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In the pursuit of expedited, cost-effective, and streamlined routes to bring products to market, a leading force in the industry must devise meticulous production plans equipped with the appropriate tools.
For startups focused on synchronous app development, engaging in multi-platform production can pose a significant hurdle. The involvement of multiple teams and cross-platform development introduces additional costs, depleting financial resources and reducing the project’s runway.
It is, therefore, in the best interest of business owners to seek a cross-platform framework that enables a cohesive team to construct a multi-platform product from a single codebase. This approach eliminates the need to allocate teams to distinct platforms for the same task, be it for mobile, web, or desktop applications.
Flutter emerges as a valuable tool in expediting product development and synchronizing release schedules, facilitating the expansion of customer outreach and, naturally, boosting profit margins.
This framework proves particularly advantageous for aspiring industry leaders, considering the ubiquitous presence of mobile and desktop technologies, making interconnectivity and cross-platform support essential for any burgeoning project.
What is Flutter?
Flutter stands as an open-source framework developed by Google, designed to facilitate the creation of seamless and scalable cross-platform applications. Its platform-agnostic codebase empowers developers to construct high-performance applications featuring functional and visually appealing user interfaces, comparable to those of native Android and iOS programs.
In simple terms, Flutter serves as Google’s portable UI toolkit, enabling the crafting of beautiful, natively compiled applications for any platform using a single codebase. Leveraging the Dart language, developers and organizations globally harness Flutter to swiftly and efficiently launch their minimum-viable projects.
To achieve this efficiency, Flutter relies on a library of pre-made widgets and a range of plugins that streamline and expedite application development. The framework predominantly employs the Dart language, a modern and concise object-oriented programming language that experienced developers can swiftly grasp to read, modify, and customize their desired widgets.
Beyond its decade-long evolution as Google’s brainchild, Flutter provides users with a myriad of competitive advantages, including:
Reason 1: Seamless Cross-Platform App Development
Flutter has experienced a surge in popularity primarily due to its platform-agnostic framework.
The dominant mobile operating systems, iOS and Android, necessitate native app projects to be written in the languages specific to each OS—Swift and Objective-C for iOS, and Java or Kotlin for Android. While this ensures a UI aligned with the respective OS, the inherent nature of native apps mandates organizations to develop multiple codebases, one for each device hosting its version of the app.
This approach incurs additional costs for hiring developers to manage separate code bases for each platform, extending the timeline for creating multiple builds of the same product. Natively coded Android and iOS applications further entail recurrent expenses as business owners repeatedly utilize their employee base.
Flutter’s platform-agnostic nature offers a solution to this challenge. As a leading cross-platform development framework, Flutter introduces a single codebase for all platforms, utilizing reusable widgets applicable not only to mobile app development but also to progressive web apps, desktop applications, and more.
Furthermore, Flutter stands out as one of the most comprehensive Software Development Kits (SDKs) available, extending its usability beyond mobile applications. Google designed the Flutter framework with the goal of promoting cross-platform app development within a unified repository, granting users significant control over the final product. Its widget-based technology enables developers to reuse code across multiple projects, facilitating rapid refinement and evolution of applications based on organizational needs. Compatible with major editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, and VS Code, Flutter ensures accessibility to a wide range of development environments. The framework’s focus on delivering an exceptional user experience in an easily learnable package fosters collaboration, making it accessible to individuals at any stage in the production process.
What is the Business Value?
Flutter’s Cross-Platform support feature brings about two significant contributions to business:
1. Cost Reduction:
2. Code Reusability Success Story:
An illustrative example of Flutter’s cost-saving prowess is the experience of Crowd Source. Leveraging Flutter, they witnessed a remarkable 50% reduction in code size and a 100% increase in development speed. This transformative efficiency enabled Crowd Source to seamlessly replicate their Android App across all platforms, extending its reach beyond Android and the web to include iOS.
The streamlined cost-effectiveness of Flutter can be attributed to its efficient codebase. Recognized as a straightforward and user-friendly platform, Flutter empowers users with elegant widgets that deliver high performance while requiring less code than native applications. The platform’s emphasis on code reusability is key. Developers can craft engaging, feature-rich applications using cross-platform-friendly UI components, achieving efficiency by utilizing over ninety percent of the code. This not only saves time and effort but also contributes to significant savings in the app development budget.
Faster Time to Market
For many emerging businesses, the prolonged development duration of separate apps has made time to market a formidable challenge. While some may consider forgoing cross-platform support and launching exclusively on one operating system, this approach risks limiting the customer base and potential revenue.
Flutter addresses this challenge with one of its key features—rapid testing mechanics. The hot reload feature significantly accelerates the app development process by eliminating the need to recompile the entire app to observe each code change. This expedites the development cycle, providing more opportunities for code experimentation and bug fixing.
An exemplary case is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which utilized Flutter to launch an application aiding veterans in acclimating back into civilian life 30% faster than anticipated. The STAIR app, designed to reduce anxiety among veterans, suggests activities for them to engage in whenever stress or overwhelm arises.
Reason 2: Performance
Another compelling factor driving the adoption of Flutter by numerous companies is its exceptional speed and performance, provided you adhere to the best practices emphasized in their extensive documentation.
How does Flutter measure up in terms of speed?
Recent insights from inVerita shed light on Flutter’s impressive speed compared to other cross-platform frameworks and even native development languages. According to inVerita’s findings, Flutter compiled 95% faster in CPU-intensive tests for iOS and Android, specifically the Gauss-Legendre and Borwein algorithms. Surpassing the compilation speed of native development languages like Swift and Objective-C, Flutter emerges as a credible alternative for building native apps. It’s noteworthy that not all cross-platform apps exhibit sluggish performance; in certain areas, Flutter outpaces Swift.
Flutter achieves its accelerated performance through three key avenues:
1. Flutter's DevTools:
Offering profiling, code coverage display, and the popular performance overlay, Flutter’s DevTools are instrumental. The performance overlay provides statistics on rendered frames and their millisecond increments. Ideally, each frame should be created and displayed within 1/60th of a second to achieve a smooth 60 frames per second. Failure to meet this standard results in a jittery and suboptimal user experience.
The streamlined cost-effectiveness of Flutter can be attributed to its efficient codebase. Recognized as a straightforward and user-friendly platform, Flutter empowers users with elegant widgets that deliver high performance while requiring less code than native applications. The platform’s emphasis on code reusability is key. Developers can craft engaging, feature-rich applications using cross-platform-friendly UI components, achieving efficiency by utilizing over ninety percent of the code. This not only saves time and effort but also contributes to significant savings in the app development budget.
2. Skia:
Flutter employs the Skia rendering engine, Google’s 2D graphics library. Skia serves as the primary graphics engine for various Google products, including Chrome, ChromeOS, Android, and, of course, Flutter. The reactive programming of the Skia engine ensures that UI elements are automatically updated in response to changes in state, contributing to a seamless user experience.
3. The Dart Language:
Dart, optimized for creating fast-performing apps, plays a crucial role in Flutter’s exceptional performance. Leveraging Ahead of Time compiling, Dart enables the creation of fast, almost native apps within Flutter, without the need for a JavaScript bridge that could introduce performance bottlenecks.
The consolidation of code into a single base and the utilization of testing features, particularly hot reload, played a pivotal role in reducing development time.
Still not convinced? Consider Reflectly’s success story.
Despite having only two engineers, Reflectly managed to deliver both an iOS and Android App within just two and a half months, slashing their initial five-month timeline by 50%. The team attributed this achievement to leveraging Flutter’s widgets to expedite development. Users appreciated the intuitive design, leading to continued double-digit growth every month.
What is the Business Value?
Flutter sets its performance benchmark at a minimum of 60 frames per second, or 120 fps on devices with a capability of 120Hz and above. This commitment ensures a seamless and stutter-free user interface, enhancing the overall user experience.
The significance of optimal performance is underscored by the fact that poor performance stands as the primary reason users refrain from returning to an app. A staggering 70% of mobile app users, as reported by TechJury, will abandon an app if it exhibits extended loading times. Forbes emphasizes that a mere one-second delay in response time can escalate the bounce rate by 7%, and according to AppsFlyer, nearly 50% of applications are uninstalled within the first month of download.
Compounding this, statistics reveal that following a subpar mobile experience with a business application, 40% of users opt to switch to a competitor.
This implies that despite a successful customer acquisition process, the loss of a paying user can occur solely due to inadequate app performance.
Flutter addresses this challenge comprehensively by ensuring swift app loading and delivering smooth frames. By enhancing overall performance, Flutter aims to not only retain customers but also generate a higher Return on Investment (ROI) for businesses.
Reason 3: Popularity
Flutter has ascended to the pinnacle of app development popularity, with over two million developers adopting it in the past three years. Introduced by Google in 2015 and officially launched in 2018, Flutter swiftly emerged as the preferred toolkit for numerous developers, surpassing React Native to claim the title of the foremost mobile app development framework.
According to Statista’s research, Flutter’s adoption among software developers has steadily risen from 30% in 2019 to 42% in 2021, marking its dominance over React Native for the first time in three years.
Presently, there are more than 500,000 Flutter-based applications available on the Play Store alone. Flutter has garnered over 11 billion app downloads across various operating systems, constituting 3.55% of the world’s mobile applications and contributing to 8.33% of newly developed apps.
Prominent entities such as Toyota, BMW, eBay, and Alibaba, as well as the Broadway-favorite Hamilton, have embraced Flutter for their applications.
As Flutter continues its trajectory, the next milestone is achieving a market majority. The success Flutter has enjoyed underscores the meticulous attention and care that Google has invested in addressing some of its challenges, such as application size and the availability of third-party resources. While these improvements will evolve over time, Flutter’s trajectory toward market dominance appears promising.
Why is Flutter a Pervasive SDK?
In this article, we delve into the reasons behind Flutter’s widespread popularity. The framework stands out by offering cross-platform support, enabling the use of a single codebase for Android and iOS applications. Simultaneously, it trims production time while delivering application performance that rivals native apps, even with more intricate features.
A considerable factor contributing to Flutter’s popularity is the robust support from Google. The company has invested substantial time, effort, and resources, signaling a commitment to sustaining the SDK for the long term—a reassuring prospect for developers.
It’s noteworthy that many of Flutter’s advantages are not entirely unique, as other cross-platform frameworks, such as React Native and Codename One, share some similarities.
In contrast to Codename One, Flutter appeals more to novice developers seeking alternatives to React Native, Cordova, and NativeScript. Codename One primarily caters to Java and Kotlin developers, creating a limited overlap, given the perceived technical complexity and verbosity of Java or Kotlin for beginners. Flutter, with its refined project structure and comprehensive documentation, emerges as a more accessible option for those new to development compared to Codename One.
When comparing Flutter to React Native, Flutter excels in user-friendliness due to Google’s commitment to feature parity and cross-functionality. Flutter apps remain consistent across iOS and Android even after system updates. In contrast, React Native, reliant on native elements in iOS and Android, often encounters issues with app functionality following OS updates.
Flutter’s reliance on custom widgets managed by its graphics engine mitigates this problem, setting it apart from React Native.
What is the Business Value?
From a business perspective, the increasing popularity of Flutter underscores the importance of ongoing development. Flutter’s sustained support from Google is a reassuring signal, indicating a commitment to the project’s longevity.
This scenario positions Dart and Flutter to play a more substantial role in the native application market. Competing against the formidable combination of Flutter, the Dart Language, and Google could become a significant challenge for smaller frameworks in the computer ecosystem. As Flutter continues to thrive, businesses can find confidence in its enduring support and anticipate its growing influence in the realm of native application development.
Create a Cross-Platform App Using Flutter
The aforementioned considerations shed light on the increasing favorability of Flutter and the inclination of businesses toward adopting this framework. Developing an app with Flutter offers a streamlined and cost-effective process. As Flutter reduces the need for extensive coding, the overall development cost is significantly lower compared to constructing separate native apps, which require coding for both iOS and Android. Beyond the cost savings, apps crafted with Flutter demonstrate performance comparable to that of native apps.