Fluttering towards Flutter

Yes, I know what you’re thinking.

“Flutter has been around for a while now, why is he writing an intro article about it now?”

I get that. Flutter has really caught a lot of attention among developers over the last 2 years.

But I’m only writing an intro article about it now because I want to create more awareness around the platform and talk about why companies should build their next digital solution in Flutter.

So let’s get right into it and talk about Flutter!

What is Flutter?

Right from the official Flutter website, here’s how I’d define Flutter:

Flutter is Google’s UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.

While previously it was being shipped as a cross-platform mobile-only SDK, Flutter now has increased support for web and desktop platforms too.

However, this article will focus on Flutter for mobile and will talk about the pros and cons of using Flutter for your next mobile solution.

Why Flutter?

Let’s start off with a few pros that set it apart from other cross-platform solutions.

1. Your developers go home on time.

Flutter development is fast.

When I think about the times I was learning Android development, I remember how much time it took to build a simple layout with an app bar, a hamburger menu, and a floating action button.

It took about 5 minutes to write that code. With Flutter, it can be done in 1 minute and 11 seconds. Don’t believe me? Take a look at Flutter Evangelist, Rohan Taneja, do just this here.

Developers are happier when they get work done on time and go home on time. Flutter helps them achieve this.

Happier developers → More productivity → Faster releases

Your company should intend to keep your developers happy by making them work lesser hours and still get the job done, as opposed to making them stay up all night with a lot of caffeine consumption. ☕️

2. Your developers can make your app look exactly like the design specs.

It’s no mystery that when certain sophisticated designs are proposed by the design team, the developers may not be able to replicate the design via code pixel-to-pixel every single time.

This is mostly due to platform limitations on Android and iOS. It can be hard to develop an app that looks and feels exactly like the designers designed it.

Here’s an instance of an app that was designed one way but got shipped way differently than it was designed.

Source: Google Blog

This framework gives your developers complete control over every pixel that is rendered on the screen.

Everything is a Widget in Flutter.

This makes it feasible for your developers to develop those custom designs from your design team. 📱

3. Flutter is super-fast.

Compared to other cross-platform solutions like React Native, Flutter is a lot faster. This is due to the fact that Flutter doesn’t need a bridge between the cross-platform code and Android/iOS widgets of any sort to render those widgets.

The fact that React Native needs a JavaScript bridge and renders native widgets for each platform is exactly what slows it down.

Flutter just natively draws your widgets on the canvas with the help of its own engine. 🚀

Here’s a comparison of the architecture diagrams between React Native and Flutter:

This means everything in Flutter is fast and smooth.

Everything renders at a consistent 60 frames per second.

Who wouldn’t want animations that aren’t janky? 👻

Don’t take my word for it. Try Flutter and see it for yourself. 😉

4. You get two apps with one.

This one’s pretty obvious.

You build a Flutter app, and you get an iOS app and an Android app.

The Flutter API has been very consistent.

Also, you can reduce the number of third-party libraries used separately in your Android and iOS apps if you just build a Flutter app.

Build a Flutter app = Get an iOS app + an Android app

You don’t have to hire Flutter Developers specifically to build Flutter apps. Your current iOS or Android or even React Native Developers could get started with Flutter in no time. It is public news that the developers at Google picked up Flutter in two weeks, thanks to how easy the framework is to get started with!

This way, you’ll find your iOS and Android Developers working together on the same codebase.

Doesn’t that makes things much simpler and more efficient?