The rate at which Flutter apps are being published on Google Play store has continued to increase and it is just the beginning!
Flutter has become a hot topic and whether you want to implement it or not, if you plan to develop your mobile app or not, you should be aware about what’s all the buzz around Flutter and the pros and risks it carries.
Without much further ado let’s get to the pros and cons of Flutter!
Top Advantages of Flutter for Business Owners
When it comes to the perspective of a business owner, the pivotal advantages of Flutter for your upcoming mobile app development project are
Faster Coding
Flutter means faster and more dynamical mobile app development. Changes can be made in the code and can be seen straight away in the app! This is called hot-reload that generally takes only milliseconds to add features, fix bugs and experiment faster!
Most of the code changes can be hot reloaded. Whereas in native app development, the project needs to be rebuilt and takes up much more time. Reduction in development time also reduces the cost of app production. It’s a win-win situation both ways.
Single Code for 2 Platforms
With Flutter, you need only one code base for your 2 applications - covering both iOS and Android platforms. Flutter is not dependent on the platform as it has its own widgets and designs. You have the same app on two different platforms, but also have the option to differentiate them.
Less Testing
Same app for two platforms means less testing! Quality assurance process becomes faster as the developers will write automatic tests only once. What’s more? When quality assurance experts have to work less on your application, it can be launched sooner in the market!
Faster Apps
Flutter apps are known to work in a smooth and fast manner without hanging and cutting while you scroll. The reason being everything is a widget in flutter and the way it does the layout of your application. Widgets allow high customization of any app. Thus, enabling you to create a mobile application just the way you want it!
Designs that Your Users will Love
Flutter is designed to make it easier to create your own widgets or customize the existing ones. This feature of flutter helps you create a mobile app that reflects your brand values as well as make it engaging for your customers.
Same App UI on Older Devices
Your new app will look same even on the older versions of Android and iOS systems. You might be thinking about the costs right? There are no additional or hidden costs for supporting older devices.
Flutter can run on Android Jelly Bean or newer as well as iOS 8 or newer.
Perfect for Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A minimum viable product is a product created with minimum features to satisfy your customers or investors at an early stage. It is also to take feedback for any further improvements. Are you one of those people who needs an MVP for your app to show it to your investors? Flutter is the perfect choice, especially when you have little time!
You might be wondering does this amazing SDK have any risks at all? Here are a few listed for you!
- As mentioned earlier, Flutter creates the UI in its own custom manner, it doesn’t create native components. It does a great job at replacing Android’s Material Design and iOS specific components with Cupertino library but it’s still not native after all.
- There are a great number of decent looking UI components and other plugins on GitHub for Flutter, but they are not as rich as the plugins available for React Native and Xamarin. It is probably because Flutter is new and the community is smaller. But that is how things are now in case of Flutter.
- When there’s a layout error you will get the error screen or logs that can be very confusing and obscure too. When it comes to native iOS and Android, errors are generally easier to understand, and just in case it’s not, you can just copy and paste the complete error on Google and be confident that you will get a whole lot of useful links that will tell you more. In case of Flutter App Development, the community is relatively smaller, therefore, not so much.
- Flutter officially offers no support for apps to run on Android TV and Apple TV. Although, third parties have started developing Flutter apps for various other devices.
Want to know more about Flutter for your project? Talk to an expert now!
Sagar Bagsariya
Principal Mobile App Developer
by Manav Patel
