make it harder to learn than other popular mobile development frameworks–like Xamarin or React Native–which use more widespread programming languages.

However, Flutter more than makes up for it with its clear, detailed, and well organized documentation that offers a variety of tutorials and examples that will help you develop your mobile app.

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3. It is a cross-platform solution

If you are already familiar with mobile app development, you might know that the two most popular platforms–Android and iOS–prefer different programming languages for their apps (Java and Swift or Objective C, respectively). 

This means that, if you were to develop “natively” you would need to produce two parallel apps (one for each platform) in two different languages, which would probably involve two different teams of developers. 

As you can imagine, that can prove to be extremely costly, especially as you start adding features or fixing platform-specific bugs, leading both projects to start diverging. And we haven’t even gotten to the matter of testing!

With cross-platform solutions like Flutter, however, things are much easier, since you only need to build, test, and maintain one project (in this case, written in Dart), which can then be compiled to run on both platforms.

The result is a solution that is less costly and has a much quicker time-to-market.

4. It allows for fast development

As we’ve seen above, Flutter’s use of a single code base for cross-platform development cuts down on development times considerably. But that’s not the only reason why developing mobile apps with Flutter is faster.

In fact, one of Flutter’s most beloved features is its hot reload, which allows developers to see UI changes they make in their code live in their VMs without having to rebuild their project every time they try something new. 

This makes the process much less tedious, allows more room for experimentation and, of course, cuts down development times significantly.

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5. It uses widgets to build beautiful designs

Flutter’s own website describes the framework as “Google’s UI toolkit”, which goes to show that producing good-looking apps is at the forefront of Flutter’s approach. 

Flutter may be intended for cross-platform development, but it very much contemplates the different design styles preferred by Google and Apple, so it is built to provide tailored UI experiences that conform to both platforms’ native styles.

Moreover, it uses vast libraries of widgets that can be combined to effortlessly produce beautifully designed apps in short order.

6. It is highly performant

It is often thought that the advantages of cross-platform mobile development come at the cost of a significant loss in performance when compared to native apps. Luckily, nowadays, this is mostly not true, at least not for the most popular mobile app development frameworks, and certainly not for Flutter.

Not only do Flutter widgets access each platform’s native APIs to provide features such as photo gallery access and GPS, but apps developed with Flutter also perform smoothly. This means that, in the vast majority of cases, you won’t even be able to tell the difference between apps developed natively and apps developed with Flutter.

7. It is not going anywhere

Last but not least, even though Flutter is a relatively new technology, it has proved to be stable, and everything indicates it has come here to stay.

The fact that it is backed by a tech giant such a Google alone should be enough guarantee of its stability, but it is also worth noting that Flutter has been chosen by other industry leaders such as eBay and Groupon to develop its own products. And that list keeps on growing! 

As a matter of fact, Flutter is gaining ground in the mobile development landscape, and there’s a thriving community of Flutter developers helping to grow its presence and, just as importantly, helping newcomers learn the ropes of this robust framework.

After all, Flutter may be a relatively young development framework, but, as you can see, it has proved to be time and cost-effective, simple, and powerful, so it’s no wonder developers around the world love using it!