Flutter App Development Cost in 2024 [Breakdown]

Cross-platform app development has become the new normal in app development. It is efficient, time-saving, and exceptionally budget-friendly. Entrepreneurs can smoothly and easily launch one app on multiple platforms without having to develop separate apps for Android and iOS using native app development. 

Among the cross-platform frameworks in use right now, Flutter and React Native hold the top rank. With Flutter becoming one of the most-liked mobile app development technologies among the developer community. A study conducted by Statista shows that globally the most used cross-platform framework by software developers is Flutter. Released in the year 2017, backed by Google, Flutter is the latest cross-platform technology in town. 

With Flutter so much in demand both by developers & entrepreneurs alike, let’s look into how much does it cost to develop a Flutter app. 

Based on your app requirements, Flutter app development cost can usually be in this range:-

These are ballpark figures, the average Flutter app development cost and also vary according to different app kind needs. If you want to know the exact cost of developing a Flutter app, our expert business analysts can assist you. 

Coming back to the cost — this blog will serve as a definite guide if you’re looking to develop a Flutter app and want to know the detailed cost of Flutter app development.

Introducing Flutter and its Key Attributes

Let's not get into the boring details of how Flutter came and stuff like that. Let's introduce the key attributes of Flutter to help you understand the factors behind its popularity.

• Flutter offers a software development kit (SDK) that is completely free and open-source.
• Flutter is a dynamic, cross-platform development framework created by Google in 2017 to build iOS and Android mobile apps, web, and desktop apps by using the same code.
• Flutter ensures native user experience through its wide range of ready-to-use widgets and tools, ensuring fast-paced development.
• The Flutter framework offers a layered structure to quickly incorporate customization and specific UI elements while maintaining the same powerful performance.
• Flutter offers a hot reload feature to ensure reflecting the interface changes instantly after code changes.
• Flutter uses Dart programming language, which is known for clean and lean coding syntax.
• In Flutter, the basic development blocks are always widgets that can be used to customize any app.
• Flutter allows creating different iOS, Android, and web versions of the same app with a different look and feel through using different themes.
• Finally, Google brought in a testing and continuous development (CD) solution provider called Codemagic for developing, testing, and packaging all Flutter apps across the platforms.

With so many powerful attributes and features on offer, hardly any cross-platform app project can keep their eyes away from Flutter. Flutter plays the defining role for ambitious and low-budget app projects as the leading cross-platform development framework, mainly because of these attributes. However, when it comes to Flutter app development India holds the leading position because of its emerging startups and exponentially growing small business app projects.

Going Deeper into the Flutter Features

Now that we have a gross idea about the value offerings of the Flutter framework and key reasons for its growing popularity, it is important to go deeper into its representative features and strengths to help you understand how Flutter can help fulfill your aspiration for the ideal cross-platform app project.

Quicker Development with Hot Reload Feature

The hot reload feature of Flutter is what makes the framework stand apart from the rest. Thanks to this feature, developers can do experiments with ease, develop the UI, make corrections, incorporate more elements, and carry out debugging in real-time.

The most important thing is that the hot reload feature helps reflect the coding changes in real-time to help evaluation of the effects and make adjustments accordingly. Hot reload allows developers to incorporate new updates in the current app state while developers are still going with their coding tasks. So, evaluating the effects and the coding happens in real-time.

This ensures fast-paced development without compromising on the quality and app performance. The hot reload feature brings together the processes of development and testing in real-time.

Layered Architecture and inbuilt Tools for Reduced Cost

Apart from being an open-source and free technology, Flutter also helps to reduce the development cost to the maximum by simply offering a highly layered architecture and an array of ready-to-use and inbuilt tools. Irrespective of the complexity of your app project, Flutter comes in handy for developers for incorporating inbuilt material design UI elements such as rich motion APIs, powerful Cupertino widgets, seamless, natural scrolling behavior, etc. In addition, developers can experiment with a lot of design options for absolutely free.

A Robust Range of Widgets

Many cross-platform app projects have chosen Flutter for the promise of creating a native user interface and native performance with ease. Well, this is where the role of Flutter widgets comes in. Flutter offers a plethora of powerful widgets for delivering native app performance.

Flutter offers a broad range of widgets such as icons, fonts, scrolling, navigation, and many others to help developers manage all development tasks.

Single Code Base for Mobile, Web, and Desktop

Do you want to build a mobile app for both iOS and Android? There are multiple cross-platform development frameworks, including Flutter. But do you want to create an app that feels like a native app on iOS, Android, web, and desktop? You only have Flutter for this. With the single codebase, you can build an app for all platforms and a native look and feel.

The remarkable aspect that favors Flutter is the optimized code and zero performance issues despite using the same codebase across platforms. Flutter ensures a steady speed of 60 FPS across all devices, and it delivers up to 120 FPS speeds in supported devices. So, Flutter performance is not an issue even while using a single codebase for multiple platforms.

More Features Adding to the Firepower of Flutter

Let's have a quick look at the additional Flutter features.

• Flutter comes loaded with an advanced API allowing developers to leverage quality app animations quickly.
• It is extremely easy to embed Flutter in any existing app for incorporating new user interfaces.
• Flutter also enjoys the backing of firebase support from Google to develop highly scalable serverless apps.
• Flutter comes equipped with native Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) code used by startups and tech companies.

Key Factors Affecting the Price of Flutter App Projects

Despite boasting lower development cost as a critical advantage of Flutter, there are various factors that you need to keep considering. Flutter app development cost depends upon several key factors. Moreover, like every great technology, Flutter has a few drawbacks and shortcomings as well.

To understand the key factors in the cost estimate of a Flutter app project, let's begin by comparing native app development with Flutter.

Native vs. Flutter App Development

A native app project must consider the development time separately for each platform, leading to total cost estimation of the entire project. This is where the single codebase of Flutter helps in lowering development time and the corresponding cost.

The only shortcoming of Flutter is that it doesn't support all the features for Wearables and Smart TV platforms. For example, since Flutter works only with mouse cursor movements or touchscreens, it doesn't support remote control features of smart TV platforms. So, for app projects trying to extend presence to these platforms, Flutter can significantly add to the development cost.

Complexity and Number of Features

Features make the principal cost component of a Flutter app. Simple and basic features requiring the least effort and development time may be inexpensive, while the complex, multifaceted, and resource-consuming features may significantly add to the development cost.

For instance, adding social sharing buttons may not involve any high cost, but adding a video editing feature in the app can take hundreds of hours of development time and many resources.

Flutter app cost based on numerous features

Features & functionalities play an important role in determining the cost of an app. Here’s a list of features along with the cost and the number of hours it will take to develop it.
 

Where Do Developers Work?

Where your development team is located can have a significant bearing on the Flutter app development cost. The hourly rates for developers vary from one region to another, and accordingly, it can increase or reduce your total app budget.

There are many countries with a competitive pool of expert development companies providing better rates than standard rates in the US and Europe. Therefore, outsourcing development to these countries can help you manage costs better.

App Updates & Maintenance

The app business never depends on one-time effort, and hence continuous support and maintenance play a key role in the success of an app project. Furthermore, since new trends in UI design, UX attributes and features and functionalities continue to come up, and the app needs to remain updated with these evolving changes.

Regular app updates are also crucial to ensure optimum data and network security. Even when your app doesn't need any new feature, it may require incorporating security patches or changes in security settings to safeguard the interest of the users and the business brand.

The most common requirements that are continuously addressed by the majority of app updates also include performance glitches. For example, as your flutter app continues to get heavier with user data and new content, it needs performance optimization from time to time.

Considering all the cost components for a Flutter project, maintenance and updates take up a considerable portion.

Conclusion

All the considerations and variable factors apart, Flutter happens to be the most powerful cross-platform development platform to help you build the most sophisticated apps at a manageable budget. On top of everything, the increasing growth of the Flutter community and the support of Google will continue to make Flutter better.