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Code once for all platforms is not a new mantra. Overlapping of technology used by developers and the need for the same design language and aesthetic has forced developers around the world to create platforms or software development kits which cater to every popular platform like android, iOS, Windows and Linux. With the ever-increasing use of gadgets of different form and type, shape and functionality, it has become hectic from a developer point of view to provide essential service, design and functionality that a user wants in all the form. Take an example of a health care/ fitness application which a user wants in his android phone, his apple watch which he uses while working out and tracks the process remotely while in an office on his browser. From a user perspective it’s quite simple, he can use his favourite fitness tracking application from whatever smart device he can get his hands on. Let’s try to complicate the situation further, what if the user has another smartphone which has iOS installed in it and a laptop with Linux installation. How practical is it to build for all the devices a user is going to use? Is it even possible to maintain the design aesthetic or UI/UX in the mentioned platform? And let’s talk about the most important issue cost of maintaining the code base in different languages and the time for shipping an update. Can a small startup or a mid-scale tech firm employ all these developers for maintaining a specific codebase written in an obscure language with plugins which aren’t regularly maintained? Also accommodating for the update which languages bring regularly or the additional functionality which makes massive performance difference. And if a critical bug is detected in any of the designs there is a probability that all of them are replicated in different code bases. Not only is it hectic but also highly inefficient from the perspective of manpower usage. Best engineers of your team should be more focused on solving greater issues or adding revenue-generating features than replicating the same in different languages.

What is flutter?

This is where the flutter walks in. When we say light is at the end of the tunnel, it probably is due to the introduction of flutter by google. Flutter is an open-source multi-platform UI development kit (SDK) and a framework developed by Google for creating UIs. Using Flutter you write a great looking UI for your application in almost every platform like Android, iOS, PadOS, windows desktop, Mac OS and different variants of Linux. And did I miss the web? flutter provides tools to develop your web application which can be used from any of the browsers. Gone are the days where you need a basic HTML and CSS to begin in web development before proceeding to complex frameworks like react and bootstrap. Flutter project hummingbird was started to bring flutter in web development. First started as a tool for building good looking android/iOS applications it has gradually shifted to creating applications for Windows/macOS/Linux along with the web. Flutter focuses on bringing the most complex UI with the least coding required with fast development time. Currently, flutter has an active development community only which creates different flutter packages which even reduces the development time even further. Flutter has 112k stars and around 16k forks which shows how active the community is towards fixing bugs and bringing all the new features.

Advantages of flutter

1. Open Source: Even though Flutter was developed as an internal project by google, it was later made opensource by google so that others in the community can contribute towards improving flutter. This ensures that any random bugs or anomalies are easily figured out and solved. Users can raise the issue in git and the community helps to rectify it. Flutter experts are highly active in stack overflow in case of any doubt during development.
2. What if a UI feature which looks good on an android application doesn’t feel native when these changes are introduced in let’s say iOS device. A rectangular Material Design app bar on top of android application could look way out of design aesthetics when introduced in iOS which follows principles of SwiftUI. Flutter gives you the option of natively compiling applications in their design sense.
3. Faster development: have you ever built an application, introduced a small change and waited a few minutes for the app to compile and render those elements on the screen. With the help of hot reload option changes can be introduced on running applications and changes can be observed instantaneously without causing any delay in development.
4. Native compilation: compiling your code to its native languages helps it to perform better in real-life scenarios since it removes the bridge connecting them. After all, features delayed are the features hated the most. Even the delay of a few seconds is a stain on the overall experience.
5. Skip Engine: flutter as its rendering engine which helps to draw each pixel on the board/device screen, So the developers or the designers are assured that whatever they have designed or coded are displayed exactly.

Disadvantages of flutter

1. Flutter is a relatively new framework compared to similar frameworks like react native for application development. So there are higher chances of issues, bugs or lack of general refinement. But with each passing day, developers at Google and contributors in GitHub are pitching for a better flutter.
2. Size of an issue, in general, is bigger for an application developed using flutter compared to native ones. It is not much of an issue since phone memory sizes are considerably getting larger by the day. But with recent updates of flutter, the team has made a significant achievement in reducing size.
3. Lack of packages: since it is relatively new, there are lack specific packages which are available for say React native, but most of the development team will not be requiring those rare packages. With each passing day more and more packages are being added to the flutter pub. dev.
4. Currently, there are above 5k issues in git flutter repository, for a newbie developer of flutter it could be a project threatening to say the least. But most of them are minor issues which are being actively solved. Simply a list issue in GitHub should not be a factor against not using flutter for your next development project.

We can boast with a certain confidence that the holy grail of multiplatform development is here in a very convenient form. The learning curve of flutter can be daunting since it involves a new language like dart which isn’t a popular language compared to giants like java, python or javascript which is used in react/react-native. But the need result is worth in terms of gain in efficiency and way better-looking application accompanied by a greater performance.