.png)
Flutter is one of the most sought-after mobile app development frameworks with an open-source environment. The benefits of Flutter app for businesses cannot be overemphasized as the platform is used to develop startup-friendly, fully-featured 2D mobile apps for iOS and Android. Flutter app development has been gaining ground as one of the go-to options for App development.
Flutter is a portable and profoundly revolutionary UI toolkit from the search engine giant Google used for developing natively-compiled and visually attractive apps in order to enhance the experience of users or customers. This new SDK (Software Development Kit) was launched after Android P.
What is Flutter?
Flutter is a cross-platform tool designed for creating intuitive iOS and Android applications using a single codebase via a reactive, modern framework, widgets, and tools. Flutter app development is based on the use of Dart programming language – that was launched in 2011 – which is object-oriented. Dart is a simple, client-optimized programming language that is used for writing app developing code for Flutter that runs on multiple platforms. It was developed by the search engine giant for building mobile, desktop, web, and backend applications.
Using this programming language to write apps makes the syntax looks somewhat similar to Java. The code is mostly combined using standard Android or iOS toolchains, which are typically used for specific mobile platforms.
This makes it even more convenient and provides much better performance, making it an excellent match for tech startups and businesses looking to invest in Flutter app development.
The central concept of Flutter revolves around the visual, platform, and interactive widgets, as every part of the UI is composed of a combination of different widgets. Each of these widgets defines one structural element or the other (like a menu or button), an aspect of the layout (e.g., padding), a stylistic element (such as a color scheme or font), etc.
Flutter doesn't use OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) widgets. Still, it makes use of its off-the-shelf widgets, which looks and works like a native app on iOS applications (Cupertino) or Android (Material Design). Developers or companies that are dedicated to Flutter App Development can use the cross-platform to create custom widgets. This makes Flutter App Development interesting, easy-to-learn for newbie mobile app developers.
Flutter is also making excellent progress in terms of popularity. The open-source framework has successfully made it to the top 100 software repositories based on GitHub stars at the time release preview 1 was officially announced in June 2018. The framework has risen up the ranks as the benefits of Flutter app for businesses are getting more appreciated. And Flutter is presently among the top 30 software repos.
The primary goal of the Flutter app project is to enable the simplified and rapid development of cross-platform mobile apps. The design of the mobile app is practically the same, irrespective of the operating system – i.e., iOS or Android – of the device.
This promising trend has shown no sign of slowing down any time soon because it keeps rising every day. The benefits of Flutter app for businesses were so profound that thousands of Flutter applications have now found their way to app stores. One of the most used and prominent mobile application that was built using the Flutter cross-platform framework is the Alibaba app, with over 50 million users.
Other big brands that use Flutter to create impressive, visually-appealing applications and enhanced app experience for their numerous customers include:
- Google Ads
- Hamilton Musical
- Google Greentea
Flutter App Development has become a very serious competitor to React Native as well as to native application development.
Benefits of Flutter App for Businesses
The following are some of the benefits of Flutter app for businesses:
1. Faster Code Writing
For app developers, Flutter means more dynamic and faster mobile application development. Users can make immediate changes in the code and see the result almost instantly in the mobile app. This is the famed ‘Hot Reload’ everyone talks about, which typically takes only milliseconds and helps Flutter app development teams fix bugs, add features, and even experiment faster. This is just one of the things that top app developers love about Flutter.
‘Hot reload’ is also very comfortable, especially when it comes to developer-designer cooperation any time app developers want to experiment or improve the look of a mobile application so that they can check the effects immediately or without delay. In other words, with Flutter, your mobile app development team can work together with your tester or designer on the UI, making quick changes, and seeing the outcome immediately.
Most types of code adjustment or changes can be swiftly hot reloaded, though a handful of list changes may require a full restart. But in the case of native application development, the project has to be rebuilt from scratch and may even take much more time, and time is money. You will have to wait for every single change, which may take several minutes.
2. Backed Heavily by a Large Community Support, Courtesy of Google
As mentioned earlier, Flutter is the brainchild of search engine giant Google, which is entirely free. And everyone knows how consistently supportive the tech giant can be when it comes to technologies or platforms under them with frequent updates and issue fixes.
And since the introduction of this powerful and intuitive cross-platform development framework, Google has pulled out all the stops to provide constant support to upcoming Flutter mobile application developers. Since then, the Flutter app development community has been growing from strength to strength.
The 25k GitHub is more than enough proof of the growing popularity of the Flutter cross-platform framework. Google organizes several events, helping both startups and established businesses to catch up, discuss, or learn how Flutter app help to grow businesses. Google also looks into bugs encountered by mobile app developers and how they can be fixed.
Therefore, if your business apps are built using Flutter, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to developer support as well as consistent upgrades. Google, your beloved search engine, is more than capable of taking care of it.
3. An Excellent Choice for Advanced UI
The Flutter software renders every part of the interface by using an internal graphics engine known as Skia, i.e., the same used in Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Sublime Text 3. This incredibly fast and well-optimized software allows Flutter to behave far more differently than most other mobile application development frameworks.
Using Flutter is somewhat synonymous with writing code for a game. Right from the operating system, you will come across a blank canvas, and every UI element is drawn by application.
The Flutter app development team has put in extraordinary work to recreate Apple Design System elements and Material UI components internally. As might be expected, users can make or create their own components, and this is the aspect where Flutter truly shines.
Creating visually-appealing custom UI elements is relatively straightforward, and they can work seamlessly on both iOS and Android. This makes the Flutter cross-platform framework an excellent choice for mobile applications with highly advanced and custom UI designs.
4. Access to Device Features
One of the primary reasons why a lot of people are scared of cross-platform solutions has to do with issues with seamless access to native features. After all, what makes your mobile app stand out may include haptic feedback, GPS, the usage of camera, etc. But you can get all these features when you build your mobile application with Flutter.
You may have to set up Android or/ and iOS code in Java/Kotlin or/and Objective-C/Swift. And then send data to Dart – i.e., the primary programming language used in developing Flutter – via a special or unique mechanism known as platform channels.
The Flutter core team and the community as well as prepared channels for the majority of the native functionalities of your smartphones so that you do not have to write them on your own. Channels are waiting for users that want to make use of the native library, which is not too popular.
5. Enhanced Time-to-Market Speed
Flutter app development framework functions faster than all its alternatives. One of the immense benefits of Flutter app for businesses is that it requires at least two times fewer working hours to develop compared to the same mobile application developed separately for iOS and Android.
The primary reason for this is simple: there is no need to write any platform-specific code in order to achieve the result you desire in your mobile application. A 2D-based UI can be readily implemented in Flutter without necessarily interacting with a native app counterpart.
Moreover, Flutter offers a declarative API for creating UI, which significantly boosts the mobile application's performance. This is even more evident when it has to do with visual adjustments.
These five benefits mentioned above about Flutter app development are not the only ones because Flutter has many other advantages such as:
- Its ability to provide better user experience via the use of third-party integration
- Native codes
- The exploration of native features with Software Development Kit (SDK)
- Native performance
- Flexible and highly expressive UI
- Single code for front end and back end
- Perfect for a minimum viable product (MVP)
- An open-source project
- Availability of custom, animated UI
- Ability to go way beyond mobile
Is There Anything Holding Flutter App Developers Back?
Mobile app developers that build native iOS and Android apps may be a bit put off by the need to learn Dart, which is yet another programming language. This is why most employers looking to hire a team of Dart developers to help them create their Flutter applications may encounter staffing issues because only a handful of mobile app developers out there know or understand Dart programming language.
However, because Dart programming language is very easy to learn compared to other programming languages, a serious mobile app developer should not find it difficult to pick up Dart as it will be an added advantage to the developer.
The unique features of the Dart programming language are very similar to Java. The similarities between Java and Dart enable app developers to make quick and easy shifts. Flutter is undoubtedly a much better option for app developers because of its relative ease of usage, astounding editorial integrations as well as the availability of better widgets.
But then, if you are into developing games or you require a mobile application that is loaded with several device-specific functions, Flutter may not be the right platform for you or your business.
Most doubts about Flutter app development is as a result of its novelty. Some mobile app developers believe that Flutter could not be used for building highly complex commercial mobile applications. So it is more suitable only for prototyping or building simpler applications.
However, when you browse the internet, you will come across several success stories about Flutter app development, especially those in production. You should also take the time to browse through the numerous list of mobile applications built with Flutter.
You will also come across articles that detail how Flutter app help to grow businesses around the world.
So, is Flutter good for your business? By all means, because the benefits for Flutter app for businesses far surpass any disadvantage, you may have heard. This implies that you can go full steam and invest in Flutter app development.
You need to also perform a lot of research to learn how Flutter app help to grow businesses. The benefits of Flutter app for businesses highlighted in this article show how much better it is than other cross-platform development frameworks.
Do not make the mistake of implementing different UIs for both platforms or implement several platform-specific features. You may end up losing all the advantages of the framework. This is because you will inadvertently complicate your code and future development can become extremely problematic
But investing in Flutter app development ensures you will get your mobile application faster, and faster mobile app development will save you a lot of money in the long run. It will also validate your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) idea quicker than you think or expect.
