Nowadays mobile phones and applications are the center of our world. There are already more than six billion users of smartphones worldwide. Additionally, there are about five million mobile applications available for download together from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Even though the market for mobile applications is becoming more competitive, many startups and developers concentrate their efforts there.

So it is obvious that mobile app developers are constantly looking for easier, quicker, and less expensive ways to launch their applications. In this process, effective development tools are crucial. From programming languages, and software development kits to app frameworks, developers use them to determine how quickly they can have a product in front of consumers.

The term "Flutter" has recently gained popularity in the world of mobile app development. Flutter is one of the most favored and creative UI software development kits available today, thanks to its open-source status and cross-platform features.

Let’s have a look at Flutter’s explosive rise in popularity and the features that make it so advantageous for developers.

An introduction to Flutter

Google created the open-source software development kit called Flutter. It can be used to develop programs for at least six different enterprises IT solutions.

However, it is primarily used to develop mobile apps for iOS and Android, natively generated programs can be created with the help of customizable widgets, guaranteeing a positive user experience. The cost-effectiveness is significantly increased as a result.

At the DART developer summit in 2015, Flutter made its initial appearance known as the code name "Sky". It was only restricted to android at that time.

Characteristics of Flutter 

The following are some of the key characteristics of Flutter that make it a good option for developing custom eCommerce websites:

• It offers a wide selection of widgets that may be tailored for almost any type of business.
• The most popular mobile operating systems, Android and iOS, are compatible with them completely.
• As a hybrid platform, it enables node js development companies to reach a larger audience. It requires less development time and has a large and vibrant developer community. 
• It enables constant maintenance and customization of commercial apps.

Why Flutter is Popular in Mobile App Development? 

Flutter shows an explosive rise in popularity among mobile app developers. Let’s see the features that make it a buzzword in the mobile development industry and increases the demand of flutter app development company

• Flutter is platform-agnostic

Any developer who intends to build a mobile application is aware of how crucial it is to have Android and iOS versions. With a 72% market share as of September 2021, Android continues to dominate the mobile industry. But iOS also has a remarkable user base and a market share of around 27%.

Focusing on creating a single native application misses a large portion of the market and restricts the future growth of the application. However, creating separate native applications can be expensive and time-consuming.

With Flutter, cross-platform development becomes easy and smooth. Rather than writing different codes for each platform,  Developers can take advantage of a single codebase of Flutter. 

•  Low Development Cost

 The requirement for a new app for each platform in native application development leads to significantly higher development costs. With Flutter app development, native performance is enhanced while development costs are minimum.

• Flutter is easy to learn and use.

Flutter is easy to learn, even or not have a lot of development expertise. Dart is conceptually and syntactically similar to other object-oriented languages like Java, Python, C#, and others, so developers who frequently work with those languages won't have any trouble learning Flutter and Dart. Additionally, Flutter's rich widget library makes it simple to build applications without writing a lot of code for those having less development knowledge. There are several platforms that use Flutter to build apps without writing any code!

Flutter has top-notch documentation. Along with the general reference manual, Flutter help resources have innumerable example applications, such as "COOKBOOK" to help developers accomplish typical tasks. It even shows recommendations for a Flutter boot camp. 

• Flutter apps provide a great user experience.

Flutter apps are compiled directly into native code, with no need for intermediate code interpretation steps. Compared to other cross-platform development applications like React Native that require bridges between their code and native element.

User interfaces for mobile apps must be appealing, intuitive, and well-designed to succeed, and Flutter is excellent at designing fantastic user experiences.

The built-in widget catalog for Flutter is dedicated to providing high-performance, visually exciting application components. With Flutter, designing basic to complex user interfaces with multiple components is very easy.  

Without the need for intermediate code interpretation stages, Flutter programs are directly compiled into native code. Flutter is substantially faster than other cross-platform development tools like React Native since it doesn't need bridges to connect its code to native elements, which slows down performance.

• Flutter scales well

The app developers must be able to add functionality easily or extend its user base without causing it to malfunction. The backend of Flutter uses Google's Firebase application, which was designed with scalability in mind. Real-time database updates from firebase help to ensure that data syncs fastly between clients. Additionally, Firebase optimizes and reduces the number of updates required for syncing, so the addition of users has no detrimental effects on speed.

• Reduced Development time

With Flutter's "hot reload" functionality, you may observe the changes that have been made very immediately without losing the current state of your application. And this is what makes the flutter app development several times faster.

Additionally, the Flutter team has worked hard to offer a huge selection of widgets that are ready for use. The majority of them are very configurable, which saves your time like no other framework ever could. Flutter offers a sizable collection of Material and Cupertino widgets that flawlessly replicate the behavior of each design language in addition to a huge number of basic layout widgets. Here is how they function:

• Effective Animation

Flutter has different widgets that help developers to create Material Design-compliant apps. The Material Motion system for Flutter helps to create a seamless transition between UI elements and a smooth appearance. This open framework also has inbuilt features of animation and gesture. These inbuilt features offer complete control of each pixelated piece on the screen.

• Easy Error Handling

If mistake management is not there it will be more challenging for developers to detect and solve the error. However, because Flutter uses multiple widgets and combines them to create the overall program, it makes the task of developers easier. If there is a problem with the widget, it only impacts that widget and its components, not the entire app or device.

Finally, it's a wrap

Flutter is a framework that is constantly growing. As you have seen, there are many benefits of using flutter when building applications. If you are considering creating a mobile application, flutter should be your first option. You can hire a flutter app development company if you want to convert your idea into a  reality.

Over native or any other cross-platform software development, using Flutter for app development has many benefits. As Flutter is a hybrid framework, it takes less time to develop apps and saves you money as well.  Plus,  the community of Flutter is still expanding.