This article will introduce Flutter technology and tell you how to make your mobile app on a budget. 

Trends

Recently, many businesses have found it more and more attractive to create their multiplatform app since the native solutions are costly in development and maintenance. It derives from the fact that such apps have to be written in language specific to each platform (Objective-C, Swift for iOS, Kotlin, Java for Android). That means the businesses need a team with broader competencies. Moreover, the entire process takes longer.  Each platform has components in a unique visual style, so if there is a need for unification, it’s twice the amount of work.

These are just some reasons why multiplatform solutions rise in popularity. The illustration of this trend by a diagram from a popular developer site, StackOverflow

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=flutter%2Creact-native%2Cswift%2Ckotlin

The graph shows that the popularity of Flutter has been rising during the last few years (now it’s more popular than its direct competitor – React Native). The fact that the platform is supported and developed by Google ensures it’s not just a temporary trend but a stable growth.

What is Flutter exactly?

As the creators tell it, Flutter is a set of UI tools by Google for creating beautiful, native compiled apps for more than mobile devices based on a single code for many platforms. It’s important to mention just how low is the entry threshold for this new technology. People with a minimal amount of experience in creating web applications can use it. The way to visually customize the app made in Flutter resembles styling in HTML technology. The endless amount of widgets provided by the creators and the „hot reloading” feature that allows for an instant preview of the changes make this platform a cheap and easy tool to use.

Comparison of the production costs of native applications and applications from the operation of Flutter

As the creators tell it, Flutter is a set of UI tools by Google for creating beautiful, native compiled apps for more than mobile devices based on a single code for many platforms. It’s critical to mention just how low is the entry threshold for this new technology. People with a minimal amount of experience in web applications can use Flutter. The way to visually customize the app made in Flutter resembles styling in HTML technology. The endless amount of widgets provided by the creators and the „hot reloading” feature that allows for an instant preview of the changes make this platform a cheap and easy tool to use.

How does the performance of the Flutter app compare to a native one? 

The creators of Flutter were very clever to use the tagline „native efficiency” to boast. It can be justified since the Flutter code does compile into native machine code. Nevertheless, computing tests show that it performs worse than native applications. However, it does better in tests compared to its direct competition.

WYKRES FLUTTER
CPU-intensive test (Borwein algorithm) for iOS /
https://medium.com/swlh/flutter-vs-native-vs-react-native-examining-performance-31338f081980

How does the performance of the Flutter app compare to a native one? 

The creators of Flutter were very clever to use the tagline „native efficiency” to boast. It can be justified since the Flutter code does compile into native machine code. Nevertheless, computing tests show that it performs worse than native applications. However, it does better in tests compared to its direct competition.

What is Flutter good for?

Considering the speed of app development, Flutter can be used as a quick prototyping tool or for creating an MVP. These two instances are by no means the only ways to utilize this tool. A project like Alibaba or eBay Motors proves that it’s a great tool for complete development. If you’re interested in other famous projects created with the use of Flutter, check out https://flutter.dev/showcase