The Power of the Hybrid – Flutter Framework
Flutter is a mobile application development kit that includes frameworks, widgets and other tools, allowing developers to develop applications for Android and iOS platforms. Developed by Google, Flutter is open source and can be used free of charge by developers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Flutter
Google’s Flutter framework quickly spread among developers looking to target Android and iOS from the same codebase, and businesses that recognize the value of a single project team with a presence in both markets.
Flutter is a hybrid mobile app development platform from Google that debuted as 1.0 in late 2018. Even though it’s only just made it to the list of hybrid development frameworks, the great ideas behind it have put it in the limelight of developers.
While there are older hybrid app frameworks on the market, more and more big name companies are choosing Flutter for their mobile apps. While the Flutter showcase page lists many of them, here are a few big company apps that use Flutter for the entire app or for an important feature:
o Google Ads app
o GrabFood’s GrabMerchant implementation
o Alibaba Group’s Xianyu app with over 50 million downloads
o eBay Motors app
It can be useful to evaluate the benefits of the Flutter framework from the perspective of both developers and business units. The benefits obtained by both groups are different from each other.
Flutter Advantages (From Developer Perspective)
Rapid Learning Curve
The first surprising surprise Flutter offers to developers is how fast it is to get started. It takes less than 30 minutes to complete the setup process and set up a working development environment. Now you are ready to create your first Flutter app.
Popular Editor Integration
Flutter also has great editor integrations. There are also instructions that can be used to install IntelliJ, VSCode or Emacs.
Clean Development Process
When comparing hybrid application frameworks, it seems that the development process can be carried out more cleanly. For example, when using WebViews to display lists with many items (about 100), one can face high CPU usage, especially when scrolling the user list. In Flutter, it’s easy to view lists with ListView, which has incredible performance.
Live Reload
Android and iOS developers are usually expected to write code and then compile and upload the code to the device or simulator before seeing the changes.
Flutter provides a live reload mechanism (React Native) where app code is reloaded on the device as soon as developers hit the “save” button. This makes development much faster by giving immediate feedback.
Performance
Since the Flutter framework is under active development, there are many places where performance optimizations can be made. For example, this is evident in Flutter 1.17, which improves rendering performance on newer iOS devices by up to 50% and reduces memory consumption by up to 70% for certain types of workloads.
Cross-Platform Consistency
Really consistent user interfaces on both mobile platforms is another remarkable feature of Flutter. Since Flutter uses its own rendering engine (we’ll talk about it later), the UI is exactly the same on iOS and Android. Developers no longer have to grapple with platform-specific styling issues to make sure everything looks exactly like the design.
Flutter Benefits (From a Business Units Perspective)
The biggest Flutter advantage most businesses consider is having to work with only one team for both iOS and Android platforms. However, a more significant benefit that many businesses overlook is the faster time-to-market.
Businesses that are considering using Flutter but aren’t sure if it’s the right way to go can gradually leverage Flutter: Pre-existing mobile apps can be integrated with Flutter one piece at a time. In fact, most major companies seem to be following the strategy of going with Flutter by building a small portion of their existing apps in Flutter and then gradually changing other parts after seeing the benefits.
Limitations (Disadvantages) to Consider Before Using Flutter
On the other hand, since Flutter is relatively new compared to other frameworks, other hybrid mobile application frameworks such as React Native can be considered untested, in other words, untested. After all, there is the reality that React Native’s end-user access includes mobile applications of Facebook, Instagram, Skype and Discord.
The question is, “Should I use Flutter?” The answer is a cautious yes for now. This is because IT administrators need to consider what advanced features they will need and make sure they are available in Flutter before deciding to use them. In particular, it’s worth asking what libraries and plugins a team might need to build a particular application. As a newer entry in mobile app frameworks, Flutter doesn’t have the extensive library and plugin coverage that React Native does.
For example, camera support in Flutter is not yet complete, as zoom and flash control are not yet part of the official camera plugin. When it is necessary to integrate photo/video functionality into an application created, it will be necessary to find a separate plugin.
Another important add-on that can be missed is Google Maps. There is no Dart specific Google Maps plugin, and while there is a plugin that allows to integrate Google Maps into your Flutter code, it still uses features of Flutter (platform skins) that are still in developer preview.
It won’t affect many projects, but one more thing you should be aware of is that Flutter does not support any 3D features for now. The team is focusing only on 2D for now. However, most apps don’t use any 3D functionality, so for most developers this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Who knows, maybe this list of disadvantages will be eliminated in the coming period and Flutter will be a framework that is followed in front of its competitors.