What Is Flutter?

Explains what Flutter is and why it has attracted attention.

What Is Flutter?

Flutter is an open source multiplatform development framework announced by Google in 2017. A single Flutter codebase can target Android, iOS, the web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Flutter 1 focused on Android and iOS. Flutter 2 added official web support in 2021, and Flutter 3 added official Windows, macOS, and Linux support in 2022. Flutter has remained popular worldwide since its introduction. As of March 2023, its GitHub repository had more than 150,000 stars.

A 2021 survey also reported that Flutter had overtaken React Native among multiplatform mobile app frameworks with a 42% share.

Reference: Statista, “Cross-platform mobile frameworks used by software developers worldwide from 2019 to 2021”

The official documentation is comprehensive, and a large community provides additional resources. Flutter applications are written in Dart, a modern compiled multiparadigm programming language.

Why Has Flutter Attracted Attention?

Flutter offers several advantages. This section focuses on five.

Point 1. A Free and Open Framework

Flutter is free and open source. Its source code is published on GitHub, so engineers can inspect it, customize it, and submit improvement requests. Open communication within the community helps the framework and its shared knowledge continue to evolve.

Point 2. Multiplatform Development

Flutter supports Android, iOS, the web, Windows, macOS, and Linux from one codebase. Without a multiplatform framework, developers commonly need platform-specific technologies:

Android: Java, Kotlin
iOS: Objective-C, Swift
Web: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks such as React or Vue.js
Desktop applications: Electron

Flutter reduces the amount of platform-specific learning and makes it possible to manage multiple applications together.

Tip

Native development also has advantages, including detailed platform-specific optimization and earlier access to new platform features. Flutter supports detailed UI tuning, and new capabilities are often available through beta releases, so it can still provide a development experience close to native development.

Point 3. Developed by Google

Flutter is developed by Google and supported by an active community. Updates, technical information, and international conferences are provided regularly.

Tip

Google also uses Flutter in several applications. At the Flutter Engage Keynote in March 2021, Google announced that multiple products, including Google Pay, had been rewritten with Flutter.

Information is also shared through YouTube and Twitter.

Flutter is used for many commercial applications, and its community actively shares books, articles, and study events.

Point 4. A Well-Equipped Development Environment

Flutter integrates with tools and services around the world. Plugins are available for IDEs such as VS Code, and cloud services such as Firebase and Codemagic can improve development efficiency. Developers can connect an emulator to an IDE, test without a physical device, and use hot reload to see changes immediately. Building applications, importing packages, and producing desktop executables are also straightforward.

Point 5. Compatibility with Google Products

Because Google develops Flutter, it integrates well with other Google products. Material Design and Firebase are readily available through built-in support or plugins, making it easier to improve an application’s design and functionality.