Why is Flutter the best fit for startups?

What if mobile apps never existed? Can you even fathom such a reality?

Thankfully, we don’t even have to imagine such an alternate reality (*shivers*), since, today, there is an app for every possible requirement. Running out of groceries? Now, there are apps that deliver those directly to your doorstep in 15 minutes flat. Want a fresh set of prescription medicines? Put your feet up and relax at home while those are delivered to you. And of course, then there’s Amazon, that’s got you covered for technology, furniture, books, clothes, and more.

This growing dependency and the necessity of apps have led to massive growth in the app development industry. In fact, global revenue from mobile apps is expected to rise to $613 billion by 2025, up from $318 billion in 2020. This has also increased the competition to develop engaging, robust, and successful applications.

Keeping this increased competition in mind, there are numerous factors that you must consider when developing your app. One such key factor is the app development framework, which becomes even more critical for startups. Flutter is an app development framework that is considered to be an excellent choice for startups to drive business growth.

Here, we will delve deeper into the world of Flutter and why it is the best option for startups.‍

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source app development framework used for building beautiful cross-platform applications. It’s written in Dart and launched in 2017 by Google. As mentioned, it offers cross-platform development and can be used to create robust apps for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web using a single codebase. Furthermore, points continue to stack up in favor of Flutter, since it is the most popular cross-platform app development framework.‍

Why is Flutter the ideal framework for startups?

Easy to learn

Flutter became the toast of the town within a short time of its launch. Why, you ask? Due to its benefits of ease of learning and effortless accessibility.

Flutter provides developers with excellent in-depth documentation on the best practices for using it. Moreover, Flutter includes video tutorials on its website, which makes it easier for novices to understand the basics of the app development framework.‍

Cross-platform development

One of the most striking features of Flutter is that it allows you to create cross-platform apps for multiple platforms from a single codebase. Unlike other app development frameworks, it doesn’t require separate codebases for different operating systems.

Writing separate codebases for apps across different operating systems can be cumbersome and tedious. Here’s where Flutter provides a significant advantage while helping save time and money, and reducing developers’ workloads.‍

Hot reload

Hot reload in Flutter is a handy and quick function that allows developers to fix bugs, create UIs, add features, and apply code changes instantly. Hence, developers can update codes at any point and view the changes instantly without restarting the entire program. Moreover, developers get to use this feature in Flutter since it’s written in Dart, which allows them to experiment with unique user interfaces.‍

Better performance

Apps built using Flutter are considered to perform better than those built using other frameworks, making it ideal for startups. The ahead-of-time compilation feature allows programmers to compile their Dart code into machine language ahead of time, i.e., in build time instead of run time, thus making the app feel native.

Usually, in other cross-platform frameworks, the compilation of codebase to machine language is done in run-time, which takes a significant amount of time, thus reducing performance.‍

Budget-friendly and free-to-use plugins

Flutter is open-sourced and free-to-use, thus not requiring licensing fees. In addition, it also provides plugins and packages. One of them being Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). FCM is a free cross-platform plugin and messaging solution for notifications and messages on Android, iOS, and the web.‍

Wrapping up

Considering the benefits mentioned above, it’s no surprise that Flutter has become developers’ go-to cross-platform app development framework. This also applies to startups since they have limited funds and resources, and Flutter provides them with the tools and services necessary to succeed in a cutthroat app development environment.