In cross-platform app development, you create one codebase that can run on multiple operating systems. It reduces workload, time and investment, creates near-native user experiences, and increases market reach. These benefits have propelled the popularity of this development approach, with Flutter emerging as a top cross-platform development technology.
In this post, we take you through the leading Flutter development tools. The information is useful when you design a cross-platform app or hire Flutter development experts for the job.
Why use Flutter for app development?
Flutter is Google's portable UI framework for mobile, desktop, web and embedded systems. It uses the programming language Dart along with Material widgets and Cupertino components.
A quality cross-platform app offers a good user experience regardless of device. The Flutter UI toolkit makes it easy to create apps that feel natural to any platform.
Dart can compile into native code and JavaScript. It does not need a JavaScript bridge to communicate with a platform as does React Native. This improves app startup time and performance.
Flutter is based on the idea that you can build your UI entirely out of widgets. Everything in Flutter is a widget - there are ready-made widgets you can use, customize, or create your own.
Mobile app development is speedy with Flutter. Its automated testing toolkit enables a short turnaround time. It supports continuous delivering using Fastlane, a tool suite that automates releases and deployments for iOs and Android apps, making your workflow better and more efficient.
Flutter offers a suite of debugging, layout inspection and performance analysis tools via DevTools. They make app issues quick and easy to investigate. All these benefits are packed in an open-source and free framework, backed by extensive documentation and community support.
Essential Flutter Development Tools for 2023
Here's a list of Flutter development tools that the developer community agrees on as essential to build beautiful and user-friendly apps.
1. Panache (UI)
Using the material editor tool, you can easily build custom theme elements for a uniquely personalized app iOS/Android user experience. It allows for a lot of experimentation with colors and shapes to create the exact theme you desire for your app.
2. Android Studio (IDE)
The integrated development environment for Android provides the latest tools to build high-quality apps for mobile, desktop, tablet, and wearables. It has a feature-rich emulator, and enables fast coding and quick iterations.
3. Visual Studio Code (Code editor)
The code editor for Windows, Linux, and macOX comes with built-in support for various popular languages and frameworks. It is extensible via plugins, allowing for a lot of customization and more productive coding.
4. Codemagic (Testing)
The cloud-based continuous delivery tool allows you to build and test Flutter apps for Android, iOS, Linux, web and macOS. It is built with continuous integration and delivery in mind, and is well integrated with GitHub, Bitbucket and GitLab.
5. Firebase (BaaS)
Firebase is a backend-as-a-service offering a wide range of tools and services to build quality apps faster. The Firebase real-time database allows you to store and synchronize data between clients, enhancing collaboration.
Our other picks for essential Flutter development tools are:
6. Vysor
7. Appetize
8. Supernova
9. Screenshots
10. Adobe Plugins
Why is Flutter the future of cross platform apps?
Following its release in 2018, Flutter quickly gained a reputation for developing immersive apps and began to be used more extensively than React Native, Xamarin and Angular. A 2021 survey by statista.com found that 42% of global developers used Flutter. The future of cross-platform app development looks very Flutter-friendly for a number of reasons.
Flutter is a Google product and has over 25,000 followers on Github. Its community and support are unmatched, attracting freshly minted developers.
Flutter provides one of the best developer experiences. Mobile app development using Flutter has been described as Lego building - straightforward, intuitive, and easy to experiment with. A function developers appreciate is hot reload, which takes a mere second to load code changes without losing the preserved state of the app.
An advanced UI keeping target customers in mind improves user satisfaction, brand reputation, and competitiveness. Flutter makes custom UI elements easy to build, thanks in part to its internal graphics engine Skia, which is also used by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Businesses' increasing interest in building game-changing apps will provide the impetus to hire Flutter development experts in the future.
As a cost-friendly mobile app development solution, Flutter is particularly attractive to start-ups. As more and more early and mid-stage start-ups build monetizing or corporate apps, Flutter's future looks bright.
How to choose the right Flutter development company?
Businesses prefer to hire offshore developers to get a quality product at a low cost. Choosing dedicated offshore developers for Flutter can make all the difference - here are some questions to ask when evaluating companies:
- Do they have real-world experience in Flutter? Can they provide high-level customization and innovative features?
- Does the company have access to the latest technologies, tools and updates?
- Looking to build an AI/ML powered app? Understand the company's capability and experience integrating new technologies with Flutter mobile app development.
- Does the company offer post deployment support?
- Has the company kept pace with the latest mobile app development trends?
Why is VLink the Best Partner for You?
VLink's full-stack Flutter developers have experience using Flutter frameworks, editors, and UI, testing, emulator, IDE and other mobile app development tools. They apply logic and creativity to bring complex app concepts to life.
We assure code security and data protection. Our service includes post launch maintenance and support. A reputation for on-time delivery and strong communication makes us a reliable partner.
VLink has remained on the cutting-edge of technology and kept up with the latest IT outsourcing trends . We have expertise in all popular programming languages and their frameworks, we also undertake machine learning and AI projects.
Hire Flutter development specialists
We're happy to hop on a call with you to understand your app development requirements. If you deem us a good fit, we can quickly put together a dedicated mobile app development team in USA, Canada, India or Indonesia (in your time zone) at a competitive cost. Talk to VLink’s app development consultants now and give life to your app without delay.
