What is Flutter and Why Are Companies Choosing It?
Flutter is Google's open-source framework for building mobile applications. Its key advantage: you write one codebase and it runs on both Android and iOS (and increasingly, web and desktop). Compare this to native development where you build the Android app in Kotlin and the iOS app in Swift — essentially two separate projects, two separate teams, twice the cost.
Flutter has grown quickly since Google released it in 2018. By 2026, it's become a serious choice for startups and growing companies who want high-quality mobile apps without paying for parallel native development. Major companies including BMW, eBay, and Google itself use Flutter in production.
Flutter vs React Native vs Native: Which Should You Choose?
Flutter
Best for: startups and product companies who want a polished, high-performance app on both platforms from a single codebase. Flutter renders everything itself using its own rendering engine (Skia/Impeller) rather than using native components, which gives it more consistent UI across platforms and generally better performance than React Native. The tradeoff is a larger app binary size and a smaller talent pool than React Native.
React Native
Best for: teams with strong JavaScript/React background, or apps where the web and mobile codebases need to share logic. React Native uses native components under the hood, which can make some things feel more platform-native but creates more platform-specific work. The ecosystem is mature, the talent pool is larger than Flutter, and Facebook continues to invest in it.
Native (Swift + Kotlin)
Best for: apps with very complex platform-specific features (camera, AR, complex animations, deep system integrations), very large teams, or products where platform experience is a significant competitive differentiator. The cost is roughly 2x cross-platform development for equivalent features.
What Flutter Development Actually Costs in India (2026)
- Simple app (3–5 screens, basic backend, no complex features): ₹3–8 lakhs
- Mid-complexity app (10–20 screens, custom backend, authentication, payments, push notifications): ₹10–25 lakhs
- Complex app (real-time features, complex state management, third-party integrations, admin panel): ₹25–60 lakhs+
These are full-project costs. Hourly rates for Flutter developers in India range from ₹1,000–4,000/hr depending on experience.
How the Flutter Development Process Works
Discovery and Design (2–3 weeks)
Before any code is written, strong Flutter teams spend time on the design. Figma is the standard tool — your screens, components, and user flows get designed and reviewed before development starts. This phase catches misalignments early when changes are cheap, not after weeks of coding.
Development Sprints (6–16 weeks depending on scope)
Flutter development typically runs in two-week sprints. Each sprint delivers working screens you can install and test on your phone. You're not seeing a demo at the end — you're using the real app on your actual device. This makes feedback loops fast and keeps the product moving in the right direction.
Testing and QA
Good Flutter teams test on real devices across screen sizes, not just on emulators. They write widget tests (unit tests for UI components) and integration tests. They test on both Android and iOS through the full flow before each release.
App Store Submission
Submitting to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store involves certificates, app store listings, screenshots, privacy policy compliance, and review waiting periods (Apple averages 24–48 hours; Google averages a few hours). Good teams handle this end-to-end and set expectations on timing.
What to Look For in a Flutter Development Company
- Published apps on the Play Store or App Store you can download and use
- Experience with state management (Provider, Riverpod, or BLoC — these are the main approaches)
- Clear answer on how they handle API integration and offline capability
- Process for testing on real devices before delivery
- Post-launch support plan for OS updates and bug fixes
Dharmsy and Flutter
We build Flutter applications for startups and product companies who want high-quality cross-platform apps without the cost of building two native apps. If you have a mobile app idea and want to understand what it would take to build it properly, get in touch for a no-obligation conversation.