Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Flutter For Mobile Apps

• By Nithya Iyer
• 06-06-2024
• Mobile App Development

The comprehensive recap of Flutter at Google I/O 2024 and previous conferences reveals that Flutter remains in the headlines with significant improvements and new additions. The most-talked cross-platform development framework, that's flutter, beckons a future in the latest release, flutter 3.22, with notable changes.

Mobile app performance is improved for various platforms with graphics performance upgrades, which improve mobile app operations on iOS and Android.

Dart 3.4 enhancements simplified API migration within IDE. Advanced profiling abilities also enable developers to optimize performance.
Extended support for WebAssembly enables the reflection of native machine code performance in web apps.

SoLoud audio engine integration and new code labs for game mechanics improve flutter prowess in the gaming sphere.

The success story of flutter leverage by LG company for TV operating system, webOS, and Canonical's use is fantastic.

In less than a decade, Flutter has pushed the boundaries with continuous updates that have brought a transformative shift in the realm of iOS and Android development, web app development, game app development, and more. Multi-platform app development by LG businesses mirrors Flutter's capability to deliver consistent user experience across all devices.

So, flutter app development is a good deal for businesses looking to build applications for different platforms inexpensively. In the same vein, flutter weaknesses make flutter app development challenging. To give you a broader picture, we have explained the reasons for choosing Flutter for the next project, flutter's advantages and drawbacks, and examples of Flutter app development. Let's dive in!

What is Flutter app development?

Flutter app development involves building applications for any platform (Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, etc.) using Flutter. Flutter enables comprehensive development with custom design or using ready-made UI widgets in ready-to-integrate form. Flutter's architecture based on reactive programming allows API integration, faster edits, and custom leverage of native components.

Flutter's capability for expressive app development with Dart facilitating object-oriented syntax is stupendous. Most importantly, the unmatched competition it gives to cross-platform development frameworks with native-like app development is second to none. The extensive offerings of the Flutter framework are gearing up businesses to hire dedicated Flutter developers and innovate with the incredible opportunities that Flutter app development renders.

How does Flutter enable cross-platform development?

Stepping through advancements that flutter promises in 2024, it paves the way for cross-platform development. Businesses taking flutter seriously also find them on the verge of transformation. Here's how Flutter is revolutionizing the cross-platform development landscape.

The multi-platform framework enables over 90% code sharing and ensures interoperability among various platforms. Hence, code is written once and later becomes unique for every platform.

Hire dedicated Flutter developers to eliminate the need for employing native app developers. Flutter professionals build the functionalities, and Flutter tools make the app compatible with every platform—mobile platforms, web browsers, desktop platforms, and others.

A single codebase removes the complexity of app development and facilitates cost-effective, faster app development.

Reasons to choose flutter for your business project

Flutter's advantages have made it a powerful tool in the app development sphere. It has become a go-to framework for large enterprises and SMBs for a lot of reasons.

• Addressing the challenge of building native apps for different platforms with cross-platform development capability.
• The growing community size ensures the best support and required guidance from the active community developers.
• Natively-compiled, cross-platform applications result in reduced development costs.
• Lower maintenance costs involved as rewriting a single codebase ensures apps on other platforms are updated.
• UI widgets help create appealing design elements here to app design standards.

We have just reached the tip of the iceberg; the advantages and drawbacks of using flutter make it clear to businesses how to harness flutter power strategically.

Advantages of considering flutter

Looking to innovate with Flutter? The pros of Flutter app development help businesses know how Flutter helps them stand out from the competition. Here's how Flutter for business is a good deal.

Unified development

Flutter's capability to build cross-platform applications enables writing a single codebase that works on multiple platforms such as web (PWA), mobile (iOS and Android), and desktop (Windows, macOS, and Linux). The mobile apps are developed for multiple platforms with visual appeal, high performance, and quality guaranteed on every screen size that users use.

Desktop app development using Flutter ensures native-like experiences across various operating systems. The support for progressive web app development enables delivering native-like experiences on mobile devices with offline support and app-like functionalities. Flutter's multi-platform capability allows it to create interfaces for IoT and embedded devices.

It means businesses can opt for Flutter to make the app appear on different screens, from watches to foldable phones and HD monitors that can be operated using a mouse or virtual keyboard to touchscreens.

High adaptability in design

Flutter allows the creation of beautiful interfaces with widgets that are built after taking inspiration from the React framework. The huge Flutter widget collection includes structural, visual, platform, and interactive elements. Developers can use these widgets in as-is condition or customize them to build UI specific to business needs.

There are different categories of widgets, such as accessibility, animation, basics, async, layout, Cupertino, interaction models, material components, and painting and effects, which developers can use strategically to build a UI. The unlimited customization makes the design adapt to various device layouts. For example, the Cupertino widget category allows the creation of beautiful and high-fidelity UI for iOS applications. The material components widget category ensures visual and motion-rich design creation. This way, strategic usage of flutter widgets facilitates adaptive design engineering.

Take the multi-platform game development up a notch

With continuous releases, flutter transcends the boundaries of cross-platform development and has become a versatile framework with extended usage for smart TVs, wearables, and others. The rendering engine of Flutter, with comprehensive animation and UI capabilities, allows developers to build interactive 2D games. This feature is used at scale to add gamifying elements to the applications.
The limited option for 3D rendering is now fulfilled with a casual game toolkit, enabling the turn-based game to real-time game app development. Flame game engine, built using Flutter, allows game developers to create advanced features such as collision detection, camera views, game loops, and the like in the game app.

The casual game toolkit provides a base game template, card game template, and endless runner template, enabling the creation of casual games. SuperDash is a popular game app built on top of the Endless Runner template that can be played on six platforms. SoloLoud audio engine integration and new code labs also enable the engineering of attractive audiovisual elements.

Ensure native-like performance for every platform.

Flutter excels in ensuring high performance compared to other cross-platform development frameworks. Average response time, CPU usage, number of frames per second, number of requests per second, and other factors impact Flutter app performance. When we look at Flutter's capability for a number of frames per second, it's found to be 60 to 120 frames per second, which is quite low. This dictates the high performance that Flutter applications offer.

Flutter apps also ensure native-like performance with significant upgrades for different platforms. Graphics performance upgrades reduce CPU usage and ensure seamless mobile app operations on iOS and Android platforms. It's pretty helpful to build native-like iOS apps that are visually appealing and perform natively.

The extended support for WebAssembly (Wasm) meets web apps' speed and performance needs. Wasm compilation reflects the native machine code performance in web apps generally experienced in mobile and desktop apps.

The Dart upgrade 3.4—the underlying language behind Flutter app development—simplified API migration straight within the IDE and advanced profiling abilities optimized app performance.

Accelerates app development

Flutter increases the app's time to market with various functionalities. The range of widgets available allows developers to apply object-oriented programming to any UI element, speeding up UI creation. The hot reload feature allows developers to view changes in code in real-time. It enables developers and testers to work together on the functionalities and UI design, speeding up iterations.

The introduction of Dart Macros in Dart 3.4 redefines code generation, enhancing the abstraction level. JsonCodeable macros take this advancement up a notch with JSON serialization and deserialization automation, reducing development time significantly.

Massive community support

Since its release, the Flutter framework has continuously grown, and the number of developers using Flutter for app development is increasing. The active community of Flutter developers offers an environment where developers get needed support by collaborating with experienced Flutter developers, sharing their unique experiences with Flutter app development, and posting the issues they are facing.

The active involvement of Flutter developers empowers them to innovate app development and upgrade the app with Flutter enhancements. 86,938 questions were posted on StackOverflow regarding Flutter and received 182,000 stars on Github in 2024. This indicates the level of community support Flutter developers are gaining by joining the community's pulsating dialogue.

Enhance productivity

The latest Flutter 3.22 is a new saga for improved developer productivity. Analyzing Flutter developers' interest in development tools that simplify, advance, and optimize the development workflow, Google introduced more tools to Flutter.

A deep link validator tool is added to DevTools, improving troubleshooting in Flutter app development. The Dart upgrade enables Swift API migration within the IDE and auto-code adjustments, improving developer efficiency. It allows developers to build advanced apps efficiently and quickly. Improved developers' productivity ultimately benefits business apps, allowing developers to focus on core areas that make the app better.

Drawbacks of using Flutter for business app development

Flutter's drawbacks must be addressed because it helps developers handle things strategically to ensure high-performance, quality solution delivery. Businesses must be aware of the Cons of Flutter app development that comes during app development.

Building fully Native apps is tricky.

The Flutter framework allows a single codebase to access native functionalities, but only partially. This limitation requires developers to write platform-specific code to enable the app's functionality. For example, creating apps for tvOS, CarPlay, and WatchOS requires writing native code.

Not a good option for complex apps

Animation features and widget customization help create UI that appeals to users but adds complexity to the development process. The tree structure increases the project timeline and may create performance issues, one of the biggest Flutter Disadvantages.

UI development experience is different.

Flutter's widget-based UI development is a different approach that requires developers to adapt and learn many things about user interface development. The learning curve may pose a challenge to developers who are new to Flutter app development.

It’s still improving

In the subsequent upgrades of Flutter from 2017, we have seen improvements, additions, and removal of unnecessary things. Similarly, we can expect additional tools and resources, performance upgrades, and improved compatibility in the years to come. Some bugs and limitations are still a part of the Flutter ecosystem.

Examples of successful applications built using Flutter

Flutter adoption speaks louder about its success and impact on the market. Here are some examples of established businesses that leveraged Flutter for business app development and went the extra mile.

• Virgin Money
• Universal studio
• LG
• Google Ads
• My BMW
• Groupon
• Hamilton Music

What's your take? Ready to use Flutter for your next project?

Flutter brings a paradigm shift in business mobile app development. With cross-platform development capability, Flutter apps dazzle with a native-like look and feel and high performance for six different platforms. In line with the spirit of innovation, Flutter empowers sustainable game development with casual game toolkit enhancements, making high-fidelity, advanced game development possible.

Flutter's pros and cons reveal how you can leverage Flutter for Startups. It's exciting for developers to involve in flutter app development and deliver unrivalled app experiences to the users. Let's innovate the app development with Flutter.