Any business that wants to reach out to a wider audience through a cross-platform mobile app will find Flutter as the ideal framework choice. Flutter has received a lot of attention from enterprises as well as startups as it ensures the development of high-quality apps that can run on iOS, Android, desktop, and the web. While developers can reuse the same codebase everywhere, the app appears with native user interface attributes on all platforms.
Flutter is so much popular as a development technology for many reasons. Here we are going to explain these reasons. But before that, let us introduce the basics of the framework and some key facts that Flutter developers must know.
What exactly is Flutter?
Flutter is a UI development kit created and maintained by Google that allows developers to build native-looking apps by using the UI widgets and a plethora of component libraries. Flutter uses Dart programming language to build highly functional and native-looking applications for iOS and Android mobile platforms as well as a desktop and the web. Native user experience, expressive UI, faster loading time, easy coding changes, are some of the key attributes of the Flutter framework.
Let’s have a look at some of the facts about Flutter.
- Flutter is developed and supported by Google as a cross-platform development framework.
- While most of the cross-platform development frameworks use JavaScript, Flutter for coding uses the Dart programming language.
- Flutter, unlike React Native or other JavaScript frameworks, doesn’t need to use a JavaScript bridge to communicate and use the native UI layer.
- Flutter offers a range of ready-to-use widgets and does not need to use widgets from the OEM.
- Flutter developers can get ready access to Google Firebase for backend support.
One Codebase for All Platforms
Every business wants to make a larger footprint with its applications by registering its presence in as many operating system platforms as possible. But building a native app for every single platform is resource and time-consuming. On the other hand, the so-called hybrid approach of building “one size fits all” apps cannot make a positive impression.
This is where the Flutter development approach of using a single codebase for iOS, Android, web, and desktop platforms is more effective. Flutter unlike other cross-platform frameworks allows reusing the same codebase for web and desktop apps as well. If you are looking for a highly competitive budget for your next app project, hiring a team of Flutter developers in India can help you make considerable savings without compromising on quality.
Easier Code Correction with Hot Reloading
Flutter ensures fast-paced app development not just because of the clean coding of Dart programming language, but also by allowing easier code correction through a feature called Hot Reloading. Thanks to this feature any code changes can be viewed in real-time without needing to restart the app.
Since an app development process goes through multiple changes, code insertions, corrections, and omissions, restarting the app again and again for evaluating code changes is really time-consuming. This is where the Hot Reload feature helps make changes and evaluate them in real-time and in the still running apps. This ultimately guarantees higher developer productivity and faster output.
Google Firebase for backend
Google Firebase, the cloud-based backend platform comes with a powerful real-time database as well as a hosting solution for a fast-paced user experience. Flutter developers can access Firebase, the backend solution from Google. Thanks to Firebase, the entire app infrastructure can be created without a server.
Just because the backend infrastructure is being handled by Flutter, developers can consider Flutter rather as a complete technology stack. The entire concerns over the resources required by the backend and all the constraints are taken care of by Firebase, the out-of-the-box backend tool of Flutter.
A lot of component libraries
Although Flutter is still a new entrant in the app development market, it comes with plenty of useful component libraries to deliver any feature and functionality for app projects of all types and niches. Thanks to these component libraries, building a Flutter app with less coding becomes easier.
On the other hand, in the repository of Flutter component libraries developers can find comprehensive documentation to utilize them for the desired features and functions in a fruitful manner. Google also provides very detailedly and well-articulated documentation for Flutter to help new developers learn and get versed with the norms and protocols quickly.
The powerful and easy Dart programming language
One of the biggest reasons for developers to prefer Flutter is the Dart programming language. This one-source, the general-purpose programming language is known for highly readable and clean coding protocols. Developers with fairly basic knowledge of coding can quickly get versed with Dart.
On the other hand, Dart by using a reactive framework helps developers to deal with both frontends as well as backend development tasks just from one single place with ease. Lastly, the Dart programming language is much similar to object-oriented programming languages such as C. This similarity reduces the learning curve to a great extent for new developers.
Support for an extensive range of IDEs
Irrespective of the complexity and size of the app, Flutter remains a top framework choice for any app project. This is mainly because of the wider support Flutter offers for an extensive range of Integrated Development Environments (IDE). This ensures great flexibility for cross-platform app projects.
Flutter offers out-of-the-box support for a wide range of IDEs including Android Studio, IntelliJ, VC Code, and several others. This flexibility of choosing from a variety of IDEs provides developers great comfort in any app project. App developers often consider it annoying to switch from one IDE to another during development. This is when the extensive IDE support of Flutter becomes really effective.
Wrapping Up
The above reasons are really compelling and convincing enough to choose Flutter for your next app project. Flutter as the cross-platform development framework has challenged the dominance of React Native and became the most popular technology for app projects that want to make their presence on the web and desktop besides mobile operating systems. Flutter has particularly gained popularity among startups for its modular development approach allowing fast-paced MVP app development.