Google started working on Flutter in 2015. Back in the day, Flutter was available in Beta Version. After working for three straight years, Flutter was launched. Here’s the Flutter Release Date: December 4th, 2018 as per Flutter Documentation.

Flutter 2 was released on March 3rd, 2021. Over 400,000 applications have been developed using Flutter since its launch.

Applications that have been created using Flutter Technology:

1. BMW 
2. Google Pay
3. CrowdSource
4. eBay
5. Hamilton
6. iRobot
7. Toyota

These are just some of the globally used applications that were developed using Flutter Technology.

There is no doubt about the fact that Flutter mobile app development is very effective as it saves time and money. Your development team saves the hustle of writing a source code again and you get to save spending hefty amounts of money on the project.

That being said, let’s move toward discussing Flutter’s Pros & Cons.

Related: Is Flutter Worth learning in 2022? 7 Reasons To Learn Flutter And Excel In Your Career

Read more about Flutter → What is Flutter?

5 Flutter Pros & Cons

1. Flutter Has An Extensive Library

Despite the fact that you have read on the internet that the scarcity of Flutter Libraries is one of the disadvantages of using Flutter. Well, that used to be true back in the day. As of now, you can find Flutter Libraries in abundance.

In fact, we mentioned 10+ Nifty Flutter Libraries that included everything from intro sliders to animations and FL charts.

2. Shorter Development Time

Developing apps is a very tough process. And remember, a tough development process consumes a lot of time and decreases productivity. Consequently, developers spend more time on development. But if you have hired a flutter app developer, your app will be developed a lot sooner. And there is a reason for that.

Whenever we talk about flutter’s pros and cons, its use of Dart language always stands out. Flutter app developer creates the codebase using Dart, which automatically adapts to the respective platform – whether it’s iOS, Android, Windows, or Linux.

But let’s save that discussion because we’ll talk about it dedicatedly later on for two reasons – (A) Dart and its easy-to-use nature is a discussion in and of itself and (B) Dart is not the only factor that makes Flutter a time-efficient option.

Take Hot Reload as an example. The Hot Reload button allows the developer to see changes without wasting any time in re-running the code. All they have to do is hit the Hot Reload Button.

3. Dart Is An Easy-To-Learn Language

This is what supports developers at large and helps them become a flutter coding pro easily. It’s an easy-t-learn programming language that is created for stellar client development. Hence, it is used for web applications and mobile apps as well.

While flutter mobile app development is gaining popularity at large, the buzz surrounding the subject seems to forget about the fact that Dart is also used to develop server and background applications.

4. High Performance

Discussing flutter’s pros and cons is almost impossible without bringing high performance into the discussion. Flutter mobile application development jacks applications with robust performance because it has a layered architecture. Therefore, the flutter app developer is said to have control over every on-screen pixel. )

Flutter uses Skia (software graphics engine) to draw everything, making everything look identical across platforms.

5. Flutter Supports iOS Features. It Depends On How You Develop It.

Yes, despite what you have read about Flutter’s pros and cons on the internet, Flutter does support the iOS features as well. But, there is a catch.

Literally, everyone, from an everyday Joe to a Flutter App Developer knows that iOS has its own set of rules and standards. So, it is important to include those widgets and fonts that comply to the rules and standards maintained by iOS.

So, if your flutter app is not supporting iOS features, then you might want to recheck and detect the widgets and fonts that you are trying to use. If you have picked them up from a third-party resource or a library, then you must check whether it supports iOS or not.

Here are two things that you can do if your Flutter App is not supporting the iOS features:

Consider redeveloping the widget and this time, according to the iOS standards.

Recheck the library that you are using and see if it supports iOS or not. If it doesn’t, consider choosing another library.

6. Single Codebase For All Platforms

Coding can be extremely difficult often. 

And especially when you want to develop a single app for multiple platforms like mobile and web.

In such a situation, flutter can help you to complete the project in a time duration of one.

Let’s understand this with the help of an example.

A client reaches out to you with an application development project. 

And the requirements are that he wants a mobile app and a web version.

If you code both devices separately it’ll take really long time.

But if you use Flutter you don’t need to create separate code bases when working on multiple devices.

This is one of the greatest features of Flutter that makes it popular among mobile app developers.

This results in quicker app launch and is cost-effective.

7. Powerful Community 

The biggest competitor of Flutter in recent times is React Native. 

There’s really tough competition in recent times between both app development frameworks.

But in terms of community support flutter has hammered react native.

Flutter has transcended react native in terms of GitHub stars. 

On the other hand, flutter has also become the most prevalent and foremost choice by developers globally.

Over 40 percent of software developers have chosen Flutter over the course of the last three years. 

Also, the questions asked by newcomer about Flutter has surpassed the number of questions asked on React Native on stack overflow.

The Real Cons Of Using Flutter

Now let’s talk about the real cons of using Flutter – and before we begin, let us clarify one thing: No one knows how long these disadvantages are going to last. Not long ago, flutter developers complained about the scarcity of flutter libraries and no supporting iOS library. However, all of that went away. Not in the blink of an eye for sure, but it didn’t let us wait till the cows came home too.

So seeing its improvement in recent years, we can safely assume that these drawbacks are soon going to go away.

Now reproducing native widgets is a considerable job. So when it comes to this domain, you might notice that Flutter is not performing the same. However, you will still be able to reproduce a native widget in Flutter and most people won’t spot any discrepancies either.

And lastly, a challenge remains – What happens if there are new OS versions? Well, it will definitely challenge the Flutter App Developer to come up with something that can suffice.
However, as Tom Gilder highlights in his post, your Flutter developer will have some time (3 months if working with iOS) to figure it out and get the widgets straight.

1. Lack of Third-party Libraries

The biggest disadvantage of Flutter is that it contains a very limited number of third-party libraries that can increase the development time significantly.

Having third-party libraries is paramount as they play a key role in streamlining app development and cutting down the need to code everything from the ground up.

When compared to its arch-rival React Native, flutter has a limited number of plugins and packages.

The possibility could be that Flutter is relatively new.

However, when we compare it to the number of plugins at the time when it was launched to this day we can see a lot more improvement.

As the community builds more plugins and packages for Flutter.

At the present time, there are more than 26K packages and plugins available that can be used by developers to make an application.

However, it’s still not comparable to React Native.

2. Dart’s Low Popularity

The second biggest problem when using Flutter is that Dart has a relatively small community than Javascript.

Dart is Flutter’s official programming language and used by developers to code the application.

Yet being a reliable and decent programming language you won’t find many developers who understand Dart programming language.

If we compare Dart to Javascript which is a React Native programming language in terms of popularity.

You won’t find Dart anywhere near.

Because This object-oriented programming language is not as great as other languages like C#, Java, Objective C, and JavaScript.

Also, for newbies, it’ll be a challenging task to develop an app using this language.

3. Large and Weighty Apps

In the realm of app development using Flutter, there exists a rather sizable chink in the armor that cannot be ignored: the size of the files themselves.

In certain instances, this particularity can prove to be a formidable challenge, forcing developers to seek out alternative tools to achieve their objectives.

This is because, as we all know, the availability of sufficient memory space on mobile devices is not a universal reality, and many users are unable to accommodate additional apps without first making difficult decisions regarding which content to remove from their devices.

That said, while the larger file sizes of Flutter-developed apps may present certain difficulties, it’s important to remember that they also offer considerable improvements in the runtime and overall performance.

Consequently, it’s crucial to thoughtfully consider the audience for whom you’re designing and developing, so as to ensure that the benefits of Flutter’s improved runtime and performance are fully appreciated.

When To Use Flutter?

There’re many reasons to choose Flutter to make an impressive and engaging mobile app.

Here’re the following reasons why you should pick Flutter to make applications.

When you want to Build complex and highly customized UIs

Creating high-performing and complicated UI sound very complex and consume lots of time.

But with the flutter, everything has become efficient and rapid.

When you use Flutter you can control every pixel on the screen.

Regardless of the type of device version, your app will look the same every time.

If you feel tha creating impressive and complex UI damages the app’s performance – use flutter as it can help you to make impressive UI very easily without affecting the performance.

So, if want to impress your customers with some engaging and captivating UI, flutter is the best option.

Flutter Helps in Rapid Prototyping And Development

Without a shadow, if a doubt if you’ve got a very limited time to make an app choose Flutter.

As it helps you to make an app extremely fast.

Besides its cross-platform and code-sharing feature, the thing that makes app development lighting fast is the builder tool and lots of UI widgets

With Flutter, coding, issue-fixing, and testing are accelerated to unparalleled speeds, providing an indispensable advantage when time is of the essence.

This is especially true when developing a minimum viable product (MVP), whether for presentation purposes or user testing.

Flutter is Best For Small to Medium-sized Projects

Flutter is the ideal framework for small to medium size projects. Here’s why

Firstly, the hot reload button enables developers to check their code. Make changes and see results in a split second.

Secondly, Flutter offers a wide range of pre-built widgets and tools, which can help reduce development time and costs.

Last but not least, Flutter’s single codebase can be used to create apps for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, web, and desktop, which can save developers significant time and effort.

Conclusion

Flutter is one of the go-to options when it comes to developing cross-platform applications. It is indeed true that Flutter has proven itself to be among the top-of-the-line frameworks for developers.

Its easy-to-work-with nature helps developers create a cross-platform application with a single codebase. That not only saves the effort involved in app development but it also helps businesses enjoy having an app in a cost-efficient manner.

Since it is still a fresh framework, there were multiple cons of using flutter. However, Flutter coped up in a very short period of time. For example, there was a shortage of third-party resources and flutter libraries. But that’s not the case today.

With continuous effort, Flutter continues to grow leaps and bounds. Seeing the framework’s massive progress and success, we can safely assume that there is a lot to see in the future. Till then, let’s develop some amazing Flutter apps! Leave us a message if you are looking for one!

The Best Apps Made With Flutter

Despite being a relatively new framework, there’re tons of companies and businesses that have used Flutter to develop impressive mobile apps.

If you want to use Flutter for application development but are not sure whether to use it or not here’re some famous companies that have used Flutter for application development.

Google Ads

Google ads allow businesses and companies to run ads and promote their products and service. The application is developed using Flutter. Google ads current interface is very user-friendly and visually pleasing. This is all because of the flutter.

Groupon

The second biggest company that used Flutter is the most popular deals and coupons. Groupon offers legit and verified coupons and proms on top brands.  The great functionality of the application is due to the implementation of Flutter. The company has used Flutter to ensure that customers have a memorable experience.

Xianyu by Alibaba

Alibaba used Flutter to develop a mobile app by the name Xianyu. The reason to use Flutter was to create a seamless, intuitive, and high-performing mobile app.

My BMW

The auto manufacturing company used Flutter to create the BMW app. It is a sophisticated application designed for use by BMW drivers, enabling them to locate parking spaces, and access points of interest, and share their locations with ease.

Flutter Pros & Cons 2023 FAQs