If you are reading this article, it is possible that you have come up with the idea of an application, and now you are seeking a way to implement it. The bad news is that mobile app development is expensive. One of the ways to save money is to opt for cross-platform development. For this purpose, you can use Flutter, one of the best frameworks available. And in case you are not into programming, you can contact Flutter app development company, OTAKOYI.
Flutter App Price Question
The approximate price for Flutter app development is $20k-$30k, with an average hourly rate of $15-$25 for developers. In fact, the final price will largely depend on the number of features you want to implement, as well as the overall complexity of the app.
In such a way, to find out the price of an app, you can estimate the hours that have to be spent on the features and functions your future app requires, and then multiply it by the hourly rate. The price may go higher if any additional functionality will be added. However, the good news is that there will be no additional costs for maintenance.
Cross-Platform
What makes Flutter a better tool for software development is its ability to make applications for different platforms from a single codebase. Unlike native development, which requires separate development teams for each of the platforms, with Flutter you can create an app for Android and iOS hiring only one team. This feature of Flutter saves up to 50% of your time and money.
What is more, cross-platformity will save you a lot of time during the deployment of updates. For example, if you find a bug, you fix it once. In the case of native development, a bug will have to be fixed on both Android and iOS versions. Besides, there are autotests in Flutter. They help your developers to reduce the chances of something going wrong beforehand.
Such a solution is a perfect choice for an MVP, the requirement of which is the speed and economy. In this way, you can test your idea without going all in.
Flutter Widgets
Another feature that reduces the development cost for Flutter is its widgets. Everything on Flutter is a widget. This is an easy way to add new functionalities. Besides, Flutter has rich libraries with ready-made solutions for popular problems. If you need something, there is a high possibility that Flutter already has a widget for that. What is more, all of its widgets look like and work like native elements. This means that Flutter has all the possibilities to imitate the native UI. In case, Flutter does not have an appropriate widget for what you require, it has an instrument for the creation of your own ones.
Taking this into account, you will be happy to know that this will also save a lot of time for your development team. What is more, this is also a piece of good news for your designers, who will find it easier to provide your app with a good UI with the help of these widgets.
Technical Peculiarities
Flutter has a lot of other features that, at first glance, only influence the development process from the perspective of the programmers. However, all of them indirectly influence the outcome of the project.
For instance, the function Hot Reload allows skipping the compilation. The fact is that whenever a change is made to the code, to view it in the working application, a developer has to start compilation. This procedure may take a few seconds, but when the app is big, it may consume several minutes. Now, imagine how much time it will take if I tell you that a lot of changes have to be viewed before moving forward with the code. For instance, there are a lot of bugs in the development process as well as touching up small changes like moving a button a few pixels to the right, etc. These procedures will be inevitably followed by compilation. As a result, a lot of time will be wasted.
However, with Hot Reload, there will be no compilation. This function allows viewing all the changes in real-time. In the long run, a lot of time will be saved for other more important parts of the work.
Use Cases
If Flutter is so good, when should I use it, you may ask. The general consensus is that it is a good tool for MVPs and startups. In fact, we would rather say that Flutter is good for medium and large businesses because a mobile app is a rarely good idea for a small business because it is simply expensive.
Flutter is a good choice if your business is connected to retail, fintech, logistics, or just the internal needs of a large business.
Conclusions
All in all, Flutter is a suitable choice for most of the businesses that are planning to develop a mobile app for both Android and iOS. In this case, it will save a lot of time and money. Besides, the developers are usually satisfied with this framework because working with it is easy and comfortable.
Both developers and business owners find it perfect that Flutter has a lot of functions already made for you. Therefore, developers do not have to worry about boilerplate coding, and entrepreneurs are just glad that the project will be ready sooner.
The single codebase is one of the main advantages during all the stages of development. It allows coding twice as fast as well as it reduces the time and efforts spent on fixes and maintenance. As with any piece of software, it has its own small disadvantages, but its benefits definitely outweigh them.
