What makes Flutter the only correct cross-platform?

iOS and Android are the main mobile platforms used by the majority of users. Therefore, for most businesses, it makes sense to create solutions for both of these operating systems at once.

However, the development of native applications – separately for each OS, can be very expensive, which is why different technologies began to appear on the market for creating cross-platform software – working on all platforms at once. One of the latest such solutions is the Flutter framework from Google.

Flutter is a relatively young open source framework that was officially launched in 2018. It incorporates the experience of most of the existing technologies, and is a fresh look at the future of mobile production by Google engineers.

Despite its young age, according to the results of the Stackoverflow survey, Flutter entered the TOP 3 of the most popular frameworks in 2020.

Benefits of developing with Flutter:

• Savings without sacrificing quality.

Developing a Flutter app that will work equally well on iOS and Android devices costs an average of 30% less than building two separate native apps.

At the same time, Flutter applications are written in the Dart programming language, which is compiled into the “native” code of the platform for which the assembly is created. This means that all interface elements work as well as in the native software.

• Development speed.

Google says that development with Flutter is 20-50% faster when compared to other cross-platform technologies.

• Own graphics engine.

Flutter relies on its own graphics engine and a range of custom widget packages to virtualize applications, without resorting to WebView. This gives developers the opportunity to implement absolutely any interface design, and in a shorter period of time.

• Unified code base.

Since Flutter applications are written on a single code base, the likelihood of developers committing errors is significantly reduced, and the testing and debugging process is faster.

• Lack of desynchronization of platform commands.

All releases come out stably and without delays.

• High performance.

For a person to perceive the animation as smooth, the refresh rate of the interface must be at least 60 frames per second. For example, another popular framework, React Native, is not always capable of delivering this kind of performance. At the same time, for Flutter, this is absolutely not a problem, since it is capable of delivering up to 120 frames per second.

In short, almost anything. Using this framework, you can build applications for platforms:

• iOS;
• Android;
• Linux;
• Windows;
• Mac;
• Google Fuchsia.

Flutter tools also make it possible to implement functional web applications.

Using Flutter, developers can create solutions for almost any industry, including:

• Retail – managing stocks, working with catalogs and loyalty programs – this is what Flutter can handle as well as the native languages ​​of the platform. Therefore, it can be used to develop E-commerce projects.
• Banking and Fintech Applications – Flutter has a robust API and is focused on maximizing software security, making it an excellent tool for developing financial applications. For example, it can be mobile insurance services, budget management, etc.
• Logistics and delivery services – Flutter applications support a large number of hardware functions and API services, including authorization, cloud storage, GPS, camera, and more. In addition, the framework’s widget ecosystem fully caters to the needs of logistics companies and related firms.

Thanks to active support from Google, the Flutter framework is already used in many world famous projects. Here are some examples.

Google Ads

The world’s most popular contextual advertising service from Google, which allows companies to analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns, make edits, and more. The app has been downloaded over 10 million times with a 4.3 rating.

Groupon

The huge discount market used several of its own applications and decided to combine them to improve the user experience of its visitors. In order not to rewrite all the code, it was decided to launch the application using Flutter widgets. The project has proven to be very effective, has been downloaded 50 million times and has an average rating of 4.7 points.

Alibaba

Uses Flutter in his Xian Yu application. The decision to use this particular framework was due to its high speed and ease of maintenance. Later, a serverless architecture was introduced into the application.

Realtor.com

The American real estate search service used Flutter to integrate existing native apps.

Startups often operate under tight budget constraints and tight deadlines, so instead of creating full-fledged functional products, entrepreneurs often focus on creating an MVP or POC in order to collect the first real product reviews and attract investment. As a result, they have to choose between the iOS and Android platforms, which, accordingly, effectively halves the chances of success.

Using Flutter enables startups to develop a single code base that will work correctly on both operating systems. In addition, it significantly reduces the time for developing an MVP and will allow attracting funds from investors in the early stages.

The AVADA MEDIA company uses a modern technology stack, and has been implementing tasks of any complexity for more than 10 years. Flutter is just one of the tools we can use to implement your project.

Transform your business with innovative solutions, and you can always entrust us with the technical part.