We began working with Flutter shortly after it was released. We didn’t start getting serious about apps until the developer community caught up ;) When we started our first app, over 10 years ago, we found that native was really the only way to go. We were not ready to shift to C, Swift, Ruby or Java so we stuck with web apps.
With the release of Flutter, officially in 2018, the landscape changed quite considerably. Flutter was the best tool to write code once and have that be compiled into native iOS or Android code. It gave a native experience to users and provided the smooth interface and interactivity that users expect with apps.
Why should you use Flutter for your business’s next project?
Whether you’re a startup, an enterprise, or a small business, Flutter offers key benefits in terms of development efficiency, cost savings, and delivering a high-quality product.
Cross-Platform Development with a Single Codebase
Flutter allows developers to write one codebase and deploy it on both iOS and Android platforms. This means that companies can save time and resources by avoiding the need to hire separate development teams for each platform.
Benefits:
•Faster development cycles because you don’t need to code apps for multiple platforms.
•Cost savings on both development and maintenance, as you only have to manage and update one codebase.
High-Quality, Native-Like User Experience
Flutter apps deliver a native-like experience across both iOS and Android due to its use of the Skia rendering engine, which draws the UI directly to the screen. This ensures smooth performance and responsive interactions comparable to native apps.
Benefits:
•Consistent performance with 60fps animations, ensuring apps run smoothly on all devices.
•Customizable and flexible UI with native-like look and feel, using Material Design for Android and Cupertino widgets for iOS.
Faster Time to Market
With features like Hot Reload, Flutter significantly speeds up the development process. Developers can instantly see the effects of changes, fix bugs, or tweak the UI without waiting for long build times. This leads to faster prototyping, iteration, and overall development.
Benefits:
•Quick iterations during the development process, allowing rapid feature addition or bug fixing.
•Faster time to market, which is crucial for businesses that need to launch quickly and stay competitive.
Cost Efficiency
By leveraging a single codebase and reducing the need for two separate development teams, companies can cut costs significantly. Additionally, the streamlined testing process (one set of tests for both platforms) further reduces time and expense.
Benefits:
•Lower development costs due to the elimination of separate iOS and Android projects.
•Reduced maintenance costs, as updates and bug fixes only need to be done once.
Customizable and Beautiful UI
Flutter offers a rich set of pre-built widgets that are highly customizable. These widgets allow developers to create beautiful and functional UIs, giving the app a unique identity without compromising performance.
Benefits:
•Custom UI design for a unique app appearance tailored to a company’s brand.
•Effortless responsiveness, ensuring the app looks great on any device with any screen size.
Scalable and Future-Proof
Flutter is backed by Google, which guarantees regular updates, extensive documentation, and long-term support. Google uses Flutter for many of its own applications, ensuring that it will continue to evolve with the latest technological trends. Additionally, Flutter has been expanding beyond mobile to support web, desktop, and embedded systems, making it a future-proof choice for companies looking for long-term scalability.
Benefits:
•Long-term support and updates from Google, ensuring the framework remains cutting-edge.
•Scalability to web, desktop, and beyond if needed, all from the same codebase.
Strong Community and Ecosystem
Flutter has a thriving open-source community, contributing to a wide range of plugins, libraries, and packages. This helps speed up development by enabling developers to integrate common functionalities quickly without building them from scratch.
Benefits:
•Access to a growing repository of third-party plugins and tools, reducing development time.
•Strong community support for troubleshooting and finding resources, ensuring projects move forward smoothly.
Seamless Integration with Native Features
Although Flutter is a cross-platform framework, it offers the flexibility to integrate native code (Swift, Kotlin, or Java) when necessary. This is important for companies that need access to specific hardware features or platform-specific functionality.
Benefits:
•Full access to platform-specific APIs or features when needed, without sacrificing the cross-platform advantage.
•Flexibility to enhance the app with custom native code for specialized functionality.
Performance and Speed
Unlike other cross-platform frameworks, Flutter doesn’t rely on a JavaScript bridge to communicate with native components. This gives Flutter a performance edge over similar solutions, as it compiles directly to ARM machine code, leading to faster execution and a smoother user experience.
Benefits:
•Optimized performance comparable to native apps.
•Reduced load times and smoother animations, providing a better user experience.
Perfect for MVPs and Startups
For startups or companies building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Flutter is an excellent choice. It allows you to develop an app quickly for both platforms, gather user feedback, and iterate rapidly, all while minimizing costs. Once the app gains traction, you can scale or add native features as necessary.
Benefits:
•Rapid prototyping and quick market validation.
•Flexibility to scale and grow the app after launch.
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Whether you’re building a consumer-facing app, a business tool, or a product MVP, Flutter is the framework that delivers cross-platform efficiency, stunning UIs, and long-term scalability — all backed by Google and a vibrant community of developers.
For businesses looking to reduce costs, speed up development, and ensure their app stays future-proof, Flutter is an excellent choice.