Posts tagged "flutter"

7 Reasons Flutter Is the Best Choice to Develop Startup Mobile Apps

App developers know that differences between Android and iOS platforms are reducing. Product owners want your app to smoothly transition across platforms, at the best cost. The framework required is Flutter.

Launched by Google in 2018, Flutter is an open-sourced UI development kit.  It uses one code throughout platforms, which is a positive for budget forecasting.

Here are 7 reasons why Flutter is the dominant software used for startup mobile app developments. 

  1.       It Attracts Investors

Investors appreciate the UI capacities and innovative design. Customised widgets for Android and iOS mimic native apps which allow developers to easily transition platforms, resulting in a consistent end-user experience. Flutter also has a much bigger library of widgets than other frameworks. 

  1.       .Dart Assures Impressive App Performance

Dart is a client-optimized programming language for fast app development. Its ability to use AOT (ahead of time) as a compilation process greatly reduces the start time of an app.

As Flutter uses its own widgets, there is no need to cite OEM (original equipment manufacturer) ones.

Using Flutter, a developer can easily interact between apps and a native platform.  A complex app design is created simply, whilst maintaining the highest quality.  

  1.  For a Powerful Back-End Solution, Use Firebase

Firebase is another platform developed by Google which has a reputation as one of the best backend servers.  It offers database and analytical management solutions and integrates well with other Google products.  You can sync real-time data across all the devices without refreshing the screen.

Firebase comes pre-installed with Flutter. By combining the two, a developer can achieve faster launch times of the mobile app and have access to many supportive features. 

The capabilities of Firebase’s backend reduce backend procedures and costs.  

  1.  The ‘Hot Reload’ Feature Increases Productivity

We’ve mentioned that Flutter is a fast development platform.  With its ‘Hot Reload’ feature, it allows code changes to be viewed immediately. 

If a mistake happens during the development process, this can be quickly amended, without affecting the code function. The developer can simply take up where they left off. Changes can be monitored in real-time and updated more quickly. These time-saving options increase the productivity of software engineers during the development process. 

  1.   Cost Effective

Startups love Flutter because it is cost-friendly.  It can be a huge financial drain to hire engineers to develop mobile apps, particularly as they must write new codes for specific app features.

However, with Flutter, a single code is all that is needed to construct an app that runs seamlessly across several platforms. This time and money-saving feature is crucial for startups. 

  1.   Access the Flutter Library to Build the Best UI

One of the app development services offered by Flutter is a comprehensive UI builder with a library of cross-platform widgets.  A developer can integrate widgets such as navigation, scrolling, and icons into all platforms.

  1.   Improvement in MVP Development

In other words: you can build more in less time.  As you build an MVP app in Flutter you build two applications — iOS and Android — nearly simultaneously with one codebase, saving valuable time.

 What to consider when developing an app with Flutter:

  •       project requirements
  •       native features
  •       employee numbers
  •       software development costing (design, development, support, and maintenance)
  •       server rental costs
  •       app launch costing

 Remember:

  • Flutter’s resources are open-source and free
  • You will not need separate developers for each app platform

 When all is considered, you will find that Flutter is usually best for your startup, due to cost and speed capabilities.

What Are the Benefits of Using Flutter?

Flutter development is in vogue for a reason: it’s a great way of building good-performing and beautiful apps. Flutter enables you to develop cross-platform apps that provide native performance.

Apps developed with Flutter feature beautiful and intuitive designs and are fit to run animations fluently. Flutter also hasten the development speed, helping lower costs.

Learn more about the usefulness of Flutter to know whether it’s the best software solution for your product.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is Google’s software for creating iOS and Android apps. It enables the same codebase for both mobile operating systems, a cross-platform technology. The web and desktop versions are in alpha and beta channels, respectively.

Flutter remained in beta until 2018, when Flutter 1.0 was launched officially, but Google first introduced Flutter in 2015. It is still basically new, free and open-source, and uses Dart as its programming language.

Flutter’s popularity is constantly growing, and according to Google, there are over 100,000 apps created in Flutter. You can easily see why Flutter code is easy to use, and the kit entails all the tools essential to develop a good app: a rendering engine, different pre-built and easy-to-use widgets, testing and integration APIs, and also command-line tools.

Below, you will find the benefits of Flutter and an essential guide to the technology: why use Flutter, who Flutter is created for, and what are the pros & cons.

Why should you use Flutter to build your app?

It’s more likely you’re already using apps built with Flutter. Alibaba and Google Ads are perfect two examples – you can get a more extensive list here.

With over 100,000 Flutter apps available already, developers have a well-known choice – but is it the best option?

Thus, It might be if you’re working on an MVP, Flutter enables you to create code for both Android and iOS apps on time, without the additional expense of building another codebase. So if you’re a start-, prone to experimenting and without tangible finance to pour into app development, Flutter is something you would want to consider.

It’s also a fascinating solution for enterprises, practically those aiming for a high quality-branded experience. Flutter enables you to develop the product on a single framework and deliver a native experience for the two operating systems users.

Nevertheless, using other cross-platform development technologies like React Native or Xamarin can have some benefits. So if you can successfully deploy any of them, is there a practical reason to consider using Flutter? What are the benefits of Flutter? Why should you try it out?

Let’s take a good look at Flutter’s advantages. What are the benefits of Flutter?

With both native development solutions and other cross-platform technologies, Flutter has some incredible features. It makes it so appealing to product owners, tech leads, and developers. Here are the significant benefits of Flutter:

Efficient development process

As a cross-platform technology, Flutter allows creating an app for both operating systems using the same codebase. However, that is not the only reason Flutter enables the development process to be faster and more efficient. It also entails a hot restart and a well-defined “hot reload” function, allowing you to see notifications in real-time without restarting the app.

It practically hastens the development process. React Native and Xamarin have almost similar functions, but they are slower. With these features, Flutter allows you to save time and resources.

Widgets and compatibility

Widgets are the pillars on which the entire app is based. There are ready-made and also customizable ones – everything in Flutter can be made from widgets. Widget is part of the app and not the particular platform; the end product will likely have lesser compatibility issues on various OS versions.

High performance

Flutter applications operate at a level comparable with native apps and are taking over other cross-platform technologies. That’s because Flutter is the only mobile SDK that does not use a bridge (JavaScript or web view) for communication between both the app and the platform. Thus, you get a faster-starting app with beautiful, fast animations and lesser performance difficulties.

Going beyond mobile

It’s likely to develop Flutter products that work on the web, desktop, and even TV, which some developers already do. These features are still in different stages of advancement, but Google typically can develop a constant release. Considering how essential IT is for the company, they will practically keep growing Flutter in this direction.

Internationalization and accessibility

After the app is developed and can produce multiple discrepancies, you can successfully Internationalize or prepare your app’s various language and region types. Flutter offers tools that make this process easy and incorporate it directly into development. Flutter also enables accessibility, allowing screen readers, large fonts, and enhanced contrast, which is automated from within the platform.

Open source and an engaged community

Flutter usage is free and has a growing community assisting in its outstanding documentation and helping with difficulties that developers may encounter as an open-source platform. Many YouTube videos are available for those who want to learn Flutter or upgrade their Google mobile UI framework skills.

Faster Time-to-Market

You can release your app quicker and transport new features and upgrades to iOS and Android together with the help of the features that make developing easy in Flutter.

Flutter Cons

Flutter also has downsides that you shouldn’t overlook when selecting your SDK.

Experimentation phase

Flutter is still like a new platform that comes with its own set of difficulties. It’s still under specific development, so some edge cases might not have results ready for implementation.

Although that might change soon enough, you should wait until then to use Flutter if you’re not ready for more risk than creating a product with an established toolkit.

Lack of more advanced features

Flutter is still missing some more complex features, and that might not be a better solution for more sophisticated apps:

· In some situations, building pixel-perfect experiences that match native Android and iOS apps in Flutter might seem complex.

· You cannot use Flutter to build tvOS, CarPlay, watchOS, or Android Auto apps.

Not many experienced Flutter developers

There are still basically few experienced Flutter developers on the market. That’s why it can be challenging to build a team of standard professionals if you choose Flutter over React Native.

Lack of native widgets

Flutter does not use native widgets can be advantageous but also a setback of this SDK. Why?

Because if you decide to develop an app using Flutter and then a new version of iOS or Android is launched, your app cant be updated to the latest UI changes.

This case occurrence requires you to update a library (which is fast), rebuild an app, and also publish its new version in app stores. However, it won’t be surprising that a new OS version changes something in an app. On the contrary, you are sure that the app you post in app stores won’t change without your knowledge using Flutter widgets.

 

Is Flutter a Programming Language?

As Flutter becomes more known and presents itself as the go-to technology for developing mobile apps, let’s have a good look at what principles it’s based on and see if calling Flutter a programming language is valid.

What is Flutter?

An open-source framework used to develop native-looking iOS and Android apps from a single codebase is known as Flutter. Google established it in 2015 and since then has been used to create over 100,000 apps.

There are good reasons why Flutter is popularly known. Flutter can quickly develop apps for various operating systems while achieving native performance and visual consistency on multiple platforms. It includes a hot reload function, automatically updating UI content when the code changes, enabling easy coding.

Is Flutter a programming language?

Flutter_SDK

Nevertheless, Flutter isn’t a programming language. It’s a software development accouterments (SDK) with prewritten code, which entails ready-to-use and customizable widgets and libraries, tools, and documents that help establish apps. Flutter’s language for cross-platform development is Dart, which Google also created.

Flutter does not need a bridge to communicate with the native tier (Android or iOS). It minimizes performance difficulties and boosts app startup time.

Thus, Flutter’s programming language explains that you need developers to code in Dart to develop your app. Notwithstanding, Dart is similar to Java, .Net, Kotlin, Swift, or JavaScript, and it’s easy to learn.

So is Flutter worth bothering? Will it bring benefits for your product?, and what are the specifics of Flutter as an SDK and its programming language?

What is an SDK – examples of software development kits for mobile apps

An SDK is a ready-to-install package of software development equipment that enables creating of an app. There are 2 kinds of SDKs – native and cross-layer. If you use Google’s Android SDK to create an Android app, you would need to start over again to develop the same app for Apple’s iOS – and vice versa, which means that Native SDKs are specific to each platform.

Nevertheless, some SDKs also offer cross-platform development, which Flutter happens to be one of them. There are some other popular options which are:

React Native uses JavaScript as its programming language to build apps and enables you to write modules in various languages, including C, Java, and Swift. It was created by Facebook and is open-source.

Microsoft claims that it enables developers to distribute an average of 90% of their applications across platforms.

Ionic – it uses languages like CSS and JavaScript to create applications.

What is Dart, and how it works with Flutter

Dart_and_Flutter

As Google’s Flutter’s language, Dart “is a customer-optimized language for quick apps on any platform.” It’s object-oriented such as Java, C++, and Python. It compiles native ARM or x64 machine code (and JavaScript bytecode for the web) ahead of time. It makes an app written in Dart insoluble to differ from a native app at the machine level.

Dart is helpful beyond Flutter: Google engineers use it for some apps, like Google Adverts, for both web and mobile. So it’s obvious Google is invested in the language, and it might keep investing in its development in the future. It is an excellent function if you want to develop your software product using technology that will continue to grow and not stagnate.

However, Dart is not a very popular language – it’s usually within the 20th position of Programming Languages and 32 on the TIOBE Index list. Locating standard developers in Dart might be difficult, but the qualified ones in languages with C-like syntax should be able to grasp it with ease.

What else should you know about Flutter?

There are other specific features of Flutter that might change your decision on whether to make it your SDK of choice.

Flutter is built totally on widgets.

It might be challenging to get familiar with an environment where all, including fonts, styles, or scrolling, is a widget. However, there’s a logic to it once you get the grasp of it.

Flutter for web and Fuchsia

Aside from building mobile apps with Flutter, it’s also possible to create web applications with this SDK. Thus this functionality is in beta. It helps standard web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Nevertheless, Flutter is not ideal for everything. For example, it won’t work precisely on primer-rich websites such as blogs. Desktop support for Flutter is also developed, but it’s still in the alpha stage for now.

Flutter is the default toolkit for creating apps for Fuchsia OS, basically “one of Google’s test around new notions for operating systems,” or, as some think, the company’s effort to replace Android. All apps in Fuchsia are written with the use of the Flutter SDK. It would give Flutter an incredible boost in the future.

Flutter’s growing community

Flutter and Dart are not famous, yet the number of Flutter developers is constantly growing, and they’ve developed one of the best and most helpful communities already. The resources and documentation available are of top standard. You can locate them via GitHub, Slack, and different platforms.

Is Flutter right for you?

Many resources have been put behind Flutter with Google, enabling this SDK to gain speed in the tech community. Whether you should follow the hype or not is another issue: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and Flutter is practically not for everyone.

At Netguru, we assist everyone from startups to the top enterprises to develop mobile software products that suit their needs. Thus, contact us if you’re impressed with the Flutter SDK or its language but are not sure you have everyday experience. We’ve developed apps in Flutter and will help you choose the best road towards a fantastic software product.

Cross-Platform App Development with Flutter

Flutter is Google’s free framework app for cross-platform development. It is popular among software developers and business owners alike because of its ease of use and time-saving functions.

Today we’re going to look at its advantages and why it dominates the mobile app development market.

Flutter is one of the highest-rated frameworks when it comes to developing cross-platform apps. Its popularity is mainly because only one codebase needs to be written for use across all devices (Android, iOS, web). Google itself uses the framework for modules in Google Assistant, and you will also find it in high-performing e-commerce sites such as Groupon and eBay. The SDK (software development kit) uses the Dart language – developed by Google as a response to JavaScript’s popularity. Dart programs run directly on a server but convert to Java on a browser.

Flutter has a large widget library, and users can customize and change any widget easily. The Flutter community has embraced open-sourced technology, and its developers are consistently publishing usable codes to support each other in cross-platform app development.

While there are a few disadvantages to using Flutter, advantages far outweigh them, and we will list both below.
However, it is up to each business to understand their specific mobile app needs in order to make the right choice about which framework to embrace.

Advantages

  • Use of a single codebase across all platforms (including web, desktop, etc.). This increases engineer productivity and speeds up the launch date of the app.
  • ‘It’s All Widgets’: Flutter users have access to a great library of customized widgets to enhance app visuals. Better still, there is no need to be concerned about the UI on different devices.
  • Skia Graphics Library: The Skia Graphics Library is an open-sourced and free graphics library, acquired by Google in 2005. One of the advantages of using Skia is that it redraws the UI every time the view changes in an app. Reloading is, therefore, faster and smoother.
  •  ‘Hot Reload’: The ‘Hot Reload’ feature allows code changes to be viewed immediately and updated in real-time. Bugs and mistakes can be fixed on the go, increasing productivity and reducing testing times.

Disadvantages

  • Large file size: Flutter’s widgets take up a lot of space, and some developers consider it ‘heavy’. They can also be slow to download.
  • Restricted quantities of tools and libraries: Flutter was only launched in 2017, and there may be a limited amount of functions in the existing library. These things will develop, but it will take time.

Speak to a software developer today to see if using Flutter meets your business mobile app needs. They will highlight the speedy turnaround time (TAT) benefits as well as money saved by higher productivity enjoyed by using its many time-saving features.