Flutter Application Development: Is It the Right Choice for Startups?

Are you planning to introduce your mobile app in 2023, but confused over the cross-platform framework that would be right?

Flutter could be the ultimate app development framework for startups wanting to roll out with feature-rich mobile apps without spending fortunes.

How exactly is that possible?

Let's understand Flutter for startups in detail and why it is the most preferred choice for cross-platform app development.

As per the report by Statista in the second quarter of 2022, with over 2.2 million apps in the iOS app store and 3.5 million apps in Google Play, app development is fundamental for all domains and business sizes.

With fast-evolving market trends and increased competition, it is daunting for startups to thrive in this highly competitive marketplace without a mobile app.

What is Flutter?

Flutter is a Software Development Kit (SDK) that works across platforms to create mobile applications. It's also known as a 'UI framework,' which is a collection of UI elements that make up an app and can be customized throughout development.

Flutter is the UI toolkit of Google to build natively compiled apps for the web, desktop, and mobile from one codebase.

An open-source framework for app development, Flutter provides much faster development across different operating systems with the latest flutter 3.3 updates. It lives up to its tagline that says, " Build beautiful native apps in record time. " It provides an interactive UI, which allows app developers to design the applications as per user requirements.

Flutter is the best mobile app development framework that can be used to build apps for iOS, Android, and Windows.

Yes, you heard it right. With the latest launch of Flutter 3.0, Flutter extends stable support for Desktop applications as well. Hence, desktop applications can be developed using Flutter app development for startups.

Moreover, a complete software development kit (SDK) solution has everything necessary for seamless cross-platform app development. Flutter mobile app development allows you to design robust, high-performing, and scalable mobile apps for all operating systems using a single codebase. With its rich SDK and API, Flutter makes it easy to develop high-performing mobile apps that successfully meet the needs of the users. It gives you the best icons, typography, and scrolling too.

Based on Dart, the in-house language of Google, it is easier for app developers for startups to learn this language if they are familiar with Java and JavaScript. Most importantly, Flutter mobile app development receives brilliant community support with tutorial guidelines. Regardless of experience, mobile app developers for startups can start using this platform easily.

What is Flutter Used for?

Flutter is used for cross-platform application development for iOS and Android using a single codebase. The Flutter-enabled applications are very compatible and native apps for iOS and Android platforms. The applications are compiled for their respective platform before their deployment.

However, Flutter doesn’t require any runtime module or a browser to execute an application. With the help of Flutter mobile app development, you can easily create web apps for browsers and native applications for macOS, Linux, and Windows using a single codebase.

Furthermore, Google utilizes Flutter for a better experience of various modules of Google Assistant and Google Home Hub. Also, renowned eCommerce platforms like Alibaba Group, Groupon, and eBay use Flutter to offer a seamless user experience to their customers.

Flutter in Numbers

Now, let’s look at some stats which show why Flutter has gained popularity.

• A product manager of Flutter and Dart at Google – Tim Sneath, stated that over two million developers have been trying their hands on Flutter since its release.
• Moreover, he stated in a report that there was around 10% of month-over-month growth in March, despite the rise of COVID-19. Now, around half a million developers use Flutter responsive framework for mobile app development.
• If we consider the Statista report, it’s surprising that the Flutter framework for startups is the second most popular cross-platform mobile framework among developers. In addition, around 39% of developers use Flutter, which is a great rise from last year by 9%.
• A report from StackOverflow says that around 68.8% of developers love using Flutter for businesses. This number shows Flutter is the real winner and most wanted technology in the developer’s community.
• A report from Google Trends, while considering Flutter vs React Native, many developers have shown their interest in Flutter, which has been increasing over the last year in the United States. Here, the real-time image shows that blue is for Flutter, whereas Red is for React Native.
• As per GitHub, the responsive Flutter framework has over 146k stars, which tops in the technology sector. It has around 23.4k Forks as well.
• More than 400,000 apps have been launched globally in the market since the release of Flutter, as per Flutter. The popular Flutter application examples are Tencent, The New York Times app, Square, and Google Assistant.
• Companies using Flutter - Google Ads and Alibaba - have over 60 million downloads combined.

Cross-Platform vs Native Applications Development

The world is overwhelmed with the ongoing digital experience and applications, which are now a fundamental part of living. With the increasing popularity of apps and the number of operating systems, there are, however, two significant areas of concern for startups:

• There are around 5.94 million app users worldwide. Would it be possible to launch an application within a limited budget?
• As countless startups are rolling out worldwide, how would it be possible to set a foothold in this dynamic marketplace and make a difference?

The only solution to both these challenges is to develop a cross-platform app and ensure your idea is unique.

For startups, building cross-platform mobile apps is budget-friendly and more comfortable. Though relatively new, apps made with Flutter are excellent in many ways like:

• Technical Architecture: The flutter architecture within technology is a deciding factor. For Flutter, Skia is the foundation. Skia is everything you require for Flutter mobile app development. You would not need any external bridge linking through the native components, as Flutter comprises everything within its framework.
• Configuration: Flutter framework has a friendly IDE-guided setup for both Android and iOS. It has a CLI tool called Flutter Doctor that helps developers set up the environment for development services.
• Development API and UI: The responsive Flutter framework comes with richer libraries and components supporting native elements such as navigation, state management, testing, UI rendering components, and API access. Therefore, you can build bold and beautiful Flutter mobile apps for startups using Flutter app development services.

• Test Support: Flutter framework for startups has terrific documentation for testing apps and widgets, along with other unique features.
• Build Automation: Mobile app development using Flutter makes it easier to release mobile applications across the app store and play store with its development services. You receive a CLI interface that speeds up the procedure of releasing the app efficiently.
• DevOps Support: Once a cross-platform app is released, it is crucial to maintain it. Flutter offers CI/CD support together with CLI interface and documentation support.

Flutter ranks second in the league of most leading languages for developing cross-platform in 2022, with React Native following, according to Google Trends reports.

Some leading companies using Flutter have developed beautiful and unique mobile applications in no time – Google, Groupon, Tencent, Alibaba, eBay, EMAAR, The New York Times, and many more.

Flutter App Development: Key Features

What are the unique features of Flutter app development that make it a perfect choice for startups? It is highly scalable, robust, and cost-effective. It's all that a startup needs.

Mobile app development can be expensive. You have to hire dedicated developers to design and develop the app, followed by support and maintenance. Startups with a limited budget can use Flutter mobile app development as its SDKs provide different ways to reduce costs. It can speed up the development process and reduce production costs with the advantage of developing mind-blowing app UIs and smooth animations.

Due to advanced technology, design, and features, Flutter has many pros and cons, that make it the right choice for startups. Developers can work in a chosen direction, making it much easier for them to build high-performing applications.

Look at some of the best features that make Flutter the preferred language:

• Hot Reload for Faster App Development: Flutter features Hot Reload, making it stand out in the crowd. This unique feature lets developer experiment, design UI, add unique features and debug the app in real-time. Hot reload reflects all the changes instantly in the coding so that you don't have to save to view the changes. It also reflects updates in the app's current state and allows developers to continue executing the code to complete the project.
• Open-Source: Flutter is a relatively new open-source language. Regardless of the complexities of a project, developers can turn the app into a workable solution by leveraging a vast choice of material designs such as rich motion APIs, natural and smooth scrolling behavior, Cupertino widgets, etc. and more. Developers are also free to explore a myriad of design options.

• Flutter Widgets: A mobile app's performance is the most significant concern of an organization before investing. Flutter widgets are amazing, ensuring the native performance of an app. Its broad catalog of widgets includes scrolling, icons, fonts, navigation, and hassle-free development.
• Single Code Base for All OS: Flutter is a prudent choice for startup mobile app development because it allows you to create apps for both Android and iOS. Considering that Flutter does not depend on JavaScript, developers can write a single codebase for building cross-platform apps that perform closely like native apps when it comes to features, functionality, and UI/UX.

Our Flutter experts always look forward to dispelling doubts and addressing unique concerns.

Any questions?

Other Noteworthy Flutter Features Include:

• Advanced API backs Flutter's framework. As a result, you can leverage much faster, smoother, and cleaner animations.
• Embedding Flutter into an existing app is easier. You can integrate a new UI into an old app.
• Flutter allows developers to relish the firebase support of Google as the backend. As a result, apps become scalable and serverless.
• Flutter, by Google, is also equipped with Native ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) code, which helps in building apps for startup ventures and tech businesses.

Did you know, Flutter is among the top ten most popular frameworks of 2022 and holds second place among cross-platform frameworks? Click To Tweet

Why is Flutter the Best Choice for Startup App Development?

If you are still unsure about choosing Flutter app development for startups, here are some strong reasons:

• Startups can be more relaxed when it comes to the budget of mobile app development with Flutter.
• Its open-source technology is an important feature that makes it cost-effective.
• It is easy to integrate Flutter with an existing application.
• Flutter takes away your worries of developing a mobile app – from development to final deployment.
• Flutter supports the recent reactive framework.
• Flutter libraries are a great source for developers. It enables them to localize an app as per the geographical location and adhere to the language, layout, and text.
• Flutter offers a wide range of rich and ready-to-use widgets for businesses.
• It is easy to maintain an app developed with Flutter owing to its feature, the hot reload. It minimizes risks.
• It's fast, robust, and much easier to learn and install Flutter in your system.
• Flutter is giving tough competition to native applications owing to its smooth programming and interface.
• Flutter's productivity is the best, with reduced costs, making it the right choice for startup app development.
• Flutter's framework supports IDEs like Android Code, Xcode, and Visual Studio Code.
• Flutter has a well-organized and portable GPU executing UI, which allows its smooth performance across multiple interfaces.
• Flutter apps take less time to test as they have a single codebase to review. Moreover, it maintains a single codebase for multiple platforms, iOS, and Android, which ensures fewer chances of bugs.

How Much Does Flutter App Development Cost?

Choosing Flutter for mobile app development is the right solution when you have a limited budget and a wide audience base. However, the Flutter app development cost may vary depending on your project requirements, functionalities, complexity, features, and developers you hire.

But if we give you a rough cost of developing a Flutter app, it could range from $25,000 to $100,000. Well, this is just an estimated cost to develop a Flutter app. So, you can create your first app using Flutter in a given budget.

Top Companies Using Flutter for Mobile Development

Here, we have come up with the top 10 companies using Flutter to provide many benefits to their users. Flutter application examples are:

• Nubank
• Dream11
• Crowdsource
• Quinto Andar
• Reflectly
• Byte Dance
• Etsy
• Invoice Ninja
• Superlist
• Wiredash

Is Flutter a Good Solution from the Business Perspective?A short answer to your question is – YES!Yes, Flutter is a good and preferred solution from the business perspective. There are various factors that drive a business value with Flutter development. Moreover, if you hire Flutter developers from a prominent cross-platform development company like Radixweb, they will ensure to deliver successful product development and improvement.With several millions of startups mushrooming every year, it is challenging to stand apart as a brand in this cutthroat competitive market. If you want to build a Flutter app without burning a hole in your pocket, consider consulting Flutter application development services for a cross-platform framework. Radixweb has realized Flutter's potential early on and has highly recommended it to all of its startup customers looking to establish themselves in the market quickly. It is definitely worth the choice considering its extensive features.

Tweet References

https://www.statista.com/statistics/793840/worldwide-developer-survey-most-used-frameworks/